Kalbarri
Working on my tanlines
I woke up at 3am and decided to get going straight off. Kalbarri was about 200km away and it would be nice to get there and get a bed in the hostel. So I plodded my way along the road all day. The wind is making it really difficult to enjoy riding and to be honest right now I’m not enjoying it at all.
The last 50km from the highway through the national park to the town was a westerly direction and I was looking forward to a respite from the wind. The direction of the wind was shifting in the afternoon when I got to the turn I was treated to a spell of tailwind, but not for too long. Seriously grumpy I was given a sweet pick-me-up on the road. I heard some traffic coming behind and looked back to see my support crew of the McKinnons, and Fran, Leigh and kids with a cold can of Pepsi-Max. It\’s nuts that we keep meeting on the road but I\’m not complaining. After they pressed on I got going again but hit the wall about 25km out from Kalbarri. The drink was nice and cold but Pepsi-Max has about 1 calorie per can so it didn\’t give me the energy boost I needed.
When I wobbled into town I went to the hostel and got a bed for the night. I had planned on moving on the next afternoon but I woke with a sore knee and used that as an excuse to stay another day. The fact that the knee was fine by the time I got to reception didn’t stop me handing over the non-refundable room fee. Just as in Exmouth I was heading out to find an internet cafe and parked on the street were Alex and Karina. Later when I went to the little shopping centre I bumped into Fran. It almost like Groundhog day!
That evening there was a BBQ at the caravan park where everybody was staying and they were charging only $2 for burgers and hotdogs. I was late so I got to clean up the leftovers, I managed to get a burger with 2 patties and 3 fried eggs in it for $2, thats for nothing. The girls were filtering oil for the van, so I helped by assuming a supervisory role, overseeing proceedings. What a gentleman I am.