Day 11 - More sand - Danggali to Lake Victoria

Distance - 89

Climbing - 

View the ride here:

http://cyclemeter.com/4539622a02fdb662/Cycle-20150922-0625

There was a story going around that the worst of the sand was behind us. Well, don't believe everything you hear. 

It is 67 kms to the main road through to Wentworth and pretty much 67 kms of it is dunes.  There are some long bastards as well. There was a bit of swearing going on by the end.

At lunch, we changed over the sand tyres to enduros for the last 30 kms to camp.  We picked a prominent Dune with a few trees to camp not far off the side of the road. Guess we were about 5 km from Lake Victoria, but too buggered to go and look. We reckon that the spot was used by aboriginals as a midden (?) as the sand was covered in thousands of shells, we surmise they bought up from the lake.  Who knows? Fabulous camping spot with views for kms in every direction.

This being our last night eating from the food drops we celebrated with our favourite dish - little boys with a madras curry sauce and rice. Yum, a restaurant quality meal. Masterchef beckons for Brian, except he'd have to have a shave.

Weather forecast for tomorrow is south-easterlies at 25 km/h. We'll be going straight into them.

Glorious day

How good is this?

Want to get fit? Here's a potential solution.

Bid sand hill around the corner

Holy smoke, that was a long one

Leaving Danggali Conservation Reserve

Day 10 - Sand - 100.4kms from Yunta to Danggali Conservation Park

Distance - 98 kms

Climbing - 104 metres

View the ride here:

http://cyclemeter.com/4539622a02fdb662/Cycle-20150922-0625

There are advantages to riding in sand:

1. If you fall off, it is softer than for example, bitumen

2. It is generally easier on the backside than corrogations 

3. There is a certain level of excitement as you gain speed down a sand dune trying to avoid Point 1. from happening

4. It makes you appreciate how good harder surfaces are

5. It makes you stronger

Today is what it's all about.  Pulling a fully loaded "Kracka" trailer through sandhills for a day is something everyone should experience at least once in their lives.

Anticipating the hardest days riding of the trip, we were away early.  The roads out here have been generally great but the landscape has turned in to a parallel dune structure, which we had to get up and over.  There's no easy way other than to grind it out. No spills thankfully, we pulled in to camp after 6.5 hours riding and 100 kms weary but satisfied with the result.

Not a sole out here.  Danggali is an internationally recognised wilderness mallee woodland and a fabulous place.  Compare this with the mallee used by pastoralists - hard to believe they were the same a couple of hundred years ago. No time to check it out though, off to Lake Victoria tomorrow, shorter day at 80kms, might even sleep in.

A bit of variation with the diet tonight, little boys with rice, plus a sweet and sour simmer sauce with pineapple and carrots. Tasty!! The little boys turned a funny colour though.

Camp for the night, was actually an excellent camp site

Too many options

Changing over to sand tyres

Good fun, I think

A fully loaded Kracka

Just arrived

Home for the night

Another variation on little boys

Day 9: Yunta to 100kms away from Yunta

Distance - 100 kms

Climbing - 177 metres

View the ride here: http://cyclemeter.com/4539622a02fdb662/Cycle-20150921-0623

Currently not a lot of landmarks to distinguish our exact location. Suffice to say, we are somewhere out on the flat. 

After an early rise, we dined on sausage rolls and Farmers Union iced coffee at the servo. Breakfast of champions. 

The first 50 K's was through open range country until the final climb revealed what we are to expect for the next few days. It was so flat, you could see curvature of the earth.

Today was the first 3 digit total with the Kracka LFL model expedition trailer on tow. The Cyclemeter's version of the truth revealed 100.4 Km. May have had something to do with the packet of Twisties bonus on offer. 

A significant day for Tony. The mangina appears to have gone into remission. He also dragged the Jetboil out for lunch, in a futile attempt to convince himself that it is superior my Trangia stove. He did a good job of lunch however.

Butter chicken flavoured tinned savs and rice. Does it get any better than this?!

Straight after a Farmers Union Ice Coffee - happiness

Sturt's desret pea - prolific at the moment

Day 8: Hot chips - Finns Creek to Yunta

Distance - 54 kms

Climbing - 214 metres

View the ride here: http://cyclemeter.com/4539622a02fdb662/Cycle-20150920-0631

A very cold start, had to get out of bed early to stoke the fire.

Not a great deal to report, other than getting into Yunta as quickly as bloody possible.  We made a beeline straight for the BP and had a steak sandwich with the lot and hot chips for morning tea - glorious.

Booked in to the pub for the night.

Brian left half of his gear in the ute at Muloorina, so his other half Kath came up for the afternoon to drop it off in her new car.  

Chicken shnitties for tea, plus a few beers with Peter the publican and a few locals. In a bed for the first time in 10 days.

Tomorrow we leave for Wentworth, which is the next supply point. We have food and water drops for 3 nights and 4 nights to cover this 380 kilometre stretch. Plenty of sand to deal with. Sounds like a challenge!

A fabulous old building in the middel of nowhere

The simple things in lfe are the best

Week 1 summary

Distance - 597 kms

Average distance per day - 74.68 kms 

Time - 36 hours 36 minutes

Average time per day - 4 hours 54 minutes

Average speed - 16.32 km/hr

Day 6 & 7: The destination, not the journey - Outouie Creek to Finns Creek

Distance - 182 kms
Climbing - 320 metres

View Day 6 here: http://cyclemeter.com/4539622a02fdb662/Cycle-20150919-0645
View Day 7 here: http://cyclemeter.com/4539622a02fdb662/Cycle-20150919-0645

We've come up, across and over the range and are now back on featureless salt bush plain. Bloody head winds persist. The roads vary from good to awful.  As we get to closer to Yunta, the roads just get worse. Endless kms of corrugations, rocks, potholes and washouts.  It's tough on the bikes, backsides and psyche.

Just a matter of keep spinning and get to Yunta, as quickly as possible. Both nights we camped literally in the dirt, under a tree - nice. Very fresh overnight.

There is excitement in the crowd this evening as we are having rice and not pasta.  Ham off the bone (actually leg ham out of a tin) with a madras chicken city spice paste - yum!!

It's only 50kms to Yunta tomorrow, for half a day off.  Looking forward to some hot chips and a cold beer.

Is it really that far?

Day 5: A game of 2 halves - Ita Warta to Outouie Creek

Distance - 81 kms 

Climbing - 421 metres 

View the ride here: http://cyclemeter.com/4539622a02fdb662/Cycle-20150917-0645

The day broke overcast with a strong southerly. We're getting better organised in the morning, and hitting the road by 6.30am.

It would be fair to say that the roads east of Ita Warta are overdue for some maintenance.  It's been a while since a grader was out here.  The section south of the ranger station at Balcanoona is particularly bad - bloody big rocks, gravel, corrugations, pot holes. Makes for tough work on the tredley!

The ride to Balcanoona through the Gammon Ranges National Park and the Itolowie Gorge are spectacular.  Pretty much down hill all the way as well.

We had lunch at Balcanoona in the shearing shed. I had a quick shower as it will be the last chance for a few days.

The ride to the camping spot was a shocker; previously mentioned roads plus a stiff breeze made for a slow old trip.

Fabulous camping spot in a creek, under a large gum tree in the middle of nowhere tonight.

Tea is fried spam in buttered chicken sauce with rice. A culinary triumph of bush cuisine.  Check out the photos. Bet you wish you were here!

In bed at sundown seeing who can spot the most satellites. No wind, bright stars, silence broken only by a donkey and goats in the far distance.

Ita Warta

Entering Italowie Gorge - beautiful

Middle of nowhere again

Woolshed at Balcanoona

Camping in a creek

Spam and madras curry sauce