Day 23 – Wednesday – Norseman (0 km)

I had a rest day in Norseman!

I felt tired to the point of illness last evening and decided that it would be a good idea to take a day off cycling. Although I hadn’t planned any rest days, I figured that as I was ahead of schedule, a day off wouldn’t seriously compromise my chances of completing the trip.

What a pleasure it was, not to have to rise before the sun! I lay in bed for perhaps an extra hour and felt quite guilty as a result. The balance of the morning was spent replying to an accumulation of emails, shopping and wondering around Norseman. With a population of 1500 it is a fairly small place and there isn’t much to be seen in Norseman. We did learn, however, that it is one of the few towns in the world that is named after a horse. It seems that one Laurie Sinclair was on his way home from working in the Coolgardie goldfields and stopped off here to visit his brother. He tethered his horse, which was named Hardy Norseman, and was surprised to find on his return that the horse had uncovered a gold nugget. This turned out to be the first evidence of quite a profitable seam of gold. The memory of Hardy Norseman is honoured in the name of the town and also in a statue that stands in the main road.

In the afternoon I spent some time cleaning and servicing my bike.

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