Hotter Than July

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Australian road surfaces are excellent and even roads that would rate as 'good' in the UK are being resurfaced.  This is all very well but last night we stayed in the same motel that the road crews use.  Road crews get up VERY early and make lots of noise, including firing up clattery diesel engines and letting them idle for an hour or two.  Bastards.

So, we were up and out by 7 despite plans to the contrary.  This prooved to be no bad thing because our day turned out to be hotter and hillier than we could possibly have imagined.  We climbed 5200 feet and the temperature peaked at 37.2.  If you would like to know what this is like......set up an exercise bike in front of an open fan oven, set the bike to maximum resistance and the oven to maximum temperature.  Pedal for 7 hours.  Enjoy.

Having said nice things about the road train drivers earlier in the trip we wish to retract them.  We are now being run off the road on a daily basis.  This is very frightening and is making washing our cycling shorts much more difficult.  We have a new name for road train drivers and it isn't very polite!

The high spot of our day (not an especially challenging accolade) was being passed by a big group of charity riders.  They are riding from Albany to Perth in about the same time as us.  They have superlight racing bikes, a full support crew, vehicles front and back to warn traffic.  In other words, they are pathetic nancies.

We are now in Manjimup (population 4000) and our motel has a BBQ....  so hot dead cow for tea!

PS if you are new to this blog and are thinking 'hang on a minute, that is an album title not a song'.......tough, get used to it!

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