Side of the road to Gem Tree

It was terribly cold in the morning. I rushed to pack up and get riding to warm up. A fast pace brought me to the Altijere community which has a service station, general store and a very fine take-away shop.

I rode in to a very clean town and straight for the take away joint in a very weak state. To solve my lack of nutrition, I ordered a burger with the lot, chips, and a constitutional chiko roll. All were cooked to perfection, the burger with a due amount of salad, fried egg and bacon, the chips cooked crisply in a lightish fat. It took a while to devour this needed feast and in a few hours I felt on top again.

About 50km from Gem Tree I stopped for a chat with two couples from Tasmania who had done the same route in four wheel drives. Then the road became a one lane bitumen (sealed!!) road at about 40km to go.

I was striding along at a superfast speed when a woman pulled over in a car and said her husband was cycling too! The bush telegraph (word of mouth between travellers) had not informed me of a close cyclist. Then after 10km I saw a man cycling towards me on a recumbent no less. Recumbent bikes/trikes are by far the optimum choice for sealed road cycling due to their better aerodynamics, but hardly anyone rides them.

We had a great chat, and I stupidly turned down an invite to dinner at his place, as it was to go backwards 10 kilometres. It would have been great to talk to someone who knows about cycling, and who also has experience working with the clowns in Defence.

Rode in to Gem Tree no problems. Nice place, well organised except for the hot water of which there is none.

Jervois Station to side of the road - 111km

The road out of Jervois Station was more of the same boggy road and slow going. There was one good stretch where the roadworks had built the road high. Some spectacular ranges, Harts Ranges, made the ride worth it. After the good patch the road became sandy and smooth sometimes, but torn-up in the middle and often corrugated.

It was a tailwind and I thought I had gone a good distance, after 10 hours of riding, but a sign showed I had done only 111km. I went to the side of the road, forlornly got out my sleeping mat, bag and pillow and lay motionless too tired to move. Slept well.

10km to Jervois Station

I rode the track finding solid thin lanes until reaching Jervois Station, a large cattle station with a camping ground, iron fire enclosures, tap water, and a shower and toilet, and a public phone. There is a kiosk there but it only has packets of chips, cans of fizz, chocolate bars and packets of lollies. No meals. The generators come on mid-morning so no hot water until then.

Slept in the tent all day very exhausted.

Marqua Station turn-off to 10km before Jervois Station

The rain during the night led to a cold and wet getting up. The sleeping bag was warm all night but getting out of it led to shivering until I changed into two dry wollen jumpers.

The road was ok for most of the day, apart from the usual corrugations, until I hit some road works that had turned the road into mud. I had to push a little but could still find a thin firm track to ride on as the bike collected a coating of red mud.

I saw a huge fine bull by itself, maybe an escapee from the knife or the cattle truck. Two red kangaroos, each on either side of the road, were contentedly watching me approach with bodies upright to raise their heads for a better view.

I was getting close to Jervois Station and dreaming of a meal when I hit Bonya Creek about 15km before. The road was boggy at the creek as expected, but then the entire road became full of torn-up, muddy holes like the Kokoda Track. I pushed the bike for a long while before finding a side path dug in from previous road works that provided shelter from the wind.

NT Border to Marqua Station Turn-off - 110km

You know you are tired when you are at the Northern end of the Simpson Desert and a fierce, noisy wind has come suddenly with an ominous murk of spiraling clouds at the approach, and you are totally relaxed, having pulled out your oilskin anorak and put on some wool.

Today was a very hard day with a good result of 110km. The road was corrugated all the way, stony most of the way and with a headwind all day. Each stone hammers the bike back to lose speed, the jolts passing the bars up my arms and to my chest, like a string of Bruce Lee one inch punches. A slow fight all day long took me to some low places in my mind.

A motorbiker stopped for a chat and gave me some bananas dried in orange juice. He had just quit his mining job in PNG and had a beautiful looking KTM.

These black clouds have arrived now and are very eerie. They are so low lying that I feel I could stand up and place my head in them. Jut before a small patch of rain was floating down in an arc from a huge cloud, like a mosquito net dropping and twisting.

Georgina River to NT Border

Right after getting off the bike today I was very negative about this stretch. I thought the best part of it was the fact that after only 2 days you were half way through it.

After leaving mosquito city at Georgina River and riding out of the no view river country, I happened upon some vast Mitchell grass plains and was hopeful of a change of scenery, now that I was just North of the Simpson Desert. Alas, that one type of tree showed up in patches for the same show as yesterday.

The road, however, was quite good until about 20km before the NT border where some large stones blocked any speed gain. A headwind also appeared.

At sunset my mind changed about the landscape. The dark stunted trees do a simple, stark silhouette against an orange sky. Very nice, especially with a new perception from a rested body.

Boulia to Georgina River

As I write (wrote) this I am recovering from direct sunlight in the afternoon making me sick. I was staggering about with a frazzled mind earlier, now my hands are a little shaky.

I set out from Boulia with 26 litres of water for a 467km stretch, on the basis that I used 10 litres to cover 360km from Winton to Boulia on a sealed road, adjusting it to 13 litres for the longer distance, and then doubling it for the dirt road . First stop was the supermarket which opened about 6am and has quite good prices.

Then I rode for a while on some sealed road out of Boulia and a fine tailwind with a breakfast of 'cool fruits' was a tantalising mix.

Then the dirt road was coming up on a descent. The superbike thundered onto the gravel with a swift, pliant style. I did not seem to gain any friction on the dirt if any. The bike performed well under a heavy load. It surfed the fast little lanes that I detected with a quick steer and test.

Somehow in the last hour the wind turned against me and the frontal glare of the sun started to weaken me. The dirt track also got very rugged and I nearly fell off twice. It also seemed to be a climb. The scenery remained the same the whole day with short tree with dark lightning branches and grey leaves on desert grass in patches of red sand. I found this monotonous when my body was under stress.