It's not all Plain Sailing

You would think that the toughest days mountain bike touring are those that pass through the most remote and rugged terrain, those days where you have to get off your bike and push because the incline is too steep or the rocks too big to ride over. But strangely enough those days were in fact the best. And not in the way that you look back on some challenging experiences and think 'I hated doing it.... but I'm glad I kept going now it's over'. We really enjoyed these experience in the moment; there was so much anticipation, we had no idea what was around the corner or over the next hill and nothing was ever the same - the landscape was always changing, always different.

It was quite a shock to enter this next phase of our journey. In some ways we had been looking forward to what appeared on the map to be flatter terrain and better formed roads. But in reality these days turned out to be the toughest. The dirt roads were corrugated from being driven on by vehicles and the roads, although flatter, stretched out into the horizon for as far as you could see. Every mile seemed the same and the vast open plains although quite spectacular offered little variety in terms of scenery. It was the only time during our journey that we became destination focused, watching the speedo and willing the miles to tick over.

Counting the kms on our trusty map

Day Six

Merna Mora Station - Hawker

After departing Merna Mora Station we spent the better half of the day on a sandy and bumpy track which passed through a massive cattle station. In the distance could be seen the plateau that we were slowly but surely headed for. Sometime after lunch we finally reached it and in our weary state were quite demoralized by the steepness of the track that we could see heading straight up onto the plateau. We looked at our maps and decided that there was a better option than having to get the kids out, unhitch the trailer, unload all of our panniers and then make about five separate trips up what we later found out was called Heart Break Hill. Our revised route involved a 6km dirt road out to the main drag and then what we thought would be an easy 20km ride on the bitumen into town. We didn't factor in how boring the main road would be or how trapped we would feel by the fences on our left, the cars passing on our right and smooth but somewhat soulless black road that lay before us. 

Fixing the only 2 flat tyres of the trip - both on the
chariot at the same time.

The face of despair....

In hindsight we wished we'd just kept on the trail and done those shuttles up to the plateau, as I'm sure we would have been in a better mindset at the end of the day. As it was we rode into our first town, Hawker (population 492), not in the greatest of spirits and vowing never to willingly take the main road again. By this stage of the journey the kids were covered in dirt and Tahlia from a distance appeared to have gotten one of those horrible orange spray on tans so we took the opportunity of staying in a caravan park to shower the kids. 

A whole new take on becoming one with the earth.

Day Seven

Hawker - Cradock

We woke up to rain this morning. Our tent was wet and instead of being covered in dust was now covered in mud - joy! You can ride in the rain but it's a bit more tricky with two little ones who need to get out and play at regular intervals. So we decided to hang around town until it cleared. Delicious french toast was cooked for breakfast on an undercover BBQ and followed by an outing to the local general store to stock up on ridiculously overpriced but much needed fresh food. Once the weather fined up we took the back road to Cradock and saw many emus and wedge tailed eagles throughout the afternoon. I wouldn't describe Cradock as a town, more of a locality, where about five people live - oh and there's a pub of course! The owners of the pub were lovely and allowed us to camp for free on the side of the road right outside.

Back in 5min......gone to the Cradock pub

Day Eight

Cradock - Warren Gorge

Today ended up being our longest day in terms of distance travelled and time in the saddle. Sixty five kilometres of dirt and almost nine hours on the bikes. We rode through the Willochra Plain to the ruins of Simonston (the town which never was) which was where we encountered our first strong headwinds and found out that the chariot catches the wind beautifully and is about as aerodynamic as a brick wall. While having lunch in the middle of nowhere a lovely couple traveling around Australia in a 4wd stopped to ask if they could take a photo of us and our entourage. We brushed off some dust and tried to look like we were doing it easy! You know you're a bit odd when tourists want to take photos of you......

We didn't arrive at warren gorge until 5:30pm having chosen to reluctantly push on past the first potential campsite 15km earlier. We were absolutely shattered. We must have said this out loud a hundred times as it is now Tahlia's newest saying! She was apparently 'shattered' after cleaning her room this morning. 

Tahlia and Zephyr Cam