Cycling Australia Diaries

We hadn't been up long this morning when we heard our first vehicle in a long while coming up the dunes. The couple were very enthusiastic about our adventure and after reporting us to Charters Towers station they interview us for a 4WD magazine article. With the sun now shining we relaxed a little and had a late start despite having our first tail winds in days. Came quickly onto the Gibber Plains (or Sturt Stony Desert) and found it 'very agreeable to travel on' in the words of William Wills. Hit the Birdsville Track at 3:30pm and found it to be almost as good as sealed road. With 2 hours of sun left and tail winds we hoped to get 60km in, however the higher speeds caused 2 old tube patches to split and the remainder of the day was wasted. Thankfully we came across a great sand dune where we camped ontop and enjoyed an unbroken, 360° horizon and beautiful sunset over the stony desert.