Day 54: Wooramel Roadhouse to Hamelin

September 10, 2022

Yesterday, after I gave Adrian, the roadhouse owner, my name for camping he must’ve seen me and my bike cause he came out and said “someone’s bought a drink for you, it was In...Inna...”. When I supplied Innecke he said yes, they’d been here three days ago and paid for a coffee for me and another cyclist who was there in between. that’s the first I’ve heard of another cyclist but I guess I haven’t been being super friendly with the nomads lately.

So I packed up by 6:30. As I was going into the bathroom to put on my bike shorts, I saw a Tesla pull up to the advertised charging station. I debated whether I should ask him all the boring question so people ask me but by the time I came out, he was gone.

As his wife/business partner made me my coffee in the roadhouse, Adrian came in and explained that the charging point hadn’t been compatible with the Tesla driver’s 3 phase charger, or there hadn’t been enough power available, so he’d had to push onto the next charging station two roadhouses south down the road. The woman replied, oh good, I remember one cut out the gennys at Christmas. I firmly believe we need to be investing in electric cars as the best way to decarbonise transport but the north west of WA is not ready!

I also had eggs on toast for a Kenny style breakfast. So it was after 7 by the time I rolled out. It was clear skies again but still a southerly wind.

There were some hills on the horizon and after about 25k there was a lookout on top of one. I turned into it just before a converted bus so had to pull over to let it go past. As it did, a woman opened the side door and called “I’ll put the jug on”. That was Donna and Steve, kiwis who live in Perth and who were travelling up to Wooramel station to meet Donna’s sister. They made me a cup of tea and gave me a biscuit. A german guy in a campervan also gave me a can of coke and a mars bar. That made it three free drinks and it was barely past 9.

After about half an hour another couple pulled up. They said it had taken them 4.5 months to get from Kununurra. I extricated myself soon after to continue on before the wind picked up too much.

Soon afterwards, I crossed the 26th parallel and left the north west

The shoulder was not great, generally only about 10cm which is not really big enough to be comfortable with cars passing in either direction. I was also riding gingerly on my tyre and trying not to drop down suddenly. After 2.5 hours, the second couple from the lookout passed me and when I reached Overlander roadhouse, they were there. I know why it’s taken them so long now.

I had my usual roadhouse treats (hot chips, icecream, cold drink) and thought about how maybe I should start trying to eat more healthily as I get to more food options.

Once I turned off onto the Shark Bay Road, the traffic was much lighter and the wind much more favourable so I made good time the 30k to Hamelin Station, despite no shoulder at all.

There have been heaps of flowers out and the carpet of yellow looks very pretty on red sand

Hamelin Station is a bush heritage property and very well equipped as a caravan park/accommodation. I thought Hamelin Pool must be a lake or lagoon but it is the name of the big shallow bay between the mainland and the peninsula where Denham is, where the water is very salty cause shallow seagrass meadows stop water moving back out to sea and it evaporates.

Mum and Dad drove me down to the beach at Hamelin Pool. It was high tide so we couldn’t see the stromatolites and the boardwalk got destroyed by a cyclone so you can’t really see them anyway. The beach was very pretty though.

There are stromatolites under the water that are very important organisms that formed our very atmosphere and basically look like rocks

Cockles abound in the salty water and have compacted enough that bricks can be cut from them

I helped Dad finish a jigsaw after dinner

Today's ride: 105 km (65 miles)
Total: 3,910 km (2,428 miles)

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