Near Parallel No 1 Road, Great Central Road: but might be closer to Parallel No 2 Road
9 October 2011 | 88 km | zzOz total: 6,112 km
Tired?
You betcha.
Been a tough day in the office.
It’s uncertain exactly how far it is to Warburton, a mainly aboriginal settlement of about 500 inhabitants, the maps says one set of figures but my brain is so depleted of energy every time I add up the 5 numbers I come to a different conclusion, one sign said 263km, contradicted by another with 256km and they were within 100m of each other.
I gave up, but from that we know that it is at least 2 nights out and 3 big days riding at about 85km a day.
Talk about organised today, I’d cracked 40km by 10am, I was flying.
Unfortunately shortly thereafter the road surface deteriorated and the next 50km took the rest of the day.
As I sat around the roadhouse yesterday various drivers said part of this section was the worst of the road in WA, then again they had all complained about the state of the road over the border in the Northern Territory.
The issue here is road construction using sand as the basis just doesn’t hold up to the traffic too well. Just turns into big corrugations which require some thought to negotiate, working out where any underlying firm substrate might reside.
The key to successful forward motion being to quickly slip into the granny cog and keep pedalling at all costs.
Stop for any reason and I was forced to resort to walking the bike, with 25 or so litre extra load, on a number of occasions, locating said firmer ground by trial and error, or effort, but never much more than 20m. The 2.1” tyre setup generally powers through the thinner depth soft stuff in the main, the knobbly Crossmark on the front mostly avoiding the slippy-slidey front wheel experience of other sandy routes from my past.
I will need some more water from a passing traveller for the 3rd day supply, must have been well over 30°C today and the roadhouse bore supply is a little salty, ie, more prone to be drunk in volume.
Quite undulating today and the mulga is thinning out. I get the feeling of more and more complete desolation.
Exactly what I was looking for from this little adventure.
(Car count: dead, 25; alive, somewhat less.)