Blew hard from the south all night. Everything in the caravan park shook and rattled. It was still blowing hard in the morning. It was a day to look forward to even though I worried about my feet. We had agreed to set off at 8:00, so hitting the road at 8:30 wasn't too bad. The wind drove us quickly down the road until 7 or 8kms were covered and I remembered I had left the battery charging in the roadhouse. The decision to go back or not was just for me to make. Pierre and Vero offered to accompany me of I wanted to go back. I felt bad about beating back into the wind, but back we went. It had taken us about 15 mins with the wind and over 30 mins to get back to Renner Springs. We spent another 20 having a drink. I kept thinking we could be over 30kms down the road.
Back tracking like that would have been unthinkable a week or two ago, but now, especially with this wind it was manageable.
After the restart the fast pace continued.
About 40kms outside of Elliot we met a young Austrian couple cycling toward us.
(Their story is at www.2roadrunners-on-tour.at)
They were philosophical about the wind that they were riding into. That's cycling.
They had left Austria April 1, 2013 and had ridden through Asia. They concurred with Justin and Cher that Indonesia was horrific for riding and that Darwin was expensive.
They also thought that we should try and make the rest stop 20 or so kms past Elliot rather than stay in Elliot.
The other piece of information they had for us was that the wind was forecast to continue blowing from the south until the middle of next week; that is, for another 5 or 6 days.
Quickly knocked over the 40kms to Elliot.
Vero thought it was sad place. Looked like a war had taken place there. Most of the houses along the main road were derelict, but it was clear people still lived in them. There were also dogs of all shapes and sizes everywhere, although they paid almost no attention to us.
We ate up in the service station, which was heavily secured. There were bars and mesh over every opening.
Despite starting slowly we covered the 24 kms to the rest stop in 35 mins. It is packed.
Good day with my feet. A little numb from time to time, but no serious pain.
Tomorrow Daly Waters is the target. Reaching there will put us a day ahead of schedule.
The wind has dropped to almost nothing, which will probably mean speed will be down tomorrow.
Darwin, even though 700 kms away, seems very close.
,,,go to day 28 - June 6