Who in their right mind would decide to ride a bike two and a half thousand clicks through the desert. I have a mate who is even sillier than that, he is trying to ride all the way around Australia. To cut a long story short, my bro was driving around oz as a grey nomad. He wanted some company, pick me. Matey likes riding his bike, pick him. Cuz wants to look at wild flowers, pick her. Matey's missus likes an adventure, pick her too. Then after a little drive, we all assembled in Broome. Well that was the plan. Madness does not run in the family so bro and cuz are the road crew. That leaves three of us riding. Matey has some last minute work task. That leaves two, if missus cancels it could get lonely out there. Fortunately that didn't happen.

                                                              The game plan

    Ride south from Broome, with a howling tailwind till you hit Perth a mere 2347 KM away.

                                

                                                            Technical challenges.

    It's a long way between drinks. If you are lucky there is a roadhouse every 100km, a town every 300km. If you are really lucky they will be open. Even luckier , they will have somewhere to stay. No one is that lucky.

    100km is a long way to ride. About 80 KM pulls me up most days.

    It's hot.

    

   Day one. The sun isn't even up, but we are on the road. Maria and I head out east . Its 30 km till our first and only bit of civilization. Two km down the road I get my first flat tyre. Why am I here again.  Carbs at Roebuck road house. This is it till the rest stop only 90 km to go. The great northern goes south west from here. The first 20 km aren't to bad, but it's getting hot. The the wind kicks in, slowly at first, but quickly winding up so with the heat it's a bit like riding behind a F1-11 at takeoff. My brother who did the logistics, can't read a wind rose. He thinks a southerly wind blows from the north. Only 70 km to go. We are stopping every 10 km to have a drink and a break, sometimes under the only bush we can see. The temp is in the high 30's, and our six liters of water is rapidly running out. This shouldn't be a problem, except our trusty road crew is still buying toe nail polish in Broome, having chosen not to get up early. It's now midday, and 40km to go, We are cooked, with no phone service, and  just a little bit of water. We pull up under a bush and wait for Cuz and Bros to catch up. Forty five minutes later, they arrive with cold drinks and munchies. Better a couple of hours late than never I say. Shall I do the last 40km riding into the furnace, na the enthusiasm has gone. The Ramada resort is calling us.  We chuck the bikes on the car, and head for the pool. Only 2250 km to go.

          This is the set up for the rest of the trip. We get up early and ride. There are three reasons for this. One it gets hot in the afternoon. Two our promised tail wind starts blowing in our faces around about ten in the morning. Three The suicidal grey nomads generally don't start trying to knock you off your bike till about ten. Riding in the morning is great, once you get past getting up in the dark. 

       Matey  finally manages to join us at Kununurra. To ease the pain we take in the sights with a couple rest days. Beers at the Dampier Boaties, Swimming with the Dugongs at Coral Bay, Cowboy bars in Exmouth, and getting Fleeced at Monkey Mia, killing Bill at Kilbarry. In between we camp at roadhouses and stations. The locals are all characters. In between the tell us stories, and feed us some fine grub. Burgers, Parmas, and chips. The menu might have been a little boring, but it was great stodge to do some k's on. While we are dodging caravans blown across the road, my bro is sipping lates, while cuz takes 5 photos of every single wildflower in the state.  Just sometimes I wonder what I'm doing here, most of the time the hours on the road are challenging, but fun. 

        We call it, a couple of hundred klicks north of Perth. The "trifecta", crap roads, weather, and traffic finally convinces us there are better things in life to do. I ride the last 30 k's solo down the ocean bike path, dodging rollerbladers instead of road trains. When I get to Cottesloe, I find Bro and Cuz sitting at the surf club in the sun, looking west, drinking lates. Time to join them, only the bottom third of the state and ten million wildflowers to go.

Without photos it didn't happen. Click the pic for more.