Sunday, 29th August, 2004
August 25 to 28 – getting warmer…
We tried very hard to leave Daly Waters early to beat the heat… but it was too dark and cold to move quickly and by the time we had the tent and all our gear stowed on Argo it was 8am. Even the sun didn’t want to get up, staying unrisen until after 7am. At 9am the sun made up for lost time and hit with a vengeance – and so did the headwinds. The day was long, hard and hilly. When we camped that night at Larimah (home of a croc longer than Argo) we vowed to leave earlier the next morning.
The roosters crowed on queue at 5am next morning but somehow we still didn’t leave until 8am. The winds and sun were even more forceful than the day before so we engaged our new battle plan. It goes like this: ride hard in the morning, collapse in some meagre shade somewhere in the middle of the day, then ride again from mid afternoon. Even better, if there is a water tank next to the road, wet your hair / shirt / self and keep dousing yourself with water until you stop wilting.
It worked, and we got to Mataranka at 3.30pm. Sadly we didn’t have time for a day off and visits to the hot springs (actually any spring would be hot in this weather) because we had to make Katherine the next day before 5pm to collect our parcel from the post office. Since we hadn’t managed to break camp and hit the road before 8am in the previous days, we decided to stay in a motel for the night and save ourselves an hour’s packing. Yay! We got on the road by 7am, leaving as the sun rose. This is how every day will have to be now.
The ride to Katherine was 106km and hilly, but remarkably easy as we managed to get a lot of it done before the sun and wind kicked in. We made Katherine before 4pm, and had plenty time for the post office and checking into a youth hostel. We were entertained all night by blaring rock music and chain smoking twenty somethings. I felt very old, it must be that birthday I had last week. The next day we checked in to a caravan park – much more our pace – and decided to stay an extra day to visit Katherine Gorge with Rob, who we camped next to at Dunmarrah.
August 24 – the Variety Bash
Today was a short ride to the Daly Waters pub. The hotel is famous throughout the Territory for its great beef & barra meal and interesting entertainment. But today was even more special. Close to the pub turnoff we were beeped at, yelled at, waved at, photographed and videod by rally cars in the Victorian Variety Club Bash. The state bash raises funds for children in need and today’s lunch stop was at the hotel. We pulled in at the pub surrounded by 150 cars all decked out in sponsors logos and looking like floats in a parade. They were all there – Wile E Coyote, a Victorian tram carrying Bob Hawke, Steve the Crocodile Hunter, Garfield and even a fire engine with working siren.
We blended right in with our tandem and trailer and our weird outfits. The afternoon was spent socialising with the drivers until the last car drove off to spend the night at the Mataranka Homestead.
After setting up our tent, we chatted to David and Trish and her mum, who had passed us along the road. We remembered their set up – a light truck campervan towing a boat, 4wd car and pushbikes. What was more amazing was that David designed and then built it all himself over 15 months. Inside was spacious, beautifully laid out with storage and all the necessities – like a tardis on wheels.
August 21 to 23 – roadhouse blues
The next 300km has a low population – three roadhouses and, well, Elliot. But despite the long distance to the next major town it was time to celebrate. Happy birthday to you, happy birthday dear Ann, happy birthday to you. We broke out the party goodies – baked beans and birthday fruit cake and Pride and Prejudice on a fuzzy television. Unfortunately the birthday wish of a tailwind didn’t happen.
Doing these large distances does give you time to reflect on many observations. For instance, every day we’ll pass a parked roadtrain with the driver attending to part of his (never her) truck. Newsflash – truckies don’t wear singlets, nor does Bluey sit next to him for long distance company, and he listens to ABC radio not country & western.
But here’s one for you mathematicians. Every day, we’ll be on a long, straight section of road and two cars will come into view. One is ahead, the other in the rearview mirror. How is it that over so many kilometres, two speeding cars will cross paths right where we are? Maybe Dr Karl has an answer.
August 18 to 20 – making tracks for Banka Banka cattle station
The bus from Alice pulled in to Tennant at 10pm. We spent the next day food shopping (very important), posting parcels, and bike maintenance. We headed north very slowly the next day – it was very obvious that we hadn’t ridden for a while. But who’s in a race anyway?
We pulled into a rest area for lunch at Attack Creek. A roadside Cairn marked the spot where Stuart’s trans-continental expedition was forced to turn back by “hostile natives and illness”. Travellers had commented on this in grafitti more thoughtful than the usual sort – “Who were the hostile natives? Where is the cairn marking their defence of their country?” and another: “Who initiated the attack?”
By the end of the day we pulled off the highway to Banka Banka station. For 10km the signs promised hot showers, cold beer and green grass. It was more than true. A large treed and grassed oval was covered in campervans and we were welcomed by a couple of friendly emus. We pitched our tent, walked over to the “bar”, chatted to the grey nomads and watched a slide show under the stars on a day in the life of this huge station.
Tuesday, 17th August, 2004
August 16 to 17 – Getting ready to head north
We always have to leave before we are ready. But I guess that’s better than staying too long. We spent twice as long in Alice than what we had planned thanks to the wonderful people we met – but we didn’t even scratch the surface of everything we wanted to see and do.
A real highlight was a visit to the Olive Pink native botanic garden, just across the road from Kym and Jo’s. Thanks to the labels we now know what we’ve been photographing for the past couple of weeks – and more. See the photo gallery for more.
We had a couple of days to go shopping for essentials like clothing that doesn’t have holes in it and socks that are actually white and do administrative things like buying a bus ticket to Tennant Creek. We’re doing this entry on the bus right now actually. And no, we’re not cheating – we already rode this section on the way to Alice, remember, and there’s no need to do it again (although it is tempting to see if those fierce headwinds on the way down are as strong in the tail – but then again you know my theory that there is no such thing as a tailwind, it is just a cycling fantasy).
August 14 to 15 – Camping in the Western Macdonnells
Kym’s friend Paul is organising the “West Macdonnells Meander”, a leisurely five day mountain bike ride. The ride will connect some of the territory’s most beautiful places – Standley Chasm, Glen Helen Gorge, Gosse Bluff (an incredible meteorite crater), Tylers Pass, and Redleaf Gorge are just some of them! It will be fully supported and although some roads are unsealed distances will be manageable for riders of all levels. The ride will be held for the first time on 6 September this year, and Paul hopes to make it an annual event. Lucky for us Paul was driving the YMCA bus to check out the route this weekend so we got a free sight seeing tour to all these wonderful places. Kym and Jo came along in their new campervan so we were well supported.
We camped near Glen Helen on Saturday night, a beautiful night to sleep under the stars. The cold wasn’t a problem because we borrowed a swag which Jo made up with blankets and a quilt – we even had pillows and a mattress. We woke to watch the sun rise over Mt Sonder, and didn’t even have to get up for it. Although the smell of bacon and eggs cooking over the camp fire did eventually lure us out of the swag.
Two days just wasn’t enough time to see everything, but it was a great taster. We’ll definitely have to come back here for a few weeks to do all the walks, climb the mountains, and explore the gorges. Oh yeah, and riding too.
August 12 to 13 – Uluru and Kata Tjuta
Back on the bike (which rode in comfort in the campervan from Alice) for a ride to the cultural centre at Uluru before a circuit around the rock. The ride was slow and breathtaking, it’s hard to tire of such an amazing place. At the cultural centre we read about the local Arnangu people once again having custody of their land, which has been leased back to the territory government. Many of the stories connected with Uluru are shown and told in the centre but the secrets of Kata Tjuta are too sacred to be revealed.
We drove to Kata Tjuta the following day and walked the Valley of the Winds, which it was literally. Wildflowers carpeted the valleys and you could easily fill a book with the photos that Ann took as she walked up to the lookout and back – our favourite ones can be seen in the photo gallery.
Sadly we had to leave the following day but we’ll be back to explore some more. After heading back to Alice we dropped off the camper and then cycled over to Kym and Jo’s, where we were going to stay for the next few days.
August 10 to 11 - Busy days in Alice
Sunday was all about cycling. After coming in first (of one) in the tandem section of the Alice “King of the Hills” race we spent the rest of the day at the BBQ meeting club members. We had met race winner Kym, the local road champion (and previously Territory and national champion) last year in Sydney at a bike expo.
After Mondays’ ABC interview we were rung by Graham from the Irrkerlantye Learning Centre. He offered to arrange for our helmets painted by local aboriginal women artists. We jumped at the offer and got our painted helmets at the end of the week, telling the stories of “journey”. The women offer a service where they will paint your bike helmet too – just post it off to them and you’ll be mailed back an original artwork in a couple of weeks. Highly recommended.
Then off to the hospital to have a chat to the medical team who look after stroke patients in Alice. It's always wonderful to have the opportunity to say "thanks" for the great work they do. And talking of great heling work...Chris, Alice’s number one mechanic, gave Argo a quick check before we headed south to the rock… in a Britz campervan.
It was great to see the change of colours at sunset, we couldn’t fit them all in our diary so check them out in our "favourite photos" gallery. It was then back to Yulara for our first night’s “camping” in the van – beds beat Thermorests for comfort. It was like having our own private luxury hotel room – the van comes with pillows, mattress, sleeping bags which zip out to doonas, television, a toilet, shower, stove, fridge and even – wait for it - a kitchen sink. It will be very hard getting back in the tent.
Sunday, 8th August, 2004
August 6 to 9 - Alice in wonderland
It’s wonderful to be back in Alice again, and even more wonderful to have a week off! Everything in the caravan park was booked out except a cabin with a bathroom so we are staying in enforced luxury. What a shame. Thanks to Sue, Catriona, Ros, Amber, Peter, Matt, Catherine and Karen it is not breaking the bank entirely as we are using our “emergency” vouchers you gave me as my bon voyage present from work.
There is so much to see and do here I don’t know how it will all fit into a week. We will probably have to stay longer. We’ve had a look at some wonderful art (sadly we can’t afford to buy any more), done lots of food shopping, cooking and washing, arranged a permit to talk to people about stroke in the mall, taken Argo in to get her chains and cogs renewed and organised some media. On Sunday we’re going on a hill ride with the local cycle club. What? On our day off? Believe it or not I’m actually looking forward to it, not just the BBQ afterwards!!!
After we visit the hospital on Monday we’re heading off to Uluru for a few days. We got married there in 1997 although we were on a motorbike then, not one with pedals. It will be wonderful to be able to ride around the Rock again – it is such a spiritual place, you can feel it in the air.
Britz are very kindly coming to our rescue and providing us with a campervan for our Uluru visit so we don’t have to freeze in our tent. It will be great to have the freedom of a mobile home to not only take us round for a few days but also to sleep in, and cook in – yes, it has a stove and a fridge in it! I could get used to this!
August 3 to 5 – beating winds
After brekkie around the 44-gallon drum fire it was time to ride. Shane saw us off and said he’d tell all the boys to give us a toot when they passed us on the road. Sure enough, after our first half hour of riding there was a toot and a wave from a road train loaded with road work equipment.
We headed south against the ferocious headwinds we had grown to expect. It was a hard slog to Ti Tree, which is just big enough to have distance markers every 10km on the road as you approach. Much too cold to camp so we have to plot our journey from pub to pub and pay big prices to stay in motel rooms. The water tastes so soapy that we fill our bike bottles with soft drink. There goes the budget… and our teeth.
The last roadhouse/pub before Alice is Aileron, 135km up the road. We know we have to contend with the unrelenting headwinds and some hill climbing so we make a huge effort and leave early. Leaving early is good in theory but not when the temperature is a single digit (it’s been hitting 2 degrees). Our fingers, noses and ears were burning with cold - I wondered if this is what frostbite felt like and reminded Ross never to take me to Europe. We had to stop after 2km and put socks on Ross’s hands over his cycle gloves. Eventually the sun came up and by mid afternoon we had thawed out enough to take off our long nicks and ride in shorts, although Ross never actually made the move to short sleeves.
Despite the hard conditions, we made really good progress and were really proud of ourselves. The hills into Alice were no problem, but Ross’s right leg decided to go on strike on the last crest. Luckily it was downhill all the way from there – who needs two legs anyway.
August 2 – Road train driving lesson
Meeting people along the road means lots of opportunities to share and offer info about different places. Some of it is positive and valuable, but some of it is not. A place is as nice as the people you meet there, so hearing that a place is bad just means that the person giving you the news didn’t meet the right people. The info we had received about Barrow Creek, our next stop, was like this.
Today started out with a headwind that literally blew you backwards if you stood upright – but we had to do 90 km on a loaded tandem. Help. While on one of our stops we met up with two Japanese cyclists (sorry guys I can’t pronounce your names). We all had lunch together, then set off for Barrow Creek. We arrived tired but relieved at dark. Problem…no rooms left at the pub (it only has three rooms) and too cold and windy to camp. Shane at the bar immediately came to our rescue. For the last two weeks Shane had been working by himself getting things ready for a contract road crew to redo six kilometres of road at Barrow Creek. All the other workers were arriving tomorrow so there was plenty of space to spare (and food too – yes!!!).
After a few beers and a couple of fantastic BBQ steak sambos Shane asked if we wanted to come with him to water down the roadwork he had already started. Ann jumped at the chance for her first ride in a road train, after all we had seen quite a few by this stage. We drove off, quickly did the job, and then did a huge u-turn to go back Shane then asked if I’d like to drive and before I said anything I was in the driver’s seat with Ann perched on Shane’s lap in the passenger seat. All I will say is that these trucks are HUGE, very powerful, noisy, cramped, hard to change gear, and best left to the professionals. After a couple of kms Shane decided I failed my test but I asked for a second chance in the morning!
August 1 – Playing Marbles
Today’s date meant that we had been riding for four months. Really? It goes so quickly and there’s so much to see. After only a couple of kilometres we turned off the highway to the Devils Marbles. There were photos to be taken everywhere with these giant granite boulders perched one on top of each other. We went down to read the info boards and found out that the area is so significant that the stories cannot be revealed by the custodians.
After answering many bicycle and stroke questions we headed off to Wauchope (pronounced “walk up”!) for lunch. It took a while to get there because everyone had their camera out and wanted to photograph us in front of the Marbles. We ate our roast lamb sambos while talking to Geoff and Lorraine from Egg and Bacon Bay (great name) in Tassie. We’ll call in on them when we’re down their way. Next it was off to that nights accom. Wycliffe Well claims to be the UFO capital of Oz with many newspaper articles covering the pub walls but we’ll leave that one up to you. We dined with Mick and Kay and they gave us heaps of info about many “must sees” when we head north.
After a great meal we had a look at some canvases for sale that were done by women artists from a local community, Ali Curung. We were so struck by one particular image and story that we bought it on the spot (mum, we’ve posted it home to your place). Can’t wait to get home to make a frame and hang it.
July 31 – South on the wildflower road
We passed the cultural centre on the way out of Tennant. This is Goanna Dreaming country with a sacred women’s ceremonial site just around the corner. The centre also told the story of the first ever land claim. Station workers around Tennant went on strike against working conditions and the right to their land. After over 25 years of Federal Court proceedings the case was finally won, but it took many years to transfer the rites. As Paul Kelly says, “from little things big things grow”.
Our day ride was through mulga country with many wildflowers in bloom. From the road edge to beyond the shrubs – corkwoods, bloodwoods, grevilleas, acacias, and the beautiful Territory emblem, the native rose. The sandy landscape was now the deep “desert” red colour, but that description doesn’t do it justice. Travelling at this speed certainly gives you an appreciation of the constant changes.
To top it off, we found a great camp spot off a side road on soft red sand (very comfy to lie on) and got to watch the sun set and rise again over a sea of wild flowers and grasses.
