Getting through the Marlborough Stretch

May 11th, 2003 at 12:00am

Long day. Tired. On the highway all day. Pretty boring stretch of road with nothing in 100 km but one gas station and one roadhouse. Can’t wait to get through this section. It was cloudy all day and I thought I was surely going to get stuck in the rain, but amazingly it held off. I didn’t have much energy for the first 60 km at all, but somehow I got a second wind for the last 40. Told myself that if I made it to Marlborough, I’d treat myself with a cabin at the campervan park.

About 15 km south of Marlborough a strange thing happened. A man drove by me, slowed down, then pulled over onto the shoulder about 100m ahead of me. He got out of the car and stood there waiting for me. I pulled out onto the road and pedalled hard as I passed him. He was definitely expecting me to stop. No way man. Anyway, he got back in his car and drove off, waving to me as he passed. Could have been totally innocent but you never know. It freaked me out. So when I got to Marlborough (which is nothing but a crossroads with a gas station), I decided to upgrade from a cabin to a proper motel room with it’s own shower and toilet. I felt much better not being in my tent tonight. What a luxury, in my room with tv and a bed with sheets and blankets, no sleeping bag or sleeping pad or one-person tent. I could get used to this!

Tomorrow I’ve got another big day, 100 km, further up the highway, but the good news is that the destination, Claireview, is a caravan park on the beach. So I’ve got that to look forward to while cycling another long boring stretch of highway all day. I can’t even count how many dead kangaroos I saw on the road today, mostly all of them just piles of bones. 2-3 more days to Mackay and then another 2 days and I’ll be in Airlie Beach. Weather forecast is for rain for the next 5 days.

Distance: 97.87 km
Time: 5 hr 19 minutes
Avg Speed: 18.4 km/hr

Miles of nothing

The Marlborough Rest Stop

On and on it goes

Entry Filed under: Australia,Cycling,Marlborough