This is a curious stage because having cycled south of ‘the ridge’ since Madura five stages ago, you now find yourself on the other side, and it plays havoc with the elevation profile as the Eyre Highway attempts to head east along the coast. The ridge has effectively become a cliff, yet it’s not necessarily at the water’s edge.
The rollout is in the Nullarbor Wilderness Protected Area, heading south east towards the Great Australian Bight Marine National Park. The road hangs a left at four miles by the ‘scenic lookout’ rest area. The first five miles are gently up then down, before a short, sharp descent sets up a much more pronounced climb at six miles: by now the highway and the ridge in the landscape are so co-joined that undulations are inevitable.
There’s a seven mile descent from eight miles although the gradient never gathers enough of a slope to allow any seriously daft descending. The landscape is extremely barren as the road runs alongside the ocean, with white sand and scrub prevalent on both sides of the road. Rest areas are more frequent on this part of the route, although all they feature is a dirt track and a cleared area of sand at the side of the road.
The main fun feature of the stage is a rapid descent at nineteen miles where the road descends a hundred and fifty feet. But don’t worry because there’s instant karma as the highway regains all of that elevation on the way up to the finish.
Distance: 24 miles / 38 kilometres
Ascent: 285 feet / 87 metres
RGT Magic Road: b1gVVkz4NnNB
Max elevation: 416 ft
Min elevation: 227 ft
Total climbing: 287 ft
Total descent: -331 ft
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