Lake King to Ravensthorpe

I was awake very early, as planned, about 4:45. I went to the very good camp kitchen, made tea for now and the blue bottle for later, and had the third boiled egg for breakfast. 

I packed up and pulled out at about 6:15, with 70k to get to Ravensthorpe. There was a headwind, but not too strong, and in the early morning, no flies and very few cars. The road had less hills than I've been used to, so I made pretty good progress. 

I stopped for a morning tea break at 35k, about 20 minutes I suppose, and ate another egg, and the rest of the tomatoes. Perhaps I shouldn't have had the break, because at 15k to go, the wind strengthened, making the going seemingly twice as hard. 

I stopped at the Overshot Hill rest area and had another cup of tea, after which things seemed to get a bit easier, and I got into Ravensthorpe at about 1:15.

I got to Liz's pretty soon after that, travelling east I only had a crosswind thank goodness. We had a. Nice catch up, a beer, a vodka and tonic, very nice to be resting at last.

One for Dan, who thinks I should be in my pictures!

Kids and kids

Two pony tails...

There were still a lot of wildflowers on the roadside

Newdegate to Lake King

I went back to the Newdegate pub and had my gin and tonic, and ordered pepper fish, which came with salad and chips. Once again, the salad was minimal and the chips plentiful, and I was quite hungry, so I ate maybe ten of them. The fish was only adequate. 

As I was finishing the g and t, four blokes walked in, and one said “You must be the bike rider”. How he would have known that I haven’t a clue, because I wasn’t wearing any bike stuff at all, and the bike was back at the park, and when I was riding, my face was totally covered by helmet and fly net. Anyway, he said they saw me on the road, they are grain carters like most people in town, and come up every harvest.

I had a nice chat with them (they bring their own salad, can’t stand the hotel’s), and the manageress seemed OK with that. 

Eventually I left, having finished my $8 drink, including crunching up every ice cube! I came back to the tent, and went to bed early, nineish, so I could get away a bit earlier, as 31degrees was predicted, getting up to my comfort limit. 

I managed that ok, got away about 7:15, conditions weren’t that good, I had a headwind, right on the nose, but not strong enough to be too dispiriting.

There are still a lot of wildflowers on the roadside, mostly bush flowers, here’s a sample, I know some of them, but not game to put the name to them in case I make a mistake (God forbid).

Lake Grace to Newdegate

Because of yesterday’s 115k I was worried about cramp, and with good reason, because I had two sessions of it, the left leg again, all three varieties, the calf, the thigh and the strange one near the ankle, but I got them under control both times, and no serious consequences. 

Anybody have a cure for cramp? I’ve tried the apple cider vinegar plus cream of tartar plus salt, also plenty of salt, and magnesium, none of these do the trick?

Conditions today were not as good as yesterday, but they were ok, cool and overcast with a slight headwind. The original plan was to do about 85k, camp then do 100 on Saturday, but I thought of the cramps, and that 55 to Newdegate would do, then lake King, another 70, then a final 70 to Liz’s, and get there on Sunday instead.

So today’s ride was fine, I got here to Newdegate about 2pm, set up and went over to the pub for a gin and tonic, and will go back tonight and have another with dinner. Maybe the tonic will do the trick!

Main Street of Newdegate

The lake at Newdegate

 

Not much to take in the way of photos at Newdegate. The lake is empty, we’ve seen it full and it looks a bit better 

Wickepin to Lake Grace

I awoke during the night, very cold, and had to scrabble around to find my socks, pants and jacket. I looked up BOM in the morning and found the reason, it was less than three degrees, and "felt like " .03 !
I went over to the kitchen, and cooked an egg, which I had with a small tin of tuna, in accordance with the current crackpot diet. Octo, the permanent probably thought it a bit strange, as he tucked into his bowl of cornflakes. Octo brings his truck over from NSW to haul grain in the district.
I packed up the bike and headed off for Harrismith, where I thought to spend another night in the caravan park there, but conditions were incredibly good, cool, with a following wind, and I made such good time, that I thought I might as well carry on.

I had a look at lake Toolbin, which we've always just driven past before, because in the car, you just don't want to stop.

There was a great explanation there, about how salt gets into the water table, and hundreds of ducks, I think Musk ducks.

I had an early lunch at Harrismith, and had a look in the little station house, which has pictures of wildflowers and others of the pioneers. They've made quite an effort, for a town with very few people, and I'd like to go and have a proper look in the wildflower season.

So I carried on in the same perfect conditions, and ended up doing 115k, which I think is a record for me on any one day's riding. Just before getting to town, I stopped at the Lake Grace viewing point. How's  this for visual pollution?

The sign is plonked right where you take a photo, threatening people with a fine if they leave rubbish

(which is what the sign is).

Pingelly to Wickepin

I got ready, and just as I was all packed up, it began to rain, so I had to don the wet weather gear, and put the protective covers on the small front panniers.
I was thrilled to discover that the strong wind was right behind me, and careered on in light rain, hardly getting out of top gear. I thought I could easily catch up today, and maybe end up in Harrismith.
That was for the first 30k, then something went wrong, I don't know if it was a change in road direction or wind direction, probably both, but I ended up with the wind right in my face for the next 25k, so Harrismith was out of the question, and I went to the caravan park at Wickepin.
It took me about an hour to get the tent up, first I couldn't find a rock to knock the pegs in with, then found an old pair of tongs, to discover that the ground was too hard anyway, and only managed to get two in properly. Anyway, it seems to be holding up ok, and the wind has died down now.
This caravan park has a free washing machine, powder and pegs, which is unheard of in my experience, so I washed everything I've used in the last three days.
There are three other patrons in the park, all permanents, and I've chatted to two of them.

You probably know that Wickepin is famous for Albert Facey, author of " A Fortunate Life". Here's a photo of one of the many Facey sites around Wickepin. Don't know if it is readable, but Facey camped here, at Gilmanning, with his family as a boy.

This other picture is a monument to the pioneers of Gilmanning

Pingelly

I was going to go a bit further today, but I'm tired, and the place I thought was a camping spot wasn't, so this soft option, 40 kilometers with a shower at the end, at the caravan park here at Pingelly was very attractive.
I had a good run, about 15k of dirt, the rest sealed, with a following wind for a change. No trucks or cars, which were a pain yesterday.
Pingelly is a nice friendly town and the caravan park is terrific.

Some nice countryside on the way

More...

The nice caravan oark

Main Street

Perth to Ravensthorpe

I thought I'd have another go at a blog, since I'm having another go at a long bike trip. Well, not as long as the ones I used to do in Europe with Hannelore, but a reasonable distance, it's 480k the way I'm going, cheating by taking the train out to Challis Station on the Armadale line.
Not that keen on riding with full panniers through the suburbs, in fact, I've never done it, and another fact is that I've never done a full pannier tour in Australia.
Challis Station brought me out on the closest route to the start of Brookton Highway, which goes up the Darling Scarp through Roleystone, and you reach the top at the easternmost point of that suburb.
It wasn't easy going, with the weight and the adverse wind.
It continued to be difficult after that as well, because it was quite hot, and because of the wind there were very few "free runs" down hills without peddling. I would have used up the whole three litres of water, that I carried, but managed to score several bottles from fellow travelers.
Anyway, I made the 85k to the camp I selected, set up here, had dinner, and so far have had only one episode of cramp.