Monthly Archives: November 2014

Opals, Missiles, and Vino, Sections, Stage Details, Trans-Oceania

Stage 72: South Australia

Jamestown to  Riverton
Date: 11-22-2014 Time: 05:28 h Σ Time: 404:08 h
Distance: 129 km Σ km: 8590 km Temp: 19/39°C
Up: 562 m Σ Up: 75298 m Down: 730 m
Calories: 2120 kcal Σ kcal: 182184 kcal  
Conditions: Tailwind for the first 110 km. The last 20 km to Riverton against the wind. Riding through grain fields and vineyards.

Leaving from Jamestown was easy: Setting the bicycle into the wind, and off you go. The tailwind blew us almost directly towards Adelaide. If it wasn’t for some photo stops, lunch at 72km would have been reached by not later than 9am. The first 60 km were on tar, the last 60km on compact and fine gravel; after lunch it was a nice bicycle trail on an old railway track, away from traffic. It was as if the kangaroos wanted to say goodbye to us. In the morning, all of a sudden, they showed up around every corner in the corn fields, under trees, in the grass and on the rocks. No time to store the camera away. This changed once I entered the wine area. At least I haven’t seen any in there. Seems they don’t like grapes or carry wine bottles in their pouches. After lunch we continued on a nice trail, the ‘Riesling Trail. It is built on an old railway track that cuts through narrow valleys seamed by pine trees covering the trail into cooling shade. It almost felt as if riding thru parts of the Black Forest, so dense and dark where the rows of trees. Several vineyards have wineries and offer wine tasting. However, my French friends stood me up with a meeting at a vineyard for a joined wine tasting, thus I continued to see, if I can find them somewhere else. The nice tailwind was over after turning onto the second trail, the ‘Rattle Trail’ in Auburn. Only about 20km to go to Riverton. I was arriving in camp very early; somehow unusual for me. Time to stroll through the sleeping town. Because it is a Saturday, Riverton was almost shut down completely. Only a deli and a bottle store was opened, where I could buy some pops and ice cream. Thereafter enough time to relax and prepare for the final riding day, which will lead us to Adelaide tomorrow, with another rest day, that closes the Opal, Missiles and Vino section. Some riders will leave us here, 7 others will join us.

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Opals, Missiles, and Vino, Sections, Trans-Oceania

Into the Wine Tasting Stage

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Left Jamestown with a blazing tailwind that drives us fast into the Riesling lands.

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Opals, Missiles, and Vino, Photos, Sections, Trans-Oceania

Leaving Port Augusta

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01-DSC_0439It was only a short visit to the beaches of Port Augusta in Southern Australia. Before we return to the coast again in 3 days time, to start into the Great Ocean Road section, we take a detour into the wine lands, giving us a chance for wine tasting and practice our climbing skills, that we didn’t need since we left from Indonesia. It was a real change, the first day riding outside the outback. First a climb over the Horrack’s pass into the Beautiful Valley. Some very small towns – every building is a kind of museum, corn fields, sheep, alpacas and some humans! However, it looks as if time stopped in the mid 19 century in these places, except for a well equipped bike shop in Melrose.

Below are some photos of todays ride into a different Australia, compared to the past 4 weeks cycling in the outback.

Misc, Opals, Missiles, and Vino, Photos, Sections, Trans-Oceania

Watch for Cyclists

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What a surprise. Now that the chances to see a kangaroo, emu or other wildlife are much lower than in the outback, the motorists are informed to look out for cyclists! Obviously a rare and dangerous species, too.

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DSC_0374I understand the meaning of the road sign above, as well as the reminder on the right, that there are kangaroos and other wildlife to expect to be on the road. However, what is a DIP?DSC_0446

Can it fly or swim? How big is it and what color does it have? Has it fur or hair? Is it endemic to Australia or can it be found in other countries, too? Has anyone seen a DIP on the ride today?

Opals, Missiles, and Vino, Sections, Stage Details, Trans-Oceania

Stage 71: South Australia

Port Augusta to  Jamestown
Date: 11-21-2014 Time: 06:23 h Σ Time: 398:40 h
Distance: 130 km Σ km: 8461 km Temp: 14/35°C
Up: 982 m Σ Up: 74736 m Down: 539 m
Calories: 3045 kcal Σ kcal: 180064 kcal  
Conditions: Cool morning, hot afternoon. Into the Flinders Range, a short climb. First 28 km on a bumpy tar road.

The first day cycling outside the outback and without road trains. It was so different and for those, who did not cycle in Indonesia, a completely new experience. The first 28 km where on very bumpy gravel road; almost as if build by Indonesian prisoners. A constant head wind was accompanying us. The first 36km were also a constant climb from sea level to 480 m. First almost not noticeable, but the last 6km with grades up to 6%. Nothing compared to what we had in Indonesia, but a lot for what we had so far in Australia. You even saw fellow cyclists walking their bike up the hill. Huge trees were seaming the slopes of the mountain range. We ended up in a ‘Beautiful Valley’ in the Flinders Range. Fields of grain as far as the eye could reach. Large herds of sheep and even alpaca were farmed. The times where we had to carry extra water are over now. Coke stops should be available in shorter distances, as the density of settlements will increase. Wilmington after 40km and Melrose after 64km were our first stops. These are really sleep old historical towns founded in the 1860 range. They still appear as if time stood still since then. Toys and puppet museums are main attractions, as well as old farming tools. Lunch was in Melrose, at a bike shop & coffee house. Yes, a real bike shop! Cycling is very popular in this area. There are even bike lanes and special bike tracks & trails. Since the outback wildlife will more and more disappear, road signs are now warning to watch for cyclists and less frequent to watch for kangaroos. After a cool start in the morning the temperature raised as usual. Unfortunately, I had two flats today, which slowed me down significantly. The first was 8 km from lunch and I could pump up the tire at the bike shop. The second was 30 km from camp and with my little pump I could only get 1 bar air into it instead of the usual 4 bar, making the final 34km a bit more difficult. It was still early in the afternoon and I finally arrived in camp at 3:30pm. First thing was fixing the punctured tubes to have spares for the next two days. X-fingers that I don’t run into more problems in the following two cycling days. I’d rather spend extra time with wine tasting in the vineyards that we pass, than fixing tires!

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Opals, Missiles, and Vino, Sections, Trans-Oceania

Over the Edge

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At lunch and coke stop in Melrose. The local bike shop welcomes Tour d’Afrique riders. What a change, the first day riding outside the outback. First climb over the Horrack’s pass into the Beautiful Valley. Small towns – every building is a kind of museum, corn fields and humans! However, it looks as if life stopped in the mid 19 century, except for the well equipped bike shop.

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Misc, Opals, Missiles, and Vino, Photos, Rest Day, Sections, Trans-Oceania

Outback Adventure

Renting a 4×4 in Coober Pedy and driving it into the outback is as easy as this:

Ask for a car, pack it, find some partner to come along with you, set your alarm clock, go to bed, get up at 3:30am and drive into the desert …

However, getting out of the desert can be much more adventurous and difficult, when the unexpected happened. But one thing after the other.  Coober Pedy, our rest day location, should be the starting point for a trip to the Painted Desert and other locations around the opal mining town. Mike and I wanted to go there for sunrise the next morning. 24-DSC_0618All we needed was a car to drive around, because there was no tour offered, which covered our plans.  So I stopped at the Mud Hut Hotel on arrival in town, and made a reservation. A nice and shiny looking Toyota Patrol 4×4 was the only choice. Credit card and drivers license was quickly exchanged and the baby was ours for a day. A brief introduction on how to use the 4×4 and off we went for grocery shopping. Back in camp we found Mary, Ursula and Rae who wanted to join us for the trip. 01-DSC_0532All seats were now occupied for an early morning start at 4am, as the drive into the painted desert is about 170km on gravel and sand. At 4am we started into our adventure. Mike drove the car into the black darkness. Mile per mile ticked down on the odometer getting us closer to the Painted Desert. Mike did a good job driving the car in this environment. It was a perfect timing, just when we03-DSC_0562arrived at the lookout the sun showed up in the horizon, starting to cover the desert, which was up to now dark and 08-DSC_0575grey, in a carpet of colors. Everyone was taking photos of this spectacular event or simply enjoyed the moment. The nearby mountains and plains changed their colors almost every minute, as the sun rose higher and higher. We were the only ones in the desert, besides some cattle. Soon ‘the show’ was 12-20141114_064716over and it was time to return to the car. Mike, Rae and Ursula went ahead, to find it in a different condition than when we left it. the16-DSC_0595 left rear wheel was totally deflated. So they started to get the tools ready to change it with one of the 2 available spare tires. Their faces showed great disappointment when I arrived and they told me, that there was no jack in the car. They had searched all corners and started to lift the floor cover to see underneath. I found the toolset in a compartment in the rear door, but the other compartment, which looked as if it was used to store a jack, was empty, confirming their search result. So what to do? No car around, no phone signal, the UHF radio also not receiving anything. Wait? The GPS indicated a homestead with campsite, ‘only’ 12 km away. Walk there? All rules say ‘never leave the car’ … so we decided to drive slowly to the homestead on the flat tire. However we only came about 5km further down the road, when we recognized that the flat tire will not last much longer on the rough road. So we had to 17-DSC_0604come up with another solution. Having 5 intelligent persons around it took not long and we setup the car on the raised edge of the gravel road, such that we could dig out the flat tire and replace it with the spare one. Collecting wood and rocks to secure the car and dig we worked a good 60 minutes before the 2 wheels changed their position and we could continue with our trip. Having only one spare tire 22-DSC_0612left and no jack, we decided to take the shortest way out of the desert to the Stuart Highway, where changes are much better to get help, if we happen to run into more problems. This said we headed west towards Cadney Homestead, where we camped 2 days ago. Still 70 km to go on gravel and sand, through a beautiful desert. 31-DSC_0638Remembering the good fries at the pub we pulled in for an early lunch stop. It felt so good to have made it back to civilization. Our enthusiasm didn’t last very long. When we returned to the car we found, that the right rear tire was running low on air. What the f… is going on here? We got air at the gas station, pumped it up and hurried down the 160 km to Coober Pedy to return the car as soon as possible. There was no way to visit the other locations which were on our tour list, with this car and the luck we seemed to have today. Mike dropped Ursula, Mary and Rae at the campsite and we returned the car, prepared to complain about sending us into the desert without the right tools. The owner couldn’t believe what we reported. 2 flat35-DSC_0651s on a single trip has never happened before. And a missing jack, absolutely impossible. The car was checked before and it was there. So we went to the car and he opened a small compartment behind the left rear lights and pointed into a dark corner. Guess what we found hidden behind a string of electric wires?? A small hydraulic jack! Which has replaced the one, which was provided with the car by the manufacturer. We were so pissed. Why didn’t they tell us when we rented it? Why is there no label in the old compartment saying ‘Jack was here before, now he is elsewhere’! So, all for nothing, but a nice adventure and good teamwork to rescue ourselves from the outback. And finally the highest one day car rental bill ever and a good story for the bush camp nights ahead of us.

Find more pictures of this fabulous adventure in the gallery below.

Nov. 14, 2014

Bike the Outback, Misc, Opals, Missiles, and Vino, Photos, Sections, Trans-Oceania

Kangaroos at Sunset

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I always wanted to get a nice sunset photo with a kangaroo just skipping passed the setting sun. I patiently waited every evening at the campsite with my camera ready to catch this special moment. I got nice shots of sunsets, almost every day, but not the one I was hoping for.
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Days and days went went by. The sun rise, the sun set again, but no kangaroos around, until … CLICK!

kangaroo-sunset-1

… well, the above needed a bit of a ‘rework’, some call it ‘photo-shopping’.  Winking smile

However, I never give up my dreams.
Minutes later, I got another shot with an object passing the setting sun. This time it wasn’t the original version of an Australian KANGAROO, but a Japanese remodeled type, named a …

kangaroo-sunset-2… SUBARU!

Bike the Outback, Misc, Opals, Missiles, and Vino, Photos, Sections, Trans-Oceania

It is so True!

This morning I arrived in Port Augusta with a nice welcome and a reminder of what I and the other cyclists have achieved … It was a long, dry way from Darwin to here and even longer from Medan on Sumatra, the start point of the Trans-Oceania.

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Medan to Port Augusta:   8331 km
Darwin to Port Augusta:   2726 km

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And it was DRY out there, TOTALLY DRY!

Opals, Missiles, and Vino, Sections, Stage Details, Trans-Oceania

Stage 70: Out of the Outback

Range View Rest Area to  Port Augusta
Date: 11-19-2014 Time: 02:25 h Σ Time: 392:16 h
Distance: 63 km Σ km: 8331 km Temp: 10/30°C
Up: 49 m Σ Up: 73754 m Down: 177 m
Calories: 1207 kcal Σ kcal: 177019 kcal  
Conditions: Tailwind let us fly down the 62 km out of the dry outback to sea level.

Conquered the Outback!

Only 16 riders and the TdA staff had an early morning wakeup call in the bush camp. All others enjoyed a long sleep and a 2nd rest day in Port Augusta, where they already escaped to yesterday afternoon. The bush campers however had a stunning night under the stars and a beautiful sunrise over the clos mountain range. And finally we were awarded with a nice tailwind that pushed us into town. The ride was easy and no rush, but still fast. The landscape changed as we descended to sea level into the Spencer Gulf, where Port Augusta is founded. We are out of the outback, at the entrance to the green coastal belt that we will follow to the east from now on. At 10am everyone was at the new campsite and those who decided to not take a cabin, pitched a tent on green ‘grass’, but no shade. Camp is located in a lagoon and it was said, that dolphins have been seen the night before.

Gerald has a cabin and organized a wine tasting for the late evening. I am busy to prepare a ‘best of’ selection of my photos to show during the tasting tonight …

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