Day 95 | I make it to the Stuart Highway at Kulgera: but where's that shop? Oh, there isn't one
96 km | Heading west total: 3,683 km
So how did I acquire such an aversion to sealed roads?
I guess after a few days on the tracks and fire breaks of the Mawson Trail I became pretty used to that type of travelling. It’s not as fast, clearly, but those less travelled roads never seem to be lacking in interest. At least not so far.
The landscape and wildlife seem closer, it’s full immersion; there’s less traffic which you can see approaching from some distance so there’s no mirror watching and the continual anticipation of the trucks thundering past your shoulder; and despite my ability to stop and have a decent chat with people, I don’t mind a bit of solitude.
I get a lot of ‘rather you than me, mate’ from the 4WDers as I stop for a chat. (Sometimes they admit that they just spent 9 hours straight driving in the car, with one stop for an ice cream and two for petrol.)
Or, ‘How do you do it?’
Well, it’s simple really. You get up in the morning, have your breakfast, pack up and then start riding. Some sort of ambition is worked out, ie get to a town, or just try and get 70 km pealed off, or 4 or 5 hours. And then see what happens.
It’s really not hard at all. Can’t be hard if you can crank out almost 100 km in a day.