August Reports

31 August 2009- Eudunda
Distance: 68 km
Words of the day: Going to Adelaide

Hands up, who has read Storm Boy? It's been years for me but I bet it's still as popular in schools as ever. The author, Colin Thiele, was born and raised here in Eudunda. What a champion. In his life, from 1920 to 2006 he is credited with writing or editing an astonishing number of pieces, including poems, children's books, novels, radio plays and more. So if you need reminding why he deserves a bronze statue in his home town, get on down to your local library.
It was another snotty day in South Australia for bike riders. Not much to report that was different from the last two dispatches. But reaching Eudunda was an especially event because that's it for this week's riding! Yep, the Yellow Tailed Black Cockatoo is driving up from Adelaide as I write. I'll be whisked back to the city of churches (there are lots of them in Adelaide) for a week of everything except riding and setting up tents. And it just so happens that Essendon are playing Adelaide at AAMI Stadium on Friday night. How lucky is that! So there will be no reports until next Monday after I return to Eudunda to begin the journey east to Port Welshpool. It won't be long before I trade the pedals for a paddle and eye off Bass Strait again. Stay tuned.

There is still a slightly used map with genuine coffee stains to be won for the South Australian summit (St Mary's Peak). Find the photo of the animal pose in the August archive (link below) and guess what insect I am posing as. Hint: This insect enjoys dead animals and poo, and I don't like it much because it is always crawling up my nose.

30 August 2009- Burra
Distance: 86 km
Words of the day: Numb fingers

Goodness gracious, my fingers haven't been that frozen for a long time. While riding I shoved one hand at a time into my pockets to thaw out. Drizzling rain came from the west in short patches, but there wasn't much sunshine in between. The wind was gusty and strong this morning and slowly eased late in the day. After 50 km I reached Hallett, a small country town, and looked for a place to stay. I'd had enough. But the shop was closed and it looked like everyone was sitting inside beside the fireplace. Oh well, I guess another few hours wouldn't kill me.

The whole area is littered with ruined stone farmhouses and roadside cottages (photo). South Australia was first colonised in 1830's and eager farmers spread north into land they considered wild and uninhabited. But of course it wasn't empty at all. Indigenous groups had lived here for as long as any human memory could comprehend. From the little bit of history I've read the rest of the 1800's were a mixed but ultimately disastrous period for the original inhabitants. These days the green velvet of pasture and new crops extend to every horizon. It's an incredible sight, but I wish someone had left a corridor of trees and scrub beside the roads to block the wind!

29 August 2009- Peterborough
Distance: 72 km
Words of the day: Broken spoke

The countryside reminds me of parts of Tasmania at the end of winter. The area around the Coal River Valley just outside Hobart springs to mind. The wind was a menace today and I nearly called it a day after 36 km at Orroroo. It was blowing so hard I had to permanently lean towards the traffic. Even the smallest caravans were rocking me about dangerously, so I seemed to be pulled over as much as riding. At Orroroo the road turned south-east so it was more of a tailwind and I continued towards Peterborough. Just out of town a spoke went 'POP'. Normally this wouldn't be a big problem but I've been dreading that sound for weeks. Remember on the Great Central Road when the rear hub cracked and a replacement wheel was sent to Yulara. I didn't go into detail at the time, but the wheel waiting for me at the post office was the wrong size (a 26 inch instead of 28 inch). I managed to make use of it by grabbing a tyre and tube from a hire bike at the campground (they were all 26 inch). The only problem was that the tyre was wider than my bike can handle and I had to slice off the knobby bits just to make it fit between the forks. It's had a slight rub ever since. When a spoke breaks it puts a little kink in the wheel rim. Even the littlest kink would, and did today, make the tyre rub hard against the forks. If that makes any sense then you'll see that the 'POP' outside Orroroo was a bad sound indeed.

Three days ago I met a cyclist heading north. He had noticed my different wheels and I told him the story. For some reason he was carrying spare spokes for a 26 inch wheel which didn't fit his bike. We decided it would make more sense if he gave them to me as my own spares were all for 28 inch wheels. And that's how I was able to fix the broken spoke today which would otherwise have stopped me dead in my tracks. Between showers I rode into town and got an on site van for $20 which is a bargain. Must be my lucky day!

A good comprehension activity for students is to retell the above story in chronological order- it will also make it easier to read!

28 August 2009- Carrieton
Distance: 100 km
Word of the day: Thunderbolts and lightning, very very frightening!

After leaving the Ooodnadatta Track and heading south through some very dry and rocky landscapes, I came to the Flinders Ranges National Park. Suddenly it all changed. The mountains that were in the distance for so long were now right smack bang in front of me. The foothills were covered in green herbs and grasses between forests of cypress pines and chunky big river gums. Emus, rock wallabies and kangaroos bounded, ran and pecked away beside the dirt road. It was heaven on a bike. But I wasn't there to laze about enjoying myself! Oh no, I had a job to do. St Mary's Peak has replaced Mt Woodroffe as the South Australian target mountain (access denied to Woodroffe), and up I climbed. On the very top I found this very annoying insect. If you are the first one to guess what it is in the forum, the maps for South Australia are yours! My only clue is: Spider's love them and I don't.

On the way back to the bike, a 4 hour return walk, I saw a goat. That's the first feral goat I've seen on the whole trip. I chased it trying to get a photo but it was very nimble and easily escaped. I did, however, get a good shot of some trees.

St Mary's Peak is the highest point on Wilpena Pound. I suggest you do an image search and see an aerial photo of this incredible geological formation. Think giant wok without a handle. The scenic flights were buzzing overhead but I had to be happy with the view from the ground. As I walked back to the bike I realised that the only mountain left for this journey is Mt Ossa in Tasmania. Ahhh, I'm on my way HOME! The thought of it put a spring in my step and I even managed to knock off a few kilometres when I got back on the road.
Last night I found a dry riverbed with big gums to camp near (not under because they drop branches regularly- especially after a dry spell). Today it felt like I'd arrived back in the south of the country. It rained and poured and banged and blustered. All afternoon I had lightning and thunder. Fingers were crossed that lightning wasn't attracted by the colour yellow. My helmet is yellow. By the time I reached Carrieton everything was so wet that I decided to get a room at the caravan park. The tent floor doesn't keep the water out anymore and the ground was all either yellow mud or puddles. The caravan park is the old primary school and there is no-one else staying in the cottage so I have it all to myself. Luxury. Bliss. Chicken schnitzel.

27 August 2009- North of Hawker
Distance: 50 km riding, 14 km walking via St Mary's Peak
Word of the day: Mystery mountain pose coming soon

For the last nine days I’ve been on the Oodnadatta Track. It’s a dirt road that passes quite a few cattle stations. The stations in this part of Australia are enormous, in fact the Anna Creek station is the largest cattle station in the world. They have to be because there’s not much grass to go around for the cows out here! This is the bottom of my thongs after walking around camp. Imagine if these prickles were going into the tender skin of a bike rider’s feet. Ouch. The bigger concern is popping a tyre but I was mostly lucky. Only one puncture and it wasn’t from a prickle. Along the whole 600km road there are only two places to refuel (that means water for me), at Oodnadatta and William Creek. Oodnadatta is a little town of a couple of hundred people, but William Creek is basically just a hotel. In Oodnadatta I ran into about 100 Variety Club cars. They were from Victoria and on the way to Alice Springs. Variety Club’s from around Australia were all meeting there for a big bash. They do a great job of raising money and being jolly happy at the same time, and you can’t complain about that. I scored a bag of lollies and a squirt from a water pistol. The poor staff in the famous Pink Roadhouse were run off their feet. Normally they would only have a slow trickle of tourists passing through. The Afghan Express, later renamed the Old Ghan railway, follows the track after Oodnadatta. Along the way there are numerous old ruins where railway sidings and fettler’s (what are fettler’s anyway?) cottages were set up to service the steam trains. This is the view off the Algebuckina Bridge. The ruins at Algebuckina. The word ‘Algebuckina’ was originally the Aboriginal word for a waterhole. Governor Buxton named the far northern railway township in 1898. Water was, and still is, the biggest problem in this area. The Great Artesian Basin has been tapped in various places but the water quality is not much good for human consumption, but it’s alright for cattle. Rainfall is extremely unreliable so it’s difficult to know what the next year will bring. I’ve been getting up extra early to avoid the flies when I’m eating breakfast. Just after sunrise they wake up and begin swarming up my nose and trying to suck my eyeballs out. I don’t like them much. I was talking to a bloke from Roxby Downs who said this isn’t even peak season for flies! Stuart’s Pea is named after John McDouall Stuart, a famous Australian explorer. In the beautiful red sand dunes past William Creek they are common. You can see where the sand dunes are slowly creeping forward, being blown by the strong winds out here. Further north, in the Simpson Desert, there is line after line after line of these dunes. I’d love to go and have a closer look one day. The flies again! The bike can’t outrun them so I wore a fly-net all day, every day. It’s been even worse because I’ve had (happily) tailwinds. The flies always gather on the lee side (away from the wind) of an object. When my head is the object it meant they gathered on my face, or the front of the fly-net. Sometimes I’d be staring out at dozens of them just centimeters away. If they got too thick I couldn’t see the oncoming bumps properly and would shoo them away. They’d be back in seconds. Overall there has been less vegetation the further south I’ve come. Parts near Maree have looked just like I imagine the moon would. The creek beds are lined with small trees but the vast plains are almost completely bare. This is an old water tower on the railway line. Toot-toot.

Daily Dispatch

26 August 2009- Flinders Rangers National Park
Distance: 75 km
Word of the day: Brachina Gorge

25 August 2009- South of Beltana
Distance: 76 km
Word of the day: Back in mountain country

24 August 2009- South of Lyndhurst
Distance: 91 km
Word of the day: Gale Warning

23 August 2009- West of Marree
Distance: 100 km
Word of the day: Well done North Melbourne Football Club

22 August 2009- Between William Creek and Marree
Distance: 75 km
Word of the day: Below sea level

21 August 2009- South of William Creek
Distance: 85 km
Word of the day: I saw a real life coat of arms. What does that mean?

20 August 2009- North of William Creek
Distance: 80 km
Word of the day: The old Ghan what?

19 August 2009- 60km past Oodnadatta
Distance: 70 km
Word of the day: Variety Club Bash

18 August 2009- 10km from Oodnadatta
Distance: 80 km
Word of the day: Fly feud

17 August 2009- Oodnadatta Track
Distance: 70 km
Word of the day: Change

16 August 2009- Oodnadatta Track
Distance: 63 km
Word of the day: Bombers Rising

15 August 2009- 20 km north of Marla
Distance: 153 km
Word of the day: South Australia

Calling Kramster and Turtle! This is the result of mixing a Honey Pot Ant with a Jabiru. It's called a Jabir-ant (pronounced Jabberant). As you can see, sometimes the poor little creature gets confused with the Karate Kid. This is the tippy top of Mt Zeil in the Northern Territory. I left my tent and bike just as the sun came up and reached the summit at 1.30pm. You can see I'm wearing the bike helmet, and there's a good reason for that. The night before my hat blew into the fire and melted. I couldn't possibly go walking for a whole day without sun protection and the only thing left was what you see here. Also, if I fell over there was less chance of brain injury. Righto Kramster and Turtle, email me your school address so I can send you each a map.
The climb up Mt Zeil was a beauty with a steep sided dome of rock to navigate and plenty of prickly bushes to avoid. I was surprised at how many different sorts of rock make up the mountain. My days as a student geologist are long past, but I'd say they were mainly metamorphics from ancient sediments. Some had zebra stripes and others sparkled in the sun. Because the ground was uneven and rocky I spent most of my time staring staright down. Even with the helmet for protection I didn't like the idea of taking a tumble!
The night before (when I cooked my hat) I was camped on a fence near the West Macdonnell National Park boundary. I'd managed to find a station track that took me within 15 km of Mt Zeil. In the background here is Mt Razorback. You can almost feel it being slowly worn down by the water that funnels through the gullies and gorges when it rains. Luckily for Mt Razorback, there isn't much rain out here in the desert so it might be amny thousands of years before it turns into a puddle of pebbles like the ones near the bike.
Back up on Mt Zeil and I'm climbing down the southern face. The things that look like ferns at the bottom of the photo are called cycads (the scientific name is Macrozamia macdonnellii). I was following a gully trying to find pools of water as my supply for the day was going to make me thirsty. I could only find a dirty pool so I had to ration what I carried very carefully. There was only enough for about half a cup every hour after lunch.
This is going back a few days to the Owen Springs Reserve. It was a handy shortcut from the Stuart Highway towards the West Mocdonnell Range. The River Red Gums were very huggable as the sun set late in the day.
The only complaint of the Owen Springs road was that it was mostly sand! Sometimes it was okay to ride on and sometimes I needed to jump off and push. A few times I didn't see the deep patches in time and was thrown off sideways when the front wheel bogged.
Sandunes are a great place to look for animal tracks.
Andreas is from Germnany and he's been cycling for two years! The countries on his around the world trip have included Iran (he said the landscape there was similar to central Oz), Yemen, Thailand, Cambodia, India and Laos. See if you can find them on a world map. I met Andreas on his way out to see Uluru. There are a lot more cyclists on the road between Adelaide and Darwin. I've also met people from Japan and Taiwan.

14 August 2009- South of Erldunda
Distance: 110 km
Word of the day: Fly Plague

13 August 2009- Stuart Highway
Distance: 115 km
Word of the day: Brmmmm

12 August 2009- Owen Springs Reserve
Distance: 85 km
Word of the day: Heatwave

11 August 2009
Distance: 85 km
Word of the day: Big fat blisters

10 August 2009- Day trip up Mt Zeil
Distance: 30 km
Word of the day: Jabir-ant
A long, long day on foot without enough water to slake my burning thirst.

9 August 2009- 15km from Mt Zeil
Distance: 85 km
Word of the day: Trespassing
Mt Zeil tomorrow!!!

8 August 2009- Sand bog
Distance: 80 km
Word of the day:

7 August 2009- Owen Springs Reserve
Distance: 105 km
Word of the day: Bulldust

Daily Dispatch

6 August 2009- Stuart Highway north of Erldunda
Distance: 130 km
Word of the day: Uninterrupted

5 August 2009- East of Yulara
Distance: 80 km
Word of the day: German
Not long now until Mt Zeil so get your animal pose suggestions up on the forum for your chance to win!!

4 August 2009- East of Yulara
Distance: 75 km
Word of the day: Headache

3 August 2009- Yulara R&R
Distance: 0 km
Word of the day: Slobber (How many words ending in -obber can you list?

This will be the last chance to report in detail for at least a week. At the moment I'm trying to decide how best to reach Mt Zeil. There are three possible routes.
1. Via Kings Canyon and Mereenie Loop Road.
2. Via Finke River National Park road and Hermannsburg.
3. Via Stuart Highway, Owen Springs Road and Namatjira Drive.
I've already ruled out number 2 after reports that the track follows a sandy riverbed. It sounds more like pushing for 3-4 days than riding. The Mereenie Loop Rd also has a bad reputation at the moment. Apparently it's been a LONG time since it was graced with a grader blade and is a mine field of corrugations and powdery sand. Option 3 is almost all sealed road with a short (50-60km) section of track through Owen Springs conservation area. Hmmm... interesting! The Yellow Tailed Black Cockatoo is winging her way to Adelaide on 31 August, so if possible I'd like to be there by then. That means Mt Zeil, The Oodnadatta Track, and St Mary's Peak in about 4 weeks.
But wait a second, I hear you ask, what's this about St Mary's Peak, that's not the highest in SA! True enough. I haven't been able to get a permit to ride through APY land where Mt Woodroffe lies. So I've had to replace it with St Mary's Peak in the Flinders Ranges. Not a bad trade-off, I reckon. So keep an eye on the map over the next week, it'll have a few twists and turns!

2 August 2009- Yulara R&R
Distance: 0 km
Word of the day: Slobber (How many words ending in -obber can you list?

I have a few days off the bike while I wait for the post office to open after the public holiday so I have posted more photos from the last few weeks. This is a crinkly old ghost gum near the WA/NT border. It's not far from here that a replica Len Beadell marker is nailed into another trunk, marking part of his road making efforts in the late 1950's. I don't know much about his teams effort but it would be a good one to learn more about.

The road follwed this range past Docker River. I'd stopped at Docker to resupply at the store. It was well stocked and I even ran into Ruby and Lorraine in the aisles (see yesterday's post). While I was filling up my water bottles I left my bag of groceries on the ground next to the bike. No sooner had I turned my back than six wily old dogs had ripped into my gingernuts! I wiped off the slobber as best I could...

On the Northern Territory side of the border the landscape changed slightly with more mountains and open forest. This is a grove of desert oak in the evening light. It was always a highlight of the day to set up camp and wander around in the dunes.

For over 1000 kms of rough roads and bush camps I picked up only 1 puncture. Often I would be picking burrs out of my thongs but somehow the tyres avoided them, even when wheeling off road like in this photo.

1 August 2009- Yulara
Distance: 75 km
Word of the day: Rest

Woohoo! I reached Yulara this afternoon and the wheel was still turning. The wobble was nearly scraping the fork but the new one will be on there just as soon as the post office is open (Tuesday), so there's nothing to stress about anymore. The last week has been a beauty. I met this gang of Saturday footballer's from Warburton. They were off to the carnival at nearby (100km) community, Wannam, when they got a flat tyre. All they needed was a pump and they were back on the road. My little bike pump managed to put 45 psi in there!

All the big lizards seem to be hiding underground for the winter, but this colourful little brute was wandering across the road a few days ago. Although there were only about 15-20 cars per day driving past, I had to stop and carry him to safety. I reckon as soon as I turned away he was scurrying right back where I found him. If there's one thing I've learnt it's that you can't teach a lizard anything. They're stubborn.

The road has been a mixed story. From Warbuton to the NT border it was sometimes bumpy, sometimes soft, but mostly reasonable. After Docker River there were some stretches of sand which slowed things down. But I heard that it can be a LOT wosrse and this was about as good as it's been for years. This photo shows what happens when you go really slow (nasty headwind) and try to drink at the same time. My wheel hit the raised wind-row and I fell over sideways- no damage.

Ruby James and Lorraine Bennett were broken down 30km west of Docker River when I stopped to offer help. Not that I was good for anything because my tools are limited to a set of allen keys and a spare spoke! Genuine help soon arrived from the community and the ladies were back on the road. The scenery around Docker River, and for most of the journey from Warburton is absolutely stunning. The red centre of Australia is BIG, RED, and BEAUTIFUL.

And finally I entered tourist central today on the way from Kata Tjuta to Uluru (photo). The road was sealed and the rent-a-cars were plentiful. There's a good reason so many people visit this area though. There is a strangeness about these giant monoliths that rise out of the sandy desert that makes it hard to takes your eyes off them. No wonder the local aborigines have such strong connections and stories about these landmarks.