Day 112 | full on winter in Alice: was a max of 10ºC today

Rest Day 5

Yes, occasionally I make sensible decisions.

Having a full week’s break in Alice has been one of them. A few day’s decent eating has helped recovery of the body. I’ve rediscovered chocolate chip biscuits, something I haven’t eaten for a few decades. That’s the way to pack calories away. All those neglected tasks like bike maintenance and tyre swapping have finally been tackled.

There’s been about 20 mm rain in the last 24 hours. (Great to be in a bed and not to be staying in a tent currently.) A similar amount of rain has fallen on the complete Tanami Track which is both good and bad. It’s good because in Sebastien’s 5000 km dirt road experience it can help with evening out the corrugations. But it’s bad because the road trains can do serious damage to the road. However, the Tanami is a proper all-weather road so it shouldn’t suffer too much. And the first 156 km is sealed anyway. But that bed is comfy when it’s less than 10°C at 4 pm. And rather damp underfoot.

For some reason I thought I was in the tropical Northern Territory, only a few kilometres south from the Tropic of Capricorn.