Morestralia

I rode into Ceduna and, for the first time in a week, went to a supermarket. I bought some food, glad for the variety. Then I continued on.

Over the next few days I crossed the Eyre peninsula. The main road crossed in the north, but I wanted to get away from the road trains. I headed south for a day, then crossed the peninsula before heading back north.

I rejoined the main road near Port Augusta. The road was a lot busier but thankfully I wasn’t on it for long, as I turned to go inland, toward a range of hills.

The hills weren’t particularly high: the pass I took had an elevation of about 500m. Nonetheless that was quite a change from the plains I’d recently cycled.

Past the hills I spent a couple days cycling through more plains, these ones consisting of huge fields of wheat.

They gave way to orchards, as I reached the River lanes, a fertile area around the Murray river. I passed several quarantine lines, where it was forbidden to cross with fruit, in an effort to avoid fruit fly infestations.

I crossed into Victoria, and then New South Wales the next day. Past the Riverlands the plains I rode through were generally bushland, with occasional cattle grazing. A strong headwind was present causing several days of very slow progress.

One day I saw someone walking the other way. Nico, an Italian, was walking around the world pushing his cart, Ezio. He’d crossed Europe and South America already. We chatted for a while, discussing the routes he could take through Asia.

Ezio had told me there was another cyclist ahead of me, David. When I caught up to him he was quite surprised when I correctly “guessed” his name.

The headwind continued to slow me down for another couple of days, until I reached some forested hills. Rolling hills gradually trended upwards.

After passing through the town of West Wyalong, the weather began to change. I could see dark clouds behind me, moving closer. Just before the storm reached me it was preceded by a great cloud of dust.

The dust lasted only a few minutes, and was followed by rain. I cycled on, becoming soaked over the next hour or two, then set up camp behind some trees.

The rain stopped sometime in the night. It was warm enough that by the time it got light, the tent was mostly dry. I packed away and set off cycling. It began to rain after a couple of hours, and did not stop for the rest of the day.

I made my way through the hills. Compared to the featureless plains of recent days, this was much more enjoyable, despite the rain. There were hills, trees, fields of crops and of livestock, mostly sheep. I saw a few kangaroos crossing the road.

It was warm enough that the rain was not too unpleasant, as long as I kept moving. In the afternoon I reached the town of Cowra, and stopped at a supermarket there. It was a nice break from the rain.

I rode on for another hour or two after that, then stopped to set up camp. It was earlier than I usually would, but I didn’t want to get caught in the dark and the rain. I found some ground that wasn’t waterlogged, and set up the tent as quickly as possible then stripped off my wet clothes before clambering in. It took a little time to warm up but after a while I was comfortable.

The rain came to a stop sometime in the night. It drizzled a bit the next day, but never enough to properly soak me.

Late in the day, I passed the town of Bathurst. Following this was a surprisingly long stretch of farmland, leaving me little room to camp. It was getting dark by the time I spotted some space next to the road that was used to store road building materials. Behind that was a tree, under which I set up camp.

The next day the hills began to give way to mountains. I spent the morning steeply climbing up (and then steeply descending, though not as far).

After a few days of rain preventing me using my solar panel, my batteries were depleted, and I decided to take a rest day. I rented a room at a motel on the outskirts of Lithgow, and had the day off.

Apr 17: 138 km

Apr 18: 181 km

Apr 19: 116 km

Apr 20: 160 km

Apr 21: 134 km

Apr 22: 178 km

Apr 23: 143 km

Apr 24: 149 km

Apr 25: 164 km

Apr 26: 123 km

Apr 27: 131 km

Apr 28: 140 km

Apr 29: 134 km

Apr 30: 99 km

May 1: 44 km