Bevan, Bon Rouleur
30 July 2005 | Southern Cross, Australia
Today was really tough! We had headwinds most of the way to Southern Cross, some 108km away (60+mi). We had to put in a lot of effort to even keep our speed at 10mph; the winds had changed direction. So we ended up having a very hard day, finally arriving to Southern Cross at about 5:30, at twilight. The terrain wasn't so bad but out legs had had it; I hadn't been on my bike for months before I left, and we'd just had four or five tough days of loaded touring behind us. Lesson learned. We should have taken a rest day in Merredin.
On the road today I had my first encounter with death; a still bird lies in the road. It is very brightly colored- mostly green. Alex is some distance behind me, so I pause to look at the poor bird. A small feather lies some distance away, and I pick it up and put it in a compartment in my flashlight.
In Australia they have these multi-car big-rigs called "road trains," which ship things to inland cities or transport huge items. These look like our greatest road hazard. Usually they are just two-car big-rigs, and give us ample room. However, it there is an on-coming car in the other lane, they have no choice but to stay in our lane. Some road trains transport very, very large farming machines, such that we have to move far off the road in order to avoid them. Luckily the larger ones have a front runner announcing the presence of the behemoth. Today for example, we saw the front-runner come by, and he even beeped at us. Next came another front-runner car. Turning around, we saw a huge truck coming towards us, which literally took up the whole road. The payload was some sort of farming machine.
That night it froze but I'd fully enclosed myself in my sleeping bag and was quite warm.
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