Day: 080
Date: Saturday, 19 September 2020
Start: 127km east of Kings Canyon Resort
Finish: Kings Canyon Resort
Daily Kilometres: 127 (click for Julie's Strava and photos)
Total Kilometres: 8258
Weather: Cold early, then warm sunny and windy.
Accommodation: Tent
Nutrition:
Breakfast: Muesli
Lunch: Trail mix
Dinner: Chicken schnitzel, salad & chips
Aches: Nothing significant
Highlight: Reaching sealed road, 10km from Kings Canyon Resort (KCR), after 140km of bone-jarring rocks and corrugations on the Mereenie Loop that took a toll on man and machine. The scenery and remoteness were fantastic, and we don't at all regret our decision to go that way. But, it was so nice to hear nothing but the hum of the tyres on the road after the constant rattling of the bike and gear, to not always be looking for the line of least resistance on the road, and to not to be absorbing the never-ending jolting through hands, arms and butts.
Lowlight: There were two. Firstly, on the rough jarring road, a seam failed on one of the full two-litre water bottles Julie was carrying and most of its contents spilled into her rack bag (carried on top of the rear carrier), destroying two packs of trail mix and wetting other food and clothing. Secondly, while we were having dinner at the campground bistro in the evening, a dingo ripped its way into our tent to get at the remaining rack bag food that was drying inside the tent, destroying another of our two-litre water bottles in the process and the remainder of Julie's lunches/snacks.
Pictures: Click here
Map and Position: Click here for Google Map
Journal:
We woke at 5am and were on the red dust road by soon after 6am when it was just light enough to see. Thankfully, there was no wind and the sun rising behind our backs was welcome both for beautifully lighting up the scrubland beside us, and for providing some warmth on our coldest morning for a long time. Both of us were wearing our jackets and both had freezing fingers for the first hour's riding.
The road was very rough, continuously jolting us, and it was challenging to get up any speed as we wove back and forth trying to find the best line for riding. The smoother edges were often tempting but, frequently and unidentifiably, would suddenly turn to soft sand (later in the day I had a fall, landing on my elbow and hurting my shoulder, when I hit some soft stuff). For the worst sections, there was nothing to do but just grind and jolt along at less than 10kph, but we knew that, at that pace, we would not reach KCR, our goal for the day, before sunset. We had enough food, and probably enough water, to spend another night in the bush, but showers and cold drinks were preferable after days of wind and dust.
We stopped by the road for breakfast at 8:30am, having covered barely 25km, and began resigning ourselves to another night on the road. While we ate, a considerable headwind began to blow, adding to our challenge, though at a speed of 10kph it's less of an issue. Nevertheless, the remoteness, vastness and scenery were awesome, and we had the place to ourselves up until about 10am when we began to see just a few vehicles. The road was gradually climbing through some open low valleys, so there were always colourful hills to our left and right and occasional bare grasslands. We passed through a couple of low passes as the day wore on, where the sand and corrugations were at their worst (from cars braking and turning). There was lots of camel dung evident, but it was mid-morning before we caught our first glimpse of a camel, and then not long after that, four wild horses. Both introduced species, of course, but the only animals we saw all day, apart from birds.
Some sections of the road after breakfast were in slightly better shape and, despite the headwind, our pace improved. At our mid-morning break, around 10:30am, I calculated that we could make KCR by 6:30pm if we could maintain an average speed between breaks of 13kph. We resolved to ride 20km between each break for the rest of the day, no matter how long it took but hoping less than 90 minutes. We just managed to exceed that, despite a water bottle mishap (see above) that cost some time.
Much of the afternoon's riding was across a sort of plateau and as the road had swung more to the southwest, the northwest wind was less of an issue. The country had become almost park-like with knee-high grassland dotted with trees and, in places where the road crested, we could see many kilometres away. At our break with 40km to go, we decided to ride to McGinty's Lookout, 12km away, and have our last break there, before covering the last 28km to KCR which was supposedly downhill and might actually have some sealed road.
We reached the lookout atop a rocky ledge around 3:45pm with its spectacular view to the south across the scrubby plains and to far-off mountain ranges. It was a popular spot for free camping (24-hour limit) and there were five or six groups set up there for the night. Some were people had seen us on the road today, and on previous days, and Julie had a long chat with one couple who suggested we should also camp there, but KCR was within our grasp and we set off on the sealed road descent from the lookout pass, hoping that we had seen the end of rough road for the day. Sadly, that was not the case, and we were soon trying to avoid bumps and sand again, with the consolation that the wind was behind us and the road was gradually downhill. An added bonus was encountering a camel loitering on the road.
As we neared KCR and entered Watarrka (Kings Canyon) National Park, the gravel road ended and we were on smooth tar. We raced along with the wind and setting sun behind us and a spectacular red and partly-shadowed steep-walled plateau ahead of us. Life was good. We reached KCR at 5:45pm, and I tried to book a cabin, but they were all taken (later we could see that two out of the three blocks of cabin rooms were closed, along with all of their glamping tents, presumably because of a COVID-19 business slowdown). I was keen to stay here for three nights, given our late arrival and the fact that we were a day ahead of our booked Yulara accommodation schedule, so we got a tent site for the night and a cabin for the two nights after that.
We quickly set up our tent, Julie sorted out the wet contents from her rackbag, and we showered before walking up to the KCR bistro to get a late dinner. Most of the eating facilities are closed as well and the roadhouse is only open from 8am to 4pm, so we missed out on some of the cold drinks and ice-creams we craved, settling for a couple of over-priced Cokes at the bistro bar.
On returning to our tent, we found that a dingo had clawed its way into our tent (see above) pretty much writing it off. We'll try and temporarily patch it with some duct tape if we can get it from the roadhouse tomorrow. After the next week, we may not need it as much, but it's always nice to have it as an option in reserve. Not a good ending to what had otherwise been a pretty good day.
