May 30th, 2011
Balladonia to Fraser Range
Distance: 94km
Total distance: 4563km
I only had about 200km to get to Norseman and hence completing Leg 4. But I wasn’t very keen on doing another long ride after yesterday’s. So I planned to break my journey at Fraser Range, riding only about 100km each day. Naturally, I took my own sweet time having breakfast and getting ready for an easy 100km ride today.
As soon as I got onto the highway, I suddenly remembered that the flat road was gone about 10km before Balladonia. Here it’s all hilly and I have a feeling it’ll remain so until Norseman. Great, another miscalculation. As if the undulation wasn’t bad enough, the wind shifted to headwind today! Blowing northerly so it hit me on my right cheek at 1 to 2 o’clock. The headwind was strong but wasn’t a constant one, more like gusts, but a headwind is still a headwind, and as a cyclist, it’s my No.1 enemy.
On a sidenote, Mike started his walk about 4 hours before me so he was quite ahead of me. I was keen on meeting him again so I made that my motivation to do the distance. Somewhere along the roadside, I found a flag! I later found out that Mike saw the flag first on the right hand side of the road (he always walk on the right side for safety) and put it on the left side so that I would be able to see it and use it. That was very thoughtful of him! I caught up to him at about 27km at a rest area where he was having his breakfast. We did have a bit of chat before being interrupted by another traveler, so I wished him luck and off I went battling with the headwind again. More undulations was all I saw, and all I had to go through for the rest of the day. A polish couple stopped me to have a small chat. Here I learnt that there were 2 Fraser Range campsites, one of which is free and that was where they’re heading to. But I was falsely informed that the first one was the free one.
As I approach Fraser Range, there was a long gentle climb. Deceiving at first, because usually after every short climb there’s a descending counterpart. But this time, what looks like a short climb was actually part of a long climb with short sections of flat road. So my ride today ended with positive elevation gain. Saw the Fraser Range Station sign and turned into a 2km of dirt road that led me to a caravan park. Nope, no free camping at all. But I was too tired to bother. The sun has disappeared for a while now and the temperature is dropping fast so I just stayed at their backpackers accommodation. This place is tidy and very well maintained. It actually look quite nice. I would come back here if I ever pass Nullarbor again. Instant noodles again for tonight and some canned beef and pasta! Ginger beer to flush it all down *burp*
