I made it to Norseman in one day!!!

 450kms and thats a very long way on a very small bike. But wind assisted it was pretty easy, like being in an old ship with a sail, just being pushed along with very little effort on my part. Old Gerty did me proud, not putting a tyre wrong once. ood old Gerty.

I think I left Cocklebiddy at about 0815, after chatting to Chris from New Zealand who was travelling the same way as me but in a small camper van. But who knows with those ridiculous clocks and time zones. It was lighter though, although much cooler. I kept seeing Chris along the way over the last few days; its quite funny how that happens. Its a bit like when you're commuting and you see the same people on the train or running for the bus. You have no other connection with them except that you share a sector of time on certain days.

I knew many kilometres lay ahead today and that there wasn't much other stuff to see en route. But I did come across the blowholes at Caiguna. The whole Nullabor is limestone karst but because its so dry, it hasn't weathered like other vast limestone areas in places like the UK or France, so its pretty flat and featureless in comparison. But it has weathered along cracks and strata and some of the weathering has resulted in caves and blowholes. These vent when air pressure changes, expressing air with high pressure, and taking it in when it drops. There are quite a few caves and blowholes dotted over the plain, and this one was just off the road. Glad I didn't wild camp round there in the dark!

A bit further along was 90 mile straight. I remember this from my road train days; 90 miles (146kms) of dead straight road, without a bend or a deviation along its entire length. Its Australia's longest straight road. Its actually like a Roman road but without a single chariot to be seen.

And just over two hours later, out we popped the other end.

After that, it was a brief stop for food and fuel, and then onwards towards Norseman. There was plenty of this along the way...

but with some of this.....

...but thankfully also some silly stuff if you keep an eye out for it.

I finally reached Norseman, and found the statue of the little horse which started it all. 

Yes, the town is named after a horse who apparently pawed the dirt and inadvertently scratched up some gold. He was called Norseman, and his owner, a Mr Sinclair ( no relation) and his brother then staked a claim and the gold rush began. Easy as. So I guess it really is a one horse town...

 And do you know what? That gold rush is still going, at least for  the people who own the Gateway Camp Ground. Its the only one in town and the town is a bit ropey ( the campground has 10 m high fences around it) so the greedy shits charge mega backs to stay - $33.00 for an unpowered site on a bit of gravel, and much more for powered versions. The managers ( who are very nice) are really embarrassed about the blatant gold digging and apparently keep asking the owners to reduce the rate but to no avail. However, the free camps around here are a bit creepy, and the hardstanding areas where vans can park up are not great unless you can lock your stuff away, which in a tent/swag, you can't do.