Slip Sliding Along
Soft golden sand
From Mulkas Cave the road to Southern Cross is unpaved gravel. The alternative paved route would be 140km extra so pretty much an extra days riding. I’ve avoided dirt as much a possible so far this trip but I decided to give this one a go. It was about 120km so a good day in the saddle would see me get most of the way, at least that was the idea.
I was up an riding before dawn, I was hoping to get as far as I could on the dirt. I was pleasantly surprised by the quality of the road, it had been graded recently and I was riding along at almost the same pace as normal. For a while at least. When the road is packed hard it’s good riding but it can suddenly change without a noticeably visible difference, to really soft and slippery. I got caught out a few times, coming close to crashing so I slowed the pace. Further along the track the condition got worse and became very sandy in places. I had to push a few times, the tyres digging in too much to make it possible to ride, particularly when there as an incline.
As it was the weekend only two vehicles passed me the entire day one in each direction. It was kind of wierd that they passed me at exactly the same time too. Once you do get off the beaten track it really is quiet. Anyway, by mid-afternoon I was back on bitumen at Southern Cross and then onto the Goldfields Highway towards Kalgoorlie. It was my second longest distance covered in a month and mostly on dirt too. I was lucky that the road was so good but happy to be off it. I’d like to ride on mre dirt but the narrow tryes make it too much of a lottery.