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’

At last the rains subsided late yesterday but the damage to the camp site was extraordinary! It took me 2.5 hours to move everything from my pitch to the camp kitchen where I could wash everything and pack it away on a dry-ish surface! Everything was caked in red sticky mud! My rear rack turned itself in to a bloody great air dryer on the way to Katherine today – I had bits of clothing precariously dangled off every clip and hook in order to get some things dry! It worked – after 100+ k of warm winds much of the main things were drying out 😊. The ride was great -legs felt good and bike was rolling really well. I’m struggling with knees and Achilles pain so trying to be soft on the pedals. Got to Katherine….,every place booked out….whhhaaattt! No room in the inn for a tent? Did I miss the memo that Katherine had become ‘destination desireable’? It took a number of calls and cycling between different sites before I was able to be well abs truly ripped off -$60 for a site!! I wanted evening meal and cooked breakfast and a massage for that but alas….none of that was on the menu. Just a small patch of brown grass.

What intrigued me as I tried to get somewhere was how much i already missed the ‘bush camping’ experience as I rode past McDonald’s and Mitre10 and all the other big standard ‘must haves’ (?) in a town, the traffic (it was my very first traffic lights since Alice ….had to read the manual to remember what to do!). So I’m heading straight out of dodge tomorrow and hitting Pine Creek for a few days of warm weather R and R – seeing as the last attempt got washed out!!

Thanks for reading – I hope you’re all well in your own journeys.

And then it rained….and rained

When you are caught in the heavy rains, open the umbrella of mind, take refuge under the roof of reason! Mehmet Murat Ildan

Today – rest day number 2. Equipment required,….canoe!    What did I have…..a bike.

Gee did it rain. And rain. And then it rained some more. Camper vans and caravans all being pulled out by a JCB having bogged overnight, such was the deluge. My tent got water logged around 5 this morning and stuff got rather wet! I’ve spent the day in the camp kitchen trying to stay warm …an exercise in futility if ever there was. But it stopped raining around 5 so I scooted off to get even wetter….this time in the hot springs 😊😊.

So not exactly a restful rest day but that’s all part of this journey – to try and live in the present, and adapt to what’s thrown at you.
It’s been a day of comradeship, people sharing food and drinks, helping each other out and keeping spirits up. A very testing day – this morning was certainly the low point of the trip so far – cold, hungry, wet, and lonely. But we got through it. Tomorrow brings a new adventure 😊