Day: 091
Date: Wednesday, 30 September 2020
Start: Cadney Park Roadhouse
Finish: Coober Pedy
Daily Kilometres: 153 (click for Julie's Strava and photos)
Total Kilometres: 9480
Weather: Cool early, then sunny and warm with light winds
Accommodation: Motel
Nutrition:
Breakfast: Egg & lettuce sandwiches
Lunch: Ham, cheese & tomato sandwich/Chicken, cheese & tomato sandwich
Dinner: Pizza, ice cream
Aches: Nothing significant
Highlight: Very pleasant early morning riding across the flat treeless gibber (small stones) plains with almost no other traffic.
Lowlight: None really
Pictures: Click here
Map and Position: Click here for Google Map
Journal:
We left our roadhouse soon after 6am, just as the sun was peeping above the eastern horizon across the vast gibber plains, and headed south towards Coober Pedy, 153km away, with no towns or roadhouses on the way. According to Maps.me, there was a rest area after 60km, so we decided to aim for that as our first and breakfast stop. It's always nice to put a good dent in the day's mileage at the start, both psychologically and because riding conditions tend to be better. I like to do the same when hiking.
The 60km took a little under three hours, with no stops, and was very pleasant riding, with little or no wind, clear sky and the sun slowly lighting up the bush (see above). The rest area was a disappointment, with not even a picnic table or bench, but we were ready for a break and ate our breakfast sitting on the ground and leaning up against a couple of posts in the sunshine, happy with progress so far. With just over 90km remaining, we decided to break it into three sections, and continued on.
Although for most of the day we were riding across gibber plains, which was a welcome change of scenery, there were still some areas of scrub, with no obvious reason why the vegetation differed. Although there was some traffic (it is the main highway between Adelaide and Darwin), we had long periods during the day when there was nothing. In the excellent conditions with the ability to see vast distances across the open country, the riding was very enjoyable. We could see vehicles, and particularly road trains, coming from a long way, often looking like trains crossing the horizon where the road curved around. Speaking of trains, the Ghan railway line was frequently visible just to the west of the road, but we didn't see any trains today.
After our mid-morning break, with 58km to go, we began to see the first indications of the opal mining for which Coober Pedy is famous. There were signs warning of the dangers of falling into open shafts, and other signs warning not to trespass onto claims, as well as some isolated mullock heaps. By the time we stopped for lunch at 1pm, with just 20km to go, mullock heaps were visible everywhere, with an occasional piece of equipment or small mining operation amongst them. The mullock heaps, which come in all sizes, are colourful, ranging from white to yellow, orange, ochre, red and brown.
Finally, Coober Pedy appeared in the distance to the east and we turned off the highway and into town. We quickly found our motel, partly chosen because it has underground rooms, a renowned Coober Pedy building feature, and checked in around 2:30pm. The very friendly owner gave us a discount and upgraded us to a room large enough to store our bikes, which was very kind of him (I think we may be the only guests). Our room has no windows, no air-conditioning or heating, and bare carved rock walls. However, climate control is unnecessary because the underground temperature remains a constant 23°C throughout the year in a town where temperatures often reach 40+°C (39°C forecast for later this week). Apparently half the residents of Coober Pedy live in underground homes.
After the usual showers, we took a stroll down the small main street and bought some snacks and drinks, and later had an excellent pizza from a pizza parlour recommended by separate travellers we had met far from Coober Pedy.
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