Day 9
26 OCT / Monday
30 miles before Jerramungup to 25-30 miles before Ravensthorpe (62 miles)

Breakfast is a half piece of bread with Nutella, and sour cream & onion chips. Ashley was a pain-in-the-ass to get going this morning. She wanted to keep sleeping. I don't think she falls asleep as early as I do (7-8 pm). Mosquitoes stayed on the bug-netting all night and attacked hard and heavy whilst we packed up camp. (We do not carry bug spray.) Left this morning around 8.15 am. Tough 30 miles for me to Jerramungup. Made it to Jerramungup's IGA (a very limited grocery store even for me) around 12.30 pm. Purchased 3 meals from the IGA (breakfast, lunch, dinner for the ride to Ravensthorpe). Chocolate covered ice cream bar, mango frozen ice stick and a half gallon of milk for lunch. Started picking up our pace after lunch. Then it started to drizzle for an hour... we keep going and it starts to rain. By 4.00 pm we are soaked. We stop at the next rest area. A rest area consists of a carved out dirt path alongside the road with a trash can. I tread through the rain looking for a camping spot as Ashley waits under probably the tallest tree we have seen all today. All I find is toilet paper and pooh to camp in. We move on another 1/4 mile or so, spending 20-30 minutes finding a camp, getting colder and more soaked in the rain. We ended up pulling off a dirt road and found shrubs that had branches tall enough to tie our tarp off. First time to use our tarp (an 8ft x 10ft silicone impregnated tarp) that I have sewn tie-outs too. Used bungee straps to get things up. Our tarp set-up is not going to withstand a wind storm. We have our bikes tucked under the tarp with the front wheel beside them. I placed a stake on the outside of the rear wheels to help keep the bikes stable as the bikes are locking each other together from falling onto Ashley. We have to wear our wet clothes in order for them to dry by tomorrow morning. I am really stuck wearing mine to sleep because I wore both of my bicycle shorts in the rain. It is 7 pm now and it is still raining. Not to cold right now, but I am still wet. Ashley's achilles on her left foot has been bothering her since she took out her shoe inserts yesterday. Now she says her right knee on the outside feels pain. A few drops are making it in the mesh. Raining fairly good, and has been consistent for the last 3 hours. Dinner is shared between Ashley and I of a bag of Cheese Doritos and "plain" Doritos (no cheese added aka tortilla chips) dipped in a glass jar of Old El Paso sauce. I also eat a Nutri Grain fruit bar. Will the rain stop by morning? Will things be dry?

Billy woke me up at 8:00am (telling me it wast already past 9:00am). I couldn't sleep last night, so I was hoping to sleep a bit longer. After gathering our belongings and battling the mosquitoes and flies off we headed to Jerramungup by 9:00am. By 10:00 we had only gone 16 miles. We still needed to ride 15 more before lunch. Billy and I arrived in Jerramungup by noon. The town is very small. There is one small grocery store and a small cafe that makes up the whole town. Billy and I opted for the IGA for lunch. We also had to pick up extra food and drinks for the next 100 miles. Tomorrow is going to be tough. We are 75 miles away from Ravensthorpe. We should have gone 30 more miles today, yet the rain wouldn't let up. It appears we are atleast two days away from Esperance. Let's just hope there's a gas station on the way to Ravensthorpe tomorrow, or our food and water could run out. Today's scenery was filled with open dessert roads and dying trees. The air is dry and hot. A storm has been building up all day. We thought it was going to blow over, but it seems to have stopped directly on top of us. I hope it stops by tomorrow. Billy and I are under the tarp by 5:30pm. We are trying are best to dry off.