The wide open road

Mel and I are a bit beside ourselves. It’s two in the afternoon, we’re fed, washed, the washing’s out and we’re lazing in our outback Moroccan-inspired accommodation in Caiguna. The reason? We only had 65k to ride today. What a treat. A big day yesterday meant a much easier day for us today. And now we’re savouring the moment.

We’ve had two near perfect days of riding. Luckily, as we’re on the 150k straightest stretch of road in Australia, with no wind break whatsoever. The land is flat. But the winds have been on our side and have pushed us along for the past two days. The sun is out and the sky is massive and blue. And you certainly don’t need to be thinking about which road to take. There it is laid out before you.

Out here you see the curvature of the earth, the wedge tail eagles circling and soaring high above, the enormity of the sky and the colours of the landscape. Even the road trains don’t seem to interfere with things. Mel and I have our calling system pretty much perfected now – ‘camper up’, ‘truck back’, ‘cars passing’, ‘clear’ are amongst the few words we need for each of us to know when we’re ok to stay riding on the road or when to pull off. And more times than not, we’ll get a honk or wave from everything that passes. We even had a trucker stop in the middle of the road yesterday to offer us a lift!

Last night we camped out under the almost full moon. Gill and Paul had driven on ahead and set up camp 400m off the road. A few other caravaners were also in the area. Gill had boiled hot water for us to go and have a ‘bath’. It had been a long day of 117k on the bike and I did liken the scene to Out of Africa tho rightly so, Mel did point out that it would be better if we had Robert Redford there to wash our hair. And then we sat back, opened the wine, made a fire, ate a beautiful curry that Gill had made a few days earlier, played sharades, and watched the moon rise. Two of our ‘neighbours’, after hearing of the Cycling4Parkinsons cause, both also made donations before leaving camp this morning. Even out here, in the middle of nowhere, the generosity of strangers is amazing.