Trans Oceania 2014 - Mataranka to Daly Waters | Tuesday, October 28 - 169km

At the riders’ meeting last night when the daily route was announced I immediately decided I would not be cycling today!The night in the tent was not restful and about 1am it was actually cold so I crawled into my sleeping bag. The gang was up around 4.45am packing up tents so I followed suit. Today I changed from morning coffee to tea which I think will be a better option. I even managed an open peanut butter and jelly on sliced wholemeal!

 

I rode in the van with Doug to the lunch spot at 95km and a few riders started from there and rode through to camp. I helped Doug set up, cut the vegetables and the mangoes. Doug was impressed as he was trying to cut them like avocadoes..

Chris rolled in first and the others filtered through. As there was not much for me to do, I hitched a ride with a couple of nice young ladies who were heading past Daly Waters and they dropped me at the Daly Waters Pub which is home for tonight.

I treated myself to a meat pie and chips for lunch with an apple cider on tap and then headed down to the camping area where it was stinking hot with no shade. So I rented a “pub room” for the night with shared toilet facilities and I offered John the single bed. Air conditioned comfort!

After tonight’s riders’ meeting we dined on pasta with chicken and a carrot and broccoli salad. Banana cake was there for dessert but I had enough food for the day. I’ll ride from the lunch spot tomorrow.

Trans Oceania 2014 - Katherine to Mataranka | Monday, October 27 - 103km

With 100km on offer today, a change of tactics was in order so, after a rushed breakfast of a banana, some muesli and berry yoghurt, I jumped in the lunch van with Chelsea to watch the sunset and she dropped me off at around 25km to give me a chance of riding through to camp.

It was a great plan foiled only by the need to join the bears in the woods after about 10km... so for pushing down some muesli! Nevertheless, after Chris passed me at 50km I was second into lunch for a few mango slices at around 65km.

Some joker wiped 1000 off Alice!

 

 




It was fun looking out for the anthills dressed up by the locals. Apart from that, nothing but bush and roadkill until town.

 

 I stopped for a cold drink in Mataranka and then headed to the campground for a night in the tent. All up, 80km on the clock which was not a bad effort. I don't think there was much left in the tank either.

 

There is a swimming pool here and reasonable toilet and shower facilities. Dinner tonight is courtesy of Mark out of the TDA kitchen truck so hope it goes down well!

Trans Oceania 2014 - Katherine Rest Day | Sunday, October 26 - 0km

Great to have a rest day after a good night's sleep waking up at 6.15am for a continental breakfast!

A stark difference between the campsite and the rooms at 6.30am! Hot out there..

After breakfast I headed back to the room and caught up on some work I brought with me. I also paid all the taxes due on Tuesday just in case I don't find a signal as we head further south.

By 4pm the temperature was 39C so it made sense to stay indoors and keep cool before heading to the restaurant for a nice steak dinner.

Trans Oceania 2014 - Pine Creek to Katherine | Saturday, October 25 - 92.3km

After a very restful night in air conditioned comfort, I took my bag down to the van, handed in the room key and had a cup of coffee and a banana before heading out in the lunch van with Doug around 6am.

We arrived at the lunch spot around 7am, some 31km from our campsite, and I had a leisurely 90 minute ride in to town, stopping along the way for photos and breakfast of a coffee scroll and cappuccino at Brumbys!

Katherine's claim to fame!!



I checked into a nice hotel room to share with John, washed my cycling clothes, showered and had a bit of a rest before cycling the 3km along the bike path back into town with John in search of lunch. There are 3 pubs none of which does a counter lunch so we settled on Coffee Club where I had a fairly tasteless mango frappe but a quite delicious burger with chips!

I glanced at the local paper over lunch and it had many high level notices for the young man who lost his life last weekend at McDonalds St Kilda Road in Melbourne. Such a waste.

The hotel restaurant is closed tonight of all nights so a group is heading to the Country Club for dinner. Woolworths stop on the ride back from lunch for snacks will see me through to the rest day tomorrow.