So as per edit at the end of Day 5, Willy rolled into Rocky at around 2.30am.

I didn’t expect to hear from him until midday.

Then a call at 6:23am. Good God.

What is he doing awake.

Yeah can’t sleep.

In a zombie-state voice he carries on telling me bits and pieces of the ride and the uncertainty he has in his head about continuing on.

The Entree found him close to no water on two scary occasions and that has rattled him a lot.

Preparation and pre-planning are key.

So he decides to book accommodation for tonight in Rocky ‘just in case’.

The chances of heading west and pushing on are 70/30 in favour.

Priorities right now.

The bike.

The vehicle that is chafeuring him through this one helluva ride.

So he calls Giant Cycles in Rocky (Thank you Hayley!) and in his befuddled state tries to explain his pressing needs to the bike guy.

“Yeah, I’m doing the IPWR and need…”

Oh dear Willy.

Sleep is your friend dude.

The intermittent laughing about the end state of his chicken salad roll yesterday also starts to make me feel I should probably call the doctor.

The white truck ones.

He bought a wrapped in plastic chicken and salad roll and some potato gems from the Caltex at Mt Larcom before he started riding last night.

With little room, but a need to ensure food was on his persons in case he got stuck, he stuffed the chicken roll down the front of his bike shirt.

At 2:30am, with starving hallucinating hangries on the rise, he reached in and produced from his bike shirt a delightful looking soupy mess, which I shall, from this day, refer to as, Sweaty Chest Chicken Salad Soup.

Gross.

What could be worse?

He ate it.

Ok.

Trawling through chatter quickly so I don’t miss any meaty details before he leaves me for slumber I ask how he’s feeling…

“I seriously don’t know how I got here”.

Right.

The type of terrain is something he’s never done before.

And if he knew it was going to be like it was, and is, there would have been no way he would have entered.

He’s trained hard – that’s a daily given for ole Willy – but not a lot in these sort of roads

But he entered on a whim.

And here we are.

Ole Willy completing the Entree of one of the hardest bikepacking races in Australia.

Next part is probs scarier for dot-watching loved ones than the riders themselves.

I seriously feel like I want to be a helicopter mother for  ALL the dots out there.

It’s Ok little dots.

I’ll swoop in when I see your kms have slowed to 0.012km in the middle of the night in the middle of nowhere.

Obsessed!

Moving on…

Bike sorted. Tick.

Sleep. No tick.

The sleepless Willy rolled it in to Giant Rockhampton for a bit of a once over.  They are indeed Giants of this RTTR game with owner Chady coming 2nd in the Entree. See piccy of Chady and also Joel below via FB post and in the gallery. Willy’s eyes are on sleep-deprived fire!

Thank you fellows!

Next question.

Will Willy continue?

Text about 2.30pm.

“Can’t sleep”.

He’s just read on the FB page a couple of the other Full Mealers have pulled out and, despite this being a race, this is bad news in his mind because having a few souls out there floating about with you is definitely peace of mind.

What to do.

Willy go? Willy stay.

Intentions are there. The bike is loaded up and good to go.

Just sleep.

When you wake, you’ll know the right thing to do.