Day 127

Date:- 19 July 2010
Distance:- 116.68 Km
Distance to Date:- 6924.60 Km
Start:- Dunham River Rest Area
Finish:- Warmun Roadhouse Caravan Park
Comment:- Last night I cooked tea about 5.30pm, washed up and in bed by 7.30pm and had a good nights sleep. Got up about 5am had breakfast, packed and ready for the road when Pam my next door camping partner offered me a cup of tea and who am I to refuse that. I enjoyed a nice cuppa with Mike and Pam (they are from Denmark, down south in Western Australia), In fact they offered me a coffee on their arrival in the rest area.

I was on the road by 7am. Nice cool morning, good road and very little traffic in the early stages. A gentle uphill climb for the first 15km and then a 5 km downhill run as I cross the various mountain ranges.

There are still a number of one lane bridges in use, I suppose the volume of traffic doesn’t warrant new bridges. It is very nice riding through this area with the rocky outcrops and ever changing colours.

Stopped at the Doon Doon Roadhouse about 10.15am where I had a pie and a couple of cups of free coffee (driver/reviver). Sent an SMS to Evon to tell her I was OK. There was a caravan park there. And the distance from the rest area was only 26 km not 33 as per the mains road department leaflet.

The road ahead was quite a bit more undulating than yesterday with a couple of hills needing some special attention. Stopped about 11.30am for my break about 51km out from the rest area. The wind seems to filling in from the south east again.

I have seen a number of horses wandering along the road. They don’t seem too afraid of me as I approach, but keep their distance.

The rest of the trip was quite hard work. I was travelling in a south east direction which meant I had a head wind. It was blowing an estimated 5 - 10 knots gusting to 15 and the route was even more undulating than when I started. You would approach a hill and you could feel the velocity of the wind increase as you climbed. There seemed to be a venturi action happening.

I found the last 15 km very hard and I was quite happy to see the Warnum Roadhouse appear on the horizon. A very long day. Booked in, set up tent, had a very nice hot shower, then a well earned meal.

Started typing my diary when the two couples I had met in the rest area returned from their trip into the Bungle Bungles. They invited me over for a hot drink before they retired for the night.

Afew people have asked me about an equipment list. If you open the April achive of my blog a complete list was added there.

Tomorrow I hope to get to the Leycester’s Rest Area, a distance of 60 km from Warnum.