Round Australia by bike - Day 029 - Port Hedland to Roebourne

 

Day:	029
Date:	Monday, 24 August 2009
Start:	Port Hedland
Finish:	Roebourne
Daily Kilometres:	195
Total Kilometres:
Podcasts:	Here & here
Journal:	I got up at 4:30am and had the included breakfast provided at the motel, again making sure I got my money’s worth, before waddling onto the road at around 5:30am.  The early kilometres in the dark through the Port Hedland area were a little scary as there were lots of roadworks and deviations combined with heavy traffic of mining vehicles, trucks and roadtrains as everybody got their customary early start.  I finally got through the worst of it and was about 5km south of town when I heard the now very familiar twang of a rear spoke breaking again.  Very frustrating, since I hadn’t touched the wheel for two days and it had survived the previous day without problems.  I pulled off to the side of the road in the dawn half-light to see if I could make any temporary adjustments.  I had been there a few minutes when a mining vehicle did a U-turn and the driver asked whether I was Dave Byrnes and introduced himself as a friend of my friend, Greg T, back home.  We had a brief chat then he continued on his way to work.  I decided that I needed to buy the additional wrenches/spanners I needed to replace rear drive-side spokes before continuing on, so retraced my steps and then rode into South Hedland where I knew there was a reasonable-sized shopping centre, including a K-Mart, arriving about 6:45am.  I found the K-Mart opened at 8am so adjourned to the nearby McDonalds for a coffee while I waited.  I bought the wrenches in K-Mart and then spent some time replacing the broken spoke and, to the best of my ability, adjusting the rear wheel spokes to “true” the wheel and avoid any excessively tight or loose spokes.  It was quite late in the morning before I hit the road again with the goal of getting at least to Roebourne (185km) or maybe Karratha (225km) where I had confirmed there was a bike shop with mechanic available in the morning to look at my rear wheel.  A nice tailwind had sprung up and I was optimistic about recovering some of my lost time as I headed east through the mostly flat grasslands with occasional low ranges, rocky outcrops and red soil of the Pilbara.  There was quite a lot of mining and tourist traffic along the road as well as evidence of mining operations in the distance on both sides of the road.  After about 80km, I heard the familiar “twang” again as another rear drive-side spoke broke.  Curses!  I got off the bike and spent some time bending the broken spoke around two cross spokes to take some tension with the objective of getting to Karratha tomorrow and getting an expert to look at the wheel.  A campervan pulled up to see if I needed help, although the old guy seemed more interested in telling me about his biking problems in Broome where he had cracked a couple of ribs in a fall.  When I started riding again, the wind seemed to have swung round to be coming at me from 2 o’clock and the riding again became laborious.  Gone were my hopes for some time recovery and my chronic right knee began to get very painful.  I called in at the old Whim Creek Hotel for a cold drink and asked whether they had any accommodation, but was unsuccessful.  There was plenty of accommodation there, but I think it is just for construction and mining workers.  With 85km to go and the sun beginning to get lower I continued on into the wind with Roebourne as my target even thought I was fairly sure there was no accommodation there.  Instead I would sleep rough somewhere in town or nearby.  My knee began to get very sore (I have a 1.25cm crater in the cartilage behind the knee cap from years of long-distance running) and reached about 7/10 on the pain scale, the worst so far on the trip.  I had anti-inflammatories with me, but was very reluctant to take them now the record attempt was off.  They only mask the pain while further damage is incurred.  It began to seem foolhardy to continue with the ride if the knee was also going to become a problem.  It might not be so bad tomorrow, but there would be other bad days, and I wanted to keep some cartilage for future running and riding.  Finally, I reached the big decision that I would go home from Karratha, which has an airport, tomorrow, rather than continue on.  There were too many good arguments for finishing, and not enough for continuing, on balance.  The record was always the thing for me, and that was already out of the question.  I reached Roebourne, an historic old mining town and regional centre with a large aboriginal population in the dark about 8:30pm and cycled slowly through the very quiet town.  I eventually found a café still open and went in and ordered the night’s special of curried sausages and mashed potato.  I asked the guy behind the counter about getting a room somewhere in town and he replied that he might be able to help me out.  It turned out that the café was part of a mining/construction workers hostel and that behind it were rows of basic motel-like rooms.  I took one, and learned that breakfast would be available between 4:30am and 6am the next morning as part of the room fee.  After a shower, I logged onto the internet and booked myself a flight back to Sydney via Perth from Karratha at 11:30am the next morning and went to bed sad, but resolved to move on from this third failed attempt.

Round Australia by bike - Day 028 - Pardoo to Port Hedland

 

Day:	028
Date:	Sunday, 23 August 2009
Start:	Pardoo Roadhouse
Finish:	Port Hedland
Daily Kilometres:	140
Total Kilometres:
Podcasts:	Here
Journal:	This was to be my second easy day in my transition competitor to tourist and I slept in until 5am and left as the dawn broke although lights were necessary for the first hour or so.  There were signs of activity in the Roadhouse kitchen and I presume I could have got breakfast at 6am, but I had bought a few sandwiches the previous day to take with me, and liked the idea of getting to Port Hedland in the early afternoon, maybe even watch some football and cricket on the TV.  The country started out to be a mix of scrub and grass plains, with few trees and plenty of red earth and red rocks.  I had a headwind again which seem to grow in strength as the sun rose and the road seemed forever slightly uphill.  It was probably a mix of optical illusion and headwind, but I seemed to have to push on the pedals all the time.  I don’t think I’ve had the luxury of rolling down a hill for three days and today brought up about 600km of constant headwinds.  On the plus side, the spoke I replaced hadn’t broken and the gears seemed to be working despite me dropping a few cogs off the rear sprocket in the dirt when replacing the freewheel yesterday afternoon (it had taken me a little while and much cursing to work out how to put it all back together again).  Although I felt physically refreshed after 9.5 hours of sleep my morale was still low and the day dragged as I averaged between 15 and 20kph into the headwind.  My knee hurt.  After about 60km a few low rocky outcrops and hills began to appear, along with more traffic, particularly roadtrains, and signs of industry.  A railway appeared to my left and I later saw a very long empty ore train heading into the outback.  Soon there were powerlines and the odd mining installation and even more roadtrains.  It was occasionally scary as the left margin on the road was only a couple of inches wide a lot of the time and I tried to remember to check my rear-view mirror every time something was coming from ahead in case I needed to get off the road.  There were also a lot of oversize loads of mining equipment.  I finally reached the edge of Port Hedland airport around 2pm, about an hour later than I had hoped, and discovered the big roadhouse/supermarket adjoining the caravan park where I hoped to get a cabin, was not longer there, apparently destroyed by a fire in the last year.  So much for today’s big brekky!  Not only that, but the caravan park had no accommodation available.  I tried the outrageously expensive motel next door and got a room, rather than continue on in the hope of finding something else.  The global financial crisis doesn’t seem to be affecting Port Hedland or the mining industry.  The place is buzzing with huge roadtrains pulling in to refuel at the service station (the fuel tanks didn’t go up in the fire, apparently) every few minutes, and the motel full of construction and mining workers.  They begin serving breakfast at 4am for the workers, apparently, so I will have that before I leave (especially since it is included in the outrageous room price).  With the roadhouse gone, I was forced to eat at the $38 all-you-can-eat seafood buffet dinner at the motel where I did my best to get my money’s worth.  A very large portion of rhubarb crumble and custard just about finished me off.  As usual, the warm conditions and dry winds left me dehydrated, and I must have consumed about four litres of fluid since finishing riding.  I did get to watch some football and cricket, which was nice.  I will continue on the bike for the time being, knowing that if my motivation is too low I can get the daily Greyhound bus to Perth from any of the towns/roadhouses along the way.

Round Australia by bike - Day 027 - Sandfire Roadhouse to Pardoo

 

Day:	027
Date:	Saturday, 22 August 2009
Start:	Sandfire Roadhouse
Finish:	Pardoo Roadhouse
Daily Kilometres:	138
Total Kilometres:
Podcasts:	Here
Journal:	I got up at 2:20am, after five hours sleep (I took an extra hour because I was absolutely worn out after yesterday’s “time trial” to get to Sandfire before it closed at 7pm), and was on the road by about 3:20am heading westwards across the saltbush and scrub plains.  It was misty and I had to keep wiping my glasses to see,  As day broke the mist cleared on the slightly higher ground but lingered, like a white lake, in lower areas.  Very pretty.  I came across a very large cow and a calf, both dead on the road, in the early light, presumably victims of one of the road trains during the night.  A combi van with some European tourists had stopped to take a picture (it was a very big cow, right in the middle of the road) and I later saw three police cars heading north, presumably to clear the road.  I had pretty much made up my mind that my record attempt was over.  The time the broken rear spoke had cost me, yesterday and the day before, was a couple of hours I could not afford to lose if I was going to ride successive high mileage days.  Although I could make Port Hedland today, I would be there too late to fix the spoke, rotate my tyres (the rear one was looking dangerously worn), do my washing, and get on the road by 1am tomorrow for the scheduled 330km which was to be followed by two similarly long days.  My decision was confirmed by the residual fatigue I felt from two hard days (probably worse because it was hard to get pumped about a futile cause) and a stiff headwind that sprang up as the sun rose.  I decided I would have two relatively short days, stopping at Pardoo Roadhouse and then Port Hedland, and then continue on at a slower rate that would get me home in around 60 days if I choose to continue.  The goal would be to still ride reasonably hard (~240kpd), but slow enough to average 6 hours sleep or better, and smell the roses a little.  There are also arguments for just jumping on a plane, bus or train and heading home.  My primary goal was to break the record, not just to ride around Australia.   I know I can ride around Australia at a slower pace, and I have already driven or ridden along all of the roads I still have in front of me.  It will be a lot cheaper to call it quits now than continue on for another month, and I have commitments that will be made more difficult by staying on the road an extra ten days.  I’m very disappointed to give up on the record, but not devastated.  I feel I was physically capable of accomplishing the goal, but made a bad choice about the bike to use.  I probably should have purchased a new bike before starting and had it properly prepared.  I think that would have avoided many of the mechanical problems and, in hindsight, it’s possible the pedal problem that led to the new bike, had its origins in the accident last year when I was knocked from the bike at high speed by the van.  Everything hit the ground pretty hard that morning.  Although I ultimately bought a new bike last weekend, there was not time to properly prepare it and run it in.  I arrived at the remote Pardoo Roadhouse around 11:15am and had breakfast while deciding whether to continue on to Port Hedland today.  As I ate, I watched the strong wind blowing the trees outside the roadhouse and worked out that I would not reach Port Hedland until around 8pm in such conditions.  I decided to stay at Pardoo and booked a basic cabin.  After a shower, the afternoon was spent washing, rotating my tyres and repairing my spoke using some borrowed wrenches.  The latter is not something I have done before, so I’m fully expecting the spoke to break again once I start riding.  Generally, I think the rear wheel needs some serious attention and am wishing now I had kept the rear wheel from the old bike, although this would have required swapping the rear cassettes because of the different gearing on the bikes, and it was too much to ask of Simon at 10pm last Saturday night in the Darwin bike shop when he was already doing me a big favour.  I had a very bland sweet and sour chicken at the Roadhouse for dinner and resolved to be in bed by 7:30pm for a long night’s sleep.  I will keep riding for the time being and decide during the next few days whether to end the venture or continue as a tourist.

Round Australia by bike - Day 026 - Roebuck Plains to Sandfire Roadhouse

 

Day:	026
Date:	Friday, 21 August 2009
Start:	Roebuck Plains Roadhouse
Finish:	Sandfire Roadhouse
Daily Kilometres:	287
Total Kilometres:
Podcasts:	Here
Journal:	I got up at 2:20am after 4 hours sleep, conscious that Sandfire Roadhouse, my target for the day, closed at 7pm.  In neutral conditions I expected it to take a little over 14 hours which didn’t leave too much margin for problems if I started too late.  Initially the riding was good, if a little cool, and I soon put my jacket on.  After about 20km, I heard a familiar “twang” and discovered another spoke had broken on the rear wheel, also on the derailleur side.  Although I now had a freewheel remover, I didn’t yet have a suitable wrench to use it with.  I stopped in the dark to see if there was anything I could initially do.  The wheel had buckled and was rubbing on the brake so I disconnected the brake and continued riding.  However, an hour later, while it was still dark, I found a suitable spot to stop and decided to adjust some spokes to reduce the buckle but it was too dark to do so efficiently and I decided to keep riding to daylight.  I then stopped again and spent about 30 minutes making similar adjustments to yesterday.  All up I had lost an hour and now realised, with 240km to go to Sandfire, that I might struggle to make it by 7pm.  My problem was exacerbated by a brisk south-westerly sea breeze which, while it took the edge off the heat (low 30s C), was a direct headwind which I ended up battling into for the remainder of the day.  There followed a very tough day, where I struggled to maintain an average speed of 20kph, and ended up digging very deep in the last 50km, when already exhausted, to make it to Sandfire with three minutes to spare.  It is still using temporary premises (after a fire three years ago), and had a limited supply of food and drink.  Two pies and an ice-cream for dinner plus multiple 600ml soft drinks (6, actually) to rehydrate.  Although I started out with plenty of fluids on the bike, I began to think I had under-catered with about 80km to go when, as if sent by the gods, a foreign family touring in a campervan pulled up just ahead of me and asked if I wanted any water.  I said yes and they gave me a 1.5 litre bottle for which I was very thankful.  I spent a lot of time during the day worrying about my buckled rear wheel and when and how I would get it fixed without detouring off my track, and also worrying about my prospects for continuing the record chase.  It seems that every day I have to dig very deep, only for some problem to arise that requires digging even deeper, all so I can have another day doing the same.  I have more or less decided to stick to a schedule that will get me home in 51 days for as long as I can.  If for any reason this becomes impossible, then I will back off to become a tourist and aim to complete the circuit averaging, say, 250kpd, instead and trying to make it a little more enjoyable.

Round Australia by bike - Day 025 - Fitzroy Crossing to Roebuck Plains

 

Day:	025
Date:	Thursday, 20 August 2009
Start:	Fitzroy Crossing
Finish:	Roebuck Plains Roadhouse
Daily Kilometres:	362
Total Kilometres:
Podcasts:	Here
Journal:	As I cycled quietly out of Fitzroy Crossing just before 12:30am I noticed the Greyhound Bus quietly idling next to the community centre.  Each day since leaving Timber Creek I see it a few hours earlier.  I headed westwards out of town, quite apprehensive about the long hot day in front of me, and conscious that it was the first of a number of “crunch” days that I would have to survive to have any chance of breaking the record.  The first four hours, apart from a pleasant break watching the stars while I had a snack at around 3:30am, were quite miserable.  I could not get my mind off how hard the record attempt had become and how many more very hard days I would have before it was all over, one way or the other.  My mood became quite black and I was close to quitting.  Around 4:30am I became incredibly sleepy, which didn’t improve my mood because I knew that, to have any chance of making it through the day by a reasonable time, I could not afford to stop for any naps.  I persevered, but my speed slowed considerably as I fought to stay awake.  I was “saved” by about 10km of gravel road detour parallel to the main road which was being upgraded.  Although not too rough, there were occasional potholes and careful attention was required in the pre-dawn gloom.  About half an hour later, as the sun rose, I heard a familiar twang from my rear wheel and stopped to find that a spoke had broken.  Of course it attached to the hub on the derailleur side meaning that I couldn’t replace it without a freewheel remover which I wasn’t carrying.  Instead I bent and hooked the broken spoke where two other spokes crossed and tightened it to take some tension and then adjusted some other spokes to reduce the buckle in the wheel.  I knew that there was a risk of broken spokes with a new wheel, but I had been checking them and hadn’t noticed a problem.  The delay put me about 45 minutes behind my day’s schedule but I was lucky that as the sun rose, a nice easterly breeze sprang up and lasted to lunchtime, helping me regain some time as I headed across the red earth savannah past the giant termite mounds and boab trees to the Willare Bridge Roadhouse (225km), the first place I would pass through for the day..  About an hour before reaching Willare, a Swiss motorcyclist pulled alongside of me and we had a chat for quite a while as I pedalled along.  He (Matts) hade been all over the world and has a website www.globalbiking.com .  When I reached Willare, Matts was still there enjoying a drink, and he asked me about the bike.  I told him about the broken spoke and he immediately offered to try and fix it for me as he was qualified as both a bike and motorbike mechanic and though he might be able to remove the freewheel with tools he had.  He started the task with gusto and professionalism as I watched and occasionally helped.  Unfortunately he could not get the freewheel off and, instead, spent some time readjusting the spokes to minimise the problem.  He also worked on my gears, making sure that all were functional before he headed off to Broome, having asked where I was aiming for that night.  An incredibly nice helpful guy.  I left Willare about 1pm with another 132km to go to Roebuck Plains Roadhouse.  It was very hot (38C) and the wind had become variable.  The road crossed a few very inviting rivers and waterholes that were probably inhabited by crocodiles, so I passed.  Much of the time the road passed across arid grasslands and it was like a furnace.  I tried to drink regularly and not think about how uncomfortable I was, not to mention very tired.  I finally reached Roebuck Plains Roadhouse at 7:15pm as the last remnants of the beautiful sunset ebbed away.  Waiting for me at the roadhouse was Matts with a freewheel remover chatting to a few backpackers having a beer!  He had biked into Broome, another 33km away, gone to the bike shop and bought a freewheel remover part that could be used with a standard wrench, arranged for somewhere to camp for the night with an old acquaintance, and then ridden back to the Roadhouse to wait for my arrival.  I was totally exhausted after my long day in the heat, but very grateful to Matts and watched and waited as he replaced the spoke and gave my bike a once over.  He was meticulous and professional, but said he was a bit worried about the wheel, which needed some of the spokes to have higher tension than he thought desirable.  He finished about 8:45pm and I thanked him and wished him well.  I retired to my basic cabin where I enjoyed some shepherds pie and jelly custard dessert from the roadhouse.  Got to bed later than planned at 10pm, totally shattered and hopeful of an easier day tomorrow.

Round Australia by bike - Day 024 - Halls Creek to Fitzroy Crossing

 

Day:	024
Date:	Wednesday, 19 August 2009
Start:	Halls Creek
Finish:	Fitzroy Crossing
Daily Kilometres:	290
Total Kilometres:
Podcasts:	Here & here
Journal:	I was on the road by 1am heading south-west out of the sleeping Halls Creek.  The weather was mild and I only needed my short-sleeved top.  The weather forecast was for 37C for Fitzroy Crossing, so I knew it was going to get hot once the sun came up.  I decided to break the day into sections – 60k, 60k, 50k, 40k, 40k, 40k – and looked for the kilometre posts marking the end of each section before finding a place to stop.  Early progress was good and I again enjoyed a brilliant cloudless starlit night at my first break.  As usual, I got very sleepy as dawn approached, but once the sun came up, felt awake again.  Until dawn, the only vehicles I saw in 4.5 hours were the Greyhound Bus on its way from Broome to Darwin and one roadtrain.  Once the sun was up it warmed rapidly and the traffic increased, although still quite light.  For each break I was looking for a nice shady tree.  In the open savannah, this was not always easy to find.  With 70km to go, the road descended to the Fitzroy River flood plain and it seemed to get even hotter.  A headwind for most of the last 50km meant that I arrived very tired and hot, but more or less on schedule at 3:30pm.  I checked into my motel and then had to ride to a small supermarket and also to a roadhouse to get a pie and sausage roll for dinner.  Not much choice, although you’ll be pleased to know I also bought some fruit salad.  I’m not looking forward to the 360km haul to Roebuck Plains tomorrow, especially since the local temps are again forecast to be 38C.

Round Australia by bike - Day 023 - Doon Doon to Halls Creek

 

Day:	023
Date:	Tuesday, 18 August 2009
Start:	Doon Doon Roadhouse
Finish:	Halls Creek
Daily Kilometres:	254
Total Kilometres:
Podcasts:	Here & here
Journal:	After a fitful night’s sleep on the grass in my bivvy sack with the sound of mosquitoes constantly buzzing in my ears, I got up at 1:15am and was on the road by 2:00am heading south on a mild and very dark evening with a brilliant display of stars.  My initial goal was to get to Warmun Roadhouse, 90km away, soon after 6am in the hope that they would be open and serving breakfast.  Without my usual strong coffee before setting out, or my coffee milk for my first break, I was struggling to stay awake around 5am and took a No Doz to get some caffeine into the system.  I only saw two vehicles in the first three hours, but as it became light the traffic increased considerably as road construction crews headed out from Warmun Roadhouse to begin work on the various road upgrades I had been negotiating in the dark.  The sunrise was spectacular, lighting up the red bluffs and bush in front of me and I enjoyed the last hour’s run into Warmun where I arrived at 6:30am.  I got a big brekky and ate it while watching breakfast TV.  As I packed the food and drink I had bought, a guy came up to me very interested in my trip and was a bit of a cyclist himself.  He had met the driver of the van who knocked me off last year.  Small world!  From Warmun I had a hot hilly 162km to my target of Halls Creek.  I knew it would be a tough day in the heat and sun and was determined to maintain a reasonable pace, which I did with some assistance later in the day of a tailwind.  The road was quite busy with trucks and tourists and I passed the access road to the fantastic Bungle Bungle range off to my left, but out of sight.  Generally the road passed through arid cattle grazing land although there was some water in the creeks.  I reached Halls Creek at 3:15pm and checked into the expensive motel in the regional, predominantly aboriginal, town.  I bought take-out chicken and chips for dinner and drink and food for the trip to Fitzroy crossing tomorrow, a 290km haul with absolutely nothing in between.  It’s going to be hot again, but the road is flatter.  Hope the wind is blowing the right way.  My chronic right knee injury was playing up big time today, so I’m hoping a good night’s rest will improve it, or I’ll have to get out the anti-inflammatories.