Day 55 | blown to the Warren Gorge: just a stray hill to climb

27 km | Heading west total: 2,079 km

I was only thinking of pedalling up to the gorge today so I knew I didn’t need to hurry too vigorously.

I was eating a leisurely banana on a bench in the main street and another cyclist came past. That’s a shock, there aren’t too many of us out here.

Ina had biked from Germany via the Ukraine, the ‘stans, Tibet, China and East Timor and had spent a year getting around Australia. From Darwin she had biked down the west coast to Perth then to Alice via the Great Central Road. I couldn’t quite work out the full extent of her route but she had come down the Birdsville Track from Cairns in the middle of summer.

Now she was heading back to Darwin to head off towards India but would be spending a couple of weeks in an aboriginal camp before hitting the Oodnadatta Track. She had 4 full pannier bags and a large box of rolled oats sitting on her back rack. We agreed that couscous was one of the best travel foods. I could see canvas through her tyres but she was completely unconcerned. Then she pedalled off to Hawker with the ferocious southerly helping her out.

Somehow after meeting the tandem couple in Burra on their whirlwind trip to Perth I’m losing interest in travelling the busy sealed roads. And this GCR came up yesterday on a touring bike blog. I remembered a guy called Anthony Mann had described it on his website osbybike.com and saying how much he was challenged by it.

Anyway there is plenty of time to contemplate what to do after I get to Blinman. It looks as if at least I will head on to Arkaroola. Will think some more in the next week.