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October 21st-31st, 2001October 21st; Mount Ebenezer to Erldunda Roadhouse
From here it is 201 km to Alice Springs with a nice stopping point just past halfway point. Winds picking up from North and some extra time, meant I decided to make an easy day and stop at Erldunda. Erldunda is a large roadhouse with many coaches and cars stopping on their way to Uluru. The roadhouse has motel, caravan park, restaurant, laundry, internet station and a fauna park with emus and kangaroos. Water for the park comes from bores 20 km and 5 km away and they use 86,500 liters per day. Three diesel generators are used to generate power. About 25-30 staff live on the premises.
October 22nd; Erldunda Roadhouse to Stuarts Well
Slight rise leaving Erldunda followed by slight descent 10 km later and more long wavelength hills after that. Mostly trees along the way though in some areas one could see for far distances. Some nice rock outcroppings at 60 km and also at 80 km. Rest areas with water tanks at 33 km and 74 km though I didn't stop there today. Nice riding northbound, with occasional rain showers. At 70 km I came past turnoff to Kings Canyon (160 km including 100 km unsealed, caravans not recommended). Also nearby was the Henbury Meteorite park (15 km), though from what I understand the meteorite fragments themselves have been moved. Speaking of meteorites, evening skies in NT are just wonderful. Many stars in the sky and the milky way is usually clearly visible. Many evenings I also see some falling stars, beautiful!
This area was first called Doctor's Stones because Stuart's tri doctor, Dr FE Renner left his medical kit here. It was renamed Stuart's Well in 1981 after several businesses moved here. The name marks the fact that Stuart dug for water in the dry Hugh River during his 1861 expedition (in 1860 there had been plenty of surface water). There is a roadhouse (Jim's Place) with restaurant and motel. There is also a camel farm. Noel Fullerton moved his camel farm here from Alice Springs in 1980. Noel was the one who started the camel races in Alice Springs in 1970. I wandered over and looked at the camels. In the evening, plan is to replace the front tire. Looks a bit too scary to
coax it the last distance to Alice Springs. October 23rd; Stuarts Well to Alice Springs
Overnight several storms passing through. I'm seeing a lot of rain for a desert region. I'm told when it does rain, it usually comes down hard. These showers fit this pattern as well. It rains very hard, but 15 minutes later storm is past and dry again. No power this morning, generators are turned off between midnight and six AM. Gather my stuff together and I'm off riding in the cool morning air. A few low ranges of hills to cross, but generally pretty flat and I make quick progress. More scrubby trees along the way. My replaced front tire is riding well (this is the original tire that came with the bike, so six years old but still with enough tread).
Just past the airport is turnoff to the Ghan Railway museum and Motor Transport Hall of Fame. I ride out and see both museums. The original railway was started in 1877 as a broad gauge line from Port Augusta to Marree. It was extended as a narrow gauge line to Oodnadatta in 1884. It took a while, but eventually by 1929 the narrow gauge line was extended across the flood plains to Alice Springs. While rains were rare, it was moderately often that tracks were simply washed away. The original Ghan was notorious for being delayed. Eventually a standard gauge was built further west on a more stable base in 1980. Trains can travel at twice the speed. It is these tracks I'll ride on Friday. The Road Transport Hall of Fame had the expected trucks and outback vehicles as well as photos. What was intriguing to me was how recent this all developed. Until 1987, much of the freight could come by rail from the south, so roads northbound were sealed but southbound were still unsealed. After visiting the museums, I rode the last 10 km into town. Several large rock outcroppings around town, Alice Springs itself is a bit of a valley. Found a backpacker motel not far from the Todd Street Mall downtown. Made an appointment to have my bike checked and purchased another tire. Wandered around town and climbed up the ANZAC Hill memorial to look over town. Met three more touring cyclists, heading from Adelaide to Darwin. One had a trailer with flexible solar panel made from flexible material used on sails. Nice to be in a moderate sized town again. Accommodation is more
expensive, network access is better, more shops and places to look around.
I'll spend some time looking around here and relaxing. October 24th; Rest day in Alice Springs
After breakfast I brought my bike to the Penny Farthing bike shop. From there I walked another 3 km north to the old telegraph station.
The line was built "on the cheap", the gum tree wooden poles were quickly eaten by termites and cypress pine poles were dry and susceptible to fire. Hence within a few years of construction the linemen started replacing poles with iron which took another ten years. Also over time copper wire replaced galvanized (sounds like a software project). Charles Todd's wife was named Alice. Nearby is a waterhole in the Todd River, named Alice Springs. Originally the nearby town was named Stuart and telegraph station and post office 4 km north was Alice Springs. When the telegraph station was moved to town in 1932, the town was changed to Alice Springs. The telegraph station had well preserved stone buildings and descriptive signs. It was nice to walk along the river back to town.
Took a shuttle bus back to Alice Springs and had a little more time to look
around town. October 25th; Rest day in Alice Springs
Emu Run had a small van pickup at 7:45. Fellow passengers from Germany, Poland, Japan, Britain and Australia. This company has recently started by Wayne and Denise who were along on the trip. First stop was John Flynn's grave. Flynn started Royal Flying Doctor Service, so vital to the bush. His grave is marked by one of the "devils's marbles". The Devil's Marbles are a unique rock collection from ~500 km further north. Next stop was Simpsons Gap, a dramatic cut in the range with Roe Creek in the middle. Several rock wallabies were hopping along the side.
We stopped at the ochre pits. Ochre deposits formed color base for rock paintings and thus were prized by aboriginals. The ochre puts had surprising variety of colors in many different color layers. We had lunch at Ormiston Gorge. This large 2 km long gorge had long red wall and water holes in bottom of the gorge. We went for longer hike in this gorge, one direction along the gorge walls and back along the base. After Ormiston Gorge, we stopped at Glen Helen. Glen Helen was a former cattle station, now restored as a tourist hotel/restaurant/campground. The Finke River went through a gorge here. The Finke River has followed the same course for 100 million years and thus is claimed to be the oldest river in the world. From Glen Helen we headed back. On way back we stopped at Ellery Creek Big Hole. This was another large swimming hole and small gorge behind. Overall a relaxing day with several short hikes, half a dozen gorges. Got a good sense of highlights of the west MacDonnells. Emu Run did a good job with the tour. In the evening I spent some time at the internet cafe and was able to send
out some of the photos to the web server. October 26th; The Ghan to Port Augusta
I cycled to the train station. It was full of passengers from the recently arrived train. Rows of tour buses and courtesy shuttles from different accommodation awaited the passengers. I dropped off my bike and then walked back to the supermarket to get some food for the train. We boarded about 12:30 pm and the train left promptly at 1 pm.
It was interesting to ride back along a similar route to what I had cycled. I could see broad stretches of scrub, but then also recognize small landmarks from cycling. Met several Americans on the train, overhead Dutch being spoken several times and also met Australian and Slovak tourists. Good chance to read. Bill Bryson's book and the Lonely Planet Australia seemed popular amongst tourists. I'd read both so was reading "The Ghan" by Basil Fuller. A brief stop at Kulgera. After dark one stop for Coober Pedy and then overnight riding to Port Augusta. Unlike reputation of pre-1980 Ghan, we were running ahead of schedule. I've definitely enjoyed the three week detour back to the outback and the
Northern Territory. In addition to beautiful wide open spaces, Cooper
Pedy, Uluru, Kata Tjuta, Alice Springs and the Ghan have been good reasons to
travel along this way. So far my favorite regions have been (1) Top End,
(2) Kimberley and (3) Central Australia...though plenty of other places I've
enjoyed and recommend as well. October 27th; Port Augusta to Port Pirie
At 5 am I cycled from the train station and rode one lap through downtown. Nothing was open, so I rode out of town to a McDonalds and waited for it to open at 6 am. After brekky and reading the newspaper, I was off again, hooray! South side of Port Augusta looked industrial and even had waste ponds with foam. After that back to saltbush and low scrub. The road was paralleled on one side by a water line and on the other by the railway. Otherwise mostly flat terrain with the Flinders Ranges rising to the left and Spencer Gulf in the distance to the right. Road trains are back to double trailers at maximum.
Port Pirie has 15000 people and has been an important port for sending both
minerals and agricultural produce by sea. At one point the town had three
different gauges of rail coming into town. At one end of the harbor is a
large zinc and lead smelter. At the other end a large grain silo.
There is a wide main street with ornate old buildings and an abundance of signs
marking places where buildings once stood. One gets the feeling that Port
Pirie was once even more important and has declined a bit recently. October 28th; Port Pirie to Port Wakefield
The weather forecasts had me worried, 25 knots from the SW and morning rain showers. I was thus happy to find lighter winds and no rain. For my route today I decided to take back roads via Port Broughton instead of the main highway #1. The person at the motel had explained it was "only 20 minutes longer", this by car of course. Left Port Pirie through residential areas. Looking over the roofs were many tall antennas. Must be just close enough to get Adelaide stations with an eight meter antenna. At 10 km was a monument in shape of a bell. A few kms further someone was herding sheep with a ute truck and a dog. Somehow was much less graceful than on horseback. At 25 km I came to crossroads marked Wandearah East. Signs indicated former post office. Here and several other places along the way were abandoned stone buildings. Got the sense that farms had been consolidated into large sizes leaving behind former houses. A few gentle hills and I was into Port Broughton at 56 km. Port Broughton was cute small town with main street, shops, motel, town jetty and WWI memorial. I read somewhere that during WWI Australia lost more soldiers in proportion to population than almost every other country. Surprising given distance from Europe. I talked with a farmer from the area. He grows wheat, barley, hay and other crops. The wheat is just turning and will be ready to harvest in three weeks. Unlike WA, there hasn't been a drought here or in SA.
Twice today people asked if I was Canadian. It has happened a few times before, so wonder what speech/accent pattern they pick up on. Heading south from Bute a few more hills and I was in Kulpara and junction with larger road on Yorke Peninsula. One km east of town was a nice long winding downhill for five km. I'd been told about this hill for the past two days and it was a fun descent. Unfortunately the road was considerably busier and road condition was much worse. I was happy to finish riding the last 19 km into Port Wakefield. Port Wakefield had multiple roadhouses along route one as well as a
motel. I walked through old part of town which was quiet in
comparison. Two old hotels, a caravan park, a bowling club and a few other
businesses in town. Seemed like it is still a distance from the Spencer
Gulf though there are signs for a jetty. October 29th; Port Wakefield to Adelaide
At 24 km was a brief stop at White Horse Plains with just a few houses along the road. At 36 km I made a longer stop at Dublin. A man approached and told me about his former racing and riding (on wooden rims!). He was now 83, but still looked back fondly on the riding. Dublin had a roadhouse, fruit stall, hotel and few houses. South of Dublin were several protest displays to a local waste dump. One had man on horseback and compared John Olsen to Ned Kelley (John Olsen was premier of SA until two weeks ago when he resigned in a political scandal. Ned Kelley was an infamous bush ranger who killed several and then escaped into the outback). At 50 km was Two Wells. I went onto backroads here for 13 km. Two Wells had nice main street with shops. South of Two Wells was Virginia. Virginia had both a Vietnamese restaurant and some farms with Vietnamese names. At 71 km I was back on the main highway. Salisbury listed population of 112,000 so it was getting busier. Crossed over the railroad tracks and road became three lanes. Rode the last kms into the heart of Adelaide. Enough signs to make me think it was a cycle friendly city. The inner city is completely ringed by parks. There are large pedestrian malls, e.g. Rundle Mall and other tall buildings appropriate to capital city of a million people.
October 30th; Adelaide to StrathalbynA shorter ride today after looking around Adelaide in the morning. Downtown Adelaide has many museums, monuments, a zoo and other attractions.
The museum had several displays describing WWII and immigration immediately following. After the war Australia settled more refugees than any country other than the USA. Three quarters of those from Northern Europe had their way paid and one quarter of those from Southern Europe. There were just a few displays about more recent immigration. Many apply for official authorization and are approved (language, family and occupation all seem to help here). There is a quota of 12,000 for humanitarian refugees (4000 from UN High Commission for Refugees). In recent years a larger number than that have been arriving by boat from Vietnam, Cambodia, Iraq and Afghanistan. If they arrived on Australian soil they are taken to detention centers in Port Hedland, Curtin (near Broome) and Woomera and processed for 3 year temporary visas. In the current election the largest two parties have both staked a position of being "tough" on people smuggling as way of deterring such refugees. For example, currently Australia is patrolling the seas and taking refugees it finds to Nauru, PNG and potentially other Pacific Island nations for processing (thus avoiding the 3-year temporary visa laws). I walked past a memorial to Colonel William Light who surveyed and laid out the town of Adelaide. In my opinion, he did a good job picking a site with ocean on one side, hills on the other and nice town layout with many parks. After the museum and my walks, I made my way back to the hostel and got ready to depart around 11:30am. Rundle Street mall already has Christmas decorations up! From center of town, I rode out and followed route one. At six km this became a motorway and bicycles on a separate path. The first six km were already uphill, but after that the road steepened. At ten km went onto the old road and up Eagle on the Hill. It was a slow uphill ride. Stopped for lunch at Eagle on the Hill hotel at 12 km.
The last part of the route went through rolling hills and past small towns of Mylor, Echunga, Flaxley and Macclesfield. Most had just a country store or two. Beautiful riding as the road wound back and forth past the fields. Winds were brisk but fortunately not much headwinds. Strathalbyn is larger town with many stone buildings including nice
church. Found good place to stay in center of town. October 31st; Strathalbyn to Meningie
East of Strathalbyn I came past fields of hay and then vineyards for about 15 km. In center of this region was Langhorne Creek with three or four wineries. Nice tailwinds to blow me along. The road came along Lake Alexandria with marsh areas on one side and fields on the other. At 48 km I came to Wellington and the Murray River. The Murray (and Darling) drain large portions of the southeast and also provide water to 90% of South Australia's people. There was a ferry crossing the river.
Meningie is on Lake Albert, a large freshwater lake. Close to this area is Coorong National Park, a narrow lagoon along the coast. Saw several pelicans flying overhead and headed toward the lake. |
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