Wednesday July 27, 2022
Big driving day today, alarm at 6:00 A.M. but we are so close to the Western Australia border, maybe 100 meters, and there is a time change as soon as we cross the border, none of us I think, certainly not me, know what time it will be. Because we are crossing a state border and there are restrictions on carry any organics across the line, we must either eat or throw away a few items we bought a few days ago, bananas, spinach, berries, etc. So we have a crude combination of foods for breakfast, pack up and get out of the cabins that were freezing cold overnight.
The plan is to arrive in Kalgoorlie, a mining town, approx. 900 kilometers from Border Village by 4 P.M. or so which will allow maybe an hour-long bike ride for the three of us. There really is no major landmark along this route except the Nullabor Plain and the longest, flat, straight road in Australia. Compared to yesterday when we stopped for some time at a few tourist overlooks, today the tourist sight is a relentless, rugged, almost desert like environment populated with “thick scrub” (Scotty’s name for the trees and short bushes sparsely covering the reddish sandy soil) This might be a flat landers dream cycling route, mostly flat with long rolling hills.
We are still on A1 the Australian National Highway for most of the drive today but we soon turn off onto Highway 94, yes I said 94 you Minnesotans, and head north to Kalgoorlie where we plan to spend Wednesday evening, Thursday day and Thursday night before a Friday push to Perth. As other days, we planned well, execution, not so good. We are in by about 4 as planned but the classic old hotel we are booked into has us in a large suite on the third floor with no elevator and steep narrow stairs to access our room. After unloading and carrying everything into room 60, we decide dinner and a beverage are a better plan with a ride tomorrow morning instead. As an historical side note, the room we are in was supposedly used by Herbert Hoover during some visit to this area back in the late 1800’s before he was president of the USA in 1929-1933.
It will feel good to have a break in the long drive days, organize a few items and regroup for the last phases of the driving portions of the trip.