Day 47- 26th May 2013 - Indee Station to Auski Roadhouse
We were up at 5am as we needed to drive the
9km over the dirt road to the main highway so that Walter could commence his
ride from there. The early mornings are quite cold now. We decided to drive
around 30kms and then have breakfast & make the coffee.
Noticeable today were the large numbers of
dead cattle by the road side. This is the main transport route between north
and south Western Australia and the numbers of road trains and oversize transport
trucks is huge. They travel 24 hours and so unfortunately as there is no
fencing many cattle become road victims. There is petrol to be shipped, cattle
trains (although not as many on this road), buildings (demountable buildings we
have seen by the dozens being shipped to the north), iron ore and other mining
products, a road train towing 4 large carriages all packed with large white
bags (fertilizer maybe ?)
We stopped briefly to chat with a young
German girl who is cycling around Australia. We had been told about her by the Indee Station people. She
has a bicycle and is towing a small trailer. Apparently she has been on the
road for close to a year and started her journey in Perth and has been all the
way around and is on her way back to Perth. She was sitting on the side of the
road repairing a puncture but said she was fine. Walter also stopped to chat to
her and offered assistance but she told him she was OK too.
Cycling Stats: 195
Cycling Average: 27 km per hour
This was indeed one of the more difficult
cycling days as there was a constant strong head wind which only became lighter
in the last 40kms or so.
When we arrived we told the staff at Auski
Roadhouse about our fundraising trip and the manager asked if we would be
eating at the restaurant in the roadhouse – I replied that Walter was still on
the road and I would ask him when he arrived. He proceeded to write over the
back of our fundraising bookmark and handed it back to me. On it was a note
signed by himself that the three of us could dine for free at the Roadhouse
tonight and as well have our breakfast there in the morning. How very generous
and we could stay free on a powered site.
We had once before eaten a meal at a
roadhouse (the very wet night at Willare before we reached Broome) and the food
there had been hearty but a bit bland. To our astonishment this roadhouse
employs a fully qualified chef. This is no doubt because this is the only place
for many many miles where the mining people can come for a meal and so the
standard here is very high. We decided to go with the special – which was a
roast dinner buffet – hot meats and vegetables and a variety of cold salad
dishes all beautifully presented and very fresh and tasty. Wonderful !!!
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| Coffee break somewhere quiet..... |
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| Auski Roadhouse |
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| The German around Australia cyclist and her kit |
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