The thermometer on my bars reads 40 degrees. The water in my bottle is warm and has long since lost its ability to quench my thirst but I keep drinking it anyway. I’m parched. Jan slowly pedals ahead, melting into the infinity of the dry, rocky landscape. A bird overhead breaks my trance and I get back on the bike. Just keep going.

We stop at the grave of Hugh Proby, the third son of the Earl of Carysfort, who acquired a 100 square miles of land in what was to become Kanyaka Station. During a storm in August, 1852, he rode out to gather up a bunch of cattle that had broken away. Upon his return to the homestead, Willochra Creek was flooded and he drowned while attempting to cross. He was 24. The irony of his drowning does not escape me as we cycle through this parched land…