Cycling The Globe

A Cycle Touring Expedition Around The World

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Day 804: Port Augusta – Port Pirie

Posted by Thomas Andersen Posted on Dec - 17 - 2012

Distance: 102.11 km
Ridetime: 4:27:49
Average: 22.9 km/h
Max speed: 42.1 km/h
Total distance: 15638 km

After a great nights sleep in a real bed for the first time since leaving Alice Springs, Paul served breakfast and took me for a ride around the block in his Fort A from 1928.

Afterwards I went to the supermarket to buy new supplies before starting on the last 300 km into Adelaide.

I knew that there would be 90 km to the next city, but I was not sure what to expect in between. I soon learned that there were houses, roads, and gas stations. This was certainly not the outback anymore. Instead it was beautiful cycling with the Flinders ranges on my left and the Spencer Gulf on my right.

At one point the landscape changed again, and I started to see fields that were being harvested at the moment. It almost made me feel like being in Denmark on a warm summer day.

I was in a bit of a hurry. I knew the temperature would reach 41 degrees later in the day, and furthermore I knew that the wind would change from a tail wind and back to a head wind. At a rest stop I had a quick chat with a couple from Adelaide. The guy said “Mate, I’m sorry I don’t have any cold water to offer you, but how about a beer?”. In the trunk of his car he had an icebox full of cold beer. And so I was enjoying a coldie in the road side before continuing south. Only in Australia :-)

I’m not sure if it was because of the beer or because of a change in the wind direction, but I was cyclingmuch slower after that break. When I reached another roadhouse I stopped for a long 3 hour break waiting for the temperature to come down again.

In the outback it was very easy to find good wild camping spots. I was wondering if it would also be the case now that I was back in civilization. I was glad to find out that it was. I found a great spot to pitch my tent on a hill overlooking the fields below.

Categories: Australia
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