Hi everyone. After a squidge over 1600ks Darwin rose up on the horizon. I had mixed feelings – on the one hand it was delightful to see the end of the Stuart highway, but on the other, I wanted to turn right around and head back to the red stuff and the isolation! How weird after all that that red stuff had thrown at me! I don’t think its sunk in quite what a wonderful experience these past few weeks have been. It’ll take a few days to process all that has happened, the places I’ve been and the people I’ve had the privilege to meet along the way so far. But more is to come 😊

I’ve been hanging out in Berry Springs – a lovely little place with its own Springs (well, of course!) just a few K from the campsite, but unfortunately it was full of loud, drunk muppets – even at 10 in the morning! And feck me if I hear one more whip crack I’ll scream – every other kid had a whip, and all day it sounded like a fireworks display without the colour or visual wonder!

And I’ll probably will be the cause of the financial demise of the campsite – they had a eat all you can buffet ( there were a lot of FIFO workers at the site) evening meal and breakfast, so, well, let’s just say my body is well and truly refuelled 🤣🤣

So, now I turn my attention to what comes next. As some know, my father has been very unwell. His partner Al has taken on a significant role in arranging his care and being a constant in his life, at a time when everything he’s used to has changed. But this (and caring for her own father) has had a significant physical and emotional toll on Al, and she ended up in hospital last week with incessant nose bleeds. She has had surgery and is now home recovering, but it’ll be rest, rest and more rest for Al.
This trip was always taken on the understanding that when the time comes I’ll head back to be with my dad. The road will always be here -he won’t. So given what’s happened I’ll be making plans one week at a time. I’ll write more when I’m in a position to know what next 😊 but the plan is to get to KL and then reassess.

One thing is for sure – whilst this little gig across Aus has been a great start in my healing journey, there’s much much more wanted…. and needed.

Thanks everyone for your support, love and encouragement both for the physical challenges and the emotional/reflective journey (which undoubtedly is tougher than the riding!).

WTF…. Wednesday, Thursday,Friday!
I’ve been ‘bush’ for a few days so had, among other things, no signal. So here’s three days in one post 😊

Wednesday- Never trust a French man with a map!

After a reasonable night in Adelaide Rivers Frenchman and I decided we would get off the highway and do some gravel riding, head to Batchelor then go our separate ways – him to Darwin, me to the Lichfield National park. Before we did we paid our respects to the fallen at the Adelaide Rivers WW2 cemetery which honoured those who died in the Japanese attack on Darwin and surrounds in 1943.

Right from the get go on leaving the Stuart highway the road was incredibly quiet and beautiful and….undulating. Then we hit the red stuff and….and went off course almost immediately 🤣….frenchy had his e-maps and despite his (misplaced) confidence in them, we got hopelessly lost. What followed was epic – kilometres of the harshest roads imaginable, corrugations that shook bike and rider to pieces, hills so steep we had to push our bikes and the piece de la resistance – wading across swollen creeks in bare feet with the water over the wheel axle and half covering the panniers. We got to Batchelor once I took over the navigation -it’s 27k from Adelaide Rivers…but .we clocked 47.4!. Usually in these situations I’d get quite annoyed and I found myself, after getting us lost for the umpteenth time, starting to throw out my usual exasperated l, passive aggressive comments. But I quickly realised – shut up buddy. We are both in this and it is what it is. Be positive. That felt a much nicer place to be.

Anyways….I thought that was the tough bit behind me. WRONG. Very wrong. Off I trundle after saying our farewells and straight in to an unrelenting road of head wind and small but crazy hard hills. On and on and on. It very nearly broke me. Then a short 15% blew me completely …..4.2kph! I was dangerously low on water and had 45k to go. Time to reset. Stop. Breathe. The whole 79k from Batchelor took the best part of 5 and a half hours. But gloriously, the final 14 were downhill/flat with a tail wind. I pitched up at Litchfield Safari campsite absolutely buggered. But I was re-reminded, if I ever should need reminding, of the kindness of fellow travellers – I was handed a home made quiche and someone else gave me a plate of rice. Both consumed with fervour. There’s absolutely no phone signal, it’s off the road by a few kilometres of gravel road, no food or amenities. But it’s glorious in its simplicity with stunning night skies with no light pollution.

Perhaps the toughest day today….it really did nearly break me. The gravel roads buggered my back and sapped my energy. But ….as with all things that test us, looking back I’m glad I experienced it. The bike is caked in mud and grime and I had my first puncture. But… man and machine survived 😊

A restful rest day
Thursday – I think! I slept like a baby last night! After yesterdays hammering I had a very restful day. After breaki I fixed a few things on my battered bike then headed for the ‘Cascades’ – a round walking trip of about 5k which, as anyone who knows me well will attest…is impressive for someone who is allergic to walking. But the waterfalls and water pools were simply divine. I dared myself to swim and sit under one of the cascading waterfalls….after a bit of mental persuasion I did…and I’m so delighted I did as it was the most invigorating shower I’ve ever had!! A wonderful treat after yesterdays pain.

The rest of the day I slept and read. And in the evening had myself a small fire in one of the many fire pits at the site, and was treated to the BEST pizza ever, cooked by the couple in the outrageously massive ‘caravan’ next to me. Just another gesture of goodwill among travellers.

Without phone signal, it was also a day of reflection away from the pull of the internet. I was able to think deeply about putting stuff I had taken on as my own back on to those where it actually belonged.

Friday. I awoke to Gil, the guy in the mobile hotel next to me, grinning with a hot cappuccino for me – his mansion on wheels has a coffee machine! I could have kissed him. Then his wife whipped up three sandwiches for me of salami, cheese and coleslaw….perhaps it’s ‘Coles on Wheels’ as they seemed to have everything. Then I made the rookie error of listening to an old guy in a V8 telling me the road to Berry Springs is flat. Liar! Sweet god, the road was as unrelenting as Wednesday but with the bonus of a nasty cross wind which on a fully loaded bike is crap….holding the bike at a 15 degree angle is hard bloody work. I trundled on stopping every 10k or so to devour my al-a-carte sandwich’s. Eventually after what seemed like 200k (but in truth was 78k but I’m a cyclist so I’ll stick with an exaggerated distance!!) I got to Berry Springs and found a camping ground. The rest is pretty boring….tent up, food in, nap taken, food, bed! Got to talk to my Niamh – made those hills and head wind fade away!

Bush (kitchen) mechanic and rolling hills

Over the past few weeks I’ve been swapping places with a great French guy called Lad who has cycled from Cairns on a,well, crock of shite! We would meet in a roadhouse or rest place, then not see each other for a few days. He was blowing spokes (there’s a surprise) and in Katherine the ‘bike shop’ had the spokes but couldn’t/wouldn’t fix it. So he rode with a square and rapidly disintegrating rear wheel in the dark last night (mad) to get to Pine Creek,so I got to work rebuilding his back wheel this morning. All I needed was a Shimmy rotor disc remover ….(cheap disc wheels have the disc riveted on) which I didn’t have! And a cassette remover – which I had but no chain whip. But necessity is the mother of all inventions, so a hammer, an angle grinder and spoke key did the job!! Bush mechanics is a real thing! Replaced 6 spokes and bingo….we rode the 110 to Adelaide River 😊. A reflective day where I learnt again about patience and being willing to just take time to stop, reflect, think through the challenge and be patient.

Might be heading in to deep ‘bush’ tomorrow to test the bike off road 😊

Not much to report today as well, I did nothing! Rode nowhere, but did get to walk around this delightful little settlement. But got a few pics which I’ll send through with some thoughts!

Solar plexus man, remembering freewheeling, creaking bikes and a billion bats!

Had a delightful start to the day having coffee and croissant with another cyclist from France in Katherine….how very civilised. We took it in turns to look after each other’s bikes whilst we went in to Woolies (this day just gets better and better). While I was bike minding I was rubbing my knee when a complete stranger walked up, said ‘you got a knee problem’ to which I replied in the affirmative, and without getting my written informed consent put his finger around my solar plexus area and pushed hard. ‘That’ll be better’ and he buggered off! Well whether it was placebo or the coffee, or both, or whatever he did was some sort of voodoo shit….it worked! A whole day with no knee pain! Which was just as well as gee, it was lumpy lumpy all day. Either going up or down. I even got to freewheel. And apparently that lever on the right does something called ‘gear change’ …..a whole load of cogs got their first work out today! Then an ominous sound….subtle at first, very unsubtle towards the end! Definitely bottom bracket 😢. Will do a temp fix tomorrow and hope to god someone in Darwin has the T47 BB tool!

I’m staying in Pine Creek – so delightful after Katherine. Great camp site and facilities – a bar, a shop, a pool. Nowhere to charge any electrical stuff tho ‘If you haven’t paid for power DON’T use it’!
Going to stay here tomorrow in lieu of my wet and muddy ‘rest day’ at the ‘Springs’