Kalbarri to Perth, Oct 05 - Day 4

It was a chilly start to a lovely day, even though it rained later. Everything was covered in frost when I got up just on sunrise. I'd had a reasonably good night's sleep, even though the noise from the trucks on the highway using their exhaust brakes coming down the hill tried to wake me up. This is why it is a good idea to camp a long way away from the road and not at the bottom of any hills.

I only heard one car pull into the roadside stop during the evening. Obviously drunk from their slurred speech, they all got out for a nature call and waffled on for awhile about a hole in the sky. It was the moon. They then used their car to lay rubber all the way up the road.

A bit frosty this morning!

View from the camp.

A road train coming down the hill.

I got off to an early start to finish riding up the hill. Once I reached the top of the hill, I noticed the breeze starting to pick up. The really good thing was that it was a tail wind. Unusual for this time of the year, but I had a good run, and on one really big downhill, I reached my highest speed for the trip of 68 km/h. Even though the BOB trailer has a warning on it about not exceeding 40 km/h, I had no problems with it.

Hide/Show Map

Today's route

Not long after that, a wildly painted kombi van pulls up alongside me, and they offer me water and food, but I'm well off for water. The first roadhouse, I reach, I stop in for more fruitcake, but I head off quickly because the sky is looking ominous. The tail wind is picking up, and I'm making good time.

I make it to Badgingarra, where we had camped in the caravan park on our trip up, whilst we waited for a lift. The skies are really black now, and it poured down whilst I was there. After it eased off, I headed out again, with the top half of my wet weather gear on. Because of the rain, I didn't take any more photographs today.

It was on this length of the road, that the moron driver of the century was awarded. When riding on this highway, especially with the road trains and heavy vehicles, it is essential to have mirrors. When any vehicle is coming from behind, I always move to the left onto the shoulder between the gravel edge, and the white line.

If there is a road train coming from behind, and one coming towards me, Murphy's law dictates that they will always pass each other, at the exact point on the road where I am. It was in this case, I could hear a road train from behind, and checked the mirrors, and confirmed it. There was a road train coming towards me, so I moved totally off of the road onto the gravel.

This is where the mountain bike comes into it's own, especially with the wide tyres. Normally when trucks are coming from behind, they toot their air horns to let you know that they are there. There is a friendly toot, or a double blast which means hello, or a long blast, which means danger danger Will Robinson, I have a wide load.

It was as I moved onto the gravel, that I hear the road train from behind me blast his air horns, and it wasn't a warning about danger, it was a continuous blast, and at the same time I can hear his tyres locking up. It was at this time, that I left the road completely, and was in the drain, that I also noticed the road train coming towards me had his brakes locked up and I could see the smoke from his tyres.

Turning around to see the road train behind me, and to find out what all the fuss was about, I see an idiot overtaking the road train in his car. He was heading straight into the path of the oncoming road train. Now anyone in this situation, would normally either slam the brakes on, or floor the accelerator. In this case he did neither. He wasn't even paying attention, he was just casually cruising past a three trailer road train, with an oncoming road train, casually talking on his mobile phone.

The rear trailer of the oncoming road train, started to jack knife and went into the gravel on the other side of the road, but the driver had it under control and continued on after the idiot in the car was back over onto the correct side of the road.

There was lots of burn't rubber on the road, and I think the idiot in the car didn't even notice a thing. He was too busy talking on his phone. Because I didn't take any more photographs, here's one of the view out of our tent at Badgingarra on the way up.

View from Badgingarra Caravan Park.

More house parts.

In pouring rain, I kept going. At some road works, I got stopped by the sign man. I was first on the line, and there was a line of cars behind me. Once he let us through, I made it through the roadworks without any cars passing me. It was really rough, but I had a screaming tail wind, and it was downhill, and I was able to keep the speed at 35 km/h.

For the next hour or two the traffic coming from behind was in ten minute groups, because of the road works. It was good, because I had the lane to myself for ten to fifteen minutes at a time then a stream of cars.

At 4:00 PM I reached the Windmill roadhouse, with a caravan park behind it. This is where we stayed on our first night out, so I thought I'd stay here instead of stealth camp. I was wet, and needed a good shower. I got a nice warm cabin, because it was cheaper than getting a van, and it was out of the rain.

It was a great day's ride, even in the rain. Tomorrow, it's back to the stinky city.

Next - Day Five