Day 10 Pimba to Lake Hart

We slept in today at Pimba as we planned for a short ride today. We left about 9am, said good-bye to Gwen Banneman before we rolled. She said that if she'd have thought of it she would have arranged for us to ride along with the bi-weekly mail run to the outlying stations today... too bad, that would have been fun!
We had just broken a sweat when we pulled into a rest area about 15km out Pimba and had a good chat with some guys that were headed up to do some dirt biking... they were impressed by the weight of our "pushbikes", and didn't think they'd want to swap rides.
We rode on to Lake Hart, our planned stopping point, and who should we see but Mary Taylor and Jazz5!! Its so odd to actually recognize a face when you're touring... and here she was sort of holding court with a few couples that were caravaning. She was delighted to see us, and said that she'd changed her itinerary - "every woman's right to change her mind", she said. Mary told us that she "knew" we'd be stopping into Lake Hart, and so she waited for us, what a gem!! We had a great chat amid millions of flies, and after a battery of hugs, Mary was off again in her little yellow Honda.
We decided to set up our tents on the shore of the lake, which is in fact a big salt flat. On the precarious path to the shore, I managed to swallow a fly and nearly lost control of the bike in addition to choking! ... I'm really regretting not buying a head net in Woomera! Anyway, we quickly set up our tents to escape the flies. I had a nap, but I'm still feeling queasy...and I'm dreading the inevitable urgent rush to the bushes later.
Later I got a nice fire going (w/out matches) and we all enjoyed the beautiful star show and the ambiance of the firelight.

Day 9 Pimba / Woomera

Woke this morning after 11 hours of sleep feeling a little better, but slightly sick to my stomach. I couldn't each much of the massive breakfast served up at the roadhouse- pity it was tasty too!
As I was looking for a place to hang my tent out to dry, I spied a clothes line. I asked the laundry lady if it was ok to use it, and she gave me permission.

We struck up a conversation and she told me about her life growing up in an outback cattle station. Her name is Gwen Banneman, and she's a mere 68 years young. Gwen has led a fascinating life right out of a novel. She told me about how they'd communicate with other stations via the "wireless", and how the girls would get all dolled up to go meet Tom Cruise the pilot who'd bring them the mail once every "fortnight". She also told of using the "drop toilet" and having her education mostly by correspondence... it was quite a wonderful chat!!

I'm sitting now at the Woomera school library. Woomera is an old cold-war era military base where they did rocket experiments. Today its well-kept but mostly empty... one gets a sort of eery feeling riding through the streets; almost post apocolyptic. Gwen mentioned that there is a group of Japanese here now that set off a rocket and are waiting for it to return on Sunday somewhere north of Glendambo... right about where we may be! She also mentioned that they may close down sections of the Stuart highway until it lands.

There are few photos in this post because it's forbidden to take photos, or so I'm told... of course I just had too!

Day 8 bush camp to Pimba "Spuds" Roadhouse

Today (June 9) started with my squatting against a water pipeline in the rest area/bush camp in the pre-dawn darkness... my feet slipped and I nearly fell into my own "mess". At our second rest stop, Dave and I met a woman named Mary Taylor. She is 92 years young and is touring around Australia in her little yellow Honda (license plate: JAZZ 5). She has been making these 37,000 km trips since she was 75! "Oh if we could just be 75 again..." She's even enjoyed Honda corporate sponsorship in past years- Good for you Honda!!

She had all sorts of fascinating stories, and has led an amazing life! Her husband was stationed in India during the WW2 and she was eventually evacuated out of Singapore. She gave us each an autographed copy of her book, and we each got a big hug and wished each other safe travels. What an amazing woman!!

The rest of the day was spent climbing long hills (up to 2 miles long). I also tried my solar charger on the mobile phone, and I'm happy to say it worked pretty well! We are at the Pimba or "Spuds" Roadhouse in room 2. I'm dead tired again after 58 miles. However, I found some consolation in the fact that even Andrew said today was a "bitch"!

Day 7 Port Augusta to bush camp

Written at 6.45pm in total darkness (headlamp used to write).
I am almost too exhausted to eat. We didn't get to sleep until 11.30pm last night and I was awoken several times during the night by different things, including Dave rummaging for his sleeping bag after he'd fallen asleep right on the floor. Today was spent almost completely climbing- it was a gradual one, but almost constant until the rangeview rest stop 40 miles out of Port Augusta.

Andrew was off course off like a rocket this morning, and Dave and I made good time initially. However several small things happened in rapid succession including Dave having a massive rear tire blowout that shredded his tube! In addition to repairing the tire, Dave also had to re-true his wheel as the blowout bent the rim a bit. I stayed with him in case we needed to call for a new rim/tire/etc. Anyway over the course of the day we lost a bit of time and with the constant 12 mph headwind we struggled uphill...

By 4pm Dave and I reached the Rangeview and were ready to stop.... However, with Andrew at least 20 miles ahead of us we had to keep moving as we had no plan for what to do if we became separated (we do now!). Exhausted, we decided we need to just gut it out for the next 20 miles and catch up with Andrew. As luck would have it, we did find him waiting patiently for us at a rest area that was a full 7 miles closer than what we expected- AWESOME!!!

So with the sun setting we pitched our tents, made a quick supper which tasted like chalk in my mouth... but now as I'm writing, I'm becoming aware of the billions of stars overhead including the Southern Cross. I'm going to spend 5-10 minutes stargazing and then off to bed for some well-earned rest.

Day 6 Port Augusta day off

Today Andrew and I will be making final preparations to head out "up the track" -buying groceries, spare tubes, and incidentals. We are waiting for Dave and Paul and have not yet heard when they'll be arriving.

Here are a few random photos from the past few days. The photo of the small stove, is a stove I fashioned out of pop cans. We weren't sure when Dave was returning, and he had all the cooking equipment... oops. So we made the best of the situation and built an alcohol stove and bought a small cooking pot.

Day 5 Port Pirie to Port Augusta

This morning came early... it was a cold and wet when we crawled out of our tents about an hour before daybreak. We put our wet tents in the clothes dryer, had breakfast, and got packed up.

It took us a while to get going, but we were on the road just before 8am. Riding was very good today, and we did the 58 miles to Port Augusta by 2.45pm.

We've checked into the Flinders Hotel/Motel and Andrew is busy fixing our first flat tire of the trip. He seems to have picked up a piece of steel-belting wire in his rear tire.

Day 4 Port Pirie day off

We met up with Paul last night as he was in town, having just finished riding the York Pennisula something or other... We had a GREAT meal at the Solomontown Football Club- they have a great feed every Friday night apparently, and we were warmly received and well fed. Cheers guys!!
Paul brought Andrew a small gift in the form of a dozen eggs from "Cooks Chookhouse Eggs"...Hilarious, but Andrew loved 'em!

Today we met up with Paul for a quick morning ride to stretch our legs... we stopped for a lunch at the loudest curryhouse this side of Dehli!! The guy running the place was BLASTING techno over a cheap boombox... we were the only customers in the place and had a good laugh. After stopping into the tourist office for some maps Paul offered to drive us out to the Flinders Range for a short hike through the Telowie Gorge. This was a stunningly beautiful area; the type of place where you simply become quite with a shift in conciousness similar to walking into church. Amidst the towering red rock walls and strange vegitation there was the constant sound of gently running water.
I managed to spot a few of the rare Yellow-tailed Rock Wallabies which are as nimble as mountain goats moving up a nearly vertical rock face. I also spoted what turned out to be a "geo-cache" container. According to Dave, these are containers hidden by participants in remote or odd areas whose locations are marked via GPS; other participants then seek them out and add their names to the notebook inside. They may also leave some small trinket, and take one that's in the container. We added our names and email addresses to the list.
After the hike we drove on to the town of Melrose so that Paul could check into his motel for the next leg of his ride. We were immediately lured into the funky looking "Over the Edge" bike shop. The guys that ran the shop were very cool, and quite helpful. I bought what has since become my favorite thing in the world, "Q-Olium Anti-friction Cream"!!!
Dave decided he needed a bit of mountain biking, and so made arrangements with Paul to have him bring him back to Melrose, go riding, and then shuttle him up to Port Augusta.
On the way back from Melrose we stopped to photograph one of the funniest falling debris signs I've ever seen...
Tonight its just Andrew and I in the caravan park... well us, and the vampires (long story).