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Journal: |
More frustration with my laptop last night when it again wouldn’t
connect to my wireless modem and in the end I gave up and went to
bed. After 5 hours sleep I was up at 1:00am and pedalling by
2:00am. It was dry and not as cold as I expected, but that
soon changed with the first icy downpour of the day. As I
neared Geraldton (52km), a major regional port and town, the wind
began to blow strongly from the south, a headwind, and I struggled
to make progress. To boost my spirits I grabbed an egg and
bacon sandwich from a 24 hour roadhouse at around 4am. I
struggled through the sleeping Geraldton and followed the signs to
the next town, Dongara, where I planned to have a proper breakfast.
The road was narrow as it crossed a flat rural landscape in the dark
with the wind buffeting me from the front and side, icy squalls
every 20 minutes, and the spray from road trains drenching me every
30 seconds. I was tired, cold, wet and miserable, made more so
by the fact that my radio had died that morning (after a few flakey
days) and I couldn’t listen to the cricket or current affairs
programs. And I kept telling myself that it was all
self-inflicted and that I could end it all any time I wanted.
That made it worse.
Eventually I reached Dongara and had a
good roadhouse breakfast. Some blue sky had appeared, but the
wind, traffic and rain squalls persisted. The road began to
climb away from the rural area into heath-like rolling hills and
finally onto a heathy plateau. It was interesting country and
had some good views, but the cycling was hard work and my average
speed was low. I reached Eneabba where I had a lunch of two
home-made sausage rolls and a pastie sitting on a park bench until
another rain squall hit.
I then set out in the rain
for the last 70km to Badgingarra where I hoped to get a cabin in the
caravan park. The road climbed and descended over some huge
heath-covered hills which made for very slow progress, especially
with the wind adding to the task. Several times I reached a
crest, hoping the climbing was over, to see, far in the distance,
tiny caterpillar-like road trains crawling up yet another huge
climb. The scenery was awesome. It took me 4.5 hours to
cover the 70km and I reached Badgingarra at 5:20pm ready for a
shower and rest. Alas, they had nothing, so I had to set out
for another 42km for Cataby where there was a hotel/motel where I
knew I could get a room. Fortunately, the hills were nearly
over, but it was peak hour, there were lots of road-trains and other
traffic and the road was narrow and wet, and it was dark. Twice,
almost felt road-trains brush me as they thundered past and I rode
as fast as I could, exhausted as I was, to get to Cataby. I
arrived soon after 7pm, got a room and had fish and chips and a
toasted sandwich from the 24-hour roadhouse next door. I go
through Perth tomorrow and will end up having a relatively short day
because, to go further than Mandurah, my original target, I would
have to go too far to the next available accommodation.
However, given my late arrival here, I will probably sleep in until
3am. It’s still raining!
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