| Daly Waters to Elliott | |||||
| Date: | 10-29-2014 | Time: | 05:58 h | Σ Time: | 307:10 h |
| Distance: | 153 km | Σ km: | 6304 km | Temp: | 19/44°C |
| Up: | 226 m | Σ Up: | 69734 m | Down: | 198 m |
| Calories: | 2676 kcal | Σ kcal: | 141645 kcal | ||
| Conditions: | Another long and hot day, with strong headwind in the final third of the day. | ||||
Strategy today: Try to avoid the heat in the afternoon and get into camp as early as possible. Well said, however the first detour was a visit the old airfield at Daly Waters. The hangar and the small museum was not so interesting and very run down. But the ride into the rising sun was worth the little deviation from the original track. The Wallabies were probably not so amused with the early morning intruder. It took me a while to close up with Henry and Nellie, and pass them, so I wasn’t last on the road anymore. The coke stop at 52 km was very welcome as the heat was already building up. Lunch at 89 km or shortly thereafter was the end of cycling for most of the riders. The heat was almost unbearable as the vegetation started to change into low bushes, thus there was hardly any shade to find. A rest place at 130 km with water tanks was used to cool down for the final 25km to Elliott. Andreas came with the truck to offer water refills and apples to the remaining riders on the road. The road was turning south-east again, which means directly into the strong headwind. I managed to stay below 6 hours for the 154 km and at 1:30 am I was cooling down in the refreshing camp pool, enjoying a delicious and expensive ice cream.
Dinner was again very delicious. Tofu, with mangos, rice and vegetables in coconut sauce. Mark is doing an excellent job to prepare vegetarian variations for me, as the only veggie on the tour.
Today I had my first encounter of the so-called ‘Australian No-Brainer’, a subspecies of the ‘No-Brainers’ found in other parts of the so-called civilized world. Whereas the road train and other motor vehicle drivers were really respectful with us cyclists in the past days, this road train driver passed me with the minimum space left, not to crash into me. It was on a long straight road, no other traffic in both directions, and this (I don’t use the proper word here) driver did not even consider to pull over the middle line of the road, but hooted on me and almost knocked me off the road. I don’t know what causes these guys to be so reckless and risk other’s lives, without reason. Obviously, no brain, no way to think about the consequences! Luckily it is a minority who reacts like this, but they manage to spoil the reputation of a wonderful country.
