Stage 51: Australia / NT

Pine Creek to  Katherine
Date: 10-25-2014 Time: 03:55 h Σ Time: 290:13 h
Distance: 94 km Σ km: 5878 km Temp: 18/39°C
Up: 306 m Σ Up: 69051 m Down: 399 m
Calories: 1622 kcal Σ kcal: 134130  kcal  
Conditions: A short and fast day into Katherine for another rest day. Same conditions as last two days …

Now that we know that the gusty south-east wind is freshen up at around 10am when the temperatures raise above 30°C, everyone wants to make as much of the days distance in the early morning, to avoid going into the wind and heat for too long. Since there is almost no change in landscape and country site and no Coke Stops, there are almost no time lost stopping too often. Katherine is a little town, in the middle of nowhere, and the birthplace of Cadel Evans, an Australian professional racing cyclist and winner of the 2011 Tour de France. Not much to do in town, but some opportunities in the closer surroundings, like a canyon or the Kakadu National Park. Camp is on the Ibis Hotel, however little to no shade, so most of the riders booked a room. I am camping, however there is again little privacy as later arriving cyclists tend to setup their tents right in the space left between 2 others, although there is space available in the size of a large soccer field. Hope this is going to change soon and the craziness of camping like fish in a tin ends. There are certain things happening during such trips, I‘ll never understand. Humans are sometimes a strange species.

stage-51