Lachlan Morton is nearly a third of the way through his 14,201km around Australia record attempt, launching into the first ten days of the riding challenge with a scorching pace and weather that is beginning to match.
The EF Education-EasyPost rider had clocked up more than four-and-a-half-thousand kilometres since leaving Port Macquarie in New South Wales on Thursday September 5. He stopped in Darwin on Saturday afternoon, having planned for an easier day.
With the help of some tailwinds Morton’s daily average, according to his live tracking page, was not far off 480km, currently well ahead of the around 400km target mentioned when the plan was announced.
The around Australia record that Morton is attempting to beat is currently at 37 days, 20 hours and 45 minutes according to the Road Record Association of Australia and was set by Dave Alley in 2011, who pointed to the extreme heat in the north as one of the key challenges when he discussed his record effort of 13 years ago with Cyclingnews earlier this month.
It hasn’t been all smooth sailing for Morton, with swooping magpies and a stint on flat pedals to ease 'hotspots' on his feet on the east coast. Morton then faced a ratcheting up of temperature as he headed west on the long, straight and exposed inland roads.
“I woke up drenched in sweat in the middle of the night,” said Morton in his video report posted on Instagram after day 9 where he rode through to Katherine.
“My body is trying to heal itself. It felt like death getting out of bed but once I got the legs moving it was alright.
“I’m a bit nauseous, lost all my breakfast,” he added. “Not ideal but it happens.”
He managed to recover through the day on Friday despite 'baking conditions' on the long exposed roads that took Morton through the Northern Territory at a time when the Bureau of Meteorology was reporting maximum temperatures of 35°C and above in the towns Morton was passing through.
"I got some lunch with the gang, feeling a lot better now, finally got some food in and stayed down so got a big bunch of energy back," said Morton who went on to clock up a day of around 500km, even though he encountered an "absolute sizzler of an afternoon" on Friday.
He predicted that he would "probably end up taking a chill day tomorrow" aiming to see some of Darwin and stay there overnight after arriving on Saturday.
It looks like that plan worked out, with Morton's tracking dot pausing in the capital of the Northern Territory early Saturday afternoon local time – with Darwin nine-and-a-half hours ahead of Greenwich Mean Time.
You can follow Morton's journey via the live tracking page, and donate via Morton's Indigenous Literacy Foundation fundraising page.
