Day 14 Bush camp to Coober Pedy

Up at 6am, fed packed and on the road by 7.30. The first 30 miles seemed effortless... almost too good to be true ("My wife and I rejoiced at our good fortune..." as Herb Heintz would say). I took a short nap, and when I got up a strong headwind had developed... Most of the day was hills, but they became more pronounced towards Coober Pedy ("...and then all manner of misfortune befell us"). The combined hills and headwind took a nice three-hour ride and turned it into a gruel"ing five-hour ride. By the time I rolled into to town I was just repeating "Don't stop, don't stop..." as a cadence in my head.

However, as I turned in to the city proper, I spoke with a lone hitchhiker named Jonathon. He had been standing in the same spot for over 7 hours waiting to catch a ride south... I guess my day wasn't the only tough one to be had in the area.

A shower, a pizza, and 2 beers and all is right with the world. Its 7pm and our big night out is over and we're going to bed. I'm sore, tired, and happy!

Day 13 Bushcamp to Bushcamp

As luck would have it we did manage to stay up until the probe re-entered last night, and it was spectacular!! Talk about being in the right place at the right time... that thing literally came directly over the top of us!! I was moving fast and low, and dropping burning debris the entire 30-40 seconds. It lit up the entire area- Wow!!

Since we'd had a big ride yesterday and also stayed up so late, we all agreed that a shorter day was in order and so rode on to Ingomar. Thank god it was a short day because it turned out to be all uphill and had several big hills to finish... AND we enjoyed a constant 12-15mph headwind the entire way!

At one point a guy in a Ford corporate van pulled off ahead of Dave and I and gave us each a couple bottles of water- free water is the BEST - you didn't have to carry it and it was even cold!1 Thank you to Mr. Bruin Beasley of Minda Motorsport for your kind and well-timed gift of water!!!

It took us nearly 4 hours to travel the 24-odd miles today... not an easy ride for sure. We've pitched our tents on a ledge overlooking a scenic desert valley. My supper/late lunch consisted of: Tuna on a tortilla with 3 mini-wedges of processed cheese covered in honey; a cup of powdered milk with Nestle "Milo"; and 1/2 a twix candy bar for dessert.
This place is really barren and i spent a good hour and a half collecting the tinniest of twigs so that we could have a small fire before going to bed.

With luck and a tailwind we should make Coober Pedy tomorrow where we hope to catch up with the caravaners for a drink and some familiar faces! I'm really looking forward to a couple days off in a row...

Day 12 Glendambo to bushcamp

We were greeted this morning at 6am by the sound of what in Minnesota would be called "screaming", but in Glendambo is just "talking". This conversation came from the room next door where a group of motorcyclists and their support vehicle driver were staying. Even with adjustments made for cross-cultural speaking volume, there seemed to be a lot of commotion. As we were about to leave I discovered the cause: apparently someone had stolen the biker's tent off their car roof rack during the night. The support driver asked us if we'd seen anyone lurking about during the night... but as we'd gone to bed around 8pm we hadn't seen a thing.

Riding was good today. I stopped to have lunch under a gnarled tree (the only tree for some distance), and as I stood up I hit my head on an overhanging branch and managed to drive a sharp, coarse piece of bark deep into my scalp! After expressing my displeasure in a manor that would have made Richy Thompson blush, I set myself to the tasks of removing the large chunk of bark, cleaning the wound (with Dave's help)... and finally having some lunch and a nice little nap. I found a very interesting little stone somewhere during this process, and it seemed to have a nice calming effect of me... odd.

After that I made good time the Bon Bon rest area where we to bush camp. However, I had no sooner set up my tent than an official -looking guy pulled up in a white SUV and tells us that we cannot camp at Bon Bon tonight due to the fact that there is a rocket probe re-entering into the area tonight. He said that we needed to move out of the restricted area about 25km away, and that there was a sign indicating where the safe zone was. I was not at all in a diplomatic mood, and so I said as little as possible... However, I did find out that if we didn't move the police would be arresting us right around 10pm.

So with the sun low in the sky, having already started to "unwind", and after riding 53 miles already today, we had to pack up our things and move on down the road. Now in all fairness the guy did offer to give us a ride, but we told him "We came to ride this road..." And ride we did, because the "25 km" turned out to be 41 km instead!!! We arrived at the safe zone almost at dark, and there were several caravans waiting there as well. So we got our tents set up and received a nice invitation to join a few travellers around their campfire and wait til 11.21pm to see the probe re-enter in the NW part of the sky.

We are half way to Coober Pedy and I'm not sure what we'll do tomorrow, but another 80 mile day would suck. But that's tomorrow.... I'm going back to the fire for a little camaraderie!

Day 11 Lake Hart to Glendambo

I set my alarm to sleep in til 7 am, and of course woke up at 5am. I managed another pants-less toilet performance in the pre-dawn like on the salt flat. We leisurely packed up and had breakfast (powdered milk, cereal, tortilla with peanut butter and honey). We hit the road and cranked out 20+ miles before 10am. I took a brief catnap with my helmet cover over my face as the flies were really really "friendly" as Mary Taylor would say! I cranked out another 20 miles and took a second catnap, after which I called ahead to Glendambo to the roadhouse to reserve a room. Much to my surprise the attendant asked if this was John Leopold calling... Andrew was already there and had secured us a room.
The tap water is now undrinkable, and signs warn you to definitely NOT drink it. So instead I had to buy a 3-day supply from the BP station... I love the irony of having to buy clean water from BP! They also had a headnet!! I didn't pass it up this time.
9.45pm and Dave is checking on the bus schedule to possibly catch a ride ahead to Coober Pedy or Alice. His rear rim is beginning to split and spokes are pulling through. He ultimately opted to limp it along to Coober Pedy, but its definitely going to be "iffy" making it.

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"!