A well deserved rest..

Did the 160 k's day ending our 5 days of 680 something's bloc today. And it was great! Started out with John and a tailwind. Both good for my speed. John is 69 and a super consistent and fast rider. When I follow him I tend to speed up - good for my average - which beat it's record with 30. After lunch I first wanted to go a little slower on my own but ended up in a peloton with Shirly, Dan, John and Jody - also very good!

A crest..

Came in at Tennant Creek around 1pm and "moved into" the nice little "gypsy" wagon that I already reserved in August before going away (when I still thought that I only should take rooms on rest days).. There's a swimming pool just next to it - not bad.. Many people from the group wanted rooms but had to go to the hotel at the other side of the road as our campground only have limited accommodation.  Unfortunately there is no wifi there so now I am at Paul, Paul + David's room at the hotel doing my internet stuff. We will go for dinner shortly at the "Tennant Creek Memorial Club". Should be the best place in town to eat. And as we have a rest day tomorrow we are in the mood for good food - and surprise, surprise - some Australian wine - not bad!

Now it's Saturday. Had a nice dinner and quite some wine last night - it was Halloween and it was packed at "the club". Woke up at 6 (long sleep in!). Did some washing and got stuff sorted out from my permanent bag. Inflated my thermo rest fully - first used my little pump and finished blowing as much air into it as I could by mouth - will check if it holds the air shortly when I come back.. After Alice Springs we have 4 days of bush camping - so there will be no cabins to rent. So I MUST organize my camping!
 Just came back from a huge breakfast at a local greek restaurant - feel stuffed - nice! Tennant Creek is a very strange 3000 inhabitants place. Again in the middle of nowhere - empty streets on a Saturday morning - except for a few white and aboriginal people. All houses are one story - it reminds me of an american movie going on in the far west.. Wonder if/why people choose to live here!?
 Just counted the left riding days on my TDA sheet - 36 more of them. That means we have done nearly 2/3 of our trip.. Have done EFI in Australia so far - 1000 k's altogether..  Very happy about that!
 Paul from England came up with the idea that we should make a handicap race one of the coming days - to make a little change in our pretty monotonous riding. Everybody shall give in their normal average day speed and start according to that. Slowest first - fastest last. That might be fun..

Everyday in Australia..

We are here for 2 months - so there is an everyday - although we are on holiday.. Up at 4.30, on the bike at 6 - in camp between 10 pm and 2 am - that  has been our everyday rhythm for the last 4 days since our rest day in Kathrine.. After 93 to 169 k's of riding we have been at typical outback camps: good bars with beer and food, hot, dry campgrounds, peacocks, cooling swimming pools and excellent dinners by our TDA chef Jon.
 I have (temporarily) given up on the camping: too uncomfortable and hot - I need my sleep to cope with my cycling - that's it! Take cabins that are clean, have fridge, AC and wc+shower.
 The cycling has been good: often did the peloton in the morning reaching good speed (up to an average of 26 k's per hour). Generally I speed down a bit after lunch where it gets hotter and I am not so fresh anymore.. But an overall good feeling to bike at the Stewart Highway. The road trains pull to the right and have not been annoying us so far. Although the landscape is generally flat there are some crests that give a panoramic view of what's in front of us - and give us the chance to go faster (there are small climbs also - of course). The trees are turning into bush - the desert is approaching. We see large birds and kangaroos (most of them already killed in traffic). Have done EFI (every fucking inch) here in Australia - so far. My health is good and my mood as well - now I perform as I planned on doing..
 After tomorrow there is a rest day in Tennant Creek - then 4 more riding days - and we arrive in Alice Springs with 3 consecutive rest days. Nearly everybody has planned a tour to see Ayer's Rock - Ursula has organized it for us all - that's great!

Riding the Stuart Highway..

My blog is very intuitive and personal - and I often forget to tell about more general things. But finally a rest day with good internet connection - and time..
 So here a little update on also not so personal things..

Kathrine

We are at Katherine, 332 k's south of Darwin, at sleepy 10.000 inhabitants town "in the middle of nowhere". The Stewart Highway, that we follow all the way down to Alice Springs goes thru here. There are a lot of aboriginals hanging around on the street corners - they look very wild with big eyes set apart, curly hair and a very dark skin. Apparently they generally made some good arrangement with the government so they got most of their original land back - and make money on this thru tourism and mining..

Larger group 

 In Darwin our group more than doubled it's size - we are now around 40 riders. I reckon that the average age did not go down - it must be around 60. There are quite some people in their late 60ies - and not counting Nelli, Henry's 18 years old niece, Jody who turned 40 the day before yesterday is the "baby" of the crowd. Age does not mean that people are not strong and committed!
 Of course the riders that have done the 2 months in Indonesia have adjusted to the heat and have built up extra strength - I also feel that myself.. I can cope with long hot days - and I think that I am getting faster on the bike. But I keep on dreaming of a lighter bike - I know that mine is among the most heavy ones - and it irritates me a bit..
 There ended up being a bit over 5.000 k's in Indonesia - I did the 3656 of them.. Only two, Brett and Chris did the whole thing = EFI (every fucking inch)..
 Since Darwin there are quite a few known faces from The Bamboo Road last year: Ursula and Rae from Swarmish, Vancouver, Paul from Ottawa, Matthew from England, Nola from Toronto. It's good to see them all again..

Riding the Stuart Highway

Here in Australia the riding is very much the same every day. We start already at 6-6.15 having given in our bags at the luggage truck at 5.30 and starting breakfast at 5.45. There the temperature is still pleasant - and we see the sun rising - mostly as a big red ball coming up and turning yellow - beautiful. Then it slowly gets hotter - I typically drink 11/2 liters of water before our "lunch" stop - often already between 9 and 10 after 60-75 k's of riding. The quality of our food has gone tremendously up since we arrived in Australia - and the sandwiches we have for lunch are delicious. To be hungry is a permanent condition - so no problem with an early lunch - we just take another after arrival at camp between 11.15 am and 1.15 pm in my case. The quickest riders will already be in at 10-11.30. The distances in Australia so far have been between 90 and 130 k's. Our next bloc of riding days will be of 5 - with several days over 150 k's - I wonder how that will go..
 Roads are fine with rough tar.  A bit boring just going straight - but do not miss the hills - yet.. There are quite a lot of road trains  - huge long vehicles with up to four sections behind. Traffic is fast generally. There mostly is a little shoulder - we are told to go out in the rough if two road trains are passing each other beside us - not a bad idea.. We still have trees to the sides of the roads - but not before long we will be in the desert with absolutely no shade around. It gets extremely hot from around ten in the morning. And a strong, hot headwind rises regularly. I bring an umbrella for the worst case situation that I get a flat or am forced to stop for another reason - and 3 1/2 liter of water when I leave camp. There is water at lunch - and energy drink, which I finally started taking.

Camping

Only did it once - so far.. Had a very bad sleep. I inflated my thermorest maddress too little and felt like I was "falling off" most of the time. The ground also was uneven. And my little fan could not make the extreme heat go away. Not very restful! Was more awake than asleep. Realized that it is gonna be a costly affair to get some decent sleep on this trip considering the accommodation costing 70-150 aus. dollars a day. So I give the camping another try tomorrow - but might end up not doing it so much - giving my sleep higher priority than money..

I love Australia..

Back to civilisation - and the internet is totally unreliable - and expensive.. So bought access - but just for short.. Can tell that Australia is wonderful.. Spent 2 great days in Darwin - shopping, getting groomed - and last but not least: EATING! And finally my belly problems are over - isn't it incredible - had problems for at least 75% of the time in Indonesia. Will probably never go back there - except for Bali - I really love that island. Not to say that I did not love the rest - but just too many problems..

 We are now at our second campsite - did the first camping after a 108 k's ride yesterday. A beautiful camp with a  chilling swimming pool and fantastic surroundings. Small kangaroos (wallabies), a peacock and a 5 meter crocodile in the river just next to camp.

We were told not to go there - ok, we did not.. Tried our own cook, Jon's first meal yesterday - VERY good - more than promising. And the breakfast with porridge,  müsli and fresh fruits was just as I want it. The camping I will hopefully learn to love - so far I can put my tent up and down without any problems. Bought a little lamp for the ceiling - and an electric fan - just fine. But still sweating and lying uncomfortably on my little inflatable madras - really have to adjust..

Took a little cabin for tonight - my bag was full of ants when I unpacked it - so nice to have a room and a bathroom. Also for charging my electrical devices.. Did a 130 k's ride today ending up quite hot and with a pretty strong headwind - which fortunately cooled down a bit. Started the day with a 60 k's detour away from the Stewart Highway. Nice rolling hills - and untouched nature - beautiful! Gerald saw a dingo family.. 

Riding Timor Leste

Still back problems.. Did/could not carry my bag from the room to the van in the morning - but could sit on the bike - hurrah! Enjoyed the last little hilly part of West Timor and after 20 k we came to the border and crossed it without any problems - again somebody helped me taking the bags thru security check - happy about that!
 Timor Leste is like the rest of the island - just poorer - and more expensive (currency: us dollar). And something that I might not have mentioned: the islands tend to get less and less densely populated the further to the east we get. Now we have longer stretches without any people - something non-existing in Sumatra and Java..
The road we rode on is getting built - with most parts still under construction, somme parts just with fine gravel or sand/earth and a few parts already done with new tarmac. Wonder if it is ever gonna get finished? Anyway at times we went thru a dust hell - going up and down along the most beautiful hilly northern coastline, waugh! Arrived at the lunch stop just by the beach - happy about a good day riding with just 70 k. Did stand in the surf for quite a while - the ocean was refreshing - and I ended up lying in the sand - listening to the waves coming in - very relaxing.. Everybody seemed quite stressed just upon arrival at the hotel: having the bikes high pressure washed and packed into the cartoon boxes that had been brought all the way from Medan. The full ride yesterday was an approx. 130 k's hard one - so reason to be a bit tired for the people that accomplished it.. Anyway we were a whole group going to a quite nice restaurant built out over the surf coming in to the beach - had great sashimi.. Fish is fresh as ever here. We have 3 riders leaving us - also a little farewell party for them. Sterling is the only one that has done the full trip. He will go back to Cairnes, Australia. Ruth is going back to Victoria, Vancouver and Darrel to Sydney. They only did Ubud to Timor Leste.
 So today is Australia day - bike and bags packed - just checking out of the room - more than ready to get back to civilization..

Wish for a big kangaroo jump down under..

Indonesia was not meant to be easy for me.
Now I have the second day with a painful back - did ride yesterday - but had problems just stepping off the bike.. Maybe a bit too ignoring the day before where I might have provoked it to worsen.. Anyway no riding today where I took the van to our last hotel in West Timor.
 Just did rider's meeting where all details about border crossing to Timor Leste were discussed. We arrive at the border after 20 k's ride and will do another 90 k after. Hopefully all will go smoothly - we already prepared the paperwork. I plan to ride until midday - I prefer to sit on the bike in stead of in the van - and hopefully I feel better when I wake up tomorrow.. In Dili (the capital of Timor Leste) we have to wash (the aussie authorities do not accept any dirt from abroad) and pack our bikes, repack our luggage minimizing overweight costs ready to leave for Darwin on Monday.. I would not mind being there already..
 Anyway tomorrow awaits us another first (and probably last) time experience: the little young country of Timor Este - one of the world's poorest nations - but just for 24 hours..

Getting nostalgic about this beautiful country and it's people..

Today we had a 108 k 1500 m something climb ride. Time to make stops not only for the cokes - but for the people, landscapes and beauty of this fantastic place.. West Timor holds a lot of what we already saw along our long route through Sumatra, Java, Bali, Lombok, Subawa and Flores - and something quite different and special for this place. Out in the country the people seem more "tribal".. that means that they live in thatched huts and have a more "primitive" appearance.. The women look as if they wear a bright red lipstick - but it is just because the chew the ? root. But again, super friendly - and today I felt really well on my bike so I just gave them all the big smile and wave with my arm - which as always pays back hundredfolds. Hallo, good morning, good afternoon, goodbye - I like to get this shout or response from them all.. It really makes me happy!
 Came to the town of Soe after 1.30 pm - hungry as I cannot get down the white bread for lunch anymore. But went to my room to shower, wash and do my stretching - have a small issue with my back since I did a wrong movement yesterday - but I know that my back is strong and it will only get better by being used.. Now I sit at a little restaurant next to the reception - had a noodle soup, a beer (big Bintang) and some banana chips - all good.. Tomorrow we only have a 85 k's ride - will stop even more and enjoy the moment of still being here in Timor - but just for short..