Day 67 | Carnarvon Day 3: and still a few more days hanging around

rest day

For those now desiring a dollop of blog each day, or another desolate photo, it might be best to reveal the bad news right now: at, or beyond, the limits of the internet range, using the mobile phone network, there’s going to be lengthy times of drought with the blog arriving in a meaty 12 day wodge, like that last bundle. These parts are starting to get remote.

Anyway I’ve signed on for another full week here in Paradise.

Why?

The immediate concern is this: a few weeks food deprivation + a few days food excess = an unhealthy situation.

Maybe it was that any-fruit-you-can-fit-in-this-huge-bag-for-$3 thing, or at least its fruity overindulgence.

More pre-emptively, a full cleaning, restoring, check the bike, stove, backup computer, etc series of activities in the last place that has anything much in the way of facilities makes some sense.

And also, planning ahead, I’m about the halfway mark of Perth to Alice Springs via this curious wiggly-woggly route. I’m thinking early November would be a great time to arrive, so, working backwards, I’ve worked out it’s going to take 53 days in total, say 8 weeks, to get the 3267km from Exmouth to Alice. In comparison it’s taken me 64 days to do almost exactly the same distance, 3302km, but that was with wet weather, going to Perth, and all those hills. On the other hand 85% of the next weeks are on unsealed roads, but without too many distractions, and that can be pretty well guaranteed, 80 or 90km a day would seem quite possible.

Leaving Exmouth in early September is A OK.

Lastly there’s a couple of places I’d like to spent some time doing something other than hearing those pedals whirring as I smash into a head wind.

I’m about to cross the Tropic of Capricorn, ie, get tropical.

Coral Bay, a town with a permanent population of 120, has a nice sandy white beach, water temp has to be at least 20°C, with a modern backpackers just across the road that would be great to hang out for a couple of days.

Then there’s Exmouth, or, more importantly, around the corner in the Cape Range National Park, where you can camp next to a beach that has the huge Ningaloo Reef, a world heritage area, accessible right from the beach for $7 a night. They say you can swim out to the coral. I’m happy to turn beachcomber for a week before saying farewell to the Indian Ocean.

Well, that’s my theory.