Sunday 14th October Hay to Rankins Springs via the flattest place on earth.

Sunday 14^th October

Hay is home to the Shearers Hall of Fame. Imagine the prestige!

I don't know if the Aussies have their own tumbleweed or if this is an import from America.

In the strong wind they were up and tumbling.

"Galah" is a derogatory Australian slang, synonymous with 'fool', 'clown' or 'idiot'.

This particular old fool is cycling across a continent in a near permanent headwind. 

Fighting the headwind across the flat plains

Afternoon fair weather clouds.

Hay is a nice old fashioned town with a reserve on the river where we see lots of Brown Tree Creepers including several on the ground which is confusing. We will up with fuel and set off after a quick look at the outside of the Sheep Shearers Hall of Fame. If only we had more time to see it open!

 It is sunny first thing but blowing a strong 15 mph headwind so I’m glad I did the extra 20 km yesterday. It is all roughly north east on the B64 Mid Western Highway today and I’m struggling to hold 20 kph and can only hear the wind in my ears. As I’ve said before there is nothing pleasurable about cycling in a headwind.

Just north of Hay is what they bill as the flattest place on earth. It certainly is flat but it has been flat for weeks now! The vegetation is low salt bush again and due to the drought there is lots of bare earth and little green on any plants. On the map is Smeaton’s Place but we see no sign to pose by. We do see a homestead called “Old Galahs.” Galah, as well as being the common pink parrot is an Ausie Term for an idiot so of course I have to pose by the sign. Only a Galah would cycle east today.

We see an old meeting hall with outside “dunnies” for men and women, just like you see in cliché adverts for Aussie beer. We get to Goolgowi and have too many chips for lunch but at least it’s is over halfway. The land use changes to arable and there is a lot of bare earth that we’ve seen on the TV news. The farmers have run out of feed in NSW and a feature of today has been a stream of tucks with loads of hay for the animals. It is usually green round here in the spring and it might be soon as they’ve had some heavy rain in the last week. For the moment though it is just puddles and brown earth. Our guide was critical of the farmers who have over stocked the land and now expect the government to bail them out whilst others who were more cautious have coped without help.

Stops for birds and discover how bad the flies are for pedestrians compared with cyclists. See loads of noisy groups of Apostle Birds which explode away in front of my like noisy clockwork toys. Also see a new bird, the first spotted from the bike – Grey Crowned Babbler which show well especially after I play their calls to them.

It has warmed up nicely by mid afternoon so the gillet comes off. The sky fills with small cumulus fair weather clouds which are less rounded than we’d get in the UK. Not sure why.

Arrive in the very small settlement of Rankins Springs which we are staying at as it is a useful place to do some bird watching from. Just before I get here there is a pass in a range of hills (Sim’s gap) which is the first proper hill I’ve ridden up since 28^th September which was 1900 kilometers ago!

We are booked in the slightly grotty motel for two nights to let us have a day off the bike tomorrow. No internet here so don’t know is the forecast has changed from warm and windy. Probably not. We can’t drink the water here so I hope I remember.

Pop out to “Nudges Dam” that we’ve heard about but not much about other than Black Fronted Dotterel. Go to the hotel/pub next door for a so so burger. The proprietor thinks I don’t have an English accent. Maybe I’ve picked up the local speech patterns. Talking of which I actually heard someone say Fair Dinkum the other day! I ask about the signs saying water over road – apparently they had 3 inches of rain in an hour a few days ago and the water comes down from Sim’s Gap which is the hill I came over on the bike.

143.63 km today in 6 hours 32 minutes – an average of 21.9 kph. Total so far 3603.47 km

Saturday 13th October - Balranald to Hay. On the drops, teeth gritted.

Saturday 13^th October

Spray was a first for the trip!

Unfortunately the pot of gold was back the way we'd come.

I sure hope the estate agent gets them to change the name if they want to sell it.

A power nap after lunch in the support car.

My day in one picture. That's me on the left at the point the road disappears.

A simple ride today. A flat ride of only 133 km all on the A20 Sturt Highway in a roughly easterly direction. A simple innocuous line on a map rendered awful by the relentless strong headwind.

A lot of the ride was over a treeless salt bush area not unlike the Nullabor Plain. The only feature was the lack of features.

The day started off with showers, most of which missed me but a bit of rain got me and then I took shelter in the car for a long lunch to avoid a heavier downpour.

After lunch it was down to hard work again, simply plodding along at 22 kph avoiding the rougher parts of the hard shoulder and the road. We get to the small town of Hay in midafternoon and so I summon up the strength to carry on for another 20 kilometres to reduce the ride length tomorrow. The wind continues this afternoon and is due to be the same tomorrow. It will stop sometime but not until after the middle of next week they say.

153.29 km today in 6 hours 57 minutes – an average of 22.0 kph. Total so far 3459.84 km

Friday 12th October - Mildura to Balranald

Friday 12^th October

Another Fruitfly restriction border crossed.

 

The first sign that Sydney is less than 1000 km away. Less than 900 now we are in Balranald.

Out on the road. It was not as hot as it looks.

Arriving at the small town of Balranald

The preserved windmill on the edge of town.

Our motel room for the night. Much better than most we had.

Drive the bike out to the Trentham rest area where I finished yesterday.  It is clear but cool and wind is low but increasing. I am hoping to get some distance in before the wind gets to its maximum but when getting ready to start a chatty Aussie comes over to ask what we are up to. He cycles and understands the misery of spending all day tying to punch a way through a strong headwind. He has been ferrying boats back and forth across the country and has recorded very different fuel consumption figures when he travels into the wind compared with a side or tailwind. He also sympathises about the road surfaces and he has had some damage to his towing vehicle due to larger disruptions to the surface causing the trailer to bounce around at relatively low speeds.

Once I get going pace is ok to begin with but the route is not very interesting. Mandy goes back to look around the Botanic Gardens near Midura leaving me to plough on.

Nothing much seen on the route except another fruit fly quarantine line but we have no bananas this time so no big banana eating session today! I also pass the first sign showing a distance to Sydney of less than 1000 km. Just 7 more cycling days left to do.

We met up again after 93km and she follows me on the last 50 km as the wind is getting stronger and the joy is sucked out of the ride. Happily it is a shortish day today and we have a nice motel room on the outskirts to this small town.

143.31 km today in 6 hours 0 minutes – an average of 23.8 kph. Total so far 3306.55 km

Thursday 11th October - Three States in a Day

Thursday 11^th October

Sunrise at Berri over the River Darling

Leaving South Australia......

...and arriving in Victoria, land of the smooth hard shoulder!

As well as arable fields there are vineyards a plenty.

Out of the saddle, fighting the headwind

Ground art outside an orange farm. The smell off orange blossom is one of the smells of the trip. 

The smell of rotting kangaroo is more often encountered though.

Late afternoon bird watching in arid lands near the river.

Got up early to follow our guide (who was taking another couple out today) to see Chestnut Quail Thrush an attractive but skulking bird. We had good views and so set off on our way to the start point just beyond the Dunlop Tyre Arch but we decided to have a look for some introduced Koalas in a caravan park in Renmark on the way. Despite lots of help from the staff we drew a blank.

It was not until 9.30am that I start and by then the headwind is pretty strong but at least the sun has come out, so hopefully it will warm up the current cold temperature. Despite the sun I need my gillet and arm warmers and in fact they stay on until the end.

The journey is a little dull but on passing the border into Victoria from South Australia the road surface becomes smoother and the shoulder is wider and surfaced as well as the main road. I can ride on the shoulder most of the time so cope well with the traffic. It is pretty straight road east through arable farm land and not very interesting with no intermediate towns. We did see a lot of Emus including one flock (or with a flightless bird should it be a herd?) of 38 birds in a field quite close to the road (until I stop to take a photo, which causes them to stampede away from me.

As we get to Mildura, Mandy peels off to book into the motel which is rather smart and part of a golf club. I carry on along the route through Mildura, over the River Darling and turn towards Balranald on the Sturt Highway to get a few extra kilometres in to reduce tomorrows ride. As I cross the river I enter New South Wales, the third state I’ve ridden in today. It is probably the only place you can do this as the other places three states are close are in the outback. Sadly the road surface is not as good in New South Wales as it was in Victoria.

Just as I decide to stop for the day, Mandy arrives to pick me up. We drive back and do some good birdwatching near a botanic gardens over the river from Mildura. We see some good birds including Rainbow Bee Eater, Brown Tree Creeper and Superb Fairy Wren plus a host of parrots. As usual we’ve stayed out so late we have to grab some shopping and something to eat and our relaxing afternoons disappears.

137.38 km today in 5 hours 54 minutes – an average of 23.2 kph. Total so far 3163.24 km

Wednesday 10th October -Bird watching North East of Berri - Chowilla and Danggali

Wednesday 10^th October

Chris walking with the guide

The vehicle in which we traveled. It is newly a built Land Cruiser but it has manual wind down windows and no central locking as it is built for the mining industry who want less theings to go wrong in the dusty outback.

Is this the rare bird? Variegated (Purple Backed) Fairy Wren

Is this Major Mitchell's Cockatoo the rare bird?

No of course it is this less than visually spectacular Red Lored Whistler that is the rarest of the three!

Day off the bike today with a day out driven and led by professional bird guide who lives here in Berri. There are a couple of very range restricted birds to be seen near here and he makes a living showing them. When I say near, it involved dirt track driving in a 4WD vehicle for 50 or more Km out and even further back.

We were picked up from our hotel at 6.15am and head off to look for the birds. We would certainly never have seen them on our own.

Some good views of some good birds but also missed a couple too. It is very dry and this affects the birds’ ranges and some birds have not come to this area this year. Up to 20 Emus seen which is a high number and again might be because it is so dry. See our first Eastern Red Kangaroos of the trip, the ones we’ve seen before have been Western Greys.

0 km today in 0 hours 0 minutes – an average of 0 kph. Total so far 3025.86  km

Tuesday 9th October - Over 80 miles at over 20 mph thanks to an unexpected tailwind.

Tuesday 9^th October

The finish line of my personal record run is this rather bizarre sponsored sign of a fruit quarantine line on the Sturt Highway. As tyres have nothing to do with fruit flies, it is rather distracting to people like us who encounter it for the first time. 

Western Grey Kangaroos down by the river Darling

Australian Pelican

When you come across wreckage like this half a car on a rough track by the river you have to ask if if it is time to turn around!

I had a shortish day today so we went out to the town and the park by the river to enjoy the birds. Only a Little Eagle was new but we enjoyed the mixture of parrots and relatives.

Well it looked like a day of cloud, showers and a cold sidewind from the south as I travel west. I’m wearing overshoes, leg and arm warmers and a gillet as I set off leaving Mandy to pack up and book more hotels. The wind is increasing but against the forecast it is a tailwind i.e. the first westerly wind since we started – despite westerly being the dominant wind direction for Australia. It also brightens up in part and we never see any rain.

A few stops for birds including Sulphur Crested Cockatoo and a noisy group of White Winged Choughs but it becomes apparent I am keeping up a fast average. I decide to keep this up and eventually set a record distance for me to keep up an average in excess of 20 mph.

Near the end of the ride Mandy goes into Renmark for shopping whilst I carry on over the River Murray on the cycle track over an old girder bridge and climb away from the river to a point 125 km away from Mildura. Can’t take the car quite that far as there is another fruit quarantine border and Mandy has new bananas and tomatoes on board! I go on under the oddly placed Dunlop tyre arch over the road to the finish point then gone back to load the bike into the car.

We drive back to view the Darling River at various locations, the waterfront in Renmark, buy a replacement bottle cage for my broken one and finally try (unsuccessfully) looking for Freckled Duck in the National Park near Berri where we are to stay for two nights.

We go to our hotel which is right on the riverfront and seemed really good value for a smart, well positioned hotel. Surely there must be some catch? Mmh there is. Parking nearby is for less cars than are needed in this ram packed hotel and the rooms in the main hotel are a bit tired. Oh yes and although they have en suite wash bowl and shower there is no loo! It is a fairly long walk down the corridor.

Tomorrow is a day off cycling and a day out with a local bird guide who we met at the Birdfair in the UK before we came out here. Let us hope he can find us a few of the rare birds that occur near here.

131.12 km today in 3 hours 56 minutes – an average of 33.0 kph. Total so far 3025.86 km. This was a record for me 130 km in under 4 hours and it is the furthest I’ve been able to travel at over 20 mph -  81.95 miles at an average of 20.6 mph. Thanks for the unusual (for this trip) westerly tailwind!

Monday 8th October Unfriendly Spalding to the rather charming Morgan.

Monday 8^th October

Spalding District Council -no country is complete without one!

Typical scene along the route

One of the showers I was dodging all day. Until one got me!

Crossing the fruit fly quarantine line. Eat it or bin it

 Eat it of course. A tomato and banana sundae!

There were hardly any potholes along the way so far. 

It all fell apart today with this stretch of tarmac on the Goyder Highway

In Morgan SA we are within sight of internet heaven.

Our smart motel room in Morgan.

The old hotels in Morgan which was an important transfer town between river and rail transport.

The river has no bridge in Morgan but it does have a free ferry across the wide River Darling.

Rainbow Lorikeets are common and widspread but a visual treat for all. 

Mind you they sound pretty awful!

Up early to quietly vacate our unfriendly hotel to sit and have breakfast in the park beside the Spalding District Council offices (It seems every country has one) and see if we can see the Rosellas. All I see is a nice sunrise, feral pigeons, House Sparrows, European Starlings and Blackbirds! Not a native Australian bird in sight until I set off and Mandy sees the Rosellas again!

I broke the rear bottle holder on my bike this morning. I think it happened putting it in the car but imagine the battering from the road surface so far has not helped.

It’s cloudy and warm and the wind is increasing even as early as 7 am. I’m going East South East today and the wind is from the north so it is mostly sidewind until one section of 7 km with a full on 20+mph tailwind and I set a speed record for the trip of nearly 39 mph.

I stop at the pleasant small town of Burra which has a copper mining background and now is a heritage tourist centre. Of course, as is typical of Aussie museums, none are open when I’m there but a get a nice coffee from a garage!

From Burra I make good time and dodge showers that can be seen to the left and right of me over the low saltbush heath vegetation. I pass a side road called Windy Brae so I guess wind is not unusual here.

I also pass a turn for World’s End Highway. The weather is bad but it is not the end of the world!

Eventually my luck runs out and the rain gets to the road where I am so I get into the car and have lunch and a snooze waiting for it to clear, which eventually it does. I have quite a lot for lunch which is unfortunate as we reach an unexpected fruit quarantine point (before the state border where we knew there was one) and so we are caught with fruit in surplus. We have to eat it or bin it. Mandy gets the big apple and I get three bananas and a tomato. Like ice cream, I can always find room for a banana or three.

The rest of the trip is finished quickly with a strong tailwind element and we get to our smart motel on the edge of Morgan at 3pm. A beer and a shower and we get out to look around the town which is on the Murray River which is really wide and was a major travel route in the 1880 to 1910 period. Goods (especially wool) was brought on the river and transferred to a railway to take the goods to Adelaide. The railway has gone now but the town has worked hard to publicise the heritage of the area. Most buildings are still here, with explanatory plaques outside. There is an original paddle steamer here but it is rather a poor ugly design and is only partially restored. We seem to be the only tourists here so I hope the summer is busier. There is a museum but it is only open from 10 am to 1 pm and is closed at weekends bank holidays!

See Rosellas again as well as the first Red Rumped Parrots of the trip plus lots of Galahs, Corellas and Rainbow Lorikeets. The latter are common and widespread but are really colourful crowd pleasers. We’d seen roadkill Wombats on the road on the way in but despite going out to look at night we did not see any though we did see many Kangaroos that operate night and day.

128.63 km today in 4 hours 35 minutes – an average of 28.0 kph. With a maximum for trip of 62.3 kph on a gentle downhill with fast, full tailwind. Total so far 2894.74 km