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Metres, actually. But any way you slice it, WHAT A FEAT! Somewhere between Norseman and Balladonia, the nines finally rolled
over to reveal... a single zero. Not nearly as impressive as a row of zeroes, but as long as everyone knows what it represents we'll be fine. Would have been cooler to have one of those 'E's like on a calculator when the number is just too damn big.
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somebody call
the time police!
The only clock we've got on this trip is that fine Sigma Sport time-keeping specimen pictured above with all the nines on it.
Every four seconds, the digital readout rotates through Total Distance, Daily Distance, and Time. We set the clock in Queensland,
then promptly threw away the instructions. So, the clock is on Queensland time forever, or until we take the batteries out.
No problem, we thought as we set out on this trek eight months ago. We're good at math. We'll simply make the adjustments
in our heads when we change time zones. When it's 5:00 Bike Time, it's 3:00 Perth Time. Easy stuff, right?
I mean, Canadians are no strangers to time zones. Travelling across
Canada, you go from Pacific Time, to Mountain Time, to Central Time, to Eastern Time, to Newfoundland Time. Aside from the
quirky Newfies, the clock goes forward one hour, one hour, one hour. Nice and simple. Nobody ever goes to Newfoundland anyway.
You'd think in Australia it would be even easier: East states, Central states, West state. That's how I would have done it.
Except, Aussies haven't quite caught on to the fact that time zone changes are supposed to be nice and simple. Sure, Victoria,
NSW and Queensland are all on the same time, and that's where 75% of Aussies live anyway, so the majority never has to change
its clocks anyway. Here's the rest of the country:
1. Going from Queensland to NT, you lose a half hour.
2. Going from NT to WA, you lose an hour and a half.
Seems fairly simple? Not bad. But here's the weird bit:
3. On the Nullarbor east from Caiguna, you gain 45 minutes.
4. At the SA border, gain another 45 minutes.
So, what they're saying is that Kununurra and Halls Creek, which is on the same longitude as Eucla or Mundrabilla, is the same
time zone as Perth, but 45 minutes behind Eucla and Mundrabilla. For the sake of about four roadhouses, or 19 people, Australia
has this extra "Central Western Time Zone", which pretty much makes everyone driving simply say, "What time is it here? 2:45, or
3:15, or is it... Aw, forget it. We'll be at the border in two hours anyway, so not like it matters."
Ridiculous. But, what can you really expect from a country that installs its heaters on the ceiling?
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On Your Mark:
Name: Marcus
Origin: Sri Lanka
Home: Adelaide
Trip Start: Adelaide
Trip End: Perth
Avg Distance: 120km/day
Best Day: 206km
Cycling History: 30yrs
Previous Trips: Victorian Alps, Up the Red Centre, Alice Springs, The Grampians, West Coast
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meet another nullarbor cyclist
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It's only happened to us four times on this trip, but it's always a treat to look up at the
other side of the road to see another slow moving lump on the horizon and say, "Is... is that
another cyclist?" Today, that lump was Marcus.
Where ya headed? Perth. Started in Adelaide where I live, and went overland to Ceduna and started the Nullarbor. I'll probably head up to Kalgoorlie from Norseman and get to Perth a few days later where I'll kick my feet up and read a good book for a week, then fly home to Adelaide.
How's the terrain from here out? You should be alright going your way. Most of the time I've been hitting crosswinds, but a couple of days gave me a wicked headwind. Usually I go about 120-150km a day, but with this 80km/h wind I think I did 38km the whole day. And I was buggered.
What's the water situation like? There's a few tanks along the way. The cars'll say don't drink from them, but I didn't find any problems. By the way, don't ask for water at Caiguna. They weren't nice there, so I treated myself and booked a hotel room, had a good sleep and filled up all my bottles before I left.
I know you probably get the same questions everywhere you go, goodness knows we have, but what do you carry for food? Before I leave on a trip, I air-dry a bunch of food. Carrots, zucchini, capsicum, even eggs. 20kg of veggies dry down to about 1kg of packed food, then I just need water and heat to puff them back up again. It tastes pretty good and keeps well.
Well, good luck on the rest of your trip! Thanks guys! Send me an email when you get close to Adelaide. I should be back home by then.
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these are the people in our neighbourhood...
Park
Everyone's been telling us all the way along about the crazy Japanese bikers all over Australia. And just when we think we've met one, he turns out to be Korean! Park's going from Sydney to Perth, and still the only cyclist we've met in Australia wearing jeans.
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Seika & Sally
Nothing makes your 10,000th kilometre better than having two hot Canadian chicks pull over and take your picture! Seika and Sally, from the West Coast, have been in the country for a couple of months and loving every minute of it! Oh yeah? Try it on a bike!
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Children of the Water Tank
The oldest is Karista, the youngest is Crystal, and the middle child with the slingshot is Rye (not Ryan, but Rye, like the bread). They've been travelling Australia since before Crystal was born... 4 years! I think the puppy's name was Tucker, but I can't be sure.
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Bike Baby
Isn't she cute? Her dad absolutely loved the bikes, but didn't want to take them for a spin. He did give us some fresh oil for our rusty chains, though. On this trip, we've tried grease, wax, dry lube, WD-40, and now this Singer All-Purpose stuff. Hey, as long as it doesn't squeak. Maybe next we'll try dish soap.
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wally's amazin' facts!
The karat number of gold represents the purity of the metal, out of a possible 24 points. 24 Karat gold is
100% pure, where 18K is only 75%, and 8K is a paltry 33%. But where does the word Karat come
from? 'Carat' is the Greek word for 'Seed' One of the first systems of measurement evolved from using seeds
to measure small, precious objects. Hey, I wonder how many seeds a small, precious wombat like me would be worth!
A lot, I reckon!
This Week's Amazin' Fact: Anybody out there remember SkyLab? Me neither. I was too young, and us wombats
spent too much time and money investing in the Soviet Space Program to care about what the Yanks were doing. Anyway,
SkyLab was an early US space probe that fell out of the sky into the South Pacific, and scattered bits of jagged
metal all over the Australian desert. A big bad chunk of it landed just up the hill from Balladonia Roadhouse and
is still on display in their Nullarbor museum. You can even touch it! It's cool!
One of the side effects of the satellite crash landing into WA was that the magical space dust it was collecting for
study caused the wild desert camels to multiply at an astounding rate. Guess how many camels are out there now!
Don't forget to look for Wally this week!
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| Distance this week: 572km | Distance since Day 1: 10481km |
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What is Bikeabout? Click here to find out!
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Day 250: Blow it out your hole
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72.6km
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16°
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9.0h
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4.0L
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Flatter
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Caiguna
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 tanked
It has dawned on us, after somehow missing yet another water tank, that the Official Nullarbor Road Map put out by the Government of Australia is one big official piece of crapola.
I don't know who is giggling behind their bureaucratic desk in Canberra, but the
water tanks, rest areas and parking bays posted on this map are either missing entirely or are 20-100 kilometres out of
place. What'd ya do, play Pin the Water Tank on the Nullarbor game after a few drinks on Friday night, boys?
Honestly, I think they drove the Nullarbor in an afternoon, and said, "Okay, what was that? Rest area? We'll put that about... here. And another one here... how many? Was that a water tank? Looked like a water tank. I'm putting tank here. And there were five rest areas between Madura & Mundrabilla... I'll just space them out equally to make the map easier to read-- was that another tank? I think it must have been..." I think all map makers should have to do their section of the route by bicycle. Then they'd understand why accuracy is important.
Jeez, it's like it was created by a blindfolded Schiffer.
"It's an obstacle course of carnage!"
- Aimee.
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Wherever you are in WA
The stars come to say...
.......Goooood Niiiiight.
Next Week, South Australia! We'll miss ya, Baz!
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nullarbor nymph:
(n.) There's an old Aussie legend that tells of a beautiful, naked woman who roams the Nullarbor desert, occasionally
wandering near the road before disappearing back into the saltbush. If you ask me, those truckies have been
reading too much porn.
just plain wrong
party like it's 9999
as the crow flies
captain's log
timtation island
rational thinking
