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 corrugated road that was unpleasant to ride on!

Obeisiance to the road gods done, onwards.

Over the next rise, about 200 m from the photo above and

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Who says road engineers don’t have an artistic sense? Just over the rise from the corrugations photo above came this perfectly framed first glimpse of The Olgas. They look so close and the end of the Great Central Road accordingly so near.

Riding on though showed that The Olgas were in fact nearly 30 km  away. They look close because they are really big, over 600 m.

Enthusiasm redoubled I ride on, over sand, over corrugations, go boy!

Mulga, one of my favourite trees; grey leaves, red sand, really tough drought tolerant physiology

Just over the boundary of the Uluru National Park I came upon the first cyclist encountered on the trip.

John, a 55 year old retired English cop from Lancaster was just starting on the Great Central Road. 18 litres of water, 40 mm tyres running at 30 psi, road up the Oodnadatta Track from Melbourne (I think). Nice chap, we tried to scare each other with horror stories of what awaited each on our respective paths and parted ways.

In to Yulara resort campground at 19:30 (actually an hour earlier but I rode around twice before I figured out where the campground actually is), booked 4 nights for the price of 3 and set up camp.

Showered and had a light meal (packet of lollies, couldn’t work up the energy in the anti-climax of having finished the ride on the Great Central Road that had been my initial target) and went to sleep.

Good night one, good night all. T’is done!