Friday, June 29, 2007

Kununurra



Another day blown by (moderate) tailwind. Mornings are too cold for me (11 deg C), so I don't start before 8:30. Up to 12:00 it's pleasant fast riding, admiring the countryside and wawing to passing cars. The hours from 13:00 to 16:00 are hot and windless, a bit of a downside, but I stop frequently in the shade, have a snack and motivate myself by thinking I am riding around the world - a surprisingly good motivation. I stopped in one rest area between Timber creek and Kununurra. A guy told me the Gibb river road was closed due to recent rain, a week ago. Shame, I wanted to through. But it may be opened by the time I get there. We'll see.

Day 5: 146km, Total 820km.

Thursday, June 28, 2007

Timber Creek


Victoria hwy has considerably lighter traffic. That is the reason that I saw my first living kangaroos in these couple of days. The other I saw were dead, by the side of the road. Other road kill included some bird of pray, two thick and one thin snake, the famous cane toads (why are they so hated?) and a cat. The road kill can be seen from a distance by a presence of kites on the road. On one such occasion they were just starting a feast on a dead cow which lied by the road. I came close and stopped, hoping for an opportunity to make a photo of a kite in flight. But the kites all flew away, and I came closer to see the body. It was a dead cow with its lower jaw and eyes missing, its belly has been freshly open and inside it was half-fermented grass. A car drove by and I caught a surprising look of a passenger - "admiring a dead cow, that must be the case of necrophiliac sodomism", that's what she may thought.

Day 4: 179 km, Total 647 km.

Tuesday, June 26, 2007

Victoria river


The third day, the same direction, the same wind. In fact headwind has some advantages: cools you down and keeps the flies away. I stopped at Pine creek for a lunch, then pushed on until sunset when I found a bush camp near a railway line. During the night a car stopped near and two men got off laughing. It seemed they stopped to have a piss and saw my tent in moonlight. They moved on quickly, but I kept awake thinking what I would do if they attacked me. I don't have a proper weapon - even a pedal spanner is cut in half due to weight saving.

Midday next day I was in Katherine enjoying Thai meal and a cold drink. When I turned west into Victoria hwy the wind turned and is now blowing me westward. Sooooo goooood!

Day 3: 160 km, Total 495 km.
Day 2: 142 km, Total 335 km.

Monday, June 25, 2007

Adelaide river


It is supposed to be dry season at this time at yesr. Yet, the skies were cloudy yesterday and this morning and last night I heard rain dropping on my tent for half an hour. I hope I didn't read that travel guide upside down - it would be a disaster. The day started with a school example of not being able to decide. I cycled up to the turn off to Kakadu NP, then after covering 10 km I turned back to Stuart hwy, cycled up to Noonamah, had a beer and a deep thought, decided to go back, cycled again 10 km on the Kakadu hwy, turned back and finaly decided to follow Stuart hwy up to Katherine. And why all this? Because in view of current Australian prices, I have to spare every dollar and not to pay such luxuries as entrances to NPs. The rest of the day went in pedaling against the headwind, up to Adelaide river.

Day 1:153 km, Total 194 km.

Sunday, June 24, 2007

Darwin


Day 0 started when I came to the Darwin airport after two and a half days of flying. The bike came with me, which was good as a pilot mentioned something about 10% of the luggage being forgotten in Frankfurt airport. After putting the bike together in airconditioned hall, I stepped out into the heat and humidity and cycled 10 km to Darwin. In the first few kms I got a chewing gum onto my rear tyre and a piece of glass on the front. In Darwin I heard some ridiculously high prices for a single room in a hostel (I am a bit too old for a dorm), so I purred the watter into the bottles and pedaled 40 km to the first campground.


Day 0: 41km, Total 41km.

Monday, June 18, 2007

On the road again !

Last few years I seem to had been obsessed with cycling in the mountains. Kyrgyzstan, Tibet, Himalaya, Andes, Alps, it was always up and down all the time. Even at home I'd chosen some hills to add toughness to my weekend rides. It's high time to change the mindset and to try out the joys of riding on flat ground day after day. At least that's how I expect it to be in Australia.

The smooth tarmac will lead me from sleepy Darwin, through shady Kakadu, across gently undulating Kimberley and along refreshing western Australia's coast down to megalopolis of Perth. I have just a bit more then one month to do it, but since it's all good and flat road I hope it won't be too difficult to average 140 km per day.