Day 7: Coober Pedy to Pimba (368 km! Total now 4,766 km)

This has really got to be the worst day so far!

Anyway, it started well. I woke up in my dungeon and found out that I’m still alive. Some of the neighbours were already gone – they must have been on a tour package with an early departure. I quickly get ready (no, not because I’m still afraid of the place – it does look much better in daylight) to hit the road before the weather turns bad again.

But first thing I must do before that; you just have to buy opal when you’re here at Coober Pedy. With the limited time I have, I can’t afford to shop around so I just went to the nearest opal place; the one in the motel.

 

The place looks authentic, the price seems reasonable (not that I’m an opal expert!), with a wide range of choice and the guy there was very helpful so I ended up; as I promised myself, got my wife the best opal I could afford – a teardrop shaped solid pink opal found in Coober Pedy itself. Now, this would be a good 15^th year wedding anniversary present, I hope. I also got my daughter a necklace.

This is the view of the town during day time – now it doesn’t look so scary anymore, does it.

This is a picture I have been aiming to take since the day before but never quite had a good opportunity or suitable place to stop. But finally I got it!

The journey was all fine except for slightly cold temperature (just around 11°C but the wind chill factor being on an exposed vehicle makes it much colder!), a bit of wind and a slight drizzle every now and then. I was hoping to get through this stretch nicely but boy; was I wrong! As soon as I passed Glendambo, it really pours and the crosswind (as I checked later) was up to 30 km/h with up to 60km/h gusts! It seems like every time I said it was the worst; then a much worse one will come! But this has got to be the lowest point so far – close to 2 hours of riding at a side inclined angle in the heavy rain with very poor visibility with nowhere to stop! I had both my grips and seat heaters on max but still my hands are numb. I pray that my tyres will keep their grip well on the road and oncoming traffic will see me and keep well on their side of the lane. I can’t help being reminded of Ezran’s words on how ludicrous he thinks this idea was – and at this precise moment, I had to agree; this is indeed ludicrous!

[By the way, obviously I do not have any pictures for this, unlike any other events during the trip. How could I? I couldn't even stop. And even if I were to stop; my hands would be too frozen to open up the bag to get my camera. I didn't even record the view of the road with the camera mounted on my windshield as I couldn't switch it on. Both my hands were tight on the handlebar - hanging for my life! So, just bear with my stories only here...]

After what seems like forever I finally approached a roadhouse in a small town called Pimba. I’m glad I could even stop the bike properly and not fall on my side as my legs could not feel anything at all by then. I entered the roadhouse dripping wet but was warmly welcomed by the owner and a few other customers (all either in caravans or trucks) taking shelter there. I had the best hot chocolate in the world while watching the rain still going on strong out there…

I have done less than 400 km today and way behind my daily target. It was a very uncomfortable two hours of wait; trying to decide to just abandon everything and put up there for the night (luckily they have rooms at the roadhouse) or wait until the weather gets better then rush for the next destination. At the same time you can’t help building certain camaraderie with others taking shelter there but the only sad thing is that, they all come and go but I just sat there waiting and hoping…

A very nice German couple on their holiday commented on my nice bike and the husband told me he has a similar R1150RT back home and it has always been his dream to ride around Australia like what I’m doing now on one of his holidays. I smiled as I said, “But not in this weather, I’m sure…”. He chuckled and replied, “Ya! That’s why we have the motorhome!”. They left shortly after, wishing me good luck for the rest of my journey.

I’m thankful for my great home base support who checked the weather here and in my further destinations, availability of accommodation, travel distances, time left etc. and came to conclusion that I need to put up there for the night, which I gladly agreed. There was also another guy on a Vulcan who’s on his way back to Coober Pedy. When he heard of my decision, he decided to stay as well.

I quickly checked myself into one of the room and got busy drying all my clothing using the little portable heater in the room. It didn’t turn out that bad after all but I was really hoping that tomorrow will be very much better than this!