Disaster
Tanami desert sunrise
I left the Mary River rest area before the sun came up after a horrific night. I couldn’t sleep at all and at one point during the night I thought I was going to pass out. I was roasting hot but not sweating and a little delirious. I tried to sit up and couldn’t, all my muscles were like jelly, when I did manage the get upright, my vision was all over the place. To cool myself down I doused myself with my precious water about 4 litres during the course of the next few hours. I was a little concerned but as soon as I was feeling reasonably normal again I got on the bike and rode off before the sun came up. Try and get some distance behind me before it gets too hot.
This is not the disaster though. Later on in the day I stopped for lunch and a couple in a caravan pulled up just after I finished eating. They made me a fresh salad sandwich and gave me some Gatorade for rehydration, all very much appreciated. I stopped there, chatting with them for about 2 hours glad for the company and not too keen to get going again in the heat which was a very bad decision in retrospect. When I made to leave they offered to put my bike and stuff in the caravan and take me to Fitzroy Crossing about 90km on. I was sorely tempted but refused, I want to cycle all the way around. As long as I’m able I want to keep riding.
After I said goodbye I took off, there was about four hours of good daylight left and 90 km to go, it would be close but I figurd I should make it to Fitzroy before it got too dark. What I didn’t factor was the storms that have been coming every evening now. About an hour after I got going again the sky started to turn a very ominous dark grey and soon after the lightning with it’s accompanying thunder started. It looked like it was out to my right and not getting any closer the wind being directly into my face. But the road doesn’t stay straight forever and swung right into it. Suddenly the wind was howling, breaking branches off trees and I could see the lightning striking the ground directly in front of me. Hell if I was riding into that. I like watching storms and especially lightning but from the safety of a building. Out on my bike I felt very exposed and vulnerable, I was bricking it completely until I couldn’t force myself to keep going. I stopped but the lightning kept coming closer so I waved down a guy with a pickup truck and asked him to take me to safety. A half hour later in the safety of Fitzroy Crossing my heart was still pumping and my hands shaking. Am I a wuss or what!
In a way it turned out pretty good for me. The guy who gave me a lift Davo, was a electrician based in Broome but with a compound in Fitzroy. They had cabins there and he sorted me out with one for the night. It had airconditioning which meant being able to sleep properly for the first time since I left Kununurra. One of the other guys there was a scouser who has been living here for nearly 20 years and yet still sounds like Stevie G. He was a cyclist back in the day, even took part in the Rás in Ireland. He said that he was heading back to Broome the next day and would carry some water for me. So from this point it was sweet that I got the lift. Can’t help feeling gutted that I took a lift though. Seems so silly now but out there I was properly worried.