It's July 9 and, after 10 days recovering from COVID, we both realise that it's time to 'get physical' and make a few runs towing the trailers.
Feeling a little energyless as yet, but will make each run a little longer and the trailers a little heavier each time. At least, that's the intention! We'll see how we go!!
During the night, in the tent, Del was aware of trucks and rock crushing machines working on the nearby hills. He woke me at 4.00am and we went through our breakfast and packing trailers and tent routine. Del's theory is that if Iron Knob's a series of hills and Whyalla is by the sea, then today's route should be downhill. We pedalled out of Iron Knob and immediately we hit the switchback highway again, but this time with a ferocious head wind. The landscape was bare of trees or shrubs and covered in low lying scrub, so offered no protection from the relentless wind. The road and the wind continued all the way to Whyalla. AND we saw our first, one and only, in 2 months of cycling through the Outback, LIVE KANGAROO!! Made our day! It hopped onto the road, studied us carefully, then hopped back into the bush! And what a lovely seaside town Whyalla is. After booking into our motel, we set off to find a bike shop to scrounge a couple of bike boxes. Then w...
I completed our NZ Passenger Declaration forms this morning. Then we climbed Hummock Hill, just behind the motel, to admire the views of Whyalla. This impressive sculpture of a scuba diver is just outside our motel. Below, views from Hummock Hill. Whyalla's unique, circular jetty. The foreshore is quite shallow. The sand beneath makes the sea appear pale blue in comparison to the dark blue of the deeper water. Whyalla has a busy steel mill. Steel and iron ore from the Iron Knob mines is barged out to awaiting ships. During WW2, the area was protected by a large, manned artillery gun. Behind the motel is a tranquil park with an aviary and the biggest tree I've ever seen! I forgot to mention that, on the way back, we detoured into Whyalla's main street and shouted ourselves to a lovely coffee and cheesecake! Old habits die hard!
Up at 4.00am, away by 6.30am - and straight into a head wind! It stayed with us all the way! We're into the true Nullarbor now - low lying scrub everywhere and rarely a tree to be seen. The ground is red sandy soil littered with stones, which makes hammering in our tent pegs a bit of a problem sometimes. Del uses the bigger stones to anchor everything down. We arrived at the Nullarbor Roadhouse around 1.00pm. We were hoping to do our washing and recover from several days' cycling, but a cabin with no en suite for one night was all that was available. Well at least we get to sleep in a bed tonight! Mid afternoon and just been interviewed and videoed by a journalist from a nearby radio/TV station. She'll let us know the link to anything that goes to air.
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