Bike Odyssey
Around Australia 2003
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| Around Australia 2003 Sydney to Darwin 01 Around Australia 99 | Great North Walk 98 Snowy Mountains 97 Tasmania 96 | |
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| David Linda Bike Odyssey E-Mail: djf01@bikeodyssey.com.au | |
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| Journal for 28-Oct-2003 : Nullarbor RH |
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I must be getting a bit overtrained because I was woken by *another* of my dreams last night, this one I witnessed a train crash. Left Eucla at dawn under fowl skies, all rugged up with our arm and leg warmers. 3ks later we had our raincoats out (about 60 seconds after we got soaked). Rode out of WA after two months in Australia's biggest state. Great tailwind again today. No need to wait for it to come up. It had howled all night. The road changed noticeably across the border. WA roads have really good firm run off areas allowing a cyclist - or anyone for that matter - to get off the road when needed. SA roads have wide verges, but are universally of thick white coarse gravel, which is impossible to ride onto over 5kph without falling. Oh, and on the SA the road is 2m narrower. Rode out the dirt roads to all but one of the Bunda Cliff lookouts. Very impressive views if observed somewhat briefly. Without exception, as soon as we arrived at each lookout a rainsquall came up and sent us packing. In fact it started raining *whenever* we stopped! Lots of very open and windswept country today. The cold SW wind, patchy overcast skys and the intermittent rain (we rode the whole day in raincoats, bar the first 3ks!) dramatically reminded us we were riding next to the southern ocean. Not that we needed reminding, it was visible for half the day. We met Sean, another Aussie cyclist riding Perth to Sydney. Sean is from a Sydney suburb not far from where Linda grew up. Linda and I both rather tired after 7 straight days of riding, plus the long hard days already put in. But with this great opportunity to cover the worst of the exposed roads without digging in through the head winds, it was a case of keeping those pedals turning over. Inspected my rim and found how stupid it was taking it on those dirt roads. One more new crack (takes total to 8), plus all the old ones are now longer. Those dirt roads out to the lookouts were *not* a good idea! << Prev - Next >> |