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 096 - Port Augusta

Day:  096

Date:  Monday, 05 October 2020

Start:  Port Augusta

Finish:  Port Augusta

Daily Kilometres:  0 (click here for Julie's Strava and photos from her walk)

Total Kilometres:  10022

Weather:  Rain overnight, then cold, windy and mostly sunny

Accommodation:  Hotel

Nutrition:

  Breakfast:  Fresh fruit & yoghurt, donuts/muffins

  Lunch:  Pizza rolls

  Dinner:  Hamburgers & chips, ice cream 

Aches:  Nothing significant

Highlight:  Another lazy day

Lowlight:  It rained heavily overnight and the bathroom roof in our old hotel leaked steadily, requiring the deployment of buckets and other containers.  We could have complained, but it would likely have resulted in a room change, which would have been a pain in the butt, so we didn't bother.

Pictures: No photos today.

Map and Position: Click here for Google Map

Journal:

Not much to report today, with the focus on relaxation.

After a good night's sleep we bought breakfast at the nearby supermarket again, there not being many other options, and later went for a short walk around the downtown area, including the visitors centre and along the foreshore bike path.  The port town is historic with many attractive old buildings set around a well-planned street grid, but it also seems very quiet with a number of defunct businesses.  Of course, we are here on a long weekend, so may not be getting the true picture.  On the way back from our walk we bought lunch from (you guessed it) the supermarket. 

I spent most of the afternoon catching up on correspondence (and resting my legs) while Julie walked 12km out and back to the Australian Arid Lands Botanical Garden along the Red Cliffs Walk in the brisk sunny conditions.

For dinner, we returned to the same take-out cafe (third night in a row) and ate back at our room.

Back on the road tomorrow.

By

No comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)