Day 10 of the Around Australia Ride. What can I say about it? Well not much to be honest. This was a tough day of 620kms with I would reckon about 400km of that in the wet. Wet weather riding can be very fatiguing, you have to be hyper alert the entire time. Your whole body is tense, you continuously scan the roads for standing water which you can aquaplane in and if the bike twitches in the wet, well lets just say if you had coal you could make diamonds…
Due to the rain most of the trip was hot and steamy. One of the problems with wet weather gear is that it doesn’t breathe. It keeps air out almost as well as it keeps water out and you just end up being a big sweat bladder when the temperature climbs.
And to add insult to injury we had about 10kms spent riding on a muddy dirt detour around some road works. Some unfortunate souls had washed their bikes in Katherine the day before, I’m glad I hadn’t. Not a single bike came out the other side of that red, sticky mess unscathed.
In the middle of the day I was able to get some decent photos up a lookout just after Timber Creek. But it was also from up there I could see the next weather system we were riding into. So out came the damned wet weather gear again.
Had an interesting moment at the quarantine stop into Western Australia. My iPhone was blaring music into my ears and was buried under all the weather gear, also all my bags were shrouded in wet protection and I didn’t relish having to get everything unpacked when I was dripping wet. The quarantine fellow comes towards me mouthing something I couldn’t hear, so I said I had my plugs in and he would have to give me a moment, which was probably closer to, “I HAVE EARPLUGS IN I CAN’T HEAR YOU GIVE ME A MINUTE!!!” He waved a hand in front of my face to get my attention and pointed to the clipboard he was holding, it listed a number of prohibited items like fruits, honeys, vegetables etc. I told him I didn’t have any, “NO, NOTHING LIKE THAT!!!” He then very kindly waved me on and I said thanks, “THANKS MATE!!!” What a nice fellow.
A few riders took the opportunity to go to Lake Argyle. I wouldn’t have minded but after all the rain I was pretty tired and fuel consumption had been lousy. By all reports it was pretty impressive although the guys only just made it back out before the roads were closed due to rapidly rising waters.
Lets hope tomorrow is a better day.
