A better day. The initial light headwind eventually turned into a tailwind. Lots of caravans.
All was well until late afternoon when there was the distinctive sound of a spoke breaking; back wheel, drive side, on bitumen as previously. Damn.…
Category: 2016 Great Central Road Perth to Cairns
Day 32 13 May Yulara to Curtin Springs 82 km
Creak and groan! Lethargy develops very quickly once you stop riding. After a slowish rise and pack it was back onto the frog.n.toad.
A headwind combined with rolling sand dunes to make life difficult.
The big change was the transition …
Day 31 12 May Repairs to bike 0 km
A day pacing the paths around the post office waiting for the brake pads/chain/other bits to arrive. The bits finally arrived at 4pm then it was a sweaty hour learning how to fit disc brake pads (second set went in …
Day 30 11 May Not Climbing The Rock 40 km
Bit the bullet and rode the 25 km out to Uluru/Ayres Rock (interesting note: we are supposed to call the large pebble’ Uluru’ to respect the aboriginal owners nomenclature.
But.
The several groups of aborigines that I spoke to use …
Day 29 10 May Rest and Restock in Yulara Resort campground 0km
Bliss- a lie in in the morning.
Followed by domestic duties washing everything that got wet in the flood, inspecting the bike for necessary repairs and reloading the food bags.
The bike needs new brake pads and chain (the wet …
Day 28 9 May End of the desert 100 km
A short 20-30 km down the road and the corrugations were getting bad. I thought that I hadn’t shown pictures of corrugations so tried getting some but of course they don’t show up on camera. Believe me, this is a …
Day 27 8 May Apres la deluge 100 km
Day after the flood.
Most creeks had now stopped flowing but still a couple needed to be portaged. The lagoons on the road were shrinking but still very much in evidence. And the grinding noise of wet sand destroying the …
Day 27 8 May The Flood 60 km
My camp flooded!
About 10 pm the rain got heavier and I congratulated myself that the 14 year old tent (that I had re-waterproofed with a coating of 1 part pure gutter silicone to 10 parts mineral turpentine) didn’t leak.…
Day 26 7 May Docker River to the gravel pit 60 km
A bit of rain overnight, just enough to prevent the road drying out.
Broke camp in the subdued light of misting rain and clouds low over the Mannamana (?) Range (which is the range Lasseter had to race along trying …
Day 25 6 May Warakurna to Docker River 100 km
Well, the rain started today. Only light misting rain, almost just saturated air, until mid afternoon. After that it got to a light drizzle but a lot more rain had fallen ahead of me from Docker River for the next …
Day 24 5 May to Warakurna Roadhouse (Giles Weather Station) 100 km
The road got progressively more corrugated the further it got from Warburton. The last 36 km in to Warakurna was appalling deep, close and continuous corrugations.
A car and caravan came past and called out ‘good day!’ – they were …
Day 23 4 May Warburton halfway to Warakuna 100 km
Left Warburton with an escort (briefly) of three primary school kids wagging school for a bit of motorbike riding up the GCR.
The road quickly deteriorates into a moderately rocky older style road as it heads up the Warburton Range. …
Day 22 3 May Rest day in Warburton
Given that, strictly speaking, non-community members can’t visit the Warburton community (although I gather this is not actually strictly enforced) all that is left to do in greater Warburton is to visit the community administration centre and art gallery. This …
Day 21 2 May Tjukayirla_Roadhouse to Warburton day 2 100 km
Made it to Warburton! Halfway!
Just more road but mostly in good condition. Not much traffic but again, those that did pass generally made sure that I was OK for water/health etc.
The last car to stop was a senior …
Day 20 1 May Tjukayirla_Roadhouse towards Warburton 100 km
Reluctantly said goodbye to the bitumen road/air strip at Tjukayirla (the most isolated roadhouse in Australia) and back on to variously sandy/corrugated/good road.
Interest this time was the appearance of camel tracks and even the sighting of three live camels.…