Day 79: Nightmare Is An Understatement

June 2nd, 2011

Grass Patch to Esperance
Distance: 93km
Total distance: 4898km

This road is seriously no place for a cyclist. Still the same highway as yesterday but the lousy weather turned my ride today hellish. Rain and fog covered the road in the morning. As the day progresses, more and more road trains were seen. There were significantly more death trap corners today, noticed that as I struggle to find room on the undergrowth covered shoulder and the inability to see the traffic on my side mirrors. If it’s not because of the honking road trains from a distance, I reckon my guts would be splattered all over the road like those poor rabbits and roos. Traffic visibility was an issue too as my glasses and mirrors were covered with water droplets. The heavy shower that comes every so often and the occasional motorists that didn’t had their headlights on forced me to ride with a full-on concentration on the traffic, impossible to view and enjoy the scenery. It was an extremely demanding and stressful riding. The wind today turned headwind too, further reducing my speed.

Ran out of milk, so made a cup of Ovaltine to go with my cereal. My cereals instantly get soft when I poured into the Ovaltine...
In Grass Patch, there was only one operating business. Not this one obviously. It's the caravan park operator which is also a tavern
Rain ahead, what do I do? Just ride on...
Cold, wet, and stressed out 🙁
15 mins of peace and comfort under this shelter in Scaddan
Getting ready for my routine facial wash
The less deadly of the two types of death trap corner: the right turn. No chance of taking a photo of the left turn as I was too busy keeping myself alive.
Going for a car wash~~~

Thankfully, I did eventually arrive in Esperance and as an added bonus, all my limbs are still intact. Since I did most of the distance yesterday, I finished my ride today relatively early at 2pm. Went straight to the town centre to check out what they have and was frustrated by the fact that they have Red Rooster but no KFC, why!? I’ve been craving for their hot and spicy for 2000km! Checked myself in a youth hostel as the campsites in caravan parks here cost about the same. Weather was still gloomy and rainy here in Esperance, and it was expected to get worse in the next few days. Wasn’t how I imagined my rest days at Esperance at all! Shame, shame, shame.

Wow, I made it to Esperance! And completely unharmed too! Woohoo!
Waterbirds! But no luck today
Overwhelmed by the choices of caravan parks!
Feels a lot safer when I entered the bikeway in Esperance. Esperance Bay on the right
Whoa! The first fast food restaurant in 2000km!
What ya looking at, mate?
Interesting gradient there *turns back*
Decided to settle down at a backpackers. It was a no brainer, as the prices of campsites in the caravan parks here are the same or higher than getting a bed at the backpackers

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