Grumpy Old Men On Bikes

I gather that the UK is enjoying arctic conditions.  We have had our own cold snap, with the high today a frosty 32.5.  We put our thermals on and struggled through. I have probably ridden 40 or 50 'centuries' (100+ mile days) but only around 20 fully loaded with panniers and camping gear.  Today I added another notch to my crossbar.  After yesterday's 55 mile struggle we were apprehensive about today's ride and were up super-early to catch the cooler dawn air.  We strapped about 6 litres of water to our frames (another 13lbs of weight) and made a picnic lunch since our route would pass no services.  It wasn't easy finding room for the wicker basket and tartan rug but somehow we got everything stowed.  We were magnificent.  Well, actually we struggled at times, moaned quite a lot and were REALLY ready to stop by mile 80 but somehow we got the 100 done. We are in the Kimba Gateway hotel where the $10 schnitzel special was so good ( cheap....good

Today's ride:  one road, nothing to see and hot as hell. Ok, if you want the gorey details......... today was scheduled as an easy flat 57 miles to Port Augusta  but we we failed to factor in: 1/ The wind was bang on our noses at 15-20 mph for every inch of the way 2/ The temperature peaked at 42.5. It was hard.  Chuffing hard.  It took 5.5 hours. However, in amongst all the misery and muttered swearing there was a high spot.  About 15 miles from the end we stopped in a pull-out for a brief rest and Neil, who was running low on water asked a truck driver if he could spare some.  The truck driver said that he was sorry but didn't carry any.  We lazed for a bit and the driver left.  As we were setting off another truck pulled into the layby and passed us a bottle of water.  Apparently the call had gone out on CB radio and this guy had driven 15 miles out from town just to help us!!!!!  It is things like this that I treasure from my expeditions. We made it

The song is irrelevant, it is the band you need. After a full 80 mile day in heat that peaked at 36.8 degrees, our tans are coming on a treat.  When I say 'tans' I naturally mean the closest the English ever get.........scarlet!  By the end of the day I had gone to defcon 5, with factor 50 and a UV filtering skull cap but I am still doing an excellent lobster impression.  Tomorrow I am going to cover myself in axle grease and wear a burkha.  Our ride can be summed up with a short sentence that I suspect I will be able to copy and paste for all the days that follow.....'one road, nothing to see and hot as hell'.  This may not sound like much fun but the whole point of this trip is to take on the challenge of tough riding in tough conditions. At our coffee stop the owner of the kwiki-mart  was so incredulous when we told him our destination that he had to come out and inspect our bikes. We saw our first roo today.  He hopped alongside us for a few hundr

Stupid jet lag!  We were up again at sparrow's fart and watched the sun rise on a day that promises to be in the mid 20's.  Tomorrow we are being promised mid 30's which might be a tad warm. Yesterday was one of those freak days when we  had a fair tailwind for the whole ride.  We hoisted mainsails, set cruise control at 20mph and settled back to enjoy the 'view'.  No-one could describe southern Australia as scenic but if scrubland is your thing then it is the place to be.  We were on the Eyre Highway, a main trunk route with plenty of traffic, but everyone gave us a wide berth and the miles rolled by with satisfying rapidity.  So much so that we reached Port Wakefield by 1pm.  Check in wasn't until 2:30 so we lazed around on the lawn sipping lemonade. On our trips we often set ourselves a goal to assemble a virtual something from what we spot on the side of the road.  Once we built a car and another time we created a full toolkit.  For this tr

The great thing about having travelled to New Zealand so often in the last few years is that the flight to Adelaide seemed like just 'popping round the corner'. Despite an almost critical shortage of engines, we arrived safely and soon had our bags and bikes and were out in the car park re-assembling everything.  For Neil, this involves taking every single thing out of all 4 panniers, strewing them over an area the size of a tennis court, then generally farting around achieving very little for a out 6 hours. Naturally, I said nothing and waited patiently and eventually we had 2 fully working and loaded bikes and set of for the short 3 mile ride to our betting shop (they call it a pub but it is really just slot machines with a bar at one end and some rooms on top). We had burgers and a few ovaltines and hit the sack. After a fitful night's sleep we are up and about at 6am and watching the sun rise on a beautiful late summer Sunday.  Ti

2 years ago we rode 2000 miles from Brisbane to Adelaide.  It was a terrific trip and we got a great feel for the 'civilised' east coast but, having been an avid viewer of Skippy and The Flying Doctors,  it wasn't quite the Australia that I had a mental picture of.  On Feb 23rd we are returning to Adelaide to fix that!  We are picking up where we left off, joining the Eyre Highway and continuing another 2000 miles across the Nullarbor ....to Perth.  The science fiction writer, Kim Stanley Robinson, once wrote: "The distinguishing mark of true adventures is that they are often no fun at all while they are actually happening".  I suspect this might sum up what we are in for rather nicely. For the benefit of the many (OK....2) people who worry about me, there is nothing dangerous about our plans!  There are enough places to stay and sufficient passing traffic should we have an emergency........but that is about it.  We will have some long days (sev