Julie and I were supposed to be hiking the 5,000km Continental Divide Trail in the US in 2020, but COVID-19 derailed that plan. Instead, we will have an adventure in Australia, circumnavigating the country on our bikes, a distance of about 16,500km taking approximately five and a half months. We will use minor roads where possible and occasionally catch ferries across rivers and inlets to avoid busier inland routes. We will camp some of the time and stay in motels, hotels, etc, at others. There will be stretches of up to five days with no accommodation or resupply available, so we will need to be self-sufficient.

Round Australia Bike Ride - Day 046 - Borroloola

Day:  046

Date: Sunday, 16 August 2020

Start:  Borroloola

Finish:  Borroloola

Daily Kilometres:  0

Total Kilometres:  4834

Weather:  Warm to hot and sunny all day

Accommodation:  Cabin

Nutrition:

  Breakfast:  Porridge

  Lunch:  Chicken, cabana & chips

  Dinner:  Chicken parmigiana & vegetables, ice cream

Aches:  Nothing significant

Highlight:  None really

Lowlight:  None really

Pictures: Click here

Map and Position: Click here for Google Map

Journal:

It was a bit of a nothing day, but certainly welcomed by my fatigued body.  Just walking down to the service station 500m away last night was an effort.

Our day got off to a slow start before we decided to walk 1.5km up to the main part of the small town mid-morning, before the heat set in, to see what delights the "supermarkets" had in store, and to look around. Borroloola is primarily an aboriginal town, but also the home of the shire council.  The public facilities, such as the school, looked well cared for, but the dry dusty sun-baked laid-back feel of an outback town still shone through.  We spread our largesse around town by buying some food and other supplies in both of the small stores before walking back to our cabin under a bright hot sun.

Back at the cabin, Julie took care of our laundry and cleaning the dust off our bags (everything has ingrained red dust), while I did some trip planning and booking (yes, very traditional task allocation!).  I also spent some time cleaning out my handlebar bag, in which I store things for easy access during the day, because a motel cake of soap I had thrown in there had broken open and been pulverised into powder over the last three days, coating everything with a fine layer of soap.  At least it was easier to clean than the egg salad sandwich Julie had pulverised in her handlebar bag early in our trip.

For lunch, we walked down to the service station and bought some take-out, along with supplies for tomorrow's ride, and the afternoon was spent doing some more chores, catching up on correspondence and phone calls, repacking, and generally lazing around enjoying the air-conditioning.  The occupants of the other cabins, most of whom seem to be workers of some description or other, were doing the same thing, lounging around on their verandahs chatting or reading or using their laptops on their day off.

Dinner was a microwaved meal and then more laziness before an early night.  We are looking forward to riding on a sealed road tomorrow.

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