Halfway across Australia!

Date: 08-04-2010
Day 61: Kimba, SA
Distance cycled: 157km

It was an early start of the day, also an hour earlier than planned because we assumed that our mobile phone (also alarm) will automatically adjust for the change due to daylight savings. So it was 3:30am when we both sat in our tent still trying to comprehend how early it was. By 4:30am, we were on the road, getting closer to Perth!

The shining of stars and the brightness of the moon were buried behind the heavy clouds. As far as we were concerned, we were thankful that it was not pouring down on us. Traffic flowed as if it was 10pm on a Monday night, few but not rare.

We passed the Nuttbush Caravan Park/Retreat after 40km and agreed to pedal on. The stretch of road towards Iron Knob felt gloomy and spooky. Sue had a glimpse of a tent (similar to a piece of canvas over a stick) in the bushes with a 1-metre high cross on the ground. There was still overcast and the morning appeared grey and dull. We pulled over for a very brief breakfast without much exchange of words. We were somewhat relieved to see other cars on the road.

At Iron Knob, we made a 1km detour for a better break at the service station (also a motel, a restaurant and a caravan park). We met a couple who were driving towards Melbourne from WA with a motorbike and a sidecar (and their dog!). The guy came to Australia from the Netherlands in the 1980s over land in his motorbike. Over land! It took him 1.5 years! Coming from the west, they told us that they passed several cyclists and 2 pairs of walkers. They also heard about 2 blind cyclists (brothers, Lorin and Dean Nicholson) who are riding in tandem to Sydney from Perth (first blind people to ride tandem bikes more than 4,000km across Australia!) raising AUD300,000 for Vision Australia. Wow! Good effort! That really puts things into perspective and made our trip seems a little less of a big deal.

The road ahead felt very much like a rollercoaster ride (except that there was no button to push to start!). There were a lot of up and down hills as we pedalled past the Gawler Ranges in the north east. And we thought it would be flat, flat and flat from now on. After 12 hours on the road, we arrived in Kimba that is “situated geographically halfway across Australia”! Woohoo! Apart from 2-3 drops from the sky, there was (unbelievably) no rain. Not wanting to be in a tent when the forecasted storm hit, we booked into a backpacker’s room. Almost as soon as we unloaded our stuff, it started to drizzle.

What a LONG day! We made a new record distance too!

Destinations: [NSW] North Sydney - Heathcote - Coledale - Wollongong - Robertson - Moss Vale - Goulburn - Queanbeyan - Yass - Gundagai - Wagga Wagga - Narrandera - Darlington Point - Hay - Maude - Balranald - Euston - [VIC] Mildura - [SA] Renmark - Barmera - Morgan - Burra - Orroroo - Port Augusta - Kimba