The Pilbara

From Roebourne I didn’t bother going to Karratha. It’s a turnoff about 10km from the highway with only temptation of work and an excuse to stop cycling for a while so I decided against it. I have enough food to keep me happy until I get to Exmouth and even Carnarvon and I’m not sure there is much to see in the town. So I kept going past the turnoff, along the north west coastal highway. The scenery doesn’t change much, there are no mountains or even hills to speak of out here, it is very, very flat.

Flat country is good for wind, there is a big fetch with nothing to break it up so it is usually pretty strong. Most days it is 30+ km/h constant with stronger gusts and for the last few weeks it’s been generally in my face. It’s not letting me get soft thats for sure. So despite feeling really good today I was not making great progress. I averaged 20km/h by the end of the day but had the wind been gentler I could have done another 50/60km. I’m covering some pretty good distance each day now, if I do less than 120km on a point-to-point day I feel like I’m slacking off. 160km feels like what I should be doing. Can’t think of any reason why I need to, I just feel like I do.

Dumb-ass here managed to lose a substantial sum of money a few days ago so until I get to Exmouth four or five days away I’m on a budget of $10. That means no more campsites with nice showers. There are a few big rivers here and although the water isn’t flowing there are big pools chest deep which is good for a soak in. Gets me out of the heat too. I try and give my clothes a wash but without detergent most of the dirt goes nowhere. Still its a whole lot better than just letting it go completely. The first night from Roebourne brought me to Fortescue River roadhouse. I got in, ordered a sandwich and fell asleep at the table within 30 seconds. Cricket was on the TV so I’m sure that was the reason because when the girl turned on the Great Outdoors movie with John Candy and Dan Ackroyd I woke up immediately. Go figure?

Some birds

The following day I made it to Ashburton River. It was a nice spot, the river water was wonderfully cool and I slept that night on the bank. I had some company in the evening in the form of these birds. There were two adults and three chicks that were just as big but incredibly lazy. I gave them a few nuts and the young ones would stand beside it squawking until one of the adults deposited it into their beak. Even had a magpie take a nut from my fingers, for a wonder it was not trying to attack me

This entry was posted on Sunday, December 17th, 2006 at 7:58 pm by Ross and is filed under Australia, Western Australia. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.