Cocklebiddy
Our mounts
Thanks to my early night I was wide awake, packed and rolling down the road before the sun even began to brighten the sky. I didn’t bother having breakfast I knew there was a nice rest area about 30km down the road with water tanks so I figured I’d do it there, with a picnic table and the sun would be up to warm things a bit.
Even though it is in the mid 40′s during the day the temperature at night drops pretty sharply and a sleeping bag is definitely needed. Not when you go to bed of course but at about 2:00am its cold enough to wake you and zombie like movements are experienced as you struggle with almost total lack of control of limbs to get into the bag.
When I got to my breakfast spot I started to make some porridge and took out my book to read. About 4 hours later I decided I’d better get the finger out a do some more riding. The road is very flat and straight out here although that said at the speed we ride at all the bends out here seem almost imperciptible. Sometime around lunchtime I arrived at Caiguna and the ned of the 90 mile straight. Yukio had just arrived at the sign as it was coming into sight for me. At the roadhouse there I got chatting to one of the employees on here break. She was sweet, fed me half here lunch and then gave me a few oranges and some ice when I was hitting the road again. I let Yukio get a headstart of about 15 minutes and then set about chasing him down. I caught him up after 25km and we rode together for a while.
I was riding happily in front when I heard a gust of wind coming, you know the whoooshing sound just before it hits you. I was braced and ready for a strong gust but this was a strange one. It hit hard and didn’t let up all evening. One minute I was making 23km/h, the next I was struggling to keep it above 16km/h. By the time we reached Cocklebiddy I was pretty tired and Yukio who fell way back decided to stop while I rode on a bit further ending our little partnership.