8 June 2008

Halls Creek

Fitzroy Crossing

289km

25.8kph

-646km

I got up at 1am and was riding by 1:45am.  I ended up on the wrong road out of town, but started to think something was amiss after a couple of hundred metres, and retraced my steps.  It was again tough staying awake until the sun rose.  I try and have a caffeinated drink in my backpack for a drink around 4:00am and that helps a bit.
 
There was some low cloud, but it was dry and the sky began clearing in the first few hours, although I could see low cloud hanging over the Kimberley Plateau way out to my right.  There was again virtually no traffic and the road was reasonably flat and I made reasonable time.
 
Sunrise brought with it a slight following breeze and showed me to be riding through mostly flat scrub land with brown grass and a lot of bare red earth.  Here and there all day were small plateaus and rocky outcrops to add some features to the landscape and in the far distance mountain ranges could be seen.
 
Tourist traffic built up after 8am and so did the mostly tailwind and I began to make good speed.  I limited myself to a snack stop every 50 or 60km and ate the sandwiches I had bought last night.
 
I reached Fitzroy Crossing at around 2:45pm, about an hour earlier that I had expected and checked into my pre-booked motel.  Everything in town was closed (Sunday) expect for the two roadhouses which hqd a very poor selection of hot food.  Fish and chips again!  I had to walk to the roadhouses from the motel and enjoyed watching a group of aboriginal kids playing kick to kick with an Aussie Rules football on the lawns in front of the Community Centre on what was a beautiful sunny afternoon.
 
I have a big day tomorrow, 360km, so will be getting up at midnight and hoping that the tailwind is still blowing.  Not much phone coverage the next few days so it might be a while before the next report.