Hey Hay!

Day: 2

Distance Traveled: 468kms
 

Weather: A beautiful, cool, sunny day

Today's Biggest Challenges: Felt sick and tired today so was a bit challenging.

Highlights of today: Caught our first glimpses of nothingness today - the Hay plains. Once you leave Hay there is an hour or two that is just NOTHING in all directions. It's funny seeing the road trains on the horizon like tiny specs with the sky seemingly under them in mirage. 

We also saw a number of emus! Funny birds with their messy, matted wings, stalking around like so many dull peacocks. Beautiful sunset (and extra daylight!) at Mildura this evening. AMAZING facilities here! We even get an oven haha!

What I've learned from today: More long days to contend with! Once again confirmed that having a relief rider was a great idea. I swapped out after Balranald as I was pretty tired - the heat and the sun in the face was a bit of a problem today. It was cool but the sun was hot in some strange paradox which also brought along its own special brand of fatigue. Got unintentionally dive-bombed several times by birds and other wildlife along the way - mainly pink galahs, crows and smaller animals crossing... Stu even had a scare with a kangaroo - so had to watch out for those, however, otherwise was a generally long, boring day, but still a great day to be out riding! We were lucky with the weather being so good, we may even miss all the rain all together (but I won't speak too soon haha!) Due to rain here tomorrow (we won't be here of course) and due to rain at our next stop the day after (and again, we shall have already left, so winning!). We are spending the night at Mildura (VIC) before heading across the final stretch of North-Western Victoria to the South Australian border - and a new time zone! Half an hour back we shall be, this time tomorrow... I simply don't know how we are going to manage to adjust! Haha! We can feel the days getting longer on the sunset end already. Well, I need to head to bed before another long day in the saddle. Will write again tomorrow. :)