Distance: 115.05 km
Ridetime: 7:15:17
Average: 15.9 km/h
Max speed: 43.4 km/h
Total distance: 15405 km
Yesterday I had seen several signs for “Lake Gairdner” and “Lake Hart” so I thought I was about to see some water. Not really. These lakes are salt lakes that most of the time don’t hold any water. They still provided a very welcome change in landscape after the monotonous bush I’m so used to. It would have been great to camp at the shore of the salt lakes but it looked like I would be passing before the day was over.
I had a stop at the Pimba road house near Woomera. Woomera lies 7 km from the highway and has a museum that a friend had recommended. By this time the head wind was strong which made the 14 extra kilometers seem like a major effort. I decided to skip the visit and continue towards Port Augusta.
The last 15 km were very hard. It is not often that my legs get as tired as there were at this point. Usually a 20 minute break and some food will do the trick, but tonight every pedal stroke was an effort. As I got off the bike I was so tired that just standing up while pitching the tent was a challenge.
Long distance cycling is in many ways more about your ability to recover than about the cycling itself. I hoped that my dinner consisting of proteins, my vitamin supplement, and 9 hours of sleep would do the magic for tomorrow.
