Round Australia Bike Ride - Day 074 - Ti-Tree to Alice Springs

Day:  074

Date: Sunday, 13 September 2020

Start:  Ti-Tree

Finish:  Alice Springs

Daily Kilometres:  194 (click for Julie's Strava and photos)

Total Kilometres:  7843

Weather:  Cool early, then windy, sunny and very warm

Accommodation:  Motel

Nutrition:

  Breakfast:  Toasted egg & bacon sandwiches

  Lunch:  Ham, tomato & pickle sandwich/Beef, tomato & pickle sandwich

  Dinner:  Pizza, ice cream

Aches:  Nothing significant

Highlight:  Thanks to our long and arduous day (see below), we got to enjoy the last 20km into Alice Springs through the MacDonnell Ranges by the light of the setting sun which bathed the bush, boulders and spectacular bluffs in a soft orange light.

Lowlight:  I promise this will be the last complaint about the wind (for a while, at least).  Today, we had headwinds for pretty much the whole 194km, starting with a headbreeze for the first three hours, and building to an official 20-30kph headwind for the last 100km.  Gusts brought us almost to a standstill and the roaring in our ears never let up.  For the whole day, we were using three to four gears lower, and working harder, than for calm conditions.

Pictures: Click here

Map and Position: Click here for Google Map

Journal:

Our goal today was Alice Springs, 195km away, and the forecast was for strengthening headwinds.  We were both a bit apprehensive, but decided against an even earlier start than usual and left Ti-Tree 4:45am (early enough!).  Our plan was to ride non-stop to the Aileron Roadhouse, 60km away, and get breakfast and supplies for the day there, since there were no other shops en route to Alice Springs.  It was quite cool when we set off and we were both wearing our jackets for the first time in many weeks.  Sadly, there was also a slight headwind, so we didn't get the fast start we were hoping for, but still made reasonable time.

The Aileron Roadhouse has an adjacent indigenous art gallery, and the roadhouse was dominated by two huge and impressive aboriginal figures, one atop the mountain behind.  We bought some toasted sandwiches for breakfast which we ate in the dining room of the very quiet roadhouse, as well as sandwiches for lunch later and some cold drinks.  By the time we left at 8:30am, it had warmed up to T-shirt temperature, and we were conscious that we still had 135km to go in the freshening wind.

A sign told us there was a highway rest area in 39km, so we decided to aim for that for our morning break.  It was hard work, on a road that had very long flat stretches and was becoming busy with Sunday traffic in addition to the usual caravans/campers and road trains.  The scenery was predominantly arid woodland cattle and camel grazing country (we saw a few of the latter), and side roads led to cattle stations and aboriginal communities.

After a welcome break at the rest area, the wind really began to dominate our day, and we just plugged away, each in our own little roaring wind worlds, trying to get the job done.  It wasn't much fun, but every adventure (or, for that matter, every venture) that is worthwhile entails some drudgery, and we knew we would gain satisfaction from enduring and overcoming the elements, along with other delights in the days ahead.

Our lunch stop was under a shady tree by the roadside, and then it was more hard work in some very open flat grazing country that offered zero protection from the wind.  We took our final break in another highway rest area, which also marked the Tropic of Capricorn, thus ending our time in the tropics.  From there, we had just 32km to go, but the wind was still fierce and our progress was slow.  One minor highlight was passing the highest point on the Stuart Highway between Darwin and Adelaide, meaning that we were going to be trending downhill from that point into Alice Springs.

There was a descent, through the picturesque MacDonnell Ranges in the late afternoon sun (see above), but the wind didn't allow us to do much freewheeling.  However, we did make a few photo stops to enjoy the scenery, and then we were in the northern part of the very pretty Alice Springs.  We reached our motel in the city centre at 5:30pm, ending a very long and tiring day, and checked in.  After showers, we did a little shopping at the nearby supermarket, then had dinner ($10 pizza night!) at the motel's tavern.

We now have two days off in Alice Springs during which we will relax, attend to a few chores, and prepare for the next leg of our journey.  Given we couldn't get into Western Australia, and thus have some extra time, we are going to do a loop into the desert west of here, following the Red Centre Way to Uluru (Ayers Rock).  This will require some logistics planning since there are few resupply options for the nine-day loop.

Round Australia Bike Ride - Day 073 - Wycliffe Well to Ti-Tree

Day:  073

Date: Saturday, 12 September 2020

Start:  Wycliffe Well

Finish:  Ti-Tree

Daily Kilometres:  182 (click for Julie's  Strava  and  photos)

Total Kilometres:  7649

Weather:  Hot, sunny and breezy

Accommodation:  Motel

Nutrition:

  Breakfast:  Bread & jam/Bread & peanut butter

  Lunch:  Pastie, bread & tuna/Sausage roll, bread & peanut butter

  Dinner:  Fish, salad & chips/Hamburger & chips, cheesecake.

Aches:  Nothing significant

Highlight:  For some reason, I had not factored the Barrow Creek Roadhouse into today's logistics planning, and we carried supplies for the whole day to be self-sufficient.  But, after seeing it appear on a few signposts, we became hopeful it might be open, and it was.  We arrived at the old atmospheric roadhouse/pub, adjacent to the historic telegraph station, at 10am, and had a second breakfast (or early lunch) and some cold drinks, sitting at a bench on their verandah, admiring the spectacular desert scenery and chatting with other travellers.

Lowlight:  Both of us take pictures while we are riding, Julie with her phone and me with my camera.  Today, for the first time on the trip, while I was readying my camera for a shot, I managed to drop it.  It bounced and rolled a few times, but seems to have survived.

Pictures: Click here

Map and Position: Click here for Google Map

Journal:

With 182km on the agenda, and uncertain wind conditions, we got up at 4am and left the motel at 4:45am.  We were a bit worried that we might be locked in, as like many caravan parks, they locked their gates at night.  Usually there's a passcode or similar, but Wycliffe Well wasn't that sophisticated.  One of the two friendly and very hard-working young south Asian guys running the place assured me he would open the gate in time for our very early departure and, sure enough, it was ajar and unlocked so not a problem.

We had left early to take advantage of the usual cool and calm pre-dawn conditions but, although coolness was delivered, there was a slight headwind that made pedalling an effort.  As Julie said, it felt like someone had their hand lightly on our brakes for two and a half hours.  The road was also very gradually uphill, so that didn't help, and we had to work to maintain a 20kph average.  For our first break, we aimed for a rest area 50km from our motel and reached there about 7:30am, which was a good result.

While we were eating breakfast, the wind seemed to strengthen a little and swing round to be more easterly which, since we were cycling in a generally south-south-west direction, was good news, and so it proved.  The cycling became easier and faster and we made good time through the arid country, including up several low ranges of hills.  Around us were attractive red escarpments and bluffs, adding interest between the long flat straight stretches that made up much of our day.  This was the area made famous by the murder of British tourist, Peter Falconio, and the attempted abduction of his girlfriend, Joanne Lees, who hid in the roadside scrub to evade her attacker.

We reached the Barrow Creek Roadhouse/Pub at 10am, having covered half our distance for the day, and celebrated with a cold drink and snack (see above).  From there, we continued to gently climb through the dry hills and then crossed more flat scrubby country where a sign informed us that we were now in the Central Desert.

For most of the day, we were passing through cattle station country, though we only saw a few cattle.  Occasionally, there were side roads leading to cattle stations, some more than a hundred kilometres away, while other side roads led to aboriginal communities, often with restricted access.  Apart from galahs early on, we didn't see any wildlife, and Julie commented that we didn't see any roadkill all day either.

Our afternoon seemed to pass fairly quickly, though the last 10km of any section always seems to drag.  The wind shifted around a bit, and sometimes was against and sometimes in favour of us.  We were happy to reach the small aboriginal settlement of Ti-Tree around 3:30pm, after a big kilometre day, and checked into the roadhouse/motel.  We later had dinner at the roadhouse, and with another long day scheduled tomorrow, went to bed early (again).

Round Australia Bike Ride - Day 072 - Tennant Creek to Wycliffe Well

Day:  072

Date: Friday, 11 September 2020

Start:  Tennant Creek

Finish:  Wycliffe Well

Daily Kilometres:  133 (click for Julie's Strava and photos)

Total Kilometres:  7467

Weather:  Hot, sunny and windy

Accommodation:  Motel

Nutrition:

  Breakfast:  Egg & lettuce sandwiches

  Lunch:  Toasted ham, cheese & tomato sandwiches

  Dinner:  Pizza/Hot dog & chips, ice-creams

Aches:  Nothing significant

Highlight:  None really

Lowlight:  None really

Pictures: Click here

Map and Position: Click here for Google Map

Journal:

We weren't planning to leave Tennant Creek very early, but as we were both awake soon after 4am, we decided we might as well get up and make the most of cooler and calmer conditions.  We weren't the only ones up early, and as we were loading our bikes outside our cabin and close to the chainlink fence surrounding the campground, a local out walking his dog, and possibly a little inebriated, greeted us very loudly and wished us well.

We rode out of the quiet town around 5am and headed south on a very flat and straight road.  There was hardly any other traffic, but we could see tail-lights of the couple of vehicles that passed for maybe ten minutes before they disappeared in the far distance.  By 5:30am, the sky was reddening to the east, and gradually dawn broke over the flat scrubby plains to both sides of us.  In contrast to most mornings, there was little wildlife evident, including birds.

The wind was absent and the flat road allowed us to maintain a good speed and we had covered 54km by the time we stopped for breakfast on the roadside at 7:30am.  As usual, the wind began picking up as the sun got higher, but mostly was from the east and across our path, and we rode another 35km before taking another break at a shaded picnic table in a highway rest area.

From there, we had an uphill ride, much of it into a stiff headwind, to the Devils Marbles Conservation Area in the Davenport Range, where we detoured from the Stuart Highway to pass through a series of large, often spherical, boulders, piled up like mounds of marbles.  It wasn't a large area, but contrasted starkly with the surrounding low hills.

Ten kilometres later, and back on the Stuart Highway, we reached the isolated Devils Marbles Hotel, formerly the Wauchope Hotel.  It was early, 11:45am, but we were ready for lunch, so ordered some toasted sandwiches and ate them in the air-conditioned pub watching the comings and goings of locals and travellers, including two police officers who we thought might have a bit of trouble with the annual physical.

We then cycled the remaining 17km to reach Wycliffe Well, our goal for the day, but the wind was gusty and occasionally against us, and the weather very warm, so it wasn't easy.  Wycliffe Well claims to be the UFO capital of Australia and the roadhouse has exploited that claim to the full, with murals, signage and alien figures everywhere.  There was some kind of celebration going on and the roadhouse was busy with a group of local aborigines enjoying lunch and a few drinks, but our room was available and we gratefully adjourned there to shower and rest up after our early start.

We later had dinner at the roadhouse, the only place with internet access, and also bought supplies for tomorrow, which will involve another early start ….. and therefore an early night.

Round Australia Bike Ride - Day 071 - Renner Springs to Tennant Creek

Day:  071

Date: Thursday, 10 September 2020

Start:  Renner Springs

Finish:  Tennant Creek

Daily Kilometres:  160 (click for Julie's Strava and photos)

Total Kilometres:  7334

Weather:  Hot, sunny and windy

Accommodation:  Cabin

Nutrition:

  Breakfast:  Trail mix, cheese & tomato sandwich

  Lunch:  Toasted ham, cheese & tomato sandwich/Toasted chicken, cheese & tomato sandwich

  Dinner:  Pizza, ice cream

Aches:  Nothing significant

Highlight:  In hot conditions in mid-morning, the same young Irish guy who stopped and gave us ice cold drinks yesterday, once again stopped and gave us ice cold drinks.  This time he was travelling in the opposite direction, back to Darwin from a job he had in Tennant Creek yesterday, and said he did a bit of cycling in Ireland and was full of admiration for what we were doing.

Lowlight:  The wind again.  I didn't think it was as bad today as in the previous three days, swinging to be more of a cross-wind for long periods from late morning.  But it wasn't "cross" enough for Julie, who reckoned it was still making life tough.

Pictures: Click here

Map and Position: Click here for Google Map

Journal:

We had a long day in front of us, 160km to Tennant Creek, and uncertain of how unfavourable the wind would be, we left in the dark, soon after 5am.  As we walked from our room to the road, the Greyhound bus was just pulling out of the roadhouse on its way to Darwin from Alice Springs.  We've seen it an hour or two earlier each day as we've travelled south, but it will be too early for us tomorrow in Tennant Creek.

The sky was star-filled and the temperature mild as we pedalled south on the very quiet road in calm conditions.  We were intent on making as many kilometres as we could before the wind picked up and had covered 50km before stopping by the road for breakfast, having witnessed yet another fantastic bush dawn.  The Threeways Roadhouse was another 85km further on and we planned to have a late lunch there, so broke the remaining distance into three sections with breaks in between.

The countryside was undulating and scrubby with the road descending to cross dry creek beds and then gradually climbing back up onto the tablelands.  In some places there were rocky bluffs and escarpments and everywhere the soil and rocks were dark red in colour.  In late morning, what had been a mild headwind seemed to swing round to become a crosswind and our speed improved, though we still suffered whenever the road swung to the left (east).

We reached the Threeways roadhouse around 1:30pm and enjoyed our toasted sandwich lunch in air-conditioned comfort inside.  When we emerged for our last leg to Tennant Creek, the heat was palpable, and for the first ten kilometres the headwind returned, making the riding very difficult, but then the road began to swing more to the right and the wind was neutralised somewhat.  The last 5km into town involved à steady climb through a low gap in an arid range of hills, and we were very happy to finally roll into Tennant Creek at 3:30pm and check into our caravan park, selected because it is close to the temporary supermarket set up in a shed behind the adjacent roadhouse after the main supermarket in town burnt down recently.

After showers we went for a walk through the town, which was somewhat depressing.  Crime is obviously an issue, with many boarded up buildings and grim steel mesh protecting all operating businesses.  We think Thursday must be pay day, and there were queues outside of the pub with police checking the IDs of all seeking entry.  Many other locals were just lounging around in the street.  It is sad to see, and makes me realise what a fortunate life I have had, and how lucky I was to be born when and where I was.

After cooking frozen pizza for dinner in our cabin, we really enjoyed sharing a tub of ice cream.  We are both tired and dehydrated after our day's effort and are looking forward to a good night's sleep before battling the elements again tomorrow. 

Round Australia Bike Ride - Day 070 - Elliott to Renner Springs

Day:  070

Date: Wednesday, 09 September 2020

Start:  Stuart Highway, 10km south of Elliott

Finish:  Renner Springs

Daily Kilometres:  80 (click for Julie's Strava and photos)

Total Kilometres:  7174

Weather:  Hot, sunny & windy

Accommodation:  Motel

Nutrition:

  Breakfast:  Shortbread cream biscuits

  Lunch:  Toasted ham, cheese & tomato sandwich & chips/Hamburger & chips

  Dinner:  Rissoles, salad & chips, chocolate

Aches:  Nothing significant

Highlight:  In mid-morning, in the middle of nowhere in hot blustery conditions, a vehicle pulled over to the side of the road in front of us and the driver, a young Irish guy travelling on his own, handed us two ice cold bottles of Powerade.  After we thanked him, he drove off and we quickly downed the beautifully cold, refreshing and very welcome drinks.

Lowlight:  When I spotted a shady tree at the top of a hill for our breakfast break and stopped, Julie was so focused on pedalling up the hill into the wind that she rode right past me without noticing I was there (was it deliberate?).

Pictures: Click here

Map and Position: Click here for Google Map

Journal:

We only had 80km to go to from where we were camped to Renner Springs, where I had booked a motel room, so didn't feel like a super-early start was required.  We got up at 6:15am and were riding by 7:15am in relatively cool conditions with a light cross/headwind.  At times during the night the wind had been very strong, so we were happy it had abated.

The road gradually climbed up onto the Barkly Tableland, where vegetation was more scrubby, the ground more rocky, and there were fewer, and smaller, trees.  The more open undulating country allowed us a clearer view across its vastness.  In particular, we knew the Barkly Tablelands stretched hundreds of kilometres to the east, all looking much the same.

I know it's boring to keep talking about the wind, but it has been a constant in our cycling lives for the last three days, and today was no different with the velocity of the south-easterly increasing as the day wore on.  We never seemed to get a break and the ever-present sound of the rushing wind in our ears added another dimension to the physical strain.

We had toyed with the idea of having just one break during our ride, but the conditions were tough and we were happy to stop for breakfast by the road after 30km (see above).  On the next 30km leg, we were lucky enough to have a passing driver give us some cold drinks (see above) along the way, but it was still a grind and we were again happy to stop for our next break.

The last leg to Renner Springs was only 20km, and although one short downhill was actually steep enough to require no pedalling for a hundred metres, the rest of it was a battle against the very strong wind.  We reached the roadhouse at Renner Springs, which has a sort of edge-of-the-world feel to it, around 12:30pm.  The cheery clerk could not find our booking or work out which room we had been allocated, so we happily ordered and ate our lunch until there was a shift change and the incoming clerk sorted things out.  Our budget room is very budget, though not budget-priced, but beggars can't be choosers and we are happy to be out of the wind and heat.

We used the afternoon to relax watching TV and do our laundry.  Sadly, there is no internet available unless you are an Optus customer, and as luck would have it, Julie switched from Optus to Telstra in Katherine four days ago!  We had dinner at the roadhouse at 6pm, entertained by the proprietor who was keen to sell us a car for the rest of our journey (I think he had had a good day …. when we arrived, the health inspectors were going through the place and apparently they got a clean bill of health), and had an early night, hoping the winds will drop tomorrow. 

Round Australia Bike Ride - Day 069 - Daly Waters to Elliott

Day:  069

Date: Tuesday, 08 September 2020

Start:  Day Waters

Finish:  Stuart Highway, 10km south of Elliott

Daily Kilometres:  165 (click for Julie's Strava and photos)

Total Kilometres:  7094

Weather:  Hot, sunny & windy

Accommodation:  Tent

Nutrition:

  Breakfast:  Toasted egg & bacon sandwiches

  Lunch:  Ham & cheese sandwiches

  Dinner:  Ham salad sandwiches, vanilla slices

Aches:  Nothing significant

Highlight:  The first couple of hours riding south of Daly Waters were beautiful.  Usually, if possible, I like to listen to news and current affairs programs on my radio in the mornings, but in the outback that's not possible unless you are near a town.  Instead, this morning as I watched the sun light up the surrounding woodland, I was listening to Spotify's All Out 60s playlist, and singing along to the Bee Gees "Massachusetts", a song I distinctly remember listening to while on a cycling camping trip in my mid-teens in Belgium and Luxembourg with a South African schoolmate (where are you now, Charles Hodges?).  Very nostalgic.  To cap it off, a short time later, a pair of galahs flew along the road with me for a while, just a little in front of, and slightly above, my head, as though we were a formation travelling to the same destination.  Magic.

Lowlight:  I hadn't booked accommodation in Elliott, our destination for the day, because according to Google there were a couple of options, a caravan park and a pub, and worst case, we could just camp at the caravan park if they had no cabins.  Elliott is not a tourist destination, just a small aboriginal settlement in the middle of nowhere, so unlikely to be booked out.  Unfortunately, when we arrived at 3pm, hot and tired, we found the caravan park closed (plumbing problem) and the pub not offering accommodation.  Bummer!  (The caravan park/store manager wasn't very helpful.  The caravan park was right behind the store and small service station where there was a functioning toilet and potable water. Knowing we were on bikes and that it was 92km to the next town, you would have thought he could have let us camp in a corner somewhere out of sight.)

Pictures: Click here

Map and Position: Click here for Google Map

Journal:

We left the Daly Waters Pub motel at 5:45am, a time calculated to have us arrive at the Hi-Way Inn Roadhouse, 8km away, just after its opening time of 6am.  We weren't the only ones to have timed our arrival there.  It was busy with various workers picking up breakfast and coffee, and a number of road trains that were idling or parked nearby.  We picked up supplies for the day, paying the young Asian backpacker clerk who remembered us from when we passed through three weeks ago on our way north.

Heading south from the roadhouse, the riding conditions were perfect.  Light enough to see easily, and cool and calm.  The early morning riding is always the best, and this morning was no exception (see above).  After 44km, we reached Dunmarra Roadhouse, which we hadn't been willing to count on for supplies (based on distant memory and Google), and bought some breakfast which we ate sitting on their shady verandah watching the world go by.  The roadhouse was fine, but clearly not a truckie favourite.  Just a few locals and other travellers called in while we were there.

We continued south, with just over 100km to go to our destination, Elliott, passing through wooded grazing land in a growing and fickle head/crosswind and increasing heat.  After an hour or so, a car towing a caravan pulled over to the side of the road in front of us, and a couple Julie had met in the Daly Waters Pub swimming pool the previous evening offered us cold water and fruit, which we gratefully accepted.

The riding became harder as the morning progressed.  The countryside became more open and scrubby, exposing us to the wind.  Although there wasn't really much net elevation change, we seemed to be perennially riding uphill.  There was always a crest in front of us, which when reached, revealed another crest to be conquered.  In reality, we were gradually descending after each crest, but the wind was such that we always seemed to be pedalling uphill.  For the last 30km to Elliott, after our lunch break, it was really tough with a gusty south-easterly wind almost bringing us to a standstill at times as we pedalled south.

Eventually, we reached Elliott only to find there was nowhere for us to stay (see above).  We bought some cold drinks and an ice-cream from the store which we consumed at a nearby shaded picnic table while we worked out what to do.  Since we were both hot and tired and the wind was still blowing, we decided to hang around in the shade for a few hours, have an early dinner, sourced from the store, get enough supplies for tomorrow's relatively short journey, and then ride up the road for an hour or so and find a place to camp in the scrub.

And that's what we did.  We killed an hour or two in the shade, ate our sandwich dinner at the picnic table at 5:30pm, and then rode out of town at 6pm into a still strong wind.  After about 10km of fruitlessly looking for a side road/track that might help us get off the road, and as the sun was setting, we eventually just walked into the bush about 100 metres from the road to a place where we could erect the tent and not be obvious.  We put up the tent, had a quick wash as the mosquitoes were attacking, and got into the tent for an early night.

Round Australia Bike Ride - Day 068 - Mataranka to Daly Waters

Day:  068

Date: Monday, 07 September 2020

Start:  Mataranka

Finish:  Daly Waters

Daily Kilometres:  168 (click for Julie's Strava and photos)

Total Kilometres:  6929

Weather:  Hot! Damned hot! (and sunny and windy)

Accommodation:  Motel

Nutrition:

  Breakfast:  Bread rolls & apricot jam

  Lunch:  Bread rolls & apricot jam/peanut butter

  Dinner:  Bangers & mash/Beef schnitzel, chips & salad, ice-creams

Aches:  Nothing significant

Highlight:  Riding out of Mataranka by moonlight in cool and calm conditions to the sound of waking birdlife in the trees along the road.

Lowlight:  The wind wasn't as bad as yesterday, but still made life difficult at times.

Pictures: Click here

Map and Position: Click here for Google Map

Journal:

With a long day ahead of us, we got up at 4:30am and were on the moonlit road about 5:20am.  There was no sign of the sunrise, but there were plenty of birds singing in the trees as we pedalled out of Mataranka.  Our plan was to ride 37km to a rest stop where we would have breakfast, but when we got there the only table was occupied by campervan driver, so we continued on a little further and found a spot by the road.

Our next stop was Fran's Tea House in Larrimah, 40km later, where we had fresh scones, jam and cream for morning tea.  We had stopped here on our way north three weeks ago, and Fran's grandson, who is running the place, was very happy to see us again.  We had a nice chat and the scones were excellent.

It was heating up by the time we left at 10am, with 93km to go to Daly Waters, our goal for the day.  We put our heads down and just got on with it, taking two further breaks along the way.  The wind was either against us or across us, and the heat seemed to radiate up from the road as well as beating down from above.  For almost the entire day, the vegetation on both sides of the road was arid woodland, and although there were a couple of roads signposted for cattle stations, I didn't see any cattle (but Julie says she did).  The endless woodland likely continued for many kilometres to our left and right, emphasising the vastness of the country.  The traffic was predominantly caravans and campervans, with a sprinking of road trains and other vehicles, but it wasn't busy.  One couple in a vehicle slowed and drove alongside Julie for a while chatting through the passenger window.

At 3:30pm, we finally arrived at the historic (1930, so not that historic) Daly Waters Pub which has turned itself into an outback tourist attraction (there's not really anything here apart from the pub and its associated caravan park and other accommodation).  We went to the bar and checked into our motel room which was in an adjacent building.  We were both hot and tired and Julie quickly headed for the nearby pool, while I chose to shower and watch some TV current affairs in our air-conditioned room.

We went to the pub for dinner, along with everybody else staying here.  It was all a bit cute, with humorous risqué signs everywhere and collections of bras, number plates, hats, thongs, etc, inside, but it had atmosphere, and the live entertainment and food was excellent, so it was a good night.