Yesterday we cycled 94km from Port Augusta to Port Pirie and we are now two days cycling from Adelaide. As keen as we are to get there it looks like we will be staying where we are for now 😩

Yes, we are on the South Australia coast where the bad weather should reach this afternoon.  Time to batten down the hatches and get some emergency supplies. Now where’s the beer shop!!

The Blue Dot moves slowly east towards the red balloon. Now it’s a southwards detour to Adelaide. 

Thanks to Google Maps. 

Not quite halfway through our cycle but halfway across Australia. 

We had a great two days resting at the Ceduna Foreshore Hotel.  It’s a lovely modern hotel and restaurant owned by the local community with profits reinvested in local facilities. After my beer drought through the Nullarbor I believe they are now building a new community centre from my bar profits – I’m glad my thirst can have some lasting community benefit. This is the view I had from my bar stool:

From Ceduna we headed southwards to Streaky Bay – a slight detour but the wind was blowing that way so why not!  After two rest days in Ceduna and a following wind you think we would fly along. Well not when you’re our age – two days is just enough time for all the joints to start seizing up and it was like putting two tortoises on a bike – it didn’t look nice or smooth moving.  Now before Susan reads this I would like to add that I was actually the only one who looked like a tortoise! All that said, the two tortoises got there (110km) and came across a lovely motel (run by a Scotsman).  Here is a picture of our cabin to show we don’t always have to rough it. 

Dinner that night was beer and curry. Wonderful.  

After a couple of nights in Streaky Bay we headed back on the road east. Again, the wind was behind us and we were happy until I developed a little bit of a sore knee! 

Now all through Canada Susan had sore knees and being a sensitive guy I could tell she was in real pain especially when she was tearful.  So before we came to Australia Susan took collagen tablets to help her knees and we spent a fortune in Perth buying collagen powder.  We’re not sure it’s working that well as she still has sore knees but not as bad as before – I can tell as she hasn’t cried yet. 

Now there are two types of people when it comes to dealing with pain. There are those like Susan who soldier on and just cycle through it. She doesn’t stop giving 100% on the bike regardless of the pain she feels. As I like to say she is tough as old boots 😀

Then there are people like me who are as tough as marshmallow, a BBQ marshmallow! I’m the can’t cope type. So when my knee started to twinge I’m immediately thinking this is going to get worse.  ‘Oh, uh, uh, this is bad’. ‘It’s ligaments’. ‘Uh, uh, uh’ every time the pedal goes round. ‘I’m not going to make it, I’ll never get to Sydney’. ‘We’re going to have to stop’. ‘Uh, uh, uh’. Susan doesn’t help, of course, when she tells me ‘Do what I do just cycle through it and think of something else’ Think of something ****** else!  That’s not what I want to hear! I want somebody to blame. Yes, I want somebody to blame for my sore knee!  I don’t know why but I think shouting at them might make me feel better. I try to keep calm and we stop the bike. ‘This is bad’ I say.  Now at this time, I’m not getting much sympathy from Susan who has now pedalled through Canada and Australia for 10,000 km with sore knees. But really that’s not what this is about! This is about me!! 

Eventually I realise there is nobody around to give me a sympathy and we are on a road alone in the wilderness.  So I get back on the bike and miraculously mange to pedal onto our next destination at Minnipa.  On route we passed through Poochera which is famous for the discovery of the Dinosaur Ant.

Due to its body structure, this ant is regarded is the most primitive alive and one of the first ants to evolve from the wasp.  It’s a living fossil and Poochera is the only town in the world to survive on ant based tourism! Interesting or what?  We stayed for 5 minutes whilst Susan used the facilities and cycled on. The excitement was too much. 

We reached Minnipa after 96km. That’s 96km with my sore knee. All is not lost, however, and we may at least make Adelaide because Susan has new remedy for sore knees – she drinks jelly and I’ve also joined the jelly club. Yup apparently jelly has gelatine which is a source of collagen and good for joints. Now it appears that you can’t buy jelly in cubes anymore and it all comes in packets of crystals. So now we have a bedtime nightcap – a cup of jelly and two ibuprofen. 

Now this is a drink you have to finish reasonably quickly because if you let it get cool it starts to set in your cup. I wonder what happens when it’s in your stomach.  Does it set? I mean I sat there last night and I’m sure my stomach was getting larger as this jelly set. Susan said it was just the beer and that got me thinking all sorts of chemistry things – just how does beer and jelly interact? Now drinking jelly isn’t something I would recommend but today we found some Port Wine jelly and I’m actually looking forward to my jelly nightcap tonight. 

So as it stands just now the cycle across Australia is off!  Susan says she can carry on with her two painful knees but she has no idea what I’m going through. I will, of course, try to carry but, really, how am I expected to cycle with such a serious twinge in my knee! 😂

When we did get to Minnipa we had a good evening at the motel with a range of other travellers swapping travelling stories. We enjoyed it but you had to be a traveller to stay awake.  Today we had a great day with a short 39km to reach Wudinna.  It was our  shortest cycle to date and we finished by lunchtime. After Wudinna it’s 100km of wilderness so we will leave that for tomorrow.  

This area is known as the Gawler Ranges and is the largest area of granite in the world.  Of course, we have already cycled the Nullarbor which is the largest limestone bed in the world. I may even start a cycling geological tick list. In recognition of our locale, here is a marvellous granite statue in Wudinna titled the ‘Australian Farmer’. 

Tomorrow we head for Kimba and hopefully Adelaide in a week or so. I hope I can be a brave soldier just like Susan. Now, where’s my jelly! 

The Blue Dot moves east towards the Red Balloon. 

After a rest day in Eucla we thought we would be ready for the second half of our cycle through the Nullarbor. Unfortunately, things don’t really work out like that. A single rest day is just not enough time to recover – it really just serves to give you time to contemplate how really tired you are. Yes the legs are sore but it’s more of a whole body tiredness where you feel you need to sleep for a few days continuously.

That said, we started cycling after our Eucla rest day hoping we were feeling better and that’s when we met an unwelcome guest to our cycle – Mr Bighead Wind.  When he blows from he north Mr Wind is warm and when he blows from the south (Antarctic) he’s pretty cold.  Either way, with no hills and trees for hundreds of kilometres, Mr Wind blows unabated and a cyclist in the Nullarbor gets battered relentlessly. 

Nevertheless, along the way we visited various lookout points on the Great Australian Bight. These cliffs look out across the Southern Ocean to Antarctica – I’ve never seen a more awe inspiring wild coastline. 

At one viewpoint we learned to speak a bit Australian – wherever we travel we try to use the local language when we can.  Susan spoke to an Aussie guy ‘I would like to see a whale’ (I knew he was a genuine Aussie as he was wearing flip flops with socks with a separate big toe to fit the flip flop). ‘A wheel?’ he replied looking puzzled ‘a wheel for your bike? as he pointed to the tandem. ‘A whale!’ ‘A wheel?’  I could see this was going nowhere fast so I stepped in and used the tried and tested technique for learning a language – I went over to the information board and pointed to the picture of the big black mammal spouting water.’Ahhhh you mean a  wayaal’ he shouted back smiling at us. Yes a wayaal! Hopefully by the end of this journey we will both speak Australian. Next step for me is to be brave enough to call a guy a ‘cobber’!

So after battling the wind and frequent viewing detours we stopped after 90km of hard cycling. Yes, it was another camp in the Outback as the next roadhouse was over 100km away. 

Looks great doesn’t it ?? It’s really not so bad and we have an established routine. Initial quick set up of the tent then Susan goes inside to sort outside sleeping mats, sleeping bag and gets comfortable.  I stay outside with the flies, the snakes, spiders and dingoes and finish pegging out the tent, arranging the bike and the gear, followed by setting up the stove and making coffee. Once coffee is ready I’m allowed in the tent with Susan. The morning is a similar reverse operation.  As Susan says we both have our jobs to do!

We didn’t sleep much that night as the tent rattled with the strong wind.  The following morning the wind was blowing at 40-50 knots – a motorcyclist later told us this.  Now maybe he was a sailor and that’s why he expressed wind speed in knots. Maybe it’s just the correct weather expression to use or maybe I just didn’t know that motorcyclists and yachtsmen share the same language?  So if you want to know how fast the wind was that day then please ask a sailor or a motorcyclist. All I can say is it was blinking fast!

How we struggled that day to cover 108km. Probably our hardest days cycling for a long, long time. Arriving at Nullarbor Roadhouse just before dusk we checked into one of the last available rooms and then it was an absolutely marvellous dinner – steak and Guinness pie with home made chips and a mountain of peas. Outstanding end to a very difficult day.

From Nullarbor Roadhouse we had another 4 days cycling to reach Ceduna, our current location. The cycling was tough but memorable.  I won’t post yet another photo of the next camp in the Outback even though Susan says it was her favourite spot yet. She’s as tough as old boots! 😀
The Nullarbor road is particularly tranquil late in the day when everyone sensible is somewhere more sensible. It’s a time we love. 

And before we leave the Nullarbor and camping in the Outback I thought I would post a picture of a roadhouse.  This is Nundroo where all water was from a bore hole and non drinkable, food was dreadfully poor and the state of the room was woeful. We tried treating and drinking the bore water but it was like drinking soapy salty water.  Oh and if you look at the picture and see signs for draught beer, well that part of the motel was abandoned. Camping’s not so bad after all!

We are now spending a couple of days in Ceduna to rest up after cycling 1,204 km (that’s 752 miles mum) across the Nullarbor region since we left Norseman. I’ve had my first beer in two weeks and we visited our first grocer shop in as long. We are at the Ceduna Foreshore Motel which is excellent and specialises in oysters and seafood. They serve draught beer and the carry out beer shop is next door – I’m in heaven!  

On Monday we will head down to Streaky Bay (114km) for a couple of days and some more beer. In case you’re wondering, Susan is fine too – she’s matching my beer drinking with cakes – one for one! My goodness this feels like a holiday!

Of course, we are now in South Australia and it’s the beginning of Spring and our weather is mixed. When it’s sunny it can be 35c and if its not the temperature is down to around 12c. Days can be a mixture of sun and showers. Thankfully we are not yet at Adelaide and Melbourne where they have been experiencing some extreme wet weather with extensive flooding.  Hopefully, it clears soon. Overall, to date, I think we have been reasonably lucky with the weather. 

Whilst we rest at Ceduna, I’ve got a bit of bicycle maintenance to do. Guess what happened? Lardy Ass broke the supports for the bike seat!  Oh I know what you’re thinking – poor Susan, how will she cope with a broken bike seat!  Well, she will be fine because believe it or not it was my seat that broke!  Surprising I know – couldn’t believe it myself!  So Susan has put me on that low carb beer 😩 and all the Aussie guys call me Sheila 😀.  

Actually, occasionally the bike falls over because of wind or the stand giving way on soft ground and my seat takes a huge hit because of the weight of the baggage. Well, that’s my story and I’m sticking to it. Thankfully, David at Laid Back Bikes and Henk at Nazca are arranging to send replacement parts to Adelaide where we will pick them up.  In the meantime, I’ve made a ‘splint’ from a piece of metal in my toolkit. I just hope it supports old Lardy Ass 😀

That’s enough for now as I’ve got to go and see how Susan is getting on – she washed my two pairs of shorts and long trousers this afternoon and if they don’t dry in the next couple of hours then I’m wearing my Lycra tights to dinner!  Bet you’re glad you’re not here!

1,965 km to date.

40% done.