Cycling Australia Diaries

Began early today with a sad goodbye to Vino, who has been with us since the beginning. After 60km of rough corrugations along Top Hut Road, we had a relaxing 28km of seal to Pooncarie. We enjoyed a counter meal and a couple of beers in the pub before bed.

After a long chat to the general store owner while restocking supplies, we cycled through extremely strong northerly head winds and sandy corrugated tracks. Camped early on the bank of the Darling River.

Began early in an attempt to avoid the head winds today, however they picked up even stronger than yesterday. Stopped in at a B+W camp site during the day and pushed on through increasing winds to Menindee. Stayed in the Maidens Hotel, which was the base of B+W operations for a short while. Ate another counter meal, drank a few beers and spent a few hours reviewing maps and forward planning.

Today was our first rest day since leaving Melbourne which gave us a chance to clean clothes and check emails. Restocked our supplies and moved to the Bridge Caravan Park where we sat around the camp fire with the owners having a few drinks.

Spent a few hours injecting fluid puncture protection into tubes, were interviewed by the Broken Hill newspaper. Began cycling after lunch and only cycled 38km to Wirryilka station where we were invited to stay the night in their shearing quarters. Did some more forward planning tonight and discovered that we will need to cycle/walk/crawl 70km every day until the end of September, with 3 rest days in between.