Round Australia by bike - Day 024 - Fitzroy to Roebuck Plains

Day:	024
Date:	9 June 2008
Start	Fitzroy Crossing
Finish	Roebuck Plains Roadhouse
Daily Distance:	361km
Daily Speed:	24.8kph
Relative to Schedule:	-565km
Daily Podcasts:	Here
GPS Track	Here
Journal:	After 6.5 hours sleep, I got up at midnight and was riding by 12:45am.  My motel room was upstairs and descending the external stairway carrying the fully-loaded bike in the dark and trying to do it quietly was a challenge….successfully completed. I was soon out on the dark savannah riding beneath the standard brilliant starlit sky in still and mild conditions.  I knew I had a big day and was determined not to dally and made good time, taking a short break every 60km.  Shortly before dawn, I almost ran into the back of a cow that was standing in the middle of the road.  We both got a big fright.  I then started laughing about the possible outcome when I recalled a training accident I had a couple of years ago on the bike.  I was riding about 15kph up a hill directly into a rising sun that made it almost impossible to see and was keeping well over to the left in case any following vehicles could not see me.  I ran straight into the back of a ute (pick-up), the bike stopped, and I exited over the handlebars straight into the back of the ute.  I imagined that if I had run into the cow I may well have ended up giving it a visual rectal examination! As the sun rose, the usual savannah was revealed, and a tailwind freshened, helping me to make good time towards my first goal for the day, Willare Bridge Roadhouse (230km).  as I neared the roadhouse, the scenery changed a little with a lot more huge dome-like termite mounds evident and a lot more of the weird-looking fat-trunked boab trees, making the landscape, which had also had the undergrowth burnt away look quite alien. I reached Willare at 11:00am and had a breakfast of egg and bacon pie and potato wedges, along with multiple drinks on a day which was becoming quite warm.  From Willare it was another 130km to my target for the day, Roebuck Plains Roadhouse, but conditions had changed and it turned into a very tough afternoon.  The weather was hot (33C), the wind had turned into a headwind and there was a lot more traffic on a road with minimal edge for riding.  My optimism about an early finish evaporated, aand I struggled into the Roadhouse at about 6:00pm after a particularly had last 30km when the wind had become very strong. Fortunately they had a spare cabin, and I checked in, had a quick shower, and then enjoyed a roast pork dinner followed by chocolate cake and ice-cream.  Tomorrow will be a significant day.  It is the same leg and the same day (Day 25…..although I have cycled 300km further to get here this time) on which I tore my quadriceps muscle last year and had to quit my quest.  If I feel OK when I get to Sandfire Roadhouse tomorrow evening, I may ride on through the night in an effort to make up some of the time I lost earlier in the trip.  If not, I’ll stop at Sandfire and try to make up the time later.