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Now on the home stretch for Sydney, the end was finally in sight! We redoubled our cycling efforts to get to Sydney in time before our visas expired. On the Sturt Highway (east-west road stretching from Adelaide to Sydney) we went through miles and miles of boring farmland and great big empty plains. It was like being back in the outback again – only this time there was barbwire fencing on both sides of the road and nowhere to camp (other than campsites in towns).
There was some tough distances to cover between towns (100km+) and the wind changed direction yet again to blow right in our faces!! There is simply no justice for cyclists in the world… To make life more miserable Nic’s injured knee was not healing very well and continued to give him trouble. The only good thing about this leg of Australia was that Sedef’s pace picked up again despite her new and more knobbly tyres, and the persistent wind – simply because she removed her odometer and refused to check her speed! Throughout the outback Sedef had got increasingly obsessed (and depressed!) with her speed which seemed to get worse and worse as the weeks went by… So much so that she absolutely detested her odometer by the time we reached Adelaide. The fact that her pace improved after removing the odometer seemed to confirm our theory that half the game in long distance cycling is mental rather than physical endurance…
About a week from Loxton we got rained in for a week at a tiny town called Balranald – absolute torrential downpours! Balranald was more of a village than a town really – a campsite, small highstreet with two cafes, a handful of shops, a pub and not much else! Oh and TWO hairdressers!! It seemed extravagant to have two hairdressers for a town this size – so Sedef thought she might as well get a haircut to support the local businesses. But believe it or not, she couldn’t get an appointment! They were both fully booked for the next 7 days solid?!
