Sprung Chicken Ride 2009

Home | Daily Reports | August | Day 128

Distance travelled – 116.6 km
Avg speed – 22.5 kph
Max speed – 48.7 kph

Pine Creek to Adelaide River

We left reasonably early this morning with the aim of covering a good distance before it got too hot.

By comparison to yesterday the ride was very scenic, particularly as we approached Hayes Creek. Lots of rocky outcrops close to the road and the hills and cliffs we rode between. The roll down into Hayes Creek was through some very nice country and we arrived at the Hayes Creek Roadhouse just before 11.00am. We had along break both devouring an orange juice, egg and bacon roll and an ice cream for morning tea.

As we were about to leave another cyclist rode up pulling a small two wheeled trailer with a young puppy on board. We had heard about him from other cyclists and the grey nomads but this was the first time we had met. He was riding ‘back’ to pick up a new bike in Darwin. The puppy looked very hot and we wondered if it was fair to take it out on the road in the heat without any shade.

We stopped for lunch another 20 km north of Hayes creek and met Phillip, a 67 year old Kiwi riding by himself from Darwin to Mataranka and back. He was riding a small folding bike pulling a BOB trailer like ours. Unfortunately he was riding into the wind so making very slow progress, however this did not seem to bother him. As it turned out he has done a lot of cycling in Australia and had a lot of information to pass on about our trip down the west coast. On a previous trip he had become known as “the old man of the road”. So after he left we tried to revive this name by texting this information to Peter and Barbara behind us so they could surprise Phillip with this name when they came across him in the next couple of days.

Whilst we stopped for lunch, smoke from a bush fire near Hayes Creek blew over the highway screening the sun which took the heat out of the sun for the rest of the day, making it a lot more comfortable than the same time yesterday.

We arrived at Adelaide River at about 3.30. Yesterday we pulled into Pine Creek extremely tired. Today we rode another 20 km but arrived a lot fresher than yesterday. Today we had two long breaks whilst yesterday we could not find anywhere conducive for a good break. Could this have been the difference or was it just one of those unexplainable hard days we have had from time to time?

We had dinner at the Adelaide Hotel and took the obligatory photo next to the stuffed “Charlie” the Water Buffalo of Crocodile Dundee fame.

Zoom into the map and use the 'Satellite' layer to see our new location.