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 099 - Blinman to Wilpena Pound

Day:  099

Date:  Thursday, 08 October 2020

Start:  Blinman

Finish:  Wilpena Pound

Daily Kilometres:  64 (click for Julie's Strava and photos)

Total Kilometres:  10351

Weather:  Cold, windy and mostly cloudy

Accommodation:  Tent

Nutrition:

  Breakfast:  Cereal, toast and apple

  Lunch:  Soup, macaroni cheese & corned beef

  Dinner:  Hamburger & chips, donut/muffin

Aches:  Nothing significant

Highlight:  The whole 64km ride from Blinman to Wilpena Pound was spectacular.  The road was a bit of a winding roller coaster, and the west wind was icy and strong, but the scenery was magic.  Rolling hills, some topped by rocky bluffs, pine covered red-soil slopes, aged elegant eucalypts in puddled creek beds, distant sun-dappled mountains, and finally the mountainous crags of Wilpena Pound, made it a very interesting ride.

Lowlight:  While Julie was changing the SIM card on her phone (we have a backup SIM from another carrier), the card and holder catapulted out of her phone and disappeared into a large swathe of small pebbles surrounding our picnic table.  It took about ten minutes of careful searching to locate both.

Pictures: Click here

Map and Position: Click here for Google Map

Journal:

With only 64km planned for today, we felt no urgency to make an early start, the wisdom of which was confirmed when a temperature check yielded 5°C without the considerable wind chill.  We ate the continental breakfast that came with our room, then repacked our now mostly dry gear, before heading off at 9am after stopping in at the tiny general store/bakery to get a snack for morning tea.

It was cold and we were wearing more gear than usual, but at least it was dry, the sun was occasionally breaking through the clouds, and we were on sealed road.  We felt no time pressure, given the relatively short journey to Wilpena Pound, and enjoyed the beautiful scenery (see above), taking just one break along the way, but making plenty of photo stops.

There was much evidence of yesterday's rain, with lots of standing water by the road, and debris and water across the road in many of the floodways.  Some parts of the journey were through sheep grazing country, with homesteads visible in the distance, and other parts were through sections of Flinders Ranges National Park.  It's one of my favourite parts of Australia, and I have visited here many times in the last 50 years.

After a last 5km beat into the wind, during which we overtook a couple of mountain-bikers out for a ride, we reached Wilpena Pound Campground and checked in around 2pm.  It is nestled in a valley just outside the Pound, a massive bowl created by a ring of mountains which also tower over the campground.   It's a busy and big place.  Peak season and the last few days of school vacation, mean that there are many families camped here.  There is also a resort with a restaurant, bistro and accommodation along with a small supermarket.

After we set up our new tent for the first time, we showered, had a late lunch and did laundry and a few other things, before walking down to the bistro for dinner just before 6pm.  It was fully booked, but they let us eat at an outside table.  It was freezing, and we were happy to head back to our tent and some warmth after eating.  I heard on the news this afternoon that a number of nearby locations have experienced record cold October temperatures, and it feels that way.

Round Australia Bike Ride - Day 098 - Hawker to Blinman

Day:  098

Date:  Wednesday, 07 October 2020

Start:  Hawker

Finish:  Blinman

Daily Kilometres:  121 (click for Julie's Strava and photos)

Total Kilometres:  10251

Weather:  Cold, wet and windy

Accommodation:  Hotel

Nutrition:

  Breakfast:  Ham & pickle sandwich/Chees & gherkin sandwich

  Lunch:  Roast beef & pickle sandwich/Ham & salad roll

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

Aches:  Nothing significant

Highlight:  Hot showers in our hotel at the end of a very cold, wet and muddy day.

Lowlight:  Many to choose from, but maybe the first squall that hit us about an hour after leaving Hawker.  The road was through open treeless country, and along with heavy rain came a bitterly cold crosswind, strong enough to cause unexpected sideways moves on the bike, on a morning when the base temperature (excluding wind chill and wet chill) was high single digits Centigrade.  We were both chilled to the bone, unable to feel our fingers or feet, and shivering uncontrollably.  There was no possible shelter from the elements, so we had no choice but to continue pedalling towards Parachilna, 70km away.

Pictures: Click here

Map and Position: Click here for Google Map

Journal:

Last night, after reviewing the weather warnings for heavy rain and strong winds today, we modified our plans slightly.  Originally, we were going to camp at Angorichina, midway along the 33km of unsealed road through Parachilna Gorge, but the idea of setting up camp in the rain after a day's riding in the rain, did not appeal.  I called the only hotel in Blinman and was lucky enough to get a room (school holiday time in this tourist area) which I booked, even though somewhat overpriced.  Thus we were committed for the day to ride 90km north to the tiny settlement of Parachilna and then eastwards on the unsealed road up through Parachilna Gorge to the tiny village of Blinman in forecast heavy rain and strong easterly winds.  Of course, there was a temptation just to stay for a second night where we were, but I have booked accommodation for the next week plus an overdue service for the bikes in Adelaide, so changing plans would have been a pain in the butt.  Also, often when dire weather is predicted, it doesn't turn out to be quite so bad when you get out in it.

We decided to make an early start to give ourselves some buffer time, and left the motel at first light around 6:15am.  As if to warn us of the perils ahead, the motel carpark was entirely under water following heavy rain overnight, which wasn't obvious in the dark until I put a foot in it.  Getting out of the motel without wet feet proved a challenge but, in retrospect, we shouldn't have worried since we were soon soaked.  Out on the road, although it was very cold and raining lightly, there was a tailwind which was encouraging and we sped along as the gloom lifted to reveal fog-capped mountains to our right.

As the road climbed some gentle hills it became more exposed to what was now a crosswind, and it began to rain hard, with big cold drops whipped into us like bullets by the bitterly cold wind and life became quite miserable.  As the rain continued, we got colder and colder with still 70km to go before the first likely shelter.  I was worried about Julie, who I know feels the cold, becoming hypothermic and was mentally running through our options.  Stopping to put up the tent, was one option, but would have been very difficult in the conditions.  I decided that, so long as Julie was willing to keep riding, it was best to keep going.  If things really deteriorated, we could stop one of the few vehicles travelling in the other direction and seek assistance.

The first rain squall eventually passed and we had a period of relative dryness, but still with the wind.  Up ahead we could see eerie cloud-cloaked mountains and low grey clouds, some of which were unloading rain, so it was only a question of time til the next squall arrived, which it duly did.  This squall was even longer and colder than the first, but we were closer to Parachilna and motivated to just keep going.  It finally passed and we gradually dried out a little in the wind as we pedalled as quickly as we could to the tiny town.  We reached there around 10:30am, not having stopped once on the 90km journey, and found the small old station house/museum which offered protection from the wind and spitting rain and ate our breakfast sitting on the dusty concrete floor.

The second part of the day's ride first took us for 8km to the mouth of the Parachilna Gorge directly into the very strong easterly wind on a rocky gravel road across the treeless plain.  Progress was slow and energy-sapping and the mountains never seemed to get any closer.  Eventually we reached the mouth and traded gradual climbing for a lighter headwind as we entered the very picturesque gorge.  The sides were steep and rocky while the base was mostly dry rocky river bed and stately eucalypts.  Even in the wet difficult conditions, we appreciated the beauty of the place, as apparently did a lot of other holiday-makers.  The higher we climbed in the gorge the wetter the road became, while each dip required crossing a large puddle or water flow.  Soon we were riding through a kind of soupy mud, about 2cm deep with the consistency of custard, most of the time.  On the steeper climbs, our road tyres sometimes lost traction, making for some excitement.  Passing vehicles generally slowed, but it only takes one idiot and my panniers and I got covered with sprayed mud.

We could have stopped at the campground half-way along the gorge road for a hot chocolate and some shelter, but we were still cold and wet, so opted to carry on another uphill 15km to our hotel in Blinman where a hot shower was becoming increasingly attractive.  As we climbed higher, the scenery changed to rolling park-like hills covered with conifers and no undergrowth, before we emerged into sheep grazing country near Blinman, which claims to be the highest town in South Australia.

We reached the hotel just after 3pm, covered in mud, as were our bikes and gear.  It was packed with holiday-makers seeking wet-weather alternatives and it took me a while to check in.  Meanwhile, Julie was outside entertaining a group of guys having a beer on the pub verandah interested in what we had been doing, eliciting loud cheers and applause.  I asked the proprietress if there was an outside hose or tap and bucket we could use to wash ourselves and gear down before going to our room, but she declined to help, so we felt entitled to bring all of our muddy gear and selves into the room, locking the bikes to a post on their rear verandah.  By the time we had unpacked, undressed, showered and washed off the gear in the shower, the bathroom was a muddy mess which Julie later mopped up superbly with their supplied flannel.

We later had dinner in the hotel, still busy with vacationers dodging the weather, and retired to our room, decorated with drying gear and clothes, for the night.  The TV doesn't work, the heater is struggling, and I found a used condom wrapper (not mine) on the bedhead, but it's nice to be out of the rain which we can hear being driven into our window by the wind.

Round Australia Bike Ride - Day 097 - Port Augusta to Hawker

Day:  097

Date:  Tuesday, 06 October 2020

Start:  Port Augusta

Finish:  Hawker

Daily Kilometres:  108 (click for Julie's Strava and photos)

Total Kilometres:  10130

Weather:  Cold early, then cool, windy and overcast.

Accommodation:  Motel

Nutrition:

  Breakfast:  Donuts/Yoghurt

  Lunch:  Pie & kransky roll/Quiche & sausage roll

  Dinner:  Mixed grill & vegetables/Slow-cooked lamb & vegetables, ice-creams

Aches:  Nothing significant

Highlight:  Beautiful scenery in the Flinders Ranges.  Sweeping treeless plains reaching out to lightly timbered craggy mountains with more distant mountains layered in different shades of blue.

Lowlight:  Cold cross/headwinds for most of the day threatened to spoil our appreciation of the scenery …. but failed.

Pictures: Click here

Map and Position: Click here for Google Map

Journal:

Rather than following the main highway and the coast south to Adelaide, as our original round Australia route intended, we are going to detour via the Flinders Ranges and Barossa Valley on our way to Adelaide.  We can do this because of the time we saved by not going (not being allowed into) Western Australia.  It also gives Victoria a few more days to squash the COVID-19 outbreak, and New South Wales a few more days to consider letting people enter from Victoria, which is a precondition for us entering Victoria.

As we couldn't pick up our mail-ordered replacement tent from the Port Augusta Post Office, adjacent to our hotel, until it opened at 9am, there was no early start this morning. After breakfasting in our room, packing, and carting all of our gear and bikes down the hotel's internal stairs, we were at the Post Office soon after it opened and picked up the tent without any problems.  I felt reluctant to just dump the old tent, which had served us well, into a nearby garbage bin, but my unsentimental partner showed no such hesitation and we were soon on our way out of town.

It was hard riding into a headwind, as we passed through the industrial edge of town, crossing some tidal inlets and scrubby wasteland.  Not very inspiring after two days off.  When we turned left off the main highway towards Quorn, our lunch destination, the wind was no longer directly in our face, but still opposing as we began gradually climbing towards the Pichi Richi Pass across treeless scrubby plains.  As we got into the foothills, the scenery became more attractive, with some dry creek beds populated with gum trees, and steep slopes on either side.  The road was paralleling the tourist Pichi Richi railway, and near the top of the long climb we met the day's steam train coming the other way.  We stopped to take a photo and got a whistle blast and wave from the engineer as well as many waves from the passengers.

At the top of the climb, after passing through a low grassy gap in the hills, we emerged into a higher valley and descended through sheep grazing country to the small windswept farm/tourist town of Quorn.  Forty kilometres had taken us three hours, a testament to the difficult conditions.  The historic town has some attractive old buildings, but it has seen better days and many businesses were shuttered making it look particularly bleak in the cold and windy conditions.  We found the small town supermarket and bought some hot food for lunch, which we ate on a bench outside, along with some supplies for tomorrow in case we were too late to buy them tonight when we reached our destination, Hawker.

We left Quorn around 12:45pm, with 66km to go, and hoping to reach Hawker before 5pm, the store closing time according to Google.  The first half of the journey was across another vast windswept treeless plain with mountains in the distance to either side and ahead. The wind made the riding hard work but the excellent scenery compensated.  We took a break in the lee of a roadside slope with 30km to go, just as the road began to climb to another low pass. The road ahead swung slightly to the west on the gentle climb, neutralising the wind and making the ascent easier.  Along the way, we passed the atmospheric and desolate stone ruins of some old homesteads dating from the mid-19th century and also got some spectacular views of mountains near and far.

There was a slight descent from the pass into another high flat valley of sheep grazing land giving us an easy run into the very small town of Hawker which we reached about 4:30pm.  We stopped in at the service station/grocery and bought some drinks and snacks before checking into our motel.  After showers, and confirming our room had a microwave, Julie returned to the service station (which didn't close at 5pm) and bought some microwaveable dinner that we later ate in our room.

It's cold here and we have the heater going full blast in our room.  We are a bit apprehensive about tomorrow's ride, which includes 33km of uphill on unsealed road, when the forecast is for cold winds and heavy rain.

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.

Round Australia Bike Ride - Day 095 - Port Augusta

Day:  095

Date:  Sunday, 04 October 2020

Start:  Port Augusta

Finish:  Port Augusta

Daily Kilometres:  0

Total Kilometres:  10022

Weather:  Mild, overcast, windy and raining in the evening

Accommodation:  Hotel

Nutrition:

  Breakfast:  Fresh fruit & yoghurt, donut/muffin

  Lunch:  Cold pizza

  Dinner:  Fish/Chicken and chips, ice cream

Aches:  Nothing significant

Highlight:  Lazy day

Lowlight:  None really

Pictures:  No photos today

Map and Position: Click here for Google Map

Journal:

After being up (relatively) late last night, then losing an hour's sleep to the introduction of daylight saving, we didn't get as much sleep as needed last night and didn't feel up to doing much today.  In fact, we both ended up having an afternoon nap.

We did get down to the local supermarket to get some breakfast, there not being much else on offer, and I tied down our plans for the next week while Julie went for a walk and visited the local tourist information office, but that was pretty much it.

We got take-out for dinner again and had an early night, this time hoping to catch up on some sleep.

Round Australia Bike Ride - Day 094 - Glendambo to Port Augusta

Day:  094

Date:  Saturday, 03 October 2020

Start:  Glendambo 

Finish:  Port Augusta

Daily Kilometres:  288 (click for Julie's Strava and photos)

Total Kilometres:  10022

Weather:  Mild early, then hot, mostly overcast and windy

Accommodation:  Hotel

Nutrition:

  Breakfast:  Egg & lettuce sandwiches

  Lunch:  Corn beef & pickle sandwich/Chicken, cheese & lettuce sandwich

  Dinner:  Pizza, ice cream

Aches:  Nothing significant

Highlight:  Possibly the best sunrise of our trip.  We were riding directly towards it under mostly cloudy skies and it turned those clouds different shades of red and orange.  Rain was falling lightly from some of the clouds and these tongues of rain were turned into light orange mists by the sun.

Lowlight:  Finally getting to our hotel/motel in Port Augusta after a very long and tiring day, to be told that we were assigned a room on the first floor of the very old hotel, instead of the motel room booked online and we had to carry all of our gear and then our bikes up the stairs into our room on very tired legs.

Pictures: Click here

Map and Position: Click here for Google Map

Journal:

We checked the wind forecasts again last night and the picture remained unchanged.  Likely strong north-easterlies (crosswinds and tailwinds) today, then a cold change coming through tonight bringing strong southerlies (headwinds), some heavy rain and cold temperatures.  I convinced Julie that it would be best to have another very long day and ride to Port Augusta, 288km away, where we intended to have a couple of days off.  My rationale was that if we camped short of Port Augusta after, say, a 180km day today we would likely have to pack up a wet tent and ride for eight hours into a cold headwind and rain tomorrow to reach Port Augusta.  Alternatively, if we rode that last 108km tonight, although tired, it would likely take four to five hours of wind-assisted dry riding.

We decided to repeat yesterday's program and got up at 3am and were on the road by 3:40am in fairly benign conditions.  The sky was mostly overcast, but there was still sufficient light generated by the cloud-covered moon to make visible the scrubby plains by the road.  Our pace was OK, but there wasn't as much wind assistance as hoped.  We stopped for breakfast after dawn at the Lake Hart Rest Area amongst a number of campervans and caravans whose occupants were still mostly sleeping.  The lake, which had just been a salt pan the last time I passed this way, was mostly filled with water, though there were flat salty edges, while the surrounding country was mostly saltbush covered hills.

We continued on after breakfast and around this time, and later, we encountered several small groups of emus, tripling our count of sightings on the trip thus far.  The expected crosswind (it was a north-easterly and our direction of travel was ESE) picked up after breakfast and it made life difficult in places, especially on one long climb up onto the scrubby treeless plateau where we stopped at the Pimba Roadhouse for a snack and to pick up some lunch and drinks.  It was a forlorn place - a small collection of houses and the roadhouse on this vast windswept treeless plateau.  It was also the turn-off to the town of Woomera, the historic home of Australia's missile testing.  There is a collection of old missiles plus a museum (closed because of COVID-19, according to Google) and we had originally intended to detour the 20km return to have a look, but given our long day and given half of the journey would have been directly into the strong wind, we decided to add it to our bucket list for next time.

From Pimba, our direction of travel swung more to the south and the strong wind began to assist us, though there were also some long hills.  We were already both very tired and had to work hard to make sure we maintained a good pace.  Our journey took us past some more partially-filled lakes and to some good view points.  It was very warm, though still overcast, and we were getting dehydrated faster than expected and started to doubt whether we had enough fluids.  Julie, in particular, was running short, making her day even harder.  One rest stop tank was empty, but with about 60km to go, we found one that still had water and she was able to refill her water bottles.  That rest stop also gave good views to the distant Flinders Ranges where we will be next week.

By now the countryside was alternating between the rolling treeless saltbush hills at the higher elevations and lightly wooded scrublands at the lower elevations.  There were also some demoralising very long straight sections of road that seemed to go on forever.  By now, we just wanted our day to be over and every break seemed a long time coming, although the last 30km leg into Port Augusta wasn't too bad.  There was no wind and little traffic as we rode across a saltbush plain with mountains in the distance on both sides, the cloud-covered sun setting behind us, and the knowledge that our day would soon be over.  During this leg, our 10,000th kilometre of the trip ticked over.

We reached our hotel/motel at 7pm, just after dark, and checked in to find our day wasn't quite over as we had to lug gear and bikes up a long flight of stairs to our room (see above).  After showers we visited a nearby take-away shop to find pizza was the only thing still on the menu, as well as picking up some drinks and ice-cream from the nearby supermarket.  We ate back in our room, very tired, but satisfied with our day, and looking forward to a couple of days off.

Round Australia Bike Ride - Day 093 - Coober Pedy to Glendambo

Day:  093

Date:  Friday, 02 October 2020

Start:  Coober Pedy

Finish:  Glendambo

Daily Kilometres:  254 (click for Julie's Strava and photos)

Total Kilometres:  9734

Weather:   Mild early then warm, sunny and windy

Accommodation:  Motel

Nutrition:

  Breakfast:  Salami roll/Ham salad roll

  Lunch:  Ham salad roll/Salami roll

  Dinner:   Hamburger & chips, ice cream

Aches:  Nothing significant

Highlight:  Saw our first emus of the trip.  They ran off before we could get a picture, but it was good to see them.  We would have expected to have seen more on the trip, but maybe we just haven't been looking in the right places.

Lowlight:  I failed to fix in place the heavy elastic strap that helps hold my rear rackbag on the bike after our last rest break and it got caught in my spokes, wrapped around the rear hub, and snapped with a big bang.  Doesn't seem to have damaged the spokes, hub or brake, and Julie has retied the broken strands so it might still be usable.  I was very annoyed with myself for risking a more serious bike problem.

Pictures: Click here

Map and Position: Click here for Google Map

Journal:

Originally, we planned to take four days to ride the 568km south to Port Augusta from Coober Pedy, but a check yesterday of the weather forecast and warnings for the next week caused us to change our plans.  Simplistically, the forecast is for strong northerly winds for two days, followed by strong southerly winds, rain and cold weather for the two days after that.  Consequently, we decided to get as far as we can towards Port Augusta while the winds are favourable.

So for today, this entailed waking at 3am and leaving about 3:45am to ride the 254km to Glendambo where I had booked a motel room.  This would be our longest day of the trip so far and Julie's longest day ever.  We needed to be there before 7:30pm if we wanted to buy food or drinks, hence the early start.  Making the journey in time would require us to average 22+ kph while riding, so to track progress, I (anally) worked out where the rest stops were from Wikicamps and calculated what time of day we needed to leave each to be on schedule for a 6pm arrival in Glendambo.  There were no stores or other settlements for the whole 254km.

The early riding was in the bright light of a full moon which made it easy to see the flat treeless plains beside the road after we had left the lights of a sleeping Coober Pedy behind.  We had a light tailwind which made the riding easy and after an hour or so the eastern sky showed a tinge of orange.  In another hour, the sun rose above the horizon and for a while we had a low full moon to our right and a low sun to our right.  We were in balance.

For the rest of the day, there were regular changes of scenery, which ranged between treeless gibber plains to scrub and to light woodland. There were some gentle climbs which yielded nice views across the plains, and towards the end of the day, we began to see some red dunes.  All through the day, we noticed how green everything was, possibly as a result of the rain we had seen earlier in the week.  In some places, there was almost a park-like carpet of new short green grass amongst the trees.  We were also riding through the Woomera rocket testing range and there were regular signs reminding us it was an offence to leave the highway.

At each rest stop (we had six during the day), I checked our progress, and it was clear that with the strengthening wind behind us we were easily going to beat our schedule.  Other travellers came to speak to us at some of the rest stops, and one caravanner kindly gave us two cold cans of Coke.  Another traveller took great delight in detailing how his fuel consumption was 50% better because of the tailwind and how he had met a caravanner travelling in the other direction who had used so much fuel into the headwind he didn't have enough to get to the next service station (Coober Pedy).

We reached Glendambo a little before 4:30pm and checked in, happy with how the day had gone.  The wind had been a great help, but we felt we were overdue for a tailwind.  We bought an early take-out dinner from a roadhouse near the hotel/motel.  This is a tiny settlement and the roadhouses (there are two) and hotel/motel seem to be doing it tough.  The fairly large pub is only open from 4pm to 7pm, and the roadhouses not much later.  The motel has scores of rooms, but I think there's only about three being used.