A lot of sweat, some blood, tears and a touch of road rage…we made it to Perth.

Lake leschenaulti to Perth

Total

Bit delayed in getting this up. It’s Monday now and we arrived on Friday….

So we had a great last morning at the lake. So glad we stayed there. We woke to gorgeous mist over the lake and lots of ducks to feed. Also heard lots of crazy birds which made a call like a hundred laughing monkeys hiding in a tree!

After duck feeding, we ‘had to’ dispose of the excess petrol from the stove as we can’t post that home. Cue enormous head high flames on the BBQ. It was a controlled burn however and no ducks were roasted in this safe removal of flammable liquid.

Lots of peeds….

Happy to be almost done

Got on the road and found that we weren’t feeling too bad. After a slow start we found ourselves in the busy traffic heading into Perth and a lovely 5k downhill into the city suburbs. We managed a cheeky 53kmh max which was nice. I couldn’t keep up with the bone speed machine.

Once we finally made it to apple cross, we stopped at a cafe for a splash of lunch and a cup of tea. Soon as we sat down to eat, my bike made a loud sigh and the back tyre went completely flat in a few seconds. Almost like it had done all the hard work and now it had made it, it was time to give up! Seemed that the valve had just broken. One quick inner tube change and we were good to go.

Made it round to Hugh and Ellen’s house, but not before I got the address wrong and tried to stay at the Indonesian embassy. When we got the ring place, we were rewarded with showers, tea, juice,whisky,wine, ginger bread houses (made by Katie and boney) and some amazing food. A quick walk to see the skyline of Perth and we were done. To bed for a well deserved rest.

A few boring things to do tomorrow such as arranging for bikes to be shipped home, and then BBQ with the ever living in the afternoon!

All in all, glad to be finished, but very glad to have done it……now, what’s next?????

Food reward time….

Don’t mock it if you can’t rock it

Didn’t have a belt for a long time to save weight?!?! The other day, passed a charity shop and bone said I might find a belt. Had a look and all the normal man ones were quite pricey, however this one was a bargain. Some might say a bit girly, but I feel it helps me get in touch with my feminine side. Plus bone can borrow it.

Also, did you know that if you google ‘boney whisky’ You get our blog. Good stuff.

I’m also at final beard stage now, the moustache. Worryingly, I quite like it. As does bone…….

Cycling in a sand pit with road tyres, crashing, swearing, drinking 2 litres of wine.

Northam to lake leschenaulti (spelling?)

Distance 64k’s
Road time 4hrs and 30mins
Total time 7hrs and 40mins
Elevation gain 920m
Westerly all day

Well, where to start. We were so looking forward to the track that kept us away from the road today, so we were more than a little gutted when it turned out to be complete rubbish. And believe me, I could describe that rather differently, but am keeping it all family friendly. My real thoughts rhyme with fright, sock and Janus. I’ll leave it there.

We started off nice and relaxed, a cup of tea, what a treat first thing in the morning, then headed off to find the start of the track. Alarm bells should have started to ring when the foot bridge was closed due to danger, however, we ignored the sign, climbed over and proceeded to edge our way across the bridge passing the bikes over the gaps in the floor boards. An hour gone and we had done 5k.

We then reached the start of the track, which we were very excited about. It took us just along the edge of the road, and then across it a few times, however instead of being fast like the road, it was a total death trap, made of a lot of sand, dust and loose gravel. We couldn’t get above 8 kmh on the flat and up hill, well we had to push and then go slow down hill as our tyres weren’t meant for it.

Anyhow, after an hour of struggling and me wiping out and bleeding and getting angry, we got back on the highway. Here we continued to struggle with strong winds and our most elevation gain yet at almost 1000m.

Finally we got to turn off for this lake we had heard about. Found an almost deserted camp site right next to the lake and set up camp. We are now sitting having had some fresh bread and cheese, drinking a box of wine! So we are doing the true Ozzie thing at last. Bone is cooking! As a special treat, I have allowed her to use the stove of death. Yes, I know, isn’t she lucky.

Tomorrow, we have about 50k to get into Perth and then we are done. Finally.

Had a thought today that whilst we had a good few rest days at the start, since actually starting the Nullarbor, we have only had two days off. One at norseman and one at southern cross, so that is 2 days off in about 2000kms! Maybe that explains why we are finding it so difficult now!

This is a beautiful spot though, so all is well.

The latest facial look

Ready for it to be finished now thanks….

Cunderdin to Northam

65k’s distance
3hours 50 road time
4.5 total
Only around 100k’s to go now…

So another day. A short day but it still seemed to drag on.

We made it through last night’s meltdown ok. Bone was very powerful in recovering and we put the tent up with no fly sheet on so as to let the breeze through and look at the stars. Sadly, the massive spotlight shining from the farm next door kind of spoiled our night vision. So powerful was it in fact that we had to wear our eye masks to get to sleep.

Slept well and woke feeling really tired. Think it it is all catching up with us now, and the fact that we are almost there isn’t helping! Got on the road and then the wind picked up and gave us a lovely head wind all day. Loads more traffic now too, so most of the time is spent looking behind you. Not relaxing and quite a grind really.

Made it to northam without too much drama and then powered into supermarket and bottle shop. We pretty much go crazy in the supermarket. Having access to all this food is almost too much and we come out with so much to eat. I went to get vegetables for dinner and came out with a select of cheeses, crackers, hummus, ice cream sundaes and s six pack of beer. Just the essentials you know?

So chilling now and tomorrow we get off the road onto an old railway line and hopefully get to camp next to a lake for a lovely penultimate day before we head on into Perth to eat and drink and not set up and take down tents every day!

Flies still ravaging us and driving us mental. Drinking helps. A lot.

Just had to chase off some crow that was nicking all our stuff, first he had taken our peg bag and thrown all the pegs about, then he came back and stole a sock from a shoe. All the while we were cleaning up his mess, he kept hopping onto one of our bikes mocking our attempts to hide things we thought he wanted. Some happy camper then came over and told us that the crow was slightly mad and tends to steal anything you leave lying about, he’s also partial to a bit of rubber and will pick off the handle bar grips given half a chance, great! Just what we need, a mental, thieving, rubber eating crow to add to the list of things to fend off. Suppose it’s better than the flies! We actually kinda of love the crows, they are like pirates.

Last nights camp site, no photos yesterday…

Only 2 more days of cycling, could have done it quicker by road but we are taking the Kep track to make it a bit nicer…

Our campsite tonight, loads of people living here, feel like something out of 8 mile, but not so gangsta.

Thank you Rizzle for not abandoning me by the side of the road

Merredin to Cunderdin

Total distance 107k’s
Road time 5 hours
Total time around 6.5 hrs

Today I had had enough. The cycling was ok, but mentally hard. The minutes went by very slowly, and each time I checked the clock, less than 5 minutes had passed. No matter how I broke the time and distance down it always felt like a really long way and most of the day I just felt like stopping by the side of the road and sitting down in protest. Then every time we stopped or slowed down the flies came on mass. There was no escaping anything today. Even the tail wind felt not quite right and it felt like pushing bikes through mud all day. I checked the tyres to see if they were flat but they were perfect, I wasn’t even carrying that much water.

The normal zen like state of just going with what’s thrown at you was nowhere to be seen today. I had had enough of the pain in my hands, the calluses developing across them, the heat, the flies, the fact that no matter how hard I pedalled, it was still hours away, the constant unpacking and packing things away, living in a tent that you can’t really sit up in and is just big enough for 2 people, just. Getting in and out of the tent in the middle of the night to pee. The mosquitos. Eating everything out of a zip lock bag, the constant reappearing dirt on the water bottles, the fact that my saddle should have broken in 1,500k’s ago, after 1,000k’s, and it’s still as hard as when I originally bought it. The saddle sores and trying to get comfortable all day long. There wasn’t anything that wasn’t pushing me towards the edge today.

When we finally arrived at the camp site the office was closed, the sun was shining hard and I was very hot. The melt down was coming on thick and fast and when I explained to the rizza how I was feeling I actually started laughing, almost hysterically, whilst kind of crying. I wasn’t sure if I was laughing or crying. I was definitely fantasising about a beautiful villa with a cool stone bathroom, bath, gentle breeze and no flies with loads of fresh fruit and vegetables in the kitchen. Certainly not the patch of gravel /dirt with a table and broken chair covered in spider webs we were presented with.

Fortunately, rizzle took control of the situation well, whilst trying his best not to laugh at me he later told me (that would have been very bad I’m sure), we set up just the inner of the tent in some shade and a cool shower later I was in the tent with a breeze, not quite the luxury villa, but the closet thing to comfort I’d had all day and then everything seemed to get better.

Having now eaten,it’s bed time. Am not totally mental any more, have taken a few steps back from the edge.

Tomorrow will be better!

Or else.

Nothing like a relaxing dip in the pool

Southern cross to Merredin

Distance 110kms
Ride time 6hrs 30mins
Total time 8hrs 30mins

So we were all excited about a great day today after our rest. Sadly, it was very windy in our faces all day and mainly rubbish. Loads of hills and windy and lots of checking for cars and road trains and jumping off the road at the last minute. Not ideal really.

Saw some kind of longest fence thing, sounds more exciting than it was.

Got to camp site and rewarded with a pool! Amazing to dive in and be cold in the day for the first time in ages! Then proceeded to have a hot shower to warm up!

Got the wind behind us tomorrow and another 100k day, so fingers crossed it will be ok.

Not much else to report.

Getting closer

How can it be hotter when we are not cycling?

Southern Cross rest day

So yesterday was our largest day and am gutted to say that my phone crashed near the end so we dont have the gps of the route. But honest, it was a long hard day!

Today we have just hung out but it it so warm. The same temp as yeterday but as we don’t have a continuous breeze, it means we are roasting. We can’t hang out outside due to the mentalness of flies. They honestly make me want to hack out my eyes sometimes. Other times, you just accept it. Have def become more Zen like on this holiday which i think is a good thing. Just trying to be in the moment and not worry or think too much about what is coming up or has been before. Also, instead of thinking how you would like to feel, eg not really hot, just been accepting that I am hot and not thinking about how I would like to be. Doesn’t always work, but am getting better at it.

Hanging out at fan level

Something we discovered late in the trip that has been amazing is that putting a small amount of water into your hair and down your front (yes self inflicted wet t shirt time) is amazingly cooling when you start cycling and get a breeze going. We also have an atomiser for that fine mist spray which is great. Only expensive problem is that boney insists on it being Evian spring water that is sprayed onto her visage. That common rainwater just will not do.

Another thing that is good about the rest day is that I drink tea. When we have been riding I drink no tea as i am so desperate to keep every drop of water useful, and peeing it all out like some kind of giant race horse / donkey just isn’t any good. As such, I mainly spend my rest days walking to the bathroom or a secluded area of the camp site.

Southern cross probably isnt banging at the best of times, but today it is completely shut down. We thought it would be nice to wander around town and do a bit of shopping, but we got there and it’s a ghost town. This is when we realised that it is Sunday. Oh well. Next town.

Southern cross centre de ville

Closed food shop, grrrrrr.

About 5 more days to go. A couple of 100k days and then a nice mosey on into Perth. The last day should be down a cool old train track called the KEP track. We might even camp next to a lake which would be awesome for our last night.

I started growing a poor beard on this trip and since it has grown to fruition, every rest day I have removed a little more of it. I thought I looked pretty daft at the start, but am realising that the more of it I take off, the more of a bell I look. Maybe dying it black would help……

Shiny new (bad) moustache

Gala, which we have seen loads of on in the wild on our trip,

Lickle lizard on the street