98.9km ridden today
1575.8km ridden so far
652.1km to go
363m up
328m down
2731 calories burnt (but with the wind I am sure it was twice that)
Pain factor: 8/10
Strava that shit: https://www.strava.com/activities/18236212972
Head wind. Brutal. Relentless. Headwind. I think I burnt twice the energy today to keep moving and am sure the headwind cost me about 5km/h average speed. It didn’t let up the whole day. I’m still yet to pull off the trifecta. Good bike. Good boy. Good wind. Only the first two today.
…And that’s all I have to say about that.
Much more traffic today and oodles of trucks. I assume this part of the Newell Highway is a major route for getting agriculture goods back to Sydney. I’m continuing on the Newell highway tomorrow towards Coonabarabran. I would expect this leg is trucks heading for Melbourne or Dubbo as those Sydney bound would likely peel off towards New England and onto Newcastle. That said, the road was mostly good. You could have built houses on the shoulder there was so much of it. Except for some sections where I did need to pull over. Had there been no wind this would have been a gunbarrel run. Straight and flat. Also 2 tiny places for a rest and refuel along the way. Had a car slow up beside me today. The dude asked if I needed anything, food, water etc. “Need us to pull over?”.
Trust me. Very little going on in Curley. Grain silos. A servo. A couple of flies and an empty beer bottle on the side of the road. Still an Oasis for a bike packer.
I have taken to having the phone playing music out of my front pannier along with the CB. Working well as I can hear the traffic better.
I now consider myself an expert on regional motels too. I also know “that price point”. Arrived at my Oasis this evening with this sign shining outside my window. It was a moment. I am easy to please.
Not much on the photogenic side going on in Narrabri. So here is a tree the locals are slowly covering with patchwork. I’m not very arty so didn’t know how to interpret it. Take your time to gaze at it if you like… I’ll wait.
But here is a thing of beauty. A fine example of the epic prime movers out here. Complete with one hell of a carrion creator welded to the front.
So while the winds are mostly E/SE tomorrow, it appears a lot lighter. Had it been the same as today, I would have seriously considered not taking it on.
Nothing from Sophie’s Stinky Sock today. It is still recomposing itself after flapping in the wind for 7 or 8 hours.
So on the Forest Gump theme. This song emanated from my pannier today. So as I do the cycling version of Forest Gump running across the USA – for no apparent reason – I present to you todays Song of the Day: Go Your Own Way – Fleetwood Mac. Oh and being the fountain of useless knowledge… did you know the director (Robert Zemeckis) was getting frustrated when the young gump wasn’t sounding like Hanks. Tom Hanks said “why don’t I just talk like him” then proceeded to spend hours talking to (and recording) the kid to mimic his southern state accent… (well I thought it was interesting).