Day: 067
Date: Sunday, 06 September 2020
Start: Katherine
Finish: Mataranka
Daily Kilometres: 115 (click for Julie's Strava and photos)
Total Kilometres: 6761
Weather: Hot, sunny and windy
Accommodation: Cabin
Nutrition:
Breakfast: Chicken, bacon & avocado sandwiches
Lunch: Pie/Sausage roll, chocolate brownies
Dinner: Tuna mornay/Veal cordon bleu & vegetables, custard slice
Aches: Nothing significant
Highlight: A refreshing swim (even though the water temperature was 33°C) at the Bitter Springs thermal pools in mid-afternoon.
Lowlight: The relentless south-easterly wind that sprang up around 7:30am and persisted until we reached Mataranka which was, of course, in a south-easterly direction. It was not lost on us that if we had turned towards Western Australia from Katherine, as originally intended, it would have been a very nice tailwind.
Pictures: Click here
Map and Position: Click here for Google Map
Journal:
It was another day for which the weather forecast included heat and headwinds, so we left early (6am) in the hope of avoiding at least some of both. However, by 7:30am, the wind was already a factor and cycling required constant applied effort, with no chances to roll and get a rest. We didn't have a long day in prospect, just 106km to Mataranka, so decided to aim for the only highway rest stop on our route, 46km from Katherine for our breakfast break.
We got there about 8:15am, which wasn't bad considering the wind, and headed for the only unoccupied (of two) shaded picnic table for breakfast, only to see a couple emerge from a caravan and take it as we rode in. Instead, we sat at a picnic table in the sun nearby and ended up chatting to them while we ate. They were from Lara, near Geelong, on their way home from a few months in Darwin to COVID-19 Stage 3 lockdown in Victoria.
After breakfast, we only had 60km to go, and took another break halfway. The wind dominated our ride and it was hard to appreciate the arid woodland and birdlife alongside us, though we continued to average faster than 20kph. I think our endurance has improved and we can tolerate adverse conditions for longer. It's the same with the heat, which has become a constant in our cycling lives up here, but does not really slow us down these days. (I shaved my head during our day off in Katherine, and I have distinct brown stripes on my skull from where the sun comes through the ventilation gaps in my bike helmet.)
We rolled into Mataranka at 12:30pm and checked into the roadhouse where we had booked a cabin. We were early, and it wasn't ready, so we ate lunch on the roadhouse's shady verandah before going to the now-ready cabin. There, we unloaded our bikes and changed into our swimming gear before riding 3km to the Bitter Springs thermal pools in Elsey National Park. When we were in Mataranka just over two weeks ago, we stayed near the Mataranka thermal pools in a different part of the park, so this time we decided to visit the other local pools. They were exotic and beautiful, with warm clear water flowing from the artesian basin below to form the Little Roper River, a mostly sandy-bottomed channel through the tropical vegetation. After cycling slowly around a short loop trail we locked the bikes and swam slowly down the channel. Mostly, the water depth was over our heads, and the majority of other swimmers were using noodles for buoyancy. It was an idyllic scene and very welcome after our labours of the morning.
We returned to our cabin in time for me to watch my team win an AFL game on TV, to cap an excellent afternoon. Later, we bought microwaveable dinner along with supplies for tomorrow from the roadhouse and will have another early night, ready for another day of forecast heat and headwinds.
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