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With the break in Alice over, we got back on the bikes to cycle the rest of the outback. We were now in the midst of the desert proper – miles of nothing all around, no trees or bush to stop the howling 20-30 knot wind in our faces…
It was the hardest cycling of the trip so far. Towns and roadhouses were scarce, so we would have to bush-camp in the middle of nowhere for 2-3 days before arriving at a place where we could shower / stock up on food etc. To add to our misery it was just our luck to come to Australia in a year of record cold weather – the temperature at night would plunge down to -5 and despite wearing three layers of clothes we would often wake up in the night shivering in our tent (until we invested in wooly hats, tights, and a heavy-duty winter sleeping bag). On one horrible 150km stretch just before Coober Pedy we encountered 30-40 knot gale winds, directly against us. It took us two very tough days of cycling at 12-13 kph to get to Coober Pedy, which seemed like an oasis to our tired eyes. The next morning after a hot shower and lots of sleep we realised it was a typical mining town with no greenery but famous for its opals and underground dwellings.
The weather had certainly changed to winter – the days were getting short and temperature plunged dramatically once the sun had gone down. We would warm our frozen limbs in the morning by a bowl of steaming porridge and a cup of hot coffee! And at night we would crouch centimetres away from our lovely bushfire – built in accordance with Australian bush-fire regulations (only fallen dead wood, 30 cm basin, 2m away from any shrubbery etc. etc.)
Our musical endevaours: Sedef performing on the piano to the accompaniment of an internationally famous singing dingo that has a question in Trivial Pursuit!! The dingo was called Dinky and he lives at the Stuart’s Well roadhouse just south of Alice, the owner of which (in beard below) is famous for opening up the rock and Kings Canyon to tourism in the 50-60s. In another roadhouse we met a lovely couple (Paul and Pauline) who not only gave us a slap-up dinner but taught Nic how to play his shiny new harmonica!
We noticed in Alice that our tyres were beginning to look worse for wear, but we thought they would last till we hit the south coast. Unfortunately that was not meant to be – the rough tarmac of the Stuart Highway wore Nic’s rear tyre down very quickly (to the threads), so we had to wait for a new tyre for two days at a roadhouse when it was finally beyond help.
As you can see above cycling has done wonders for our physique! :p
Our last stop before the south coast was in an area renown for its salt lakes – we ventured onto one (ignoring the military warnings about mines and unexploded shells) and even collected a piece of rock salt as a memoir! In some lights the salt lakes looked like large bodies of water – the early explorers must have been gutted to find salt instead of the much sought after water when they first came across these…
