20th February
Across the road from the camping shop the cafe served coffee which apart from the cafe in the wheat belt in WA, Norseman and the Foodary at Penong opposite the pub, this was the first sign of metro civilisation since crossing the desert. Australia is so big. I bought some muesli at the Foodland and said goodbye to Tony and Letishia, people I'd met beside their broken car at the Yalata Roadhouse. Tony was a clever man, his daughter was studying physics at Leipzig University and his brother was a professor of Quantum Mathematics at Christchurch University in New Zealand. Tony himself was the world stone-skimming champion, a title he picked up in Scotland a few years back.
Meanwhile the Aboriginal indigenous people walk round the town as if they were ghosts. Their physiological structure included small and large pot bellies, an abstract gait, hunched shoulders and the ones I spoke to all spoke pidgin. Bare footed, unkempt and stooped they bore the signs of poor living. Note to myself - to research.
Punctured. Repaired. The tyre deflated again. Pumped it up 4 times and got to Wirrulla
General Stores and bought dated milk. Across the empty street there was a small caravan park run by the Wirrulla Progress Association. There were washing machines, sinks, a microwave, hot plate, table and sofa. Could be my room for the night but I needed to repair the bike, get food at the food and carry on. Battery is charging. In the pub across the road it is the ultimate Aussie country hang out, TV on loud, billiard table, darts, flag, horse racing car number plates, signatures on the wall. Black & white photographs of people in flat caps and coy smiles long since gone. The old guys.
I rode away with slices of pizza and a flask of icy cold milk back onto the Eyre Highway, past the small camping ground and the silos across the train track whilst the sun began to set behind me the sky the colour of a dried blood it was getting dark, hidden away in the bush there was only the sound of the trucks sending me to sleep under the bright half moon.
Map of the Day
Post Card from Home
One of our mates and living near my home town of Machynlleth with her two young daughters. Rachel Atherton is a British professional downhill mountain bike racer, and a multiple time UCI World Champion. One of the greatest of all female downhillers of her generation and just so lovely and she's in our local cafe saying "hi!"