Cycling The Globe

A Cycle Touring Expedition Around The World

« ||| »

Day 794: South Australia Border – Marla

Posted by Thomas Andersen Posted on Dec - 10 - 2012

Distance: 109.8 km
Ridetime: 6:11:55
Average: 17.7 km/h
Max speed: 25.8 km/h
Total distance: 14697 km

When I woke up in the morning Gakuto was already gone from the camp site. He said he wanted wake up at 3 and see if he could reach the Marla roadhouse 160 km away. Quite an ambitions goal, especially considering the head wind we had yesterday. Perhaps the little Japanese is stronger than one would think.

I woke up at 6 and was rolling by 7. The nights are getting surprisingly cold. You need to be inside your sleeping back to keep warm. Until around 8:30 am I was also cycling with a sweater. With such a cold night I didn’t expect the midday to be hot, but I was wrong. Perhaps the rule is the colder the night the warmer the day. It felt much hotter than yesterday, but probably mostly because the sun was out in force.

Look what I found around 150 km from the nearest shop. It was not opened. If I had found it during the night and it was cold I might have had a sip :-)

During the worst hours of the midday heat I took a nap at a rest stop. I don’t like the rest stops here as much as I did in the Northern Territory. Up there, every rest area marked by a blue triangle on my map had a water tank. Not in South Australia. I passed two sites today, and only one had a water tank. And even worse, the water in the tank was not particularly great tasting. Luckily still drinkable, otherwise I would have been in trouble.

When I was having my rest a lady came and gave me this for free. Friendly bunch, the Australians!

In the afternoon I wanted to put in some more hours, but the legs were clearly tired from yesterday. Furthermore I got a flat tire. The first after leaving Alice Springs. I was my own fault, I took the bike into a small path leading away from the road. I wanted to find shade under a tree, which I found, but with the price of fixing a flat.

After 109 km the legs had enough. I was very tired when I pitched the tent, watched the sunset, and drank some of my not so well tasting water.

Categories: Australia
« ||| »