Day 36 - Not a lot happened today!
I was up before sunrise and met a lot of the campers driving out to watch sunrise. I gave sunrise a miss as wanted to really just relax today. So instead I went back to my tent and slept a little more.
When I did get up it was a beautiful blue sky day. Was a bit cooler than the last few days. I did all the laundry and sorted out some stuff to send home (via post). Have sent home most of my cooking and bike repair stuff. This will mean less to carry on the plane next week. After those really hard tasks I had lunch and relaxed around the pool at the campsite for the afternoon. Was lovely and quiet, as most people were out exploring. Tomorrow I'm riding down to Kata Tjuta, which is about 45kms away. Once there I'm planning on doing the Valley of the Winds walk, which is about 3 hours. So will be a long day with plenty of sights to see. I might need another R&R day on Thursday. |
Day 37 - A ride to Kata Tjuta - 112kms
This morning I was up nice and early, as I wanted to get to Kata Tjuta by 10am. I was riding by about 7.20am and arrived there at around 9.45am, as it's just over 50km away. The weather has really cooled in the mornings, so it was a very pleasant ride.
The first walk I did is called the Valley of the Winds. It's about 7.5km long and can take around 4 hours. The walk is a circuit through the Kuta Tjuta domes. The views all along the walk were just amazing. The red domes, against the blue skies were just fantastic. I was stopping a fair bit getting some photos. Hopefully there will be some really good ones on the nice camera. I got back to the start just after 12pm. I certainly didn't hurry through it, so I think they advise 4 hours for the less mobile! When you do this walk make sure to wear a wide brim hat and take a bottle of water. As there is little shade in there but you can fill up your water bottle along the way at two points on the walk, which is great. I then enjoyed lunch in a nice shady spot before riding on to my afternoon walk at Walpa Gorge. Walpa Gorge is a shorter walk, just under 3km. The walk takes you along a short, narrow gorge which has a waterhole. Certainly was a lot cooler in the gorge, as not much sunlight gets through because of the steep walls. When I got to the end of the gorge it was really quiet, except for the odd bird call echoing through the gorge. So I enjoyed just sitting there for a few minutes, all by myself before I headed back to the bike. Once again another really nice walk. As I still had a bit of time I stopped at the sunset viewing area. You get a real nice view of Kuta Tjuta from here. Before riding back I had a bit more to eat and refilled my water bottle at the tank. Certainly isn't an issue getting water here with all the tanks they have put in place. The ride on the way back was very nice, as I had some nice views of Uluru. There was hardly any wind still, so I was back at the campsite at around 4.30pm. Today has been fantastic. Great weather for riding and walking. Scenery that was just breathtaking through the Valley of the Winds. Today also is the final day of the tour I'll be doing a big bike ride. Tomorrow I'll be getting resting again and on Friday a short ride out to the airport to collect Lynette. I'll update this blog in the next few weeks with extra pictures and other useful information. |
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How did it go?
Just over a week ago my wife joined me at Yalara and another cycle tour was over. This tour certainly had some great highlights. Like fantastic scenery for most of the way, getting away from the sealed road for over 750km (or 50+% of the tour) and meeting new people along the way.
Not everything goes to plan. So you always need to have a plan B. E.g when the bike pump broke, I didn't foresee this happening and needed to ask my partner to help out. It all panned out okay in the end, but meant I needed to change my route which was originally going to take me via Finke to a slightly more populated route out to the Stuart Highway. For this trip I added an extrawheel trailer to the mix This allowed me to carry the extra water and food between resupply points. I was very happy with the trailer. It did its job well. I was able to carry about 2 weeks supply of food and 3 days (14 litres) of water quite comfortably in it. The trailer tracked really well both on the dirt and sealed sections and a lot of the time I would forget I was towing it. I also felt more comfortable moving some of the weight off the bike and to the back, as I think it did make the bike itself easier to handle on the dirt. Because I used the extrawheel trailer I had an additional dynamo. This was connected to an e-werx which I used to keep my camera (Panasonic GX-1) batteries and lights (ay-ups) charged. This worked well, as up front I had my pedalpower+ which was used to keep the iPhone and Garmin charged throughout the trip. I did have an issue though with the pedalpower+, about halfway along the dirt tracks the wires became loose and also the battery inside would be disconnected slightly. It became worse and worse during the latter half of the trip, but did last (just) till I got to Yalara. I was disappointed in the fact it didn't survive the trip, as I thought it was better made than it actually was. The bike was fitted with Schwalbe Mondial (47-622 (28x1.75) tyres. I had used them before on last year's tour through the Blue Mountains. The tyres were great. The grip was perfect for the different types of dirt (gravel, sand and clay bases) I was riding on. After I completed the tour, I checked the tyres and only the rear (on the bike) had a little bit of wear, the other two tyres were like new still. I will certainly be using these tyres the next time my tour takes me back on the dirt roads. Water was a concern when I planned this tour. I researched where I'd be able to get water along the way and calculated that I should generally carry two days worth of water through the Flinders Ranges and about 3 days when I got to the Oodnadatta track. I was pleasantly surprised to find good sources of water (rainwater tank, good bore water and offers from other road users) along the way. So water never became a major concern. Also it helped doing the tour it the cooler months (April-May). Because of the remoteness of this trip, my partner was concerned about communication along the way. There is no mobile coverage from Leigh Creek to Marla (about 10 days) and also along a number of the other dirt roads along the way. To overcome this I agreed to get a Spot Tracker. This enabled me to check-in at the end of each day so my partner and friends knew I was okay. As each time I checked in it would send them and e-mail and also update the map I embedded on my home page. It worked really well and gave my wife peace of mind whilst I was out there. I'm already thinking of a tour closer to home (NSW) for next year and some longer ones to follow. I have really enjoyed being able to get away from the sealed roads and towns and getting to see parts of Australia a lot of people don't get to enjoy. |