Cycle Oz day 46 – Headwinds are not cool
Start: Port Wakefield
End: Port Pirie
Day distance: 126.1km
Total distance: 2503.41
Average speed: 17.1km/hr
Pedalling time: 07:21
Total time: 08:21
The camp spot wasn't a great one. There was a massive orange light shining in my tent all night so I had to sleep with my hat over my eyes. I didn’t sleep well either, I was obviously feeling a bit ropey, and my toes were just so cold and they never warmed up.
I ate the peanut butter and jam sandwich that I didn't manage to eat yesterday for breakfast, and because it was pretty cold I didn't set off until 9:10am which was a bit later than I would have liked. But the good news is that my stomach seemed to have settled.
As soon as I set off it was hard work. It was so windy. I thought Sam had performed magic on my bike, but it just turns out that yesterdays side wind allowed me to cruise along a a decent speed. Today, the headwind was pushing me backwards. I was struggling to get much above 12kph, and that was my average for the first hour. A bit different to yesterday. It also took over an hour for my toes to warm up and regain any feeling.
The sun was out and the clouds were high in the sky, but the wind was cold so my jacket was on all day. It was the first day of the trip so far that I decided to put an earphone in. The wind was so loud rushing past my ears that I couldn't hear the traffic anyway. I couldn't hear anything from the speaker on my phone, and I needed something to get me through the day. So the left earphone went in and I kept an eye on my little mirror.
There were a whole bunch of random things that went down the road today. Lots of road trains and lots of oversized loads. I saw heavy machinery and porta-cabins being transported, as well as some giant unidentified things. When I saw the ‘oversize’ warning car pass, then a police motorbike, then a police car I thought I had better pull over. When the giant things passed they gave me a little toot and a wave. That was nice.
Talking of tooting, so many people tooted at me today, mostly people coming towards me, beeping their horn repeatedly and waving. I must be an interesting sight on this long and boring road. There really isn't anything to look at. Lots of open fields and a few sheep.
I wasn’t getting anywhere fast today, battling against the wind is so tiring. I knew if I was going to make it to my destination I would have to keep going without stopping, but of course all I felt like doing today was stopping. I kept my breaks short, just stopping for a couple of minutes at a time.
There isn't really a lot more to say about today. The whole day was on the A1, the Princes Highway, and unlike yesterday there was mostly a decent shoulder. The road trains were all really cool and gave me loads of room, it was the silver surfers in their caravans who were the dangerous ones!
Where there's a wind farm there is wind.It was a terrible moment when I reached 90km and I realised I still had 36km to go. I was lucky that it was mostly flat today with just a couple of small hills, but the wind. The wind was brutal, and it wasn't even that strong. Even on the downhills I could feel it pushing me back. On a not windy day I would easily roll downhill at 30kph but I was struggling to tip 20kph today.
I still got the 5km feeling though and I arrived at my host for the night an hour later than I expected and just as the sun was setting. Tonight I am staying with Grant who is a friend of a friend of Nicolle. So nice of him to take me in. After a much needed shower I had a delicious dinner of barbecued lamb chops, potatoes and salad. It was so good to eat some fresh stuff. My body has been craving it and I ate loads of cucumber and pepper. A bowl of ice cream and a hot milo rounded it off nicely!
It was a big day and I'm very tired so that's it for today. Tomorrow I find my German friends again, they have waited in Port Augusta for me to catch up so we can all head into the outback together. How nice is that!