Kevin Withnall

We did the rim walk at Kings Canyon. Its about 10k from the van park and as I was dressed for walking, and leaving at 8:30am, it was a little cold on the bike (about 4 degrees).

Those who know me, know I’m not a big walker. This however was a fantastic walk. IT took about 3.5 hours and after the initial climb up about 300 steps, it was quite easy and had some really interesting areas to walk through. I’ll attach some photos to this post so you can see what I mean.

After getting back, we had a pretty easy afternoon and then left about 9am to go to erldunda. I was there by about 11am and theres not much to do so I just waited till the van arrived and we then had a place to sit until the hotel room was ready.

That afternoon, we did a drive up to the metiorite craters (I wen’t in the car as I now knew that the bike was not good on dirt). They were interesting to see as they were my first craters.

This morning we left Erldunda for Alice Springs. I was here about 10:30am and immediatly looked for a bike shop for a new tyre. that took me about 15 mins to find and then about 1.5 hours to get the guy to fit it. IT seems like a good tyre but I cannot really tell. Its a soft compound so that means it will wear out sooner but will also provide better grip so its worth it. $364 well spent.

So, over the next few days we will be doing the attractions around Alice Springs and the West/East macdonald ranges.

The bridge across kings canyon at about 1/3 through the walk

A Tree

A view of people looking over the canyon. This was taken about 1/6 through the walk looking at prople about 2/3 through the walk.

One of the small gaps you have to walk/climb through

Theres lots of life up there.

This morning I left Yulara at about 9:30, Quite an uninteresting trip. Its 304k but only about 120k line of sight, right through a salt lake and through culturally sensitive areas.
Theres no mobile service here on any carrier I have for data. I have satellite voice comms but can’t blog via that.
While riding, the tree webs started taunting me again and, after Doug made me feel bad about not having a photo, I decided to stop to get one. Now, you have to remember what the roads are like here, there is no shoulder at all. It goes from semi nice tarmac to red dirt. So, to make things safe, I left the road for about 2.5 to get away from traffic (theres a car about every 2 mins or so). I stayed on the bike, took a photo of a web that I had seen from the road, and then proceeded to try to move. Immediately when I had stopped, the bike sunk into the dirt about 150mm. This was like really soft sand and when trying to get moving again, I sunk the rear wheel down to the swing arm.
Bugger.
It took me about 10 mins to remove both panier, tank bag and top box, walk then to a part of the road about 100m further on that looked more solid (but still just off the road for safety) and start digging out the bike. I had thought about this sort of thing when preparing for this trip but as I’m travelling with some others, all of the recovery stuff (eg a shovel) is in the van so I didn’t have it. I had to use sticks etc, then drag the bike out backwards (its 240kg and annoying to move). The good thing about it was that I managed to keep it upright the whole time and eventually got it back near the road again. Then I could ride up to the paniers, put everything back on and ride off thinking I shouldn’t have been so silly and hoping no dirt was in anything it shouldn’t have been. I tested brakes etc and everything looked fine.
So, its now 1:40 and I’m sitting in the room at Kings Canyon waiting for the others.
Tomorrow, we are going to walk the rim (about 4hrs of hard walking aparently)

a photo of the tree web thingies for Doug.

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.