After the incessant climbing of the last three stages, stage 306 offers some respite in the shape of Lake Gilmore at the end of the stage. Yes, the road continues to go upwards for the first five miles as it heads north away from the Dowak Nature Reserve, but once it tops out just before the Ngadju Nature Reserve, the rest of the stage – eighteen miles of it – is largely downhill.
The straight from the rollout is eleven miles long, and by the time the Coolgardie Esperance Highway hangs a right to pick up a more northerly trajectory, you’re actually at a lower elevation than that at the start, even allowing for the five mile climb.
I guess one of the disappointing things about this stage, and indeed the three predecessors, is that you don’t appear to be making any progress in terms of heading east. Five stages heading north, one after the other, is a lot when the necessity is to be heading towards Adelaide. But it is what it is and ‘normal service’ will eventually be resumed once the route gets past Norseman.
Lake Gilmore arrives on the scene at fourteen miles on the eastern (right hand) side of the road, and being ten miles long from top to bottom, remains your companion for the remainder of the stage. The railway line hugs the road for the whole of that time, as indeed it has done since leaving Dowak.
The run in to the finish at Daniell next to the Ngadju Indigenous Protected Area at the top end of the lake comes as the road takes a gentle left hander that sets up a flat run in to the line.
Distance: 23 miles / 37 kilometres
Ascent: 400 feet / 122 metres
RGT Magic Road: cVqojsv3ngfR
Max elevation: 1152 ft
Min elevation: 589 ft
Total climbing: 401 ft
Total descent: -671 ft
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