Balladonia
Yukio, Japanese cycle tourer
Yesterday I stopped only 80km past Norseman. I was just plain tired from riding into the wind for over 4 hours and there was a decent rest area so I decided that was it. Today it was another 110km to the first roadhouse (or last one depending on the direction you tackle this road from) on the Eyre Highway at Balladonia. I already decided that I was going to stop for the day when I got there.
It is $7 bucks for camping which is alright. They had good facilities including nice drinking water and a camp kitchen so I was happy to fork over a few dollars. I was also able to recharge the battery on my laptop and iPod too. Whilst I was changing the songs on my iPod I got chatting to a guy on his way to Perth. He had a laptop and a crossover cable so we were able to do some file exchanging. Tony Soprano will be travelling with me for a while now 
That Japanese cyclist I heard about was there at the roadhouse when I wheeled in. Naturally we got talking a bit, his name was Yukio and he has a pretty sweet bike. It’s just an 3×8 speed that cost him less than $1000 for the bike, racks and panniers. But it was a mountain bike with a suspensin fork and 26inch wheels. I love my bike but 700c wheels and tyre are not at all ideal for touring. No stores stock decent rims, wheels or tyres for this size if they have anything at all, but even tiny stores in the middle of hicksville have pretty decent 26inch stuff. One of my friends was asking me about a bike as he is thinking of doing a similar trip and I can’t think of anything more important than getting the right wheels and while 700 may be fine in Europe and the US, everywhere else it’s not really ideal. Not if you have a problem anyway.