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Once back on the road after our semi-disaster, we wasted no time and headed straight south to Alice Springs. The weather was still hot and we had to be very careful with our water. A big tip for would be outback-cyclists is to carry a sign saying ‘Need Water’ and wave it at passing caravans if you are really stuck! It works wonders! Nic wanted to put on the back of it ‘Need Cheesecake’ and flip it around soon as a car started to slow down. :p
This section of the outback was fairly boring to cycle – however it was broken up by a few interesting interludes. We stopped at ‘Devil’s Marbles’ for a quick game – a collection of huge boulders shaped roughly into balls by the winds and rain. The local aboriginals believe them to be the eggs of the rainbow serpent.
A little further south we came across a huge aboriginal warrior statue perched on a hill overlooking Hollywood – sorry Aileron roadhouse. Nearby we met a Japanese cyclist so laden you couldn’t see his bike – in fact when Sedef saw him approaching in the distance she thought it was a huge black bull on the road!
We also stayed at Wycliffe Well roadhouse – famous for its UFO sightings and abductions. When we arrived at the roadhouse Nic was delighted to see the UFO parked up in the courtyard, jumped off his bike and ran over to the UFO and the aliens shouting ‘I knew they would come back for me!’. He was disappointed to find out the aliens were only made of green plastic alas. :p The walls of the roadhouse were adorned with newspaper clippings and photos of UFO spottings and abductions. Some were extremely funny (and totally unbelievable). Cynics comment on the fact that this roadhouse has the biggest range of beers in the whole territory, which could explain all the sightings! :p
Further south, after a particularly hard day’s cycle we arrived exhausted at a rest area just as the sun went down. Hurriedly Nic pitched up the tent whilst Sedef chatted to a lovely French family who were on holiday and were interested in our bikes. They invited us over to dinner in their warm caravan – which was very welcome cause it was very cold that evening and we were too tired to cook.
On this stretch we encountered the most amount of cyclists on this trip – all of which bar one couple (Ed and Gaye – on the left below) were sensibly riding north to warmer climes, with the wind on their backs. However, like us, Ed and Gaye were heading south, also having started their trip from London 14 months ago! They were on the final home stretch to Melbourne, where they are from. We adopted each other for the next few weeks – bushcamped together, and generally exchanged stories which was welcoming considering they had experienced similar hardships as we had on such a long journey. We finally parted ways a few weeks later in South Australia.
One lunch time we came across two 69 year old cyclists, one on a modern carbon bike, the other on an old iron contraption – they were cooking beans and sausages in a well used iron saucepan and looked like a scene from an early Tour de France. We were astonished to hear that despite their age they were ONLY covering 160km a day average – very impressive for any cyclist yet alone for someone their age!!
Enjoying nice scenery – beginning to get into the great central Australian desert… It’s getting colder too! The nice hot tropical weather was gradually replaced by warm days but chilly nights – typical desert winter in fact! Our first real experience of just how cold it gets was -3C on the night we were looked after by the French family – towels and tent (and us) were frozen solid by the morning!
Thats really very nice phtographs. u both r seem to be very nice. Always be together in life at every moment.
Byeee
take care
sanjay
ya it me sanjay u can mail me at sksingh@mail2web.com