Day 57, Ely to Eureka, 78 miles

We tore ourselves from the creature comforts of our motel and hit the road just after 9am. Back onto Highway 50;  'The Loneliest Road in America' (or so the signs and everybody tells us. Well we contest this; it's not all that lonely. In fact the surest way to get a few cars appear on the horizon is to drop your cycle shorts for a pee. Maybe it's our timing but we found the roads in Utah much lonelier. That said, this was another 78 mile stretch without services. We may not have been alone but that's along time between drinks in this heat. Normally our bikes carry 5 litres of water but we've upped the anty with a plastic bladder strapped to rear rack (so to speak.) Mmm, hot latex-flavoured water.

 The first climb of the day was Robinson summit, and our legs were feeling fighting-fit after a languid day yesterday (okay Matt went for a run; you can't keep a good man down.) A bit of downhill followed by Little Antelope summit; then 'Pancake' summit (it wasn't that flat)-and finally Pinto summit. So lots of gradual ups and downs. Other cyclists have warned us about how repetative and boring Nevada is; but we've enjoyed the tranquility of the desert, majesty of the mountains and vast emptiness of the valleys. It sure beats battling for your roadspace in South London.

We had a Eureka moment when we finally reached the town of Eureka. The town sits at the bottom of a pretty gnarly downhill stretch; lots of tight hairpin turns without barriers. Once we were safely in Eureka, we stopped by the Sherrifs' office to find out whether we could camp out in the towns' park. Permission granted, we followed the officers' directions to find a grassless empty lot with a broken spigot and some strewn  trash. I was trying to conjure up something positive to say (like, 'It's free!')-when Matt suggested we keep riding to find an RV park. This prove to be a great suggestion; as a few hundred feet down the road we came across the actual town park. A lush grassy expanse complete with public toilets, running water and bbq pits. After prospecting that vacant lot, this felt like the Garden of Eden. And it's free!

Luckily 'the' grocery store was still open so we stocked up on breakfast stuff, coal and wine for the bbq. I also grabbed the local newspaper for a laugh. Back at the ranch, we set up camp and chatted with a group of brawny hunters enjoying their own bbq. Bizarrely (to an Australian)-they were exclusively drinking ice tea. However they made up in the manliness stakes with their big slabs of meat and corn cobs on the bbq. Both of which they were keen to share with us; along with some advice for the local roads. They also warned us about a mountain lion which has been spotted around town (and we were tantalisingly just short of mountain lion hunting season.) Oh deer.

I like to think we may be the first to have quaffed wine from plastic litre bike bottles (it works; and theres' no need to top up your 'glass'.) Supplemented with roasted corn, our tin-foil roasted eggs & veg (fresh from the pages of 'The Outdoor Cooks' Bible')-hit the spot. Matt also roasted up those pinion pine nuts, which were pino-fresh delish. While we waited for our foil to roast, I read out the surprisingly inspiring front-page news article. Rather than the usual local politics, we were treated to the story of Alistair McCandles: a man WALKING across the US to raise money for wounded soliders. He started out in South Carolina in April 2011 and hopes to complete his journey on Point Reyes National Seashore on the California coast by September 2012. All of a sudden we feel like we're taking the easy route; and the fast-lane! What a legend. We wondered whether we'd meet Alistair as it sounded like our paths may cross.

We kimfed out pretty early but were soon awoken by some loud revellers outside the town casino. When I started to unzip the tent to go to the loo without disturbing Matt, he broke the silence with 'Pee close to the tent - remember that cougar'. I'd totally forgotten about the mountain lion, but promptly took his advice! Finally we were able to nod off though.