Cycling the hard way - part 1

Lunch break in the heat

Yesterday was my first day of cycling - and I had a very tough start. First of all Western Australia is suffering from a heat wave. It was over 40 Celsius yesterday and even at night the temperature never fell below 27 Celsius. Unfortunately I had brought chocolate as trail food - the chocolate ended up as Nutella. It even did not get solid at night - still too hot.
The biggest problem though was the track. I was cycling on the so called Kep Track on dirt tracks to avoid traffic. Very bad idea. All the tracks consist of loose gravel and in this heat the gravel becomes very loose. After one hour on my bike I fell the first time and hurt my knee badly. But I am a brave girl: I put on iodine and cycled on. But cycling on gravel tracks is very time and energy consuming, so I did not cover much distance and collapsed at night.
Today I changed strategy and tried to avoid dirt roads whenever possible. The temperature outside is 45 Celsius right now - I am not kidding. I have sought shelter in an airconditioned library where I am writing this. I am constantly drinking, but the water gets very hot after 1 hour in a plastic bottle on my bike.
And to make things worse, there is a forest fire in this area. Apparantly it is just a small one, but all the smoke in the sky makes me really nervous.
Seems like I am in for a real adventure here...