Time: 5hour 20min
This morning as I woke up the weather was looking ominous, but I was committed to leaving. I've had a good rest here in Esperance and feel now its time to go. I have 560 odd km's to Albany, which I'm hoping to do in 5 days or possibly less. I never under estimate the time, as wind, rain or any unexpected issue could prolong the riding time. In addition I do this so not to feel low spirited if I can't reach a certain distance. All planning I do is based on distances that I know I can complete in any weather, being head wind and/or rain. Having a tail wind for instance could push me double my expected distance, thus bringing me much joy.
Waking up this morning I felt a little bloated, possibly from the excessive amounts of white bread I ate last night. This morning having a big breakfast, for energy, I felt even more bloated when leaving.
As I got all my gear together a few of the people from the guest house came out to say goodbye. This was very nice, yet sad at the same time. It's crazy as only a few days ago I felt the same with the French people. It was very funny as a fella in the room next to me also came out to wave me off. He's an African man from Nigeria, living in Sydney and working for the Red Cross. He travels around the country, with an other Nigerian man, selling products and fundraising for Red Cross. Since I've been in the hostel he has literally been on the phone the whole time. During the night when we went to sleep he was on the phone, during the whole day that we saw him he was on the phone and in the morning when we first woke up we could still hear him talking on the phone. He explained he had two girlfriends. The other guys and I made many jokes about this with him. I often joked around saying that us Aussies cant meet any nice girls because fellas like him keep taking them all!! If we weren't joking about this we'd joke around that he's organising Internet scams with his mates. He had a great sense of humour and made for a humorous couple of days.
I left with a full stomach and plenty of food packed for the next few days. My plan was to do roughly 100km, or until I could find a descent area to set up my tent. The head wind was very strong today, making 100km feel very hard earned. In addition to the head wind my knee was also flaring up again, in the same area as it was a few weeks ago. As the km's went on the pain became more bearable, eventually feeling like it went away. I fortunately found a nice rest area around 110km in. I pulled in at around 17:00, having plenty of time to get my cooker going and set up my tent.
I still felt a bit bloated from last night but was keen to eat my lentils and potatoes to get required energy and proteins for the oncoming days. I've managed to read a few pages from the voyage of the beagle, do my stretches and also rest up in my tent. Hoping the winds aren't so strong tomorrow!!
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