Day 100 | Mt Augustus Station, Landor Mt Augustus Road: that's if I'm not blown back to Kansas

42 km | zzOz total: 4,690 km

Some nights you just flop into the tent, the sun’s just gone down, the delicious dinner has been served, well actually just eaten straight from the pot, standards are slipping out here in the Badlands, the eyes shut and pretty soon the native animals have their lives disturbed by snoring from a lone cyclist’s temporary encampment.

Life is pretty good.

Today’s objective was to climb Mt Augustus, I’m here, might as well see the lay of the land.

Issue One seemed to be that a large rock composed of sandstone was rearing up from a bed of sand, the new tyres forced to start work immediately.

Two, was that there’s been a change in the weather, a cooler southerly has blown in, with blowing being the operative condition. It’s a fair gale I’m attempting to pedal into.

Three, as far as the lay of the land bit, the clearest view was about 100 m up the 650 m climb, by the time I was at the top of the world, well, it seemed like that, it was a fairly hazy view to be had. But awesome to be looking down on the tiny roads cutting through a whole lot of nothing much, isolated hills springing up in random places, in random shapes.

Elevation gives a better perspective, often when you are just trucking down a road you often have no idea what’s even 100 m through the shrubbery, just focussing on the road ahead, and trying not to fall off in some undetected sandpit.

I can report that there’s not much else beyond that 100 m mark.

I can also report those cycling thighs also come in use when climbing hills on foot.

Late in the day I finally get out of the park, so remote it doesn’t even have a seasonal ranger, and spent an hour bashing into that gale once again.

Going to make it tough if that keeps up, I’m heading due south tomorrow before a few more days southeast to get to civilisation at Meekatharra.