{"id":1279,"date":"2011-06-14T19:31:25","date_gmt":"2011-06-14T11:31:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/melvynyap.com\/blog\/?p=1279"},"modified":"2022-04-24T22:24:13","modified_gmt":"2022-04-24T12:24:13","slug":"day-75-ride-like-youve-just-caught-a-mario-star","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/melvynyap.com\/blog\/day-75-ride-like-youve-just-caught-a-mario-star\/","title":{"rendered":"Day 75: Ride Like You've Just Caught A Mario Star"},"content":{"rendered":"

May 29th, 2011<\/em><\/p>\n

Caiguna to Balladonia
\nDistance: 189km
\nTotal distance: 4469km<\/strong><\/p>\n

As of this morning, I still haven’t given up my hope of riding 200km a day. I had one great sleep last night. Fully restored my energy level. A couple of hundred metres off the Caiguna roadhouse and I found myself riding into the longest straight road in the country, the 90 Mile Straight. To be honest, I didn’t feel any different riding on a long straight road compared to my rides in the past few days. Couldn’t really tell if it’s straight when I couldn’t see the road more than 5km ahead due to mild undulations. Very mild undulations in fact, which is a good thing. A decent tailwind at 4 to 5 o’clock and armed with a bucket load of uplifting music, I was more determined than ever to ride the 200km. One minor problem though, to achieve that distance, I must ride pass the next roadhouse and bush camp somewhere. Bush camping means I need at least 30mins of daylight left to survey for a campsite and to set up my tent. With this in mind, I focused on high cadence riding, constantly achieving a stable speed of 23km\/h and above without experiencing much fatigue. At this point, I felt invincible!<\/p>\n

\"\"
Every little bit of calories is important, totally consumed the freebies cookies from the motel<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"\"
Smarter this time, waited until I can fully see the sun before leaving the indoor comfort of a roadhouse<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"\"
Promised myself to ride the whole straight road distance before the day ends<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"\"
A brief stop to see the Caiguna blowhole. Apparently this is only one of many blowholes scattered all over Nullarbor. There was very little air movement at this blowhole when I was there. The highest recorded wind in one of the blowholes was 72km\/h!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"\"
Why do I feel like someone's watching me? Oh that's right, one of these again<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"\"
These signs appear every 50km. I used this as my intermediate-term targets for today's ride \ud83d\ude42<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"\"
A beautiful lonesome tree<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"\"
Trippy clouds!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"\"
Ride like I've just caught a Mario star!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"\"
Seriously, what are these solar panels for? Some sort of research the government's working on?<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"\"
I'm starting to enjoy these little Nullarbor 'treats'<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"\"
Boating across the Nullarbor is now possible!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"\"
Dry land boating FTW<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"\"
Warning: longest straight road doesn't have a sealed shoulder on most of its length<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"\"
OMG, a corner! I've completed the longest straight road in a single continuous ride!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"\"
A wedge-tailed eagle!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

At about 180km, the road undulates a lot and that’s when I started losing speed, and consequently daylight. Very sadly, I had no choice but to give up my last opportunity of riding 200km and just settle down at Balladonia roadhouse. Wasn’t all bad though, I set a new personal average speed record of 19.5km\/h! And I get to meet Mike too, a 71 year old guy walking across the country that I’ve been hearing about from Andrew and other travellers who had met him. I didn’t camp tonight, took a backpackers room instead as it was very cheap. My room was just next to Mike’s. I didn’t get to talk to him much though, as he was busy entertaining others. Will be seeing him again tomorrow on the road so hopefully I’ll get to talk to him one on one. Instant noodles tonight, yums!<\/p>\n

\"\"
Watching the sun slowly goes down into the horizon<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"\"
Beautiful silhouette of the mallee woods<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"\"
Balladonia at last! With a bit of daylight to spare, a very fast but long ride today!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"\"
Spotted a road OVERLORD at the roadhouse<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"\"
Of course, water doesn't exists here despite a fully operating restaurant and accommodation<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"\"
Mike is walking for Arthritis. Also, he was frequently mistaken as Andrew by travellers. I now officially see more people walking than cycling across the Nullarbor<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"\"
My trike looks tiny here<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"\"
A well-earned bed after a 189km ride at a record average speed of 19.5km\/h \ud83d\ude42<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

May 29th, 2011 Caiguna to Balladonia Distance: 189km Total distance: 4469km As of this morning, I still haven’t given up my hope of riding 200km a day. I had one great sleep last night. Fully restored my energy level. A couple of hundred metres off the Caiguna roadhouse and I found myself riding into the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","WB4WB4WP_MODE":"","WB4WP_PAGE_SCRIPTS":"","WB4WP_PAGE_STYLES":"","WB4WP_PAGE_FONTS":"","WB4WP_PAGE_HEADER":"","WB4WP_PAGE_FOOTER":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[11,12],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1279","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sydney-to-perth-tour","category-trike-touring"],"yoast_head":"\nDay 75: Ride Like You've Just Caught A Mario Star - Cycling Journal<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/melvynyap.com\/blog\/day-75-ride-like-youve-just-caught-a-mario-star\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Day 75: Ride Like You've Just Caught A Mario Star - Cycling Journal\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"May 29th, 2011 Caiguna to Balladonia Distance: 189km Total distance: 4469km As of this morning, I still haven’t given up my hope of riding 200km a day. 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