The rear wheel gave out in just about the worst place in the whole country. It was a long way to go for repairs in either direction. Thinking about it and the fact that it turned into a 3950km two week epic makes it seem a bit extreme but it was a lot of fun too. With ‘that’ one exception it was one of the highlights of the trip so far.

Just going to Perth and back, it should have been a 2700km trip which is still a long way but I managed to make it a little more of a round trip. The road trip with Jamie and Laura was a load of fun, and I got to see a few other places that I missed on my bike. I also met some really cool new people and some I doubted I’d ever see again.

I got to experience the Nullarbor from two perspectives. On a bike it is an epic trek, no doubt but so much better than by car. Some would describe the trip as mind-numbingly boring and try to get across as quickly as possible. In a car you zone out and just travel across the land. On a bike everything happens much slower. Yes you do travel across the land but the land also has a chance to travel through you. A guy I met at one roadhouse described me and my way of travel as less of a tourist and more of a pilgrim.

Do you think I will win if there is a competition “Just how far will you go to repair your bike?”

After my little delay of nearly two weeks I’m back on the road again. I think I did a good job trueing the wheel, I reckon it’s less than 1mm from being perfectly true which isn’t too bad using your thumb as a guide! Anyhow I’m back rolling again on across the Eyre Highway and happy to be going again.

Its not too hot out here now. It is in the low 40′s which isn’t too bad considering what things were like last week. The day I broke down it was 45 and a few days after that it hit 53 out here. Thats pretty warm. When I arrived at one roadhouse a guy in a truck comes over and asked if I was the crazy cyclist, going around Australia on a bike. A few people over the next few days seem to know about me and my story. I’m like a mini-celebrity out here, not only for cycling around but for being daft enough to hitch back to get a wheel rather than have it delivered

I’m still seething that someone would steal my stuff. It’s taken a whole lot of the shine of of things. And the fact that I can do nothing about it is not helping at all. I met everyone at the hostel and whoever took it lied right to my face.

So I was stuck another day in Kal, not such a bad thing but under the circumstances I was not a happy man at all. Next day at last something worked in my favour and a guy staying there was driving across the Nullarbor so I got a lift without needing to stand on the side of the road hitching. He took me all the way back to my bike that afternoon.

It’s was a good trip with Jamie, Laura and Seb. I cooked up a storm for dinner, sausages, beans and mashed potatoes afterwhich they surprised me on my birthday with a cake and marshmallows marking out the small number of years that have passed since my entrance onto this plane of existance.

Next day we went to Wave Rock again and messed about there taking some fabulous pictures surfing the rock. Afterwards we went to Esperance along the route I avoided becuase the road was closed. It was open again at this stage though so no off-road drama. As soon as we got to Esperance I was dropped off on the edge of town and started hitching towards Kalgoorlie. I left a bag at the hostel there thinking I’d be getting the most direct route back to my bike. After about 2 hours a guy stopped and brought me 25km up the road. A few hours and another lift later I was in Salmon Gums, still 300km short of Kalgoorlie and it was well dark at this stage. There was a small pub in town and I got a room there for $25 including breakfast which isn’t half bad. Next morning I got the Norseman and eventually from there got to Kalgoorlie late the next afternoon. It seems to be easier to get into town than out of one. Not too many people are keen to pick up hitchhikers.

The plan of action for the way out of Perth turned out to be very similar to the route I took, down towards the Southern Forests and onto Albany. They plan on going to Esperance and taking a few days off down there which is where I’ll be leaving them. When I was in Kalgoorlie I left a bag at the hostel, thought I’d be heading straight back and I didn’t need to be carrying the extra weight into Perth.

I’m going to have to get back to Kalgoorlie so as soon as I get to Esperance I’ll be hitching north. Then back to Norseman and across the Nullarbor back to my bike. In the meantime I’m having a blast with Jamie, his friend Laura and a German guy tagging along for the ride to Adelaide. We started the road trip in dodgy fashion. I left my hostel and got a train to meet the guys. When I got there I realised that I left my camera at the hostel. And not only that but I left it in the common area while I was repacking my bag outside of the room to not wake the others there. Some thieving gypo stole my crisps the day before so I didn’t really have much hope for it still being there when I got back. But when I walked back in, there it was exactly where I left it.

After doing a little shopping we set off southwards. We weren’t even 20km from the city centre when the van came jerking to a halt. Out of fuel! Can you believe that we ran out of fuel in the middle of a city. What are the chances of us making it in the outback! We did have a Jerry Can and withing minutes of coming to a halt we had a lift to a servo and back again. We weren’t held up more than half an hour, which isn’t half bad. People do go out of there way here to help you out when you’re stuck.

After these misadventures the rest of the day went swimmingly. We dropped a Japansese girl off at Pemberton and then went to climb the Gloucester Tree. I did it before but the others hadn’t. Jamie made it halfway up the last time he was here so he had to make it the other half this time round. It was late in the evening when we got there so it was quite and we pretty much had it to ourselves to mess about. We just missed the Valley of the Giants tree top walk which the others are really keen on doing so we continued onto Albany and will return in the morning. Jamie and Laure lived and worked at the backpackers in Albany for 2 months so that where we headed. We called ahead and they said it was cool if we come and se the kitchen – very good of the manager. As I type this everyone else is in bed except me. I’m the only person awake here and I shouldn’t even be in the place!!! It’s been a good day

Unfortunately the bike store in Kalgoorlie didn’t have a suitable rim or wheel in stock. The guy called around to see what he could get from the dealers but none of the ones on the west coast had anything so unless I found a store with something I was looking at a three day minimum before I got a rim and as the weekend was coming it could be more like five days.

So I spent the morning with the Yellow Pages and my phone calling every store in Perth and beyond to see if I could get something. Eventually I found a place that had exactly what I needed. So I needed to go all the way back to Perth. I could have started hitching then but I was completely wrecked and by the time I’d have got to Perth it would be too late to get a place to stay, thats if I got a lift straight off. I went to the backpackers instead and proceeded to go into a coma. As luck would have it, the hostel had a notice on the board about a lift to Perth the next morning. I swear it feels like there is some sort of higher power dragging me back to the city.

When I arrived in Perth, I got in touch with a few people I knew were still around. At coffee the next afternoon with Alex she was convinced I was repressing my frustrations. I was remarkably calm about the whole thing, happy even. It’s all part of the adventure I suppose and in the last few weeks my outlook on the whole trip has undergone a subtle but very positive change. More on that later.

I picked up my new rim and rebuilt the wheel. The new rim is a Velocity Dyad, and seems pretty beefy, hopefully I’ll have no more issues there. The guys at the Cyclemania store where I got the rim were brilliant, the main mechanic there has done quite a bit of touring himself so knew exactly where I was coming from and threw in new nipples and a spoke tool with the rim as well as a few bucks off the top. By Saturday morning I was good to go again. I was having a great time back in Perth and a few friends were renting a campervan to drive across the Nullarbor to Melbourne. Their plan was to leave on Tuesday morning so I decided to hitch a ride back to my bike with them. It gives me a chance to have more fun and catch up with a few other people back in town. Good times!!

Well maybe meltdown is a bit dramatic a title but today I experienced a mechanical failure that put a complete halt to my efforts. On my way to Mundrabilla I noticed my bike was starting to feel a little wobbly. I watched the wheel between my legs, it appeared to be true and the bolts on the rack were still tight as far as I could see but still the bike was very unstable.

So I stopped and had a closer inspection. It turns out that my rim was on the verge of total collapse. I had one broken spoke and a fair few others felt ‘soft’. At first I wasn’t too worried, I can easily replace a spoke and true a wheel, so I turned back to the Madura Roadhouse and figured to have a cold drink while I got to work. After taking things off the bike I attempted to remove the cassette.

Now before I left I made sure it was tight, but not so tight that I couldn’t remove it on the side of the road. In Perth, you may recall I had a new one fitted, well I tried for 2 hours and nothing would make it budge. I got some help from an British couple, we tried wrapping a cord around the cassette and tieing that to a pillar to get extra leverage but no joy. In the end I admitted defeat. It didn’t really make a difference as I spotted that a broken spoke was the least of my concerns. The rim was cracked all over and three spokes had pulled through their eyelets. Thats why the wheel didn’t look like it was buckled and why I was completely screwed!

I knew I needed a new rim and before I even had time to comprehend my problem the british people offered me a lift back across the Nullarbor. So I left my bike and some of my bags at the roadhouse and grabbed the essentials, my broken wheel and before I knew it I was zooming back the way I’d worked so hard to come. On our way back we stopped at Balladonia again and still having the shower door combination in my head I jumped in to make myself clean It felt good to be clean.

That night we got into Norseman after covering 500km. There was a 24hr truckstop so I let my new friends take a much deserved rest (they’d covered nearly 1200km in one day) and I went to relax in the truckies lounge. There was an offer of a lift to Esperance in the morning but a rummage through the Yellow Pages didn’t hold much hope of getting anything there. So I decided to try get back to Kalgoorlie, there was a pretty decent bike store and I could possibly pick up my rugby ticket if I was lucky! I really hope that ticket pans out.

Whilst I was sipping a melty hot cup of tea a car with two wired Aussies pulled into the station. I decided to try my luck and see if they were going North. A bit odd asking for a lift at 2:30 in the morning but they said no problem and before I knew it I was on my way towards Kalgoorlie. These two lads were on a mission to get to Perth to exchange a drivers license before a 12 month suspension kicked in at 1pm. When we got to Coolgardie I jumped out and lay down to have a bit of a sleep. No sooner than I closed my eyes a car pulls up, they were back with news that they could sort out the license issue in Kalgoorlie only 40km away instead of Perth 550km. These guys had driven all the way from Adelaide, over 2000km since 10:00am the morning before. No wonder they decide to go to Kal instead of press on for Perth. So there I was back in Kalgoorlie less than 12 hours after discovering the problem. Not bad going really!

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.

Today I left Balladonia to tackle the longest straight stretch of road in Australia. At 146.6km or 90 miles it is indeed a long straight. It doesn’t start until 40 or so kilometres from Balladonia and I was waiting for the obligatory photograph at the sign. There were roadworks though so after riding about 60km and not seeing a sign I realised that there wasn’t going to be one. At least not on this end.

My Japanese friend took a little longer than I to get going so I left him about 1 hour or so behind. As expected the wind wasn’t too accomodating but it wasn’t too full on either – at least not in the morning. Since Norseman I’ve been riding through the largest Eucalypt forest in the World which has been providing some shelter from the wind but at just about the point I realised that there would be no sign the trees suddenly stopped growing. One minute there are trees everywhere, the next just flat short grass with a few stubby bushes here and there – is this the Nullarbor before me!?

Around lunch time I came to a nice spot on the road with a few trees, so I stopped for a rest and some food. After cooking a hearty lunch I lay out on the grass and promptly fell asleep. Yukio woke me up a few hours later. At this stage the wind had picked up quite a bit and I decided I was done for the day so I stuck up my tent and went to bed early.