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Stage 73: South Australia

Riverton to  Adelaide
Date: 11-23-2014 Time: 04:55 h Σ Time: 409:04 h
Distance: 124 km Σ km: 8714 km Temp: 9/29°C
Up: 1022 m Σ Up: 76320 m Down: 1178 m
Calories: 2184 kcal Σ kcal: 184368 kcal  
Conditions: The ride with tailwind continued on this misty morning. A scenic and hilly ride on the 2nd half.

The supporting tailwind stayed with us on this final riding day of the 6. section. It begun very misty, almost spooky in the early morning, until the sun burnt away the fog. The ‘polished’ tar made cycling a pure joy. 56km were covered in 2 hours. Thereafter the terrain changed. We detoured into a very scenic ride, through a hilly region adding 1000m of climbs to this day, not to everyone’s delight. At lunch we were trapped for quite a while, because the road was blocked by the police, because of a motorcycle accident 5 km ahead, that needed air rescue. Adelaide was reached with a final fast descend through a narrow gorge. Camp is not within the city itself, but nicely located in the southern suburban area. The weather was fine and hot today, however tomorrow the temperature will drop again and rain is expected, likewise what we had experienced in the past 3 rest days. What a timing!

My rear tire was flat again in the morning, and I just pumped it up again, because I couldn’t find a puncture yet. In the Adelaide camp I finally found the reason, a defective valve, releasing 1 bubble of air every second. So I got a brand new tube from my permanent bag to have it fixed for good. X-fingers …

If weather permits I’ll cycle to town tomorrow. Need to go to the telecom shop to modify my contract and have more internet data volume.

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Sharing Roads

Cycling on the Stuart Highway in the Northern Territory is quite an experience. Not only the heat and wind can make your day and cycling a challenge, but also the so-called Road Trains, some longer as 50 meters and with up to  3 trailers. Definitely not easy to drive and handle.  So far most of the drivers were very respectful with us and passed us in a safe distance. Nevertheless, one must be awake all day and listen to the approaching trucks to not be too surprised, of the roaring sound that would take you out of your day dreams.

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It is also very important to stay as far left as possible and don’t make unexpected moves, as there is almost no way for the drivers to correct any errors. A too fast change of directions would cause the trailers to swing out wide and bounce for a while, if not completely getting out of control and knocking you and the truck off the road.

Almost at the Ecuator

96km into the day. About to cross the equator soon. 3rd crossing after Africa and South America.

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Brury and me

A wet restart

Well, we got sunshine on our rest day now it is time for a wash! The rain turned in last night and never stopped. I bet Cristiano & Andreas wanted  to check on our fancy rain gears … Hope it will stop during the day and we will not have to ride against a flood running down our rewarding climb.

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