Countries visited: Australia
Cycled mileage in July: 2,426.6km
Cycled mileage per country: 2,426.6km Australia
Total cycled mileage incl. July: 22,774.6km
July mileage not cycled 15.1km (walking)
Days per country: 31d - Australia
Days cycling: 24d
Technical failures: N/A
Link to this month's route
Back in June we began the Australia leg of our journey in Melbourne and started cycling the Great Ocean Road. We finished the last month in Apollo Bay. From there we set off to a more exhausting stretch with a lot of hills and steep ascents for around 100 kilometres. With an icy wind cooling out muscles constantly it was even worse. Back on the coast, however, the stunning views of the famous rock formations London Bridge and 12 Apostles were rewarding.
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| Cycling the Great Ocean Road... |
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| ...great views... |
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| ...but some surprisingly hilly stretches! |
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| 12 Apostles |
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| London Bridge (The arch that connected it to the mainland broke off recently) |
The next day we reached the end of the Great Ocean Road and decided to hide out from the forecasted rain at Warmshowers-host Trish in Warrnambool. Even though it kept bucketing down the next 2 days we managed to use one of the rare rain breaks to go whale watching.
On day #2 in Warrnambool British cyclist Alex arrived to Trish's place. It turned out that she was also going to Adelaide and then up to Darwin.
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| Dinner with Alex (middle left) and Trish |
When the rain stopped the next day we all set off towards Portland where we planned to stay in the holiday house of one of Trish's friends.
From Portland we went on to Mount Gambier. We stayed in a former prison that had been converted into a hostel. Next stops after Mount Gambier were Beachport and Kingston. While there is not much to say about Beachport, Kingston surprised us with a 17 metres big lobster, one of the weirder “Big Things” in Australia. From Kingston it was another day to lacklustre Salt Creek Roadhouse with its heavily overpriced cabins. Eventually we reached Wellington and one day later Adelaide.
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| Our first Australian state border |
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| Hostel in a former prison in Mount Gambier |
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| Random village on the way to Adelaide |
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| At Salt Creek Roadhouse |
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| Pelicans near Meningie |
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| Ferry to Wellington, SA |
While Alex stayed a couple of days with a friend in Adelaide, we left after only 2 days.
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| Adelaide |
Adelaide is a nice town but the weather forecast suggested 5 days of rain and so we decided to cycle on quickly in the hope to escape the bad weather by rushing further north. The plan didn’t work out too well and while there wasn't a whole lot of rain we fought against unrelenting headwind all the way to Port Augusta. Due to the weather the way wasn’t too enjoyable but at least we used one of the sunnier afternoons to stop at Port Germein and to explore the amazing 1.5 km long jetty there.
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| Longest jetty in the Southern hemisphere at Port Germein |
While Port Augusta isn’t too appealing, it is the last major town before the outback and the last significant settlement before Alice Springs. We allowed ourselves to a rest and relaxed for a couple of days. Coincidently this also meant meeting again with Alex.
On 22nd we set off early in the morning. We met up with Alex just outside town and cycled into the outback together.
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| Heading from Port Augusta straight into the Outback. 1221km to Alice Springs |
There was a bit of headwind but we enjoyed the first day anyway. The steppe and savannah landscape, the distinctive red sand and the fascinating wildlife were all new and exciting. After more than 100 kilometres we stopped for the night at one of the occasional rest areas. The next day we reached our first real outback roadhouse at Pimba. We arrived there so early that we even found the time for a short detour to nearby Woomera, a formerly restricted airforce base. Nowadays there is an impressive collection of rockets, airplanes and remainders of the space programme.
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| Cycling through the centre of Australia |
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| A surprising amount of wildlife along the way |
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| Woomera, formerly a restricted airforce base |
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| Night at Pimba Roadhouse |
From Pimba it was another day of riding to get to Glendambo which is the next roadhouse along the way. Between Glendambo and Coober Pedy there is a 252km long stretch without any facilities so we set off early from Glendambo and reached Coober Pedy 2 days later.
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| Another road train |
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| Sunset in the middle of nowhere |
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| Wild emus occasionally crossed our paths |
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| Random rest area |
We could see the first “mole-hills” from far away, indicators of the more than 100 years of opal mining. Most of Coober Pedy's inhabitants do not only work under ground – they also live under ground. That way they can escape the awful summer heat of up to 50°C whereas the caves have an all-year-round average temperature of around 22C. Consequently our hostel was also under ground.
With an amazing 18” pizza at famous John's Pizza we finished day #5 of our outback adventure. The next day was a day off from cycling and we went out to explore Coober Pedy. Visiting the surprisingly international cemetery (47 nationalities), an underground home, an underground church, a mine and a Kangaroo orphanage kept us busy.
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| We made it to Coober Pedy! |
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| Dinner at famous John's Pizza |
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| "Have a drink on me" - Headstone on Coober Pedy's graveyard |
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| Underground house |
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| Feeding kangaroos at a kangaroo orphanage in Coober Pedy |
The next morning we left Coober Pedy. The forecast suggested a strong headwind for the next 2 days – and the forecast was completely right! We made only slow progress struggling not only with the wind. The unbearable heat made things even worse as did the dry air that would leave us with a dry mouth as soon as we had put down the water bottle. Eventually we reached Marla, one of the major roadhouses along the way to Alice Springs.
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| Still a long way to Alice Springs |
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| Vast expanses of nothingness |
After a good night's rest and after filling up our water bottles (we were carrying around 10 litres each) we set off the next morning. To our surprise the weather had changed over night. The sky was covered in clouds and north-easterly wind had changed to southerly wind. Later in the day we even had some rain. Southerly wind means the wind comes straight from Antarctica and consequently we found our tent covered in ice the next day.
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| Frosty night in the outback. The white stuff on the panniers is ice. |
A bit later that day the temperatures at least reached 20° again - and we reached the state border of the Northern Territory. After an uneventful day with a slight tailwind we got to Erldunda Roadhouse. Erldunda is around 200 kilometres short of Alice Springs and marks the turn off to Ayers Rock.
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| Crossing into the Northern Territory |
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| We finished July at the turnoff to Ayers Rock, 200km short of Alice Springs |
