Forbes to Mildura and the dreaded Hay Plains

I woke well before my alarm at about 4:30 am so I decided to do the 5 minute walk to the gym, grab some coffee and a egg & bacon roll from next door and be on the road soon after the sun came up.

It was bloody cold so after I got back to the pub I put all my wet weather gear on as well as a extra T shirt, loaded the bike, grabbed brekky and was on my way just after 6:00, a bit before sunrise (not something I normally do), before long the sun was bright in my mirrors and it was starting to take away the morning chill. I stopped in West Wyalong for fuel and decided to go the extra few km via Griffith as I'd done the ride straight down to Hay (but in the other direction) 3 times before on a bike and a few more by car.

Not even out of town and stopped at roadworks .........................

A bit after 9:00 I rolled into Griffith feeling the stiffest I'd felt since leaving home so before I refuelled and got going I went for a walk on the treadmill and did a solid 1/2 hour of back stretching.

Reinvigorated and refuelled (after finally finding one that wasn't out and waiting for deliveries) I was heading south to Darling Point and the dreaded Hay Plains, what can I say about them that hasn't been said before, Straight, Flat, Kangaroos, Trucks, Emus, more Kangaroos (repeat 50 times)

After about 1 1/2 hours I rolled into the Servo on the outskirts of Hay for a lunch break, 20 minutes later I was back on the Bandit burning up more km of Straight, Flat, Kangaroos, Trucks, Emus etc etc, somewhere in that section there is one small hill that you go straight over, feels like a small mountain after 100's of km of nothing.

For about the 100th time since I'd left Adelaide 2 1/2 weeks earlier, here I was stuck at roadworks for what felt like forever (over 20 min) admiring the scenery





Finally got going again and burned up the rest of the Hay Plains, heading into Balranald once again we were stopped, this time by a oversize load getting across the bridges, I managed to sneak past a heap of trucks and cars and get 2 from the front before traffic moved again, over the brides we go and the car in front of me and I get pulled into a breath testing station in the middle of the afternoon, a quick 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 into the machine a chat from a friendly copper, a fuel stop a couple km up the road and I was back on my way.

Another uneventful section of road, rolled into Buronga to be stopped at roadworks again for about another 15 minutes, finally moving again, rolled into Mildura and checked into my motel room, nice meal at the Workers Club and a early night ready for the final leg home