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Monthly Archive for May, 2006

Day 300: Uluru, Olgas, Canyon

In Alice we took a week off to visit Uluru (Ayers’ Rock) and the nearby Olgas (Kata Tjuta) and Kings Canyon. No trip to Australia would be complete without a visit to ‘The Rock’. It was too much of a detour on the bikes so we opted to hire a car and have a little [...]

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Once back on the road after our semi-disaster, we wasted no time and headed straight south to Alice Springs. The weather was still hot and we had to be very careful with our water. A big tip for would be outback-cyclists is to carry a sign saying ‘Need Water’ and wave it at passing caravans [...]

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Day 285: Kindness of strangers

Waving Sedef off, Nic was left all alone, thinking he would probably have a rather boring few days and finish his 800 page book by the time she got back! As well as all the food… He hoped his boyish English charm would work with the caravaners to acquire some supplies! Expecting to forage for [...]

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Day 285: Rescue mission

Early the next morning Sedef set off with Lucy and Keiran (and Nic’s Condor) for Katherine, leaving Nic to his own devices with only two pot noodles and a mouldy apple (it was obvious what would be eaten last – the pot noodles :p). We arrived at the bike shop in Katherine early afternoon. Nigel [...]

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Day 282: End of the trip?

Just before Elliot, we were happily cycling along, minding our own business, with only 20km left to go before stopping for the day. We whizzed down a hill past a nice rest area, with a lot of caravaners waving and watching, when disaster struck. Nic’s derauilleur (rear gear system) got caught in his spokes and [...]

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Day 281: Into the outback…

… and the southeast wind blowing straight in our faces! As soon as we left Katherine the seasonal wind began to pick up. We had some tough cycling days, covering up to 120km per day. The terrain was flat, the roads were somewhat rough but OK, and the traffic going south was fairly light – [...]

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Day 279: Skippy… yum yum

If you are old (or sad) enough to remember Skippy the Bush Kangaroo, then you’ll remember how he always helped some poor soul in the outback (much like Lassie). Well, we made good friends with Skippy and his mates – and can tell you that they taste great! :p A great source of protein, and [...]

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Day 276: Katherine

350km south of Darwin, we arrived at Katherine, our first major town in the outback. It is a sleepy laid back place, with a large aboriginal population, a few shops selling didgeridoos and aboriginal art and curios, a big Woolworths (more like a Tesco here), and a good bikeshop!! Sedef suffering from a cold, we [...]

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Day 275: Route Change

Our plan in Australia was to follow Anne Mustoe’s route and head south from Darwin to Tennant Creek (1/3 of the way down the continent), then swing to the East Coast to Townsville & the Great Barrier Reef, and follow the coast down south to Sydney. However several days into cycling we realised that that [...]

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Day 274: Cycling the Outback

The Outback started literally 20km south of Darwin – the biggest city in the Northern Territory (NT) with a population of a staggering 70,000!! We quickly learned that the towns marked as little black dots on our map down the Stuart Highway were, at best a single roadhouse (an all in one family run shop/cafe/pub/sometimes [...]

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