April 28th, 2011
Beachport to Kingston SE
Distance: 103km
Total distance: 2133km
Woke up this morning to find that there was no dew on my tent. It was completely dry! Today I planned on riding to Kingston SE, so it’ll be another 100km ride, and weather forecasted north-easterly wind. I’m heading north-west and north some sections. That means I should pump in some serious calories. Ate 3 pancakes, a full bowl of cereal and an apple. Went out to Beachport town centre and bought myself a banana flavoured milk to further increase my calories intake.
The first 15km I was having a really hard time moving at a decent speed, I was heading north-east so the wind was exactly headwind. My average speed was only 12kmh on a dead flat road. I swear if I was in the opposite direction I would be riding 36kmh with the same amount of effort. The situation got a bit better after 15km but I was getting gust of headwind from time to time. The general direction I was heading was north north-west but the road wasn’t straight. Every time I see a corner ahead that turns to north-east, I need to do a quick mental prep to embrace the headwind. It was at this point that I took out my secret weapon no.2. Plugged in my headphones and played Judy and Mary on my iPod. The upbeat music really helped distract my suffering! Consequently I found myself riding at a decent average speed despite the wind.
Somewhere along the roadside, I thought I saw a flag similar to mine. I decided to turn back and I was pleasantly shocked to find it’s a bicycle flag! Poor cyclist who lost his/her precious flag, but hey that was me a few days ago too. Well, this cyclist should now be grateful that this flag has benefited another cyclist who needs it desperately! This flag is even better than my other flag, it’s a continuous rod and slightly taller too. I was tempted to camp at Robe after riding for 57km but put off the idea when I looked at the time and it was just slightly passed 1pm. Just told myself to be strong and face the wind, now that I’m blessed by the mysterious lucky flag! Haha!
I finally reached Kingston after 100km of hard riding. Kingston is quite a bicycle friendly town, judging from bike lanes in all the main streets. At the caravan park, next two my campsite was a tent with two touring bicycles next to it. Wow! This is the first time I encounter any touring cyclist in a campsite. Met up with the cyclist later and began talking about touring stuff. They are John and Tess from Esperance, travelling in the opposite direction from Adelaide to Melbourne. They are seasoned bike tourers, as they have done great distances all the way from Esperance to Broome via Perth and Carnarvon. They’ve also crossed the Nullarbor so I took the opportunity to ask for some advice. Their touring machines are full suspension mountain bikes, must be quite comfortable to ride on especially on dirt roads compared to my non-suspended trike. They usually start their journey early at 5am. Hmmm, maybe I should do the same too, afterall, I get to spend more daylight hours doing some sight seeing throughout the day or at my destination.
Tonight is really windy, my tent stakes came out a few times and the fly hit my tent repeatedly, causing loud flapping sound. Hopefully it’ll be able to hold for the entire night. Oh and this is the same headwind by the way, and it looks like tomorrow it’s going to be me battling the wind again if the wind persist. John and Tess however, will probably be laughing the entire day while riding in the strong tailwind over the next few days.
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