Had a bit of rain overnight - thankfully the tent is waterproof. Get going relatively early in another overcast morning. Things are still slippery, but most of the track has dried out despite the showers during the night. Pulled up at the Caiguna roadhouse for a breakfast of champions. Cup of instant coffee and a sav in pastry! Chatted to a couple of blokes who commented on the mud on the bike and how slipper the stuff is once you get off the tar. Tell me something I don't know!
I did another 65 kms of bitumen before turning off at Cocklebiddy roadhouse for some more dirt tracks. These tracks were awesome as well - twisty, grippy! and everything was cruising along really well. There was one patch of slippery mud that I manged to get through OK. However, I checked the GPS and I had taken a wrong turn so had to turn back - oh well, I get to do these cool tracks again - not all bad. The next time through the mud and - the big girl is down again! I'm getting used to picking the bike up by now. No harm done - but it was a battle to get the bike up when I had trouble finding grip for my own feet!
The correct track wasn't as much fun - heaps of rock and I was continually clipping trees and shrubs on the side of the road. It's one thing I don't think I've mentioned, but barkbusters are an absolute must - the amount of foliage I've hit on this trip is ridiculous. I could regenerate plants from right around Australia just by taking samples of the greenery that's been impregnated into my barkbusters. Anyway, eventually this track just becomes one continuous rock garden that looked my like a dried river bed than a track. Again, with the hitting and the slapping of trees - not only the barkbusters, but my arms, hips, shoulders, face! This is fun? Yesterday I thought I wasn't using 3rd gear often enough. Now I'd be happy if I could use 2nd! I bounced all the way to an escarpment that would take me down to the Eyre Bird Observatory - formally the Old Eyre Telegraph Station. After 15 kms of sand (which I battled with the whole way) I turn up at the station.
I met Tony and his wife Jennie who are the current caretakers of the observatory. They hail from SE Qld, so have come quite a way. They have a 3 month stint here before heading back home. He showed me around and was a wealth of info about the history of the place. Well worth a visit. On the way out I had a bit of a stumble and ended up leaning the bike against a sand bank that came up to my hips. No worries I though, I'll just drag my foot out and I'll be right. Well, I would be if my leg wasn't trapped! It took me about 5 mins to wriggle, scrape, push and nudge the bike off me before I can free myself. Then, when trying to pick it up off from the 45 deg angle it was on, I end up dropping it on the other side. Yeah, I swore a little bit.
On the way to Madura I was following a track that followed the escarpment for about 60 kms. I was actually about 80-100m lower than the level of the highway and I couldn't get back up there until I reach Madura Pass. Along the way I clipped even more plants. My boots are as clean as they have ever been after being washed by all the shrubs that I keep hitting along the twin track. I see a heap of emus and roos running in front of me. It's amazing how well a tall bird like an emu can be camouflaged. If they weren't running away from me, I wouldn't have seen them at all. The track is pretty slipper the whole way and it's an early sunset because the escarpment hides the sun earlier. I had a bit of a panic when the GPS lead me to the Madura ruins instead of the Madura roadhouse. Shit - how far do I have to go now? Luckily it was only 5 kms and I pulled up into the roadhouse just on dusk. It was a pretty full on day.
No pics worth showing from today.
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