Day 51- 30th May 2013 - Tom Price – Nanutarra Roadhouse
Up at 5am and Walter left at 6.05. We had a
very anxious early morning today as we arrived at the agreed meeting spot 24kms
from Tom Price at the railway crossing / turnoff to Nanutarra and Walter wasn’t
there and we hadn’t spotted him on the road. I tried calling him but there was
no reception..
Cycling Stats: 245kms
Cycling Average: 33kms per hour
What to do !! Had he started to ride his
bike on the dirt road ? An accident ? I was pretty worried. We decided to head
up the dirt road and I drove rather quickly over the 22km dirt road to reach
the alternate route. When we reached the turn-off heading back to Tom Price
there was a guy in one of the mining utes parked there and Andrea suggested we
talk to him. Our fears were put to rest - this miner had seen Walter cycling
back towards Tom Price around 20 minutes earlier. So we found him around 15kms
along the alternate route and he had been just as worried as us.. Walter popped
the bike in the car and as we had wasted a bit of time with this and we needed
to drive another 45 kms along an unsealed road to get to the next sealed
section where Walter could get back on the bike after we reached the sealed
road Walter stayed in the van for an additional 15 kms as he had already done
15kms extra with his return trip towards Tom Price in search of us.
He then jumped on the bike and we agreed to
meet after 50km for a coffee break. We were concerned as this was by far the
most difficult of conditions that he has faced to date as there was strong
cross and head winds for which this road is famous. Walter arrived at Nanutarra
at around 4pm totally spent after his battle with the winds.
The Nanutarra Roadhouse we had been told
was the most expensive roadhouse in WA – when we told the operator about our
charity ride for Alzheimer’s he offered us a free powered site – so for us not
the most expensive site. Fuel here also compared to other outback places was
definitely not the most expensive we had encountered.
A farming worker also approached us – very
impressed by what Walter was doing and we had a big chat with him – He had
worked at one of the Bungle Bungle cattle stations some years back and he came
back smiling later with a $50 note for our donations bucket. A lovely hearty
friendly guy !!
A glass of red wine & a lovely salmon
pasta dish helped to revive us all. Early to bed at 8.15pm
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| Luckily we found him !! |
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| the redness of this landscape was astounding |
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| A landscape painting |
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