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Day Thirteen : Eucla to Nullarbor 197km

This was always going to be a tough day even in the best of conditions. We were going to lose 45 minutes when we crossed the border and also we stopped for photos at the border

It was cold in the morning with 35km strong headwinds blowing straight into us. We left early at 6.45 am as the whole day was going to be a rush and not many people within the group including Richard and Lou (the organisers) gave us any chance of making it before nightfall.

It was a short ride to the border and we had our photos taken. I felt like Steve Mc Queen in the great escape when we crossed the border and got out of Western Australia. I was back in my home state and felt safe especially with what was happening in Victoria.

The day was a serious battle against time to make it to Nullarbor. If you have ever been to Nullarbor, it is not a place you would rush to get to.

We had a very quick drink at the first drink stop and started taking off the layers of clothes as it was warming up.

Morning tea was at the 87km mark. We rushed through a cup of coffee and a muffin and hit the road again.

The headwinds were taking its toll, the ride was a huge slog. Around lunch, the intensity of the winds started to increase. I think we were all secretly thinking that we were not going to make it but none of us said anything.

As the trucks went past, the backdraft almost picked us up off the ground and blew us off the bikes. The combination of the wind and the trucks created a mini whirlwind.

Lunch was at 2.00 pm, which was a long time from breakfast. We were all starving but knew we couldn’t take up much time. We rushed through a chicken roll, took a couple of photos of the bight and kept going. We had three and a half hours to ride 85km into a howling head wind. We had to average at least 25km an hour to get in before it was too dark. This is massively difficult considering we had already ridden 120km.

We bypassed the last drink stop and kept pushing ahead with the sun setting behind us. Lou (in the support vehicle) drove past and pulled Lisa over because she didn’t have a taillight and was difficult to see. Dave got out of the bus and rode behind her as he had a functioning taillight.
Lou would drive past and get out of the van and cheer us on which was great and Richard marked the road ahead counting down the kilometers and writing words of encouragement on the road, (he uses flour to do this).

We pushed and pushed as it got darker and darker it also started to get cold. We had taken all of our warm clothes off and didn’t have time to stop to get them back on, my hands had gone numb with 5 km to go. Lou was sitting behind us in the bus to protect us from vehicles behind, we rode into the Nullarbor roadhouse at 6.15 pm after eleven and half hours on the bike. We were all related with what we had achieved, there were a lot of high fives and hugs when we got off our bikes. It was rewarding and a huge sense of achievement.

Like I said, Nullarbor is nothing to get excited about, I had a cold shower as they had run out of hot water and had to move around in the shower just to get wet. There was no more than a trickle coming from the shower.

We had a good dinner where I presented Peter and Veronica with Eddie the Eagle. Because it is a formal presentation, I put on my Port scarf and hat for the speech.

We finished dinner and we were all in bed and asleep by 8.45 pm.

It was a really, really tough and gruelling day, one of physical strength and pure mental determination, probably with a bit of stubbornness thrown into the mix, but so incredibly rewarding.