Category: Bike Trip 2008

Yesterday we did toe base walk around uluru. It was a difficult decision to climb or not to climb. On the one hand, the local traditional (and now actual) owners, don’t want you to. That seems like a good reason until you find out that its akin to a religions reason. On the other hand I have very little respect for religion but regard culture and history as important and worth remembering and learning from. I guess its akin to walking into a cathedral and taking photos or anything else they don’t like. Again, I would have no hesitation in doing that.

It seems similar to swearing to me. I don’t think there are any inherantly bad words etc but if a particular word can make someone feel, for want of a better word, bad, then you have to balance your desire to say a particular word with your desire to not make someone feel bad.

So, the decision seemed to come down to me wanting to climb (which would be interesting and have good views) with the owners not wanting me to. I decided,or the reasons outlined above, to not climb.

Anyway, today we went to the Olgas (Kata Titku) and did a canyon walk. It was quite fun and at only an hour long, was quite easy. In the afternoon, we took a helicopter flight over the Olgas and Uluru to get some photos and another perspective. Its quite impressive and its easy to see how a culture focused on animals and the land could make these important places.

I also find it interesting that as a people, they seem to stand alone in creating a ‘Sky Pixie’ thats not in their own image. It seems like a wholly more reasonable approach to inventing someone that looks like yourself as other cultures seem to do.

Tomorrow is the ride to Kings Canyon (about 300k ish)

Today we are at Uluru. We left about 9:30 (it was 0.5 degrees at 8am, the bike had ice on the seat). It seemed appropriate that today was the first day I thought the thermal undergarments were optional and went without them. It heats up quite quickly and was 10 degrees by 10am so it was probably a good decision. Its nice to be able to, lets say, drain fluid without having to undress almost totally.

It was only about 240km to Yullara and was quite an easy ride, even though the road condition is getting worse all the time. In SA, the roads were very good. nice shoulders, nice line marking and when repairs are made, they are made in large sections which makes it smoother to ride on. In the NT, they are really narrow, no sholders at all, and youre lucky to get line markings. They do make up for it by allowing you to go 130kph (although you generally don’t want to)

We took ages to get into the room as the resort was having issues with cleaning. We decided, as soon as we finally got unpacked, to go and see the rock at sunset. we had a quick lap (well as quick as you can, its a hige rock) and setup in the sunset photo parking lot with about 50 other cars. Some were making dinner, sitting on roofs sitting on chairs, all the sorts of things you wish you had thought of.

After getting some photos as the light changes (its really quite inpressive how quickly it changes colours) I stayes to try to get some shots after the sun went down. I’ve put some here. Remember, its a D300 and has a max shutter time of 30 seconds. The tripod was on sand and I was a little cold. I haven’t worked on these yet but the look ok i think (at least on my small screen here)

Tomorrow we will probably go to the Olgas or the rock for some laps with the family on the bike (everyone wants a go, including the in-laws). Whatever we don’t do tomorrow, we will do the next day so its a prety easy few days.

After our third night here, we are going to Kings Canyon for 2 nights. My tyre is getting a little thin so that will be first on the list for Alice when I get there.

I probably won’t blog in the next few days (unless something interesting happens) as its kind of a holiday within the holiday :-)

On the bike, I don’t get a sore arse as expected. I get a sore back and cramps in my legs. Heres what I’ve learnt on how to stop it.
1. Do stretches in the morning.
2. Don’t go more than about 200k without getting off the bike
3. When not riding (ie, every 200km or so) do more stretches. This doesn’t seem to inspire the strange reactions from other travellers I thought it would.
4. When riding, about every 50km or so, stand up. This helps a little
5. When riding, about every 25km or so, bend the elbows. This heals the elbow stiffness issue i forgot to mention earlier.
6. If require to not stop (gotta make good time), and I still need to stretch, you can stand up, stick you ass out the back of the bike, while  keeping legs straight, put your head/upper body down low (on the tank bag) try to see where you are going and keep control of the bike. This helps a little. Probably best to not do this while trying to pass a truck, considering wind resistance and all that stuff.

In lots of the bushes on the sides of the road, bearing in mind that thats all there is out here mostly and they are about 1m tall, there are lots of spiders webs or white birds nests. I’m not sure exactly but they look like spiders webs. I vaguely remember reading/seeing/hearing something about spiders that catch small birds, this would explain how these things look. They look like there something in them that is quite heavy in comparason to the branch. Until I learn otherwise, I’ll believe its spiders catching small birds. I’ll have to look into it later.

This place (check it out on google earth) is quite simple. Its just an intersection off the stuart highway that also has a road to Uluru. Fuel is just over $2/L.

While I think about it, I think the days of the explorers were a bit overrated. Aparently he took months to get here (I did it in 2 days, including photos of rockets) and had cross winds to deal with. He did it over months and drowned a horse. I’m not saying I’m better than they were but the facts are hard to ignore.

Tomorrow we will be goig to uluru (244km according to the sign) and have 3 nights there, then 2 nights ar Kings canyon. All these days are only about 250km/day days between places so its a nice and easy break.
My bike has now gone about 6500k and my rear tyre is wearing a big flat spot. I know bikers say theres some cause for embarasement when the tyre, when removed, stands up by itself. It means you haven’t done enough corners. Well, there aren’t enough corners here and the tyre will most definately stand up by itself. Its down to the little rubbery nobbly bits that should tell me to change it (after 6500k !) but I’ll leave it another 1000 (till I get to Alice next week). I have decided to not go to darwin on this trip so the plan at the moment is
* Three ways
* Mt Isa
* cloncurry
* Mostly the way to Longreach (qantas museum)
* head towards townsville, maybe via Cloncurry if required
* townsville, maybe some diving
* then down the coast road back home

Darwin would have been interesting but 4 days riding to do a 1/2 day tour seems a little disproportionate.