Why Not?
From the Cycle Touring Association of WA (who thought I might not be seen again)
A Desert Odyssey
Our esteemed ex CTA Ride Coordinator, Stuart Crombie, is planning a cycle crossing of Australia through the Great Central Road. The ride is to start on the 10 April 2016 and will be attempted totally unsupported. The overriding(geddit?) goal is to have fun and be safe so the ride will be staged – e.g. Perth to Hyden, if all good then to Kalgoorlie, then to Laverton and so on. Stuart is not a fast rider but has done long rides in the past on the principle that as long as the pedals are going around, the end is getting closer!
The route is from Perth through Kalgoorlie to Warburton in Western Australia and then to Docker River and Uluru in the Northern Territory. After a rest at Yulara it is south to Oodnadatta and Maree in South Australia then up to Innamincka in New South Wales to Winton and on to Longreach in Queensland. Stuart has a brother on a station at Longreach whom he plans to visit for a beer.
Stuart will carry everything on his bike; food, water, tent, sleeping gear and spares. Water on the Laverton-Uluru stage is his biggest concern with up to 200 km between roadhouses. He intends to ride these stages over three days/2 nights starting with 18 litres in PET juice bottles and a water bladder. As a back-up he has downloaded from GeoScience Australia (www dot wa dot gov dot au/) maps showing aboriginal gnamma holes near the Great Central Road and stockwater points into his mobile phone map (http://www dot oruxmaps dot com/). Food will be mainly pasta and tuna spiced with chilli flakes and cooked on a Trangia stove. Extras include a broad spectrum multivitamin for health and rum for fun. Tools will be a Park multi-tool, some master chain links and spare spokes, a hub tool and pliers. He will also carry a spare tyre, 6 spare tubes and patch kit and 2 pumps just for luck.
Stuart is using his new Wayward Cape York touring bike. The chrome-moly steel frame has disc brakes, front and rear racks and mudguards with 700×35 Schwalbe Marathon tyres (all bow down before the Gods of Touring Tyres!), bringing the starting weight to 15 kgs. It is equipped with a triple chain ring and a 9 speed Deore derailleur. The recent Broad Horizons Tour served as a shakedown test. It shook free a pannier rack, broke a spoke and six pairs of stained undies showed that twelve year old tyres do perish and explode even when stored out of the light. When fixed and Loc-tite’d she will be ready to roll. Naming rights are available. “Wayward WillHe?”
Stuart will carry a satellite tracker able to ping his location each hour. The pings will link to a website enabling the ghoulish to track his progress on Google Earth. He will notify the web address prior to leaving.
Stuart has previous experience in this area as it will be his third crossing of the country. This will be his longest off-road trip as the previous two were mainly on sealed roads across the top and across the Nullarbor. A later trip to Cape York proved that no matter how sandy the track, a firm base will eventually be found as long as one foot keeps going in front of the other.
I am sure everyone in the CTA wishes him a safe and successful trip as it is a journey of epic proportions.
