LAMEROO TO SHERLOCK REST AREA

LAMEROO TO SHERLOCK RA = 71KM

CUMMULATIVE TOTAL = 574KM

SHERLOCK RA = free



Today we thought we were going to die :)  The rest day yesterday was very good - not as hot as what we thought it was going to be but the shade cloth came in very handy 

We got up very early since the sun gets up half hour earlier and it is very light at 5am in the morning so we get up just a tad later than 5am just so we could get in an extra hours cycling before the wind really picked up.  The wind is suppose to be a North-North westerly and strong around 30km per hour so that would be a cross wind for most of the day for us ... but unfortunately Elders are not necessarily accurate and for the first hour (between 7.30 and 8.30) the wind was from our side and then it swung around to a westerly and picked up - it was straight in front of us and OMG it was a struggle!
We had a cuppa at Geranium and decided that we would probably not make Sherlock RA and will stop at Peake if they had toilets.
So we continued slowly and took one silo at a time.  At one point the railroad crosses the Mallee Highway just after Jabuk and it crosses on a slight rise in the road but either side of the road the scrub has been cut back so that you can see the oncoming trains ... well we both struggled getting up this exposed little rise as the wind just howled down on us and it got to the point that we were going so slow that the bikes were about to tip over!  I think I got down to a speed of 5km per hour!
We made it to Peake and by the town hall they had toilets, we sat down very exhausted and decided to have a cuppa and think about staying here somewhere behind the toilets ...

It was very shady besides the wall of the building and by now it was over 30 degrees and Neil I think was struggling a bit so he justed that we stay here for the afternoon for around 3 hours and rest and then think about doing the final 15km to Sherlock ... and hopefully the wind might die down a bit ... 2.30 hours later the wind had not died down and if anything had swung slightly towards the south but still in front of us!

At around 2.30pm we set off and it wasn't too bad - still a very hot day and a strong wind but the long break did us good - we got to Sherlock just on 4pm and the first thing Neil did was go over to the shop (only thing in the town!) and bought 2 ice blocks

Here is Neil devouring his ...

Here is me demolishing mine ...

and here is little Kouta polishing off both of them ...

I tell you it was a relief to get to Sherlock and both of us were hot and tired - it was definitely the hardest day in a looooooooooooooong time!  Sherlock is really only a rest area so we pitched closer to the railroad rather than the highway (which is about 40m from the tent!)  It was probably the warmest night we had last night and in the morning we again woke early due to it getting light here very early, but this morning we woke to a fog ...

and just after brekky while we were packing up a train came along ...

Our day to Murray Bridge was suppose to be easier today ...