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 114 - Buronga to Balranald

Day:  114

Date:  Friday, 23 October 2020

Start:  Buronga

Finish:  Balranald

Daily Kilometres:  156 (click for Julie's Strava and photos)

Total Kilometres:  12062

Weather:  Mild, humid, overcast, with occasional light rain

Accommodation:  Motel

Nutrition:

  Breakfast:  Egg & lettuce rolls

  Lunch:  Chicken, cheese, tomato & lettuce rolls

  Dinner:  Lasagne/Spaghetti bolognaise, ice cream

Aches:  Nothing significant 

Highlight:  The weather conditions for riding were much better than anticipated.  The weather forecasts issued both last night and early this morning contained warnings for heavy rain and strong winds, so we were anticipating a miserable day, with 155km to ride.  However, we only encountered periods of light spitting rain, barely enough to warrant donning a rainjacket, and the winds were relatively light and neutral in direction.

Lowlight:  None really

Pictures: Click here

Map and Position: Click here for Google Map

Journal:

We expected miserable weather today (see above), so set off apprehensively in darkness at 5:40am for our 155km ride to Balranald.  We carried our supplies for the day, since, although our route took us close to the town of Robinvale, we could not use it for resupply as it would have required crossing the Murray River into Victoria, and we wouldn't have been allowed back into New South Wales without quarantining (we could see the police checkpoint from the Robinvale turnoff as we passed by).

There were vineyards and orchards early on, but then it was mostly Mallee woodland - red sandy soil, small gnarly eucalypts and low scrub - on both sides of the road.  We reached our planned breakfast stop at 54km without encountering rain or headwinds and decided to take advantage of the conditions to go another 15km to the next rest area before stopping around 8:40am.

As we were getting ready to leave, it began spitting with rain and we put on our rainjackets, though the humidity was high and we were soon sweating.  We rode 35km to another highway rest area in the spitting rain, skirting the hamlet of Euston and passing the Robinvale turnoff en route.  Around those places, there were some more vineyards and almond orchards, but before long we were back into the Mallee woodland and then some sheep grazing country and the occasional grain field.

At our next break, we decided it was too warm and not raining enough to warrant our rainjackets, but we hadn't gone too far before the rain intensified enough to make us stop and put them back on.  Despite the Sturt Highway being the main route between Sydney and Adelaide, traffic was relatively light, and we often had extended periods during which we had the road to ourselves, which is always enjoyable.  As the light rain continued, we ended up riding 45km to our final (lunch) break, a little further than planned, so that we had a rest area with a sheltered picnic table.

It was then only 15km to our motel in Balranald, reached about 2:30pm, after a comfortable and better-than-expected ride.  The balance of the day was the usual showers, shopping and recovery.

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