It was the first time in a long time that we woke to a dry and frost free tent. Definitely warmer last night, reeling from this shock we were a little later setting off.

Today we will cross the Great Divide Basin this is the worst section of our entire ride for water supply. There is no surface water for 57 miles, just sand and sage grass. We took a total of 14 litres with us so if we needed to stop halfway we had sufficient water to do so. In case you do not know, 14 litres of water has a mass of 14 Kg (or 14 bags of sugar or 14 pixies who are 1 Kg each), eeek a lot of extra to carry.

There was only a tiniest breath of a wind with just the odd stronger gust, the tracks were good. But there was an immediate stop to view some Sage Grouse (I forgot my Sage Grouse gun, they are in season now, and only shot them with the camera), the grouse are similar to our grouse but larger (typical american).

As the morning progressed the wind picked up and helped a lot pushing us along in an easterly direction. We continued down the 2317 (the track had a name!) riding roughly parallel to the Great Divide.

By now the wind was gusting at 25 mph, still helping us. Along the way we saw lots of Antelope, some cattle and on occasions wild horses. One herd ran next to us then straight across the track and away into the distance.

As predicted there was no surface water at all, we only had what we were carrying.

And.

The “easy” riding did not last a sharp right took us directly into the wind, it was uphill as well, on a sandy surface. This was extreemly tough cycling for 5 miles. Then it switched back and the final 10 miles were a breeze (you like the pun?) but tiring.

57 miles done today and we arrived at the wild camp next to the reservoir, a lovely place but the strong wind made it an exciting place to put ip a tent.