118.5km ridden today
1356.1km ridden so far
873km to go
236m up
251m down
3552 calories burnt
Pain factor 8/10
Strava that shit: https://www.strava.com/activities/18194341614
Huzzah! No bike issues today. The boy struggled a bit though.
A late start. Golders in St George didn’t open till 9am (to get the spare tubes and tyre levers). By the time I did my phaffing thing, it was nearly 10am when I got on the road. 118km today so it would be getting dark for my arrival at my destination.
St George is right on a river. Their claim to fame is the “inland” finishing capital of Australia. It’s a shame I have no interest in fishing. Let alone the time.
The place I stayed at in St George was The River Gum Tourist Park. I stayed in a cabin which was actually one of the nicer stays so far for this trip.
Today’s ride was pretty boring. Loooong straights and flat. Flat as. You can see that with my minimal elevation change over 118km.
Oh, I should have mentioned ages ago I am on the Carnarvon Highway. Been on it for some time and will be until I hit the Newell Highway at Moree. Roads were good today. Super super quiet. I would go 20 or 30 minutes without a vehicle in either direction. But of course, when they did, one oncoming and one upcoming would reach me at the same time. Wind was all over the shop. I did laugh when two trucks in convoy were talking and said “you must be some kind of crazy to cycle this road”. I was moving so couldn’t answer, but if I did I would have said it is far better than some I have been on.
I had an afternoon stop at Thallon at about the 75km mark. Quiet. I got talking to the shop owner who said it has been extremely quiet with fuel prices. He’d only taken on shop lease a month or two ago. Bad timing. Clearly a cotton thing going on here too. Bales and bales of it on farms with pretty much all trucks loaded with it. Consequently, sometimes it looked like Christmas with all the cotton lining the road. I did get passed by a road train loaded with cows. OMG the dirt, the smell, the god knows what after that puppy passed me.
After this stop, Mr Wind decided to be pretty mean for the next 20kms before it calmed down as the sun began to set.
Probably one of the harder riding days today. Don’t know why. Slept well. Flat roads. Mr body was just not totally on board today. I felt the hip flexors for the first real time today. If it is not the bike, it is the boy I guess! (the bike didn’t miss a beat today).
So, the excitement of the day. I am a flies pubic hair over the border into NSW. Huzzah! This is a border town. Customs was closed. The border is the Barwon River and this town is where it goes from a straight border to squiggly to the east. I guess the surveyors got bored with a straight line back in the day and though, “meh this will do for the rest”. I just realised too I forgot to get a Sophie Stinky Sock photo on the border. I’ll sort that one tomorrow morning.
I’m in the pub motel here in this small town. Best bathroom I’ve had to date (not). I think this is the “welcome to NSW… it just gets better from here… trust us!” sign. I also have about 37 sachets of sugar supplied but no coffee. Lucky I have some on board.
Not much else to report in on today I’m afraid. It was a rather boring day on the road. Wash, rinse and repeat of today for tomorrow. Lucky I don’t get bored easily. Hoping for 120km with a few small towns along the way to keep me excited. I’ll make some stuff up 🙂
Song of the day. Well I was planning this one when I hit the border. Can’t go past this absolute classic from the Stone Temple Pilots – Interstate Love Song. Enjoy!
One of my all time fave songs too !!