Rain and Wild Wind! Nundroo to Penong - 83kms

Yesterday we bought food for an anticipated  bush camp today.
This morning we discovered that we had a strong, westerly tail wind.
We set off, determined to get to Penong today.
Cliff and Nellie, whom we met at Nundroo Roadhouse, quickly caught up with us on their Harley Davidson. After a quick chat, they roared off towards Ceduna.

Then the rain began!
Road trains and cars with caravans shot past in both directions, sending up big clouds of spray, which quickly saturated us. Before long, our shoes, socks and cycle knicks were 
waterlogged!

The highway served us lots of challenging inclines but rewarded us with decent downhills. The tail wind, although blustery, made for good speeds and allowed us to take regular short breaks.
From Nundroo, the landscape quickly became pastoral with vast areas of green replacing the bush. 
We even saw our first signs of animal husbandry - a large flock of sheep! That explains the "dog proof fence" that Del noticed on a map of the area. 
Feral dogs are breeding with dingoes and becoming a serious nuisance to farmers.
Before Penong, we passed a "sculpture" of a cyclist overlooking the highway. We couldn't resist a photo!
Penong claims to have the biggest windmill in the world. It sits amongst a collection of 10 windmills. 

Eventually we reached Penong Caravan Park.
To our relief, an en suite cabin was available.

We walked to a well stocked general store in town for tonight's dinner and to the local pub for a Bunderberg and Coke.

We'll be comfy and cosy in our warm little cabin tonight - no ear plugs and no thermals!

Looks like we could have another tail wind tomorrow! If so, we could head straight for Ceduna. We'll see in the morning.












Comments

  1. Simon HenleySeptember 16, 2022 at 2:00 AM

    Wow, great progress! I wasn't expecting to hear from you until tomorrow. Enjoy that rum & coke, we're crossing our fingers for you for a tail wind all the way to Ceduna! xx

    ReplyDelete
  2. John5bikeSeptember 16, 2022 at 6:41 PM

    With Ceduna will come your first real taste of civilisation since Norseman. You've conquered the harsh outback - well done to you both. Bravo. Now comes people, crowds and queues.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Harry WhorwoodSeptember 16, 2022 at 9:00 PM

    Well done! A testing day, but you made it to a bed and some drying out. Love the sculpture, a sense of humour even in the plain.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Last Day in Mundaring! (Fingers crossed!)

Image
The weather forcast is starting to improve a little, so we're making plans to head off tomorrow. Melbourne and Sydney are now preparing for the Super Storm's havoc. Meanwhile we've been enjoying the warmth of our unit and keeping track of the Commonwealth Games events on TV. You have to admire the Australian athletes and all their gold medals! Mind you, NZ  athletes never get a mention, even if they do win a medal! We battled an icy wind on our daily walk into town, arriving with thunder, lightning and more rain. Won't hold our breath re tomorrow's plans! The local woods are full of mountain bike trails - a veritable Mecca for bikers!  The Kep Track is 76kms long and runs from Mundaring to Northam following the water pipeline from Mundaring Weir. We're heading towards Northam but unfortunately we don't have the same degree of suspension as mountain bikes and, with the weight we're carrying and the uneven ground, we'd soon be suffering bro
Read more

Time to be Realistic!

Well folks, we've been reviewing our plans! What an experience this has been! We've cycled over 2000kms, crossed 2 time zones and have survived some very challenging conditions. We're just not doing the daily mileage that we expected to do - hills, head winds, trailer weight and age being the main factors. This has meant more bush camps (over 25 so far) which in turn has meant carrying more heavy water supplies and food, which most certainly contributed to Del's broken spokes. With the hills of the Flinders Ranges, Broken Hill terrain and crossing the Great Dividing Range (some 1740kms), we realise that, at our age and with Del's bike problems, it is a challenge that would be lengthy, gruelling, potentially dangerous and probably beyond our ability. (We've cycled Coffs Harbour to Coolangatta on a previous trip.) We have decided to continue to Iron Knob then turn south to Whyalla, a major town with an airport. From there, we'll prepare to fly to Adelaide, the
Read more

A Few Statistics! Perth to Whyalla - 2022

Our cycle trip is over and my blog posts conclude today. We have successfully crossed the Nullarbor Plains - for the second time - which is exhilarating and very satisfying! It's been quite a challenge but we've survived! After 2 years of COVID isolation, we're so thankful that we had the opportunity to cycle again in amazing Australia, even though we had to change plans at the end. Hope you enjoyed travelling along with us via our blog. Here are a few Statistics: *Began Cycle: 1 August 2022 *Duration: 60 days *Cycle Days: 42 *Rest Days: 18 *Distance Cycled: 2388kms *Average Daily Cycle: 56kms *Days Cycling Over 100kms: 1 *Most kms in One Day: 118kms *Least kms in One Day:  21kms *Punctures: 1 (Del's thorn proofing worked!) *Broken Spokes: 2 (all Del's) *Accidents: 0 *Average kms an hour:  9 - 15 kph *Last Cycle Day: 29 September 2022 Thank you to everyone who posted comments and encouraged us on.  We couldn't reply but appreciated every single one! Note to Self
Read more