Day 182, Sunday, 27 September, 2009

Distance travelled –  48.4 km
Avg speed –  20.2 kph
Max speed – 42.9 kph

Overlander Roadhouse to Billabong Roadhouse

Last night we decided to have an easy and short day today and only ride to Billabong (our original plan was to bush camp 30km further south). Also, friends Karyn and Rhys were driving north with their son and his girlfriend for a couple of weeks at Coral Bay so we were hoping we would meet up at the roadhouse in the evening. It seemed a better option than having a chat on the side of the road as we passed each other.

We had favourable winds today and we made good progress. Our elevation profile for today showed a gradual uphill climb from Overlander, and it sounds strange to be saying this, followed by a nice set of climbs up and then rolls down a large number of sand hills. On one downhill run we exceeded 40kph, which is the fastest we have been since leaving Kununurra 6 weeks ago. This raised our spirits considerably.

There are two businesses at Billabong - the roadhouse, and the hotel and caravan park. There are no shady grassed sites at the caravan park so we decided to ask for a motel room. After a shower we went over to the roadhouse for lunch. As we were about to leave 2 cyclists pulled in riding south. One looked very familiar but we could not recall where we had met him before. It turned out to be Cyrill (from Switzerland) who we met at Broome. He had left Broome 4 days before us and taken a number of side trips. Along the way he met up with Jacob, (from the Sunshine Coast) and they were riding to Perth together.

It was good therapy for Denise and I to be able to sit down and chat with Cyrill and Jacob as they had equally bad times with the wind over the last few weeks. One day they had only managed 50km so we no longer feel so bad about our struggles. It was also good to see that all four of us carried similar amounts of water, so the 65 litres (kgs) we carried for three days was not that excessive after all. We are certainly pleased we stoped at Billabong. For an hour we enjoyed their company before they headed for a bush camp 30km further south.

Because there is no mobile coverage at Billabong we were not sure of Karyn and Rhys’ progress north so Denise and I decided to have dinner at the roadhouse hoping they would arrive soon. We had a very enjoyable dinner but by 8.00pm still no Karyn and Rhys so we headed back to our motel room. Just after 8.30pm, when I was in the shower, Rhys knocks on the door. 

We both went over to their campervan in the caravan park and enjoyed a couple of hours chat whilst they settled in for the night and cooked dinner. It was certainly very nice to see someone from home.

Today was a very sociable day for us and we feel a lot better for the time spent with friends.

Zoom into the map and use the 'Satellite' layer to see our new location.

 

Does this sign mean that the cards listed are able to be used to buy fuel?

Scattered goat bones

The "Cycling Terrorist"

Cyrill and Jacob about to leave Billabong Roadhouse

 

 

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