The horizon on fire as the sun rose
Distance cycled: 112km to Sandfire roadhouse.
Average speed: 17.3km/h
Moving Time: 6h32m
Elevation Ascended: 280
Total Distance on Current trip: 322km
Distance until I have cycled the circumference of Earth: 8,397km
Money spent: zip
Humid, hot and sweaty; all things that are not conducive to a good nights sleep and why I packed my stuff at 2am to get that early morning start to get to Sandfire roadhouse to see my girlfriend and to avoid the potentially body cooking heat of the midday sun.
Obviously at 2am it was still dark but in the distance there was a mysterious orange glow illuminating some dark clouds hovering above. I thought little of this thinking perhaps it was a small oil refinery that was burning off the excess fumes but as I cycled closer to this glow I soon realized that I was very wrong; not only was there no oil refinery located in such an arid landscape in the middle of nowhere and what I thought was a simple exhaust pipe for an industrial excavation was a gigantic bush fire now viewable from the road illuminating the early morning sky as if it was the early morning sun.
Cycling along the road seeing the bright strip of fire along the horizon was initially intriguing and of course I stopped for photos but as I continued receiving a slight whiff of the smoke from the fire and having not seen any other vehicle on the road for the past hour I got a little worried. My only feeling of relief was the fact that the wind was blowing the fires devastation in the opposite direction to the way I was cycling but of course meaning I was tackling the harsh headwind.
After tens of kilometers I eventually passed the view of the fire and the only the glow was just visible as the sun rose.
Spurred on to see Marlieke in the roadhouse where she worked I pushed on but at one point ran out of water however a kind man stopped to give me a frozen bottle from his eskie (cooler) - pure heaven!
It was an arduously extreme day but eventually I made it, with a kiss for Marlieke still drenched with sweat and stinking up everything in close proximity I nearly passed out on the table outside the roadhouse, my it was great to see her again. :)
The fire I cycled by not far from the road on which I was cycling
And 330km later I made it to Sandfire
No comments:
Post a Comment