Riding across Western Australia on my solo motorcycle camping adventure S2 Episode 10

Morning, it's about 6 30 in the morning and it is fresh as it will be in the south. Today another 500km but there's not a lot going on, well besides a headwind again. So it's more about just getting through this section. There is one interesting section that's not so interesting, I'll explain later. Now pack up, keep warm and move on. A little bit of dew to start the morning. I'm going to quickly see if I can get this hand grip off the heat warmer one to see if I can just get by until I can sort it out somewhere so that cable doesn't keep killing the keel switch. Killing the keel switch? Yeah, we'll see. Hopefully I just slide it off, gather it sticky underneath but it's better than me having it slip all day and drop off speed. I cable tied it to the handlebars so it wouldn't move around while I was riding. Just noticed I bent my key, don't know when. Anyway I do have a spare, traveling with a spare. I mean it still goes in but I'm going to swap over to the spare because it's straighter and uses as the backup. I did a quick check of all my straps as I usually do before heading off. I made my way out of the campsite. Today's ride was going to be around 500 kilometers, basically to west with a little bit of south. That's a rather large wedge-tailed eagle protecting its breakfast. I came across an oversized load and well when I say oversized I mean extremely oversized. I got way past by the guide vehicle. There were two of the massive mining dump trucks and they towered above me and that's with their wheels off. Like most things, the camera doesn't do their size justice but compare them to the trucks pulling them, they look small compared to the mining trucks. Then an oversized load came in the other direction and all I could think about was the movie Crocodile Dundee and the line, that's not a knife, that's a knife. It seemed everybody was adhering to the rule of tonnage. The caravans were crawling into the headwind but this guy was probably enjoying the headwinds even less than the caravans. I'm not sure if anywhere else in the world has this but this is a landing strip for the Royal Flying Doctor Service and you'll see them on remote highways. As the land is so vast and there is no medical help within hours or even days from most places out here, these landing strips are critical to save lives. You'll find somewhere along the runway a section for the planes to turn around. A quick fuel stop then it was back out on the road. Then riding straight for a couple more hours until you reach the next place to fuel up and grab something to eat. Just pulled over to get a break from the wind as it is brutal. The bike's getting buffered a lot and if the trucks are on my right and the wind's coming from that way then got to be a little careful, have to slow down for a fuel. Another fuel station and here they actually have some rescued wedge-tailed eagles. I don't think they can actually fly anymore so they can't hunt them off and I don't know if I got the shot out there but there was one sitting on a roadkill carcass. I'll show you these ones. They are Australia's largest bird of prey with a wingspan of up to two. They do eat little marsupials, small kangaroos, lizards, all that good stuff. Quite a sparse caravan park. The bag on the back didn't feel quite right so I stopped to adjust it and you can see the wind was still blowing hard. I was back to riding straight for an hour or so until I reached the next place to fuel up and stretch the legs. I rode out but just a few hundred meters down the road. I call this an interesting, very boring thing. I'm about to begin the 90 miles which is the straightest road. 90 miles dead straight 146.6 kilometers. I think I've just been leaning the whole way. I'll see you at the other end. If you're curious the longest section of straight road in the world is in Saudi Arabia which is 240 kilometers long or 149 miles which cuts through a desert. This highway was named after the explorer Edward John Eyre who was the first European to cross the Nullarbor by land in 1840 to 1841. The construction of the east-west telegraph line in the 1870s along Eyre's route resulted in a hazardous trail that could be followed for interstate travel. The current highway, although at the beginning was just a dirt track, was built in 1941 to 1942. Finally I made it across the 90 mile straight and took the first turn. Well, slight bend in the road you'd probably call it. But funnily the road could have been straight for even longer. It's barely a slight left and slight right and then straight again. Another Royal Flying Doctor service landing strip. I finally made it the 500 kilometers to Bolidonia Roadhouse and I was toast. So I decided to camp here tonight hoping there might be somewhere to shelter from the wind. It didn't look like there were many options but eventually I found a stone wall that I hoped would do the job of shielding me from the wind. So after 500 kilometers and probably I don't know it's taken me eight to nine hours into a nightmare of a headwind. There's 200 kilometers till the next anything from here so I thought I'd end the day here. It's about 3.34 the only place I could find sort of out of the wind is these rocks here so hopefully it won't blow the tent too much. I'll have the traffic and truck coming past another night but at least the tent hopefully will stay up. We'll find out. Did I mention I've got everything on? Also dust flying over. So everything's in the tent now and not too bad. Today was it just was long. Just the fact it was just obviously straight most of it and that constant headwind or if it was slightly side your neck would end up with a really sore neck because you're like this and obviously the day before it was there so I gather that's why it was starting to be sore by about midday and then you turn the other side you're like oh that's better. Oh no it's this side. Anyway so next down to Esperance and then I'll head along the south coast. I've never been through that area before. Denmark and think Albany. I've been down to Margaret River so that's a wrap around up to Margaret River. No idea so we'll find out what I can find down there. Should be good but now I'm going to pass out try and recover because I've got 200km to Newman and then turn left and hopefully hopefully no more headwind. I woke up just as the sun was getting up and again I was the only person in a tent. Was I doing this wrong? Morning. It is down to four degrees. It's getting cold. I think I'm going to break out my emergency emergency pack. I have these little hand warmer things that you use in the snow for your hands. Use up my hands and then put it down my top while I'm riding. I think this morning is worth it and I've just got the bottom of WA and up and after that I won't need them so why not use them now. Camping by the wall here definitely worked which is good and well my tent probably needs to be cleaned. Esperance might be a place to clean some things. I'm also putting the onesie in the back of the bag so it's easy access. It's apparently raining where at Esperance so I want to be able to scramble and not have to drag it out of the bottom. I made my way out onto the It was just under 200 kilometers to Norseman. My plan was to try and get there as early as possible in the day before the wind picked up as from there I'd be riding due south so I'd no longer be heading into the westerly headwind. Just had to pull over because it's cold out there. Most of me's fine just my right hand and of course the hand warmers on the right side isn't attached because it kept slipping. I'm just using the little glove thing just on my hand to try and warm it up. I'm a bit over halfway to Norstrom I think it is so I'll be able to hopefully find something warm to eat there. Other than that it's all good so it's that balance between I don't get this massive headwind it's picking up but I won't get most of it and or I get the cold so the cold it is for the moment I should be fine. Oh wow look what I spotted. Wow it's like a massive ochre lake bed. Wow that just looks cool instead of blue it's ochre. A random spot to follow. Well the wind's picking up so I better get moving to make that turn back onto the very straight highway again. As I was riding along I noticed the color of the tree trunks changing from grey to a ochre coppery color so I pulled over to check them out. That's insane it's like a it's like it's from the ochre dirt it's almost like a copper gold. Pretty wild and they look exactly the same trees as the ones with the grey trunks. Wild. They just stand out as you're riding along like this coppery gold looking thing. I wonder if it's the ochre dirt. Does anybody out there know? I have so many questions. Then I spotted one of the trees that had the coppery gold on one layer then green on the next. No idea. Just to show you there's nobody around. So empty out here. So empty. I'd made it to Norseman. Fueled up and grabbed a hot homemade sausage roll and it was good. Really good. There is a benefit of long straight roads. It's a lot easier to pass road trains as you can see for kilometers into the distance to check for oncoming traffic. I spotted a sign that said historical site. It had a dirt road so I couldn't resist. There was only a plaque stating this was a site of an old town that no longer existed but nothing else. So I turned around and headed back out to the highway. I rode a bit further and noticed there was a dirt road running alongside the highway so I had to check it out. What I'd found was way more fun than the highway. A dirt track running parallel. This track's pretty cool to ride along. It's actually a high pressure pipeline. Basically the signs are saying danger, don't dig. But yeah besides that, which I'm not going to, it's pretty cool. Then you come across these lakes. Well just dried out lakes most of them. I guess they fill up when it rains. But they're a bit of fun to ride on as well. Bit of sand, bit of mud. This one actually has a little bit of water still in it. The joys of exploring with no real destination, no real time frame. It's awesome. So I jumped back onto the highway for the next section. Then I came across the train line again and saw another track along it. So of course I took it. So this section looked like it had pockets of soft sand. So I slowed down to pick my way through and I found a pocket. Another dry lake but this one was much larger. Back out on the highway. Then back onto the side roads. This was way more fun than sitting on the same speed all day on the highway. This train line makes its way from mining town Argyle Gouldie all the way down to the coast and the port at Esperance. Pulled over here at Scandon which looks like a two building town. It looks like it's going to rain ahead. So well it's definitely going to rain ahead. So I'm going to put the rain suit on and cover the bags and the backpack I mean and yeah deal with another wet wonderful winter rain shower. Made it back into the rain suit. Onwards. I got closer to Esperance. The skies opened and the rain came down. I'd finally made it to Esperance. So I pulled over at the first service station to get my bearings. I had checked the weather earlier in the day and it said there was going to be heavy rain for the next few days. So I came up with a plan B. With only a small emergency budget this was my plan B. I just needed somewhere dry to bunker down during the heavy rain over the next few days and this was all I could find. So this is my backup plan.