Theaussiechallenge Post # 64 Jurian Bay

Day 77 65 days to go. Distance today 110 total 6533km. It’s 8pm Saturday 22/9/12 Jurian Bay. Hi there fine folk. We’re sitting in the camp kitchen in the campgrounds at Jurian Bay. It’s soooo chill bill. I have all my thermals on and the grape and beanie. The weather continues to be temperamental with strong winds that have flipped around to a headwind bugga bugga. Regular rain clouds also blow in from the coast so the day’s had lots of intermittent showers again. They don’t last long but they’re pretty constant and I cycled with the thermal on all day with the wind chill factor as well. Apparently springtime is renowned for crappy weather so it’s nothing unusual. Boy!!!! Rube and my character is getting such an overhaul we’ve got it spilling out of our ears. Today was one of the more tougher ones. Whoever said it’s downhill from Geraldton to Perth was a bit off the mark. The coast road has slow long inclines and very short descents than more inclines and so forth for the 110km from Cape Head to Jurian Bay. Add the crazy head wind and rain and it’s been pretty tricky for us both. No road trains but which is a welcomed break. After 55km we passed a small seaside town with a roadhouse. I went in and bought $2 worth of snakes to get us through the afternoon session. It worked a treat. We also scored two donations which was great. Thank you Chris $3.80 and Judy $5. We were averaging about 12km/hr so I broke the snakes into rewards every 5 minutes leaving my favorite colors until the end. And slowly but surely the kms and snakes disappeared yayayayay. The scenery is beautiful and a real positive to taking the ocean drive to Perth. There’s lots of stretches right on the waterfront so the change of scenery and ocean inspiration is awesome. We passed a sign today that welcomes us to the “Wildflowers’ part of the coral coast. Unfortunately with all the rain they’re not as impressive as what we’ve seen but they’re still very beautiful. I laughed today as I stopped for a wee walk and while doing my thing I spotted 6 different types of tiny flowers growing out of the sand. It was a nice moment in a moment 🙂

The campsite folk here have been awesome and let us camp for free. They were keen to put up some White Ribbon brochures but I don’t have that sort of info on board. Their support was really appreciated but!! Also staying here are Helen and Ted who we met at the Cliff Head Rest Area last night. We caught up with them this morning briefly and they have invited us to stay if we’re anywhere near their place outside of Gossford. Helen said she’ll make us her famous roast if we make it sounds delish!!!! Her and Ted donated $8 which was just awesome as I know their pennies are extra precious thank you darlings and for the invite and we may yet see you in Gossford. When we arrived this arv they invited me over for coffee and cake and Helen showed off her photos from their trip which was lovely. They’re real characters and not doing too badly at all for 90 year olds. Life on the road is clearly good for keeping the soul young at heart. I went back to Rube still parked outside the reception and there were another couple checking out her trailer sign. They were full of questions and compliments and have also invited us to stay if we go past their home town in South Australia. It’s a bit off the highway but you never know!!1 They also donated $5 so thankyou kind folk for your offer and donation. We have our last Rest Area stop over tomorrow night at Moore River Bridge about 130km away. It’s suppose to be a nice spot and it’ll be an early start to get through the kms in what will be probably more of the same today. It’s all good as long as we give ourselves time to chip away at it. Monday will see us peddle into Perth and I know Rube for one is ready for a break and some attention. I’ve promised her lots of pampering to get her bits rested and back in tip top condition ready for the southwest and Nullabor. We’ll be offline from the 25/9/12 to the 5/10/12spending time with the family but I still have a couple more posts to go ’til then. I’ll also have the next wod of gallery pics to upload when I get the chance soon which will be awesome. With the $21.80 cash donations that makes the total $1872.65 pretty bloody good I reckon. Talk soon x