Day 282: End of the trip?

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Just before Elliot, we were happily cycling along, minding our own business, with only 20km left to go before stopping for the day. We whizzed down a hill past a nice rest area, with a lot of caravaners waving and watching, when disaster struck. Nic’s derauilleur (rear gear system) got caught in his spokes and rotated 270 degrees – much like what Sedef encountered on her bike in Malaysia. Unfortunately Nic was not as lucky as her – the resulting force tore the metal bracket the gear system was attached to – in layman speak the bike frame was broken, and the bike was unrideable!

Nic skidded to a halt at the bottom of the hill, Sedef catching up moments later. Our stopping was so abrupt that the caravaners watching from the rest area thought we had a serious accident, and we later heard that a light aeroplane flying overhead had started to call emergency services, until they saw us both moving around the bikes and realised we were OK. Whilst we were surveying the damage a Polish family on holiday stopped to help. We decided that our only option was to camp at the rest area we had just passed, and figure out what to do in the morning. We threw the bike on top of the Poles’ trailer and drove back to the rest area, where we were greeted by the caravaners all wanting to know what had happened.

Looking at the bike more closely we realised how serious the problem was. The breakage was in a very delicate and thin area, and we were not sure if welding would be an option. Cycling was definitely not an option since the wheel was effectively hanging loose. The nearest bike shop was back in Katherine (450km north) alas they would not have a replacement part for a recumbent bicycle. Gutted, we realised that this could be the end of our trip – and so near to our initial destination, Sydney.

To complicate matters further, we were almost out of food supplies (having planned to restock that evening), we were in the middle of the bush, 20km away from the nearest town. We decided that the safest option was for Sedef to go to Katherine with the bike to see if anything could be done, and Nic to bush-camp, waiting for her. Thankfully a few of the caravaners helped us out with bits of food and supplies so we could have a meal that evening. A young couple (Lucy and Keiran) in a campervan offered to take Sedef and the bike to Katherine the next morning.