Leaving Coolgardie we headed 77km south to Widgiemooltha and had an overnight stop at the Widgie Tavern roadhouse where the staff made us very welcome. A nice easy day with an early finish. The following day was the first day of Spring although you wouldn’t know it by the weather.  It was so bad it was just like August in Scotland!   We endured sun, drizzle, an awfully strong headwind and very undulating terrain over 91km. We were pretty weary (understatement) when we arrived at the Railway Motel although that was all sorted with a huge jacuzzi bath with Epsom salts followed by beer and pizza at the local pub. An outstanding end to a tough day.

After a particularly long hill Susan asked to stop and got off the bike. She started slapping her thighs. ‘What are you doing?’ I asked.  ‘Getting rid of the lactic acid’ ‘How do you get rid of lactic acid?’ she replied whilst slapping away like a Morris Dancer. ‘Just stretch your legs and walk around’ I advised.  She did this for a minute then looked up ‘how do I know if I’ve got lactic acid and what is it a anyway?’ By this time I really was puzzled. ‘If you don’t actually know what it is, where did the idea come from? ‘ ‘Jason Kenny had it at the Olympics and they had to get rid of it before the next race’ she explained! ‘Don’t you wish you had it?’  So the simple reasoning was that Susan and an Olympic cyclist get lactic acid and I don’t!   What does this say about me?  She’s absolutely right of course!  Tomorrow I’m going to stop cycling like a precocious princess and get some of that lactic acid – then I will be like an Olympic cyclist too!

Actually, as a footnote to that story, I do think I have parallels to that other great Olympian, Sir Chris Hoy. You see once I have been cycling for a couple of weeks I build up great leg muscles. Now it’s nothing like Sir Chris, of course, but I’m fairly impressed with myself. I can tell Susan is impressed too – she calls me chicken legs!

Norseman is an old gold mining town established after a Scotsman and his horse called ‘Hardy Norseman’ found a gold nugget – it got stuck in its hoof!  It’s now a rundown town in the middle of nowhere with friendly people. One of the reasons we cycle tour is to visit places such as this that you would never visit otherwise. We love these experiences.

On the cycle into Norseman the raised highway crossed Lake Cowan salt flats.

From Norseman we start on the Eyre Highway across 1,000km of desert known as the Nullarbor Plain. A sign down the road makes things clear:

Doesn’t that sign just make you feel thirsty!

But that’s tomorrow.  Tonight I’ve got to do some proper carbohydrate loading so I’m off to that great local pub for some excellent beer.  I bet you that’s what Jason Kenny does too!

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