Day 16 – Still and hilly

All rather depends where you are on the half full/half empty debate

Today has been a grafting day. With wind down to nothing its been all about chewing through the miles towards Ceduna. The above photo is obviously a good thing, even though 99% sure I don’t hit half way till tomorrow or Wednesday. And more importantly means I need to do the same distance again, which is a slightly less good thing.

The first 90 mins south out of Port Augusta was beautiful wide open, kangaroo and emu studded country, but was tempered by a head wind charging up the Gulf and by unthinking Monday morning traffic rushing towards Whyalla. One of those runs where you pull your head up from cursing and swearing you remember what a privilege it is to be up at dawn riding through the bush, framed by the Flinders range.

Well place juvenile graffiti is always a good thing

All changed from the second I took the turned off towards Ceduna. The traffic died away drastically, the Flinders Range disappeared in the mirror and it was out into proper bush. Not sure if I’m technically on the Nullabor yet, but it’s certainly not living up to it’s Latin translation. The bulk of the day was spent riding in thick forest as far as the eye could see.

I’m also most definitely not on the plain yet. The road rolled and rolled all day, which has it’s advantages, but by 16:30 I’d finally had enough of the sharp little peaks to each hill, and walked the last five. Which is always depressing.

There’s not much else to say on actual cycling, other than good news on the other drivers. It is noticeably a holiday crowd coming past, and overwhelmingly they are in a good mood. They give me plenty of room, wave, toot, in more that one case film me on their phones, and just generally make me feel welcome. Locals just seem more relaxed too. After 24 hours back on busy highways, it’s nice to be calm again.

The local attractions sound excellent.

Right think I'm done with lavatory 

humour for now

The highlight of the day was a lunch stop in the amusingly named Iron Knob. Had a sandwich I’d brought with, but stopped at the Post Office for a coke. It’s a tired old mining town well past it’s prime, and the wilderness reclaiming the town oval and pavilion kind of defines the place. There was a good plan once, but it’s been put out to grass.

Sitting outside the shack of a Post Office there was a constant stream of old men coming to collect post from their PO boxes. All talked to the postmistress as they did, and most had one of those strange accents where you can hear the old British tones under 50/60 years of Australian living.

One bloke was very friendly. Turned out he’d been brought up in Plymouth and moved here 50 years ago. He had that unique blend of the friendly and the reserved that is so distinctive to the west country. Guess he didn’t have a lot else to do today, there isn’t really a lot else to do in Iron Knob. So he kept me company for lunch. He wanted to know everything about the bike, and my plans, and obviously to give a view on tyre quality like every man who looks at a bike.

He put my mind at ease that lots of people do this route, and confirmed again what I’ve heard constantly. The Japanese are the keenest, and almost always on overloaded and poor quality equipment. No one seems to know why they are so into it, but they are.

A big crap concrete parrot. Top marks Kimba

He also was most concerned about what I thought about all day. Had to confess it I thought about a lot, and nothing really. And confessed that it is amazing how much of your thinking time in a day can be taken up by worrying how the bike is riding, if there are technical issues, and constantly calculating km to miles and visa versa hour after hour. All in, he made for good quality lunch company, and sadly never even got his name.

I’m currently holed up in the very sleepy town of Kimba, in a room at the back of another cavanerous pub, but the locals seem very friendly and amusing at the bar.  One more of these big days tomorrow and Wednesday, and then Ceduna and a break. Starting to really look forward to it.

Miles: 99 – Port Augusta – Iron Knob – Kimba

Breakfast – Standard

Lunch – Pre-bought Subway chicken sub outside the Iron Knob post office

Supper – Bacon and spinach pasta – Basically food today has been functional not a feature.