esperance - balladonia track- nullarbor - adelaide

Hi everybody,

The next part of my travels.

I leave Esperance on monday, november 14th. I had a wonderful time thanks to my hosts Hayley and Nick.
The area is wonderful and now I am heading for Cape-le-grand NP. Here is Lucky Beach. Voted as the most beautiful beach in Australia. It is beautiful but i do not see the difference with at least a dozen other beaches I have seen in this area. The main difference would be that the campsite is much bigger and there are a lot more people.

In the park I do a 2 day hike along the coast and it is just enjoying life. Hardly ever I see other people. Only on the parkingspots and so on. I have nice, warm weather but almost nobody is in the water. With 25 degrees it is still to cold for the Australians. I jump in but must admit that this is the South Ocean. In my language it is called : the south polar ocean. Meaning the water is still cold but you manage.

During the hike there are lots of flies. They do not sting or so but crawl all over you. Very annoying and even worse if they get in your ears of nose. Just horrifying. While eating just better watch out. It is not always bath but still...

At a campsite I see an example how turism influences animal. A big lizard is just to people, walks up to me, I did not notice him and he bites a bit in my feet to see if it is good food. I can not imagine it smells like food but still.
When I make a picture of him he starts beating with his tail. It hurts more than I expected.

Next is Cape Arid NP. Also very beautiful but most of it is only accessible with a 4WD. That is a big sport here but I can not go far in the park. Also because there is no water available. I do follow the 4WD on the beach. I cycle there for 24km and just love it. The sand is mostly hard enough to carry me. It is high tide so i can only ride on a bit of it. One time I get surprised with 3 waves coming in and I stand in 50cm of water. I takes me 15min to clean the bike from seagrass and so on. But I just LOVE doing this.

From Condingup I take the Permango Road and than the Balladonia Track. Gravel roads but it saves me of making a detour of 250km to Norseman. First I encounter heavy traffic with road trains. There is a grainsilo and it is harvesttime. Some road trains will slow down and move a bit. Others just expect you to move. It is a one lane road so not that easy. In the best case I still get a lot of dust on me.
After 35km I pass the grainsilo, the pavement stops and so does the traffic. I cycle another 100km on the Permango Road. There are some hard spots but I can make good distance. I camp on the junction with the Balladonia Track. This is an ancient Aboriginal trial and the first settlers and farmers used it too. Another 70km to the HW but here it becomes hard. It takes me most of the day to do it. I only meet 2 cars here and both of them stop, asking of everything is alrigth, offering water and so on.
they probably think I am crazy for cycling here.

I reach the Eyre HW which I must follow for the next 1000km to cross the Nullarbor Plain. No villages, only a few roadhouses. Sometimes 200km from each other. they told me I can buy food here but everyone is on a car and takes his own food with. So basicly you can only buy some hot burgers, candy, biscuits and cold drinks. Not really helpful. But I do manage, sometimes getting stuff from other travellers I meet on rest areas where many of us camp.
I meet lovely people like Jay, A 70y old lady who travels now in a van for 6 months. I am invited to visit her in Canberra. Also Wim and Sabine, 2 flemish people who have been working and living here for 15 years. They are in Brisbane and it goes on and on.

I also pass the longest straigt stretch of road in Australia. I let you guys guess how long it is. Just send your guess to me. I love to hear from you.
Mostly I have a strong headwind and some days I only pedal like 70km but tuesday, november 29th, is an exception. The wind turns and I do an easy 140km without much effort. Just enjoying the scenery.
Many people say the nullarbor is boring. ( it is latin and means : no trees). There no big trees but sometimes they do get to 10m high. A lot of scrub but there is a big variety and mostly I just love the scenery. I do make several walks around my campsites just to enjoy it.
I see a lot of very beautiful, colourful birds. A bit shy but interesting. A lot of kangoeroes too. Some eagles as well. No snakes here. So almost a abundance of wildlife especially the 2 nights I am camping in a area where they have a mouse problem.
They had rain and that means a lot of food for the mouses and they have been multiplying very rapidly. Now they are spreading out in search of food. I hear stories of people waking up in the middle of the night with mouse running over there faces and so on. I see hundreds of them dead on the road.
I take all my food in my tent but even before I sleep they are in my backpack which lay in the "loft". I hear and feel them running over my innertent but they do not find a way in and so no mouses over my face.

On thursday, december 1, I hear a loud knack. I find 2 loose spokes and it turns out that the ring where they are attached to is broken. a 3rd spoke broke just from the tension. So now I am missing 3 spokes next to each other. My wheel is weak and it is another 150km to the next village. I am guessing that carrying 10l of water on gravelroads is not so good for my bike.
I must say those were some long nervous km I had to do but I make it. Within the hour my bike is fixed but I had to buy a new wheel.

I am now on the Eyre peninsula. i follow the coast for 100km and see lovely beaches, pelicans, and so on. But I have to cross over the peninsula and not follow the coastline. Time is a factor in all of this. Now it becomes more boring. Just wheat fields, very small villages who are built next to the grainsilos at a railway. the people are nice though and there is always a park with bbq, and so on. Sometimes I can camp there for free. This is small town Australia at its best. I suffer 2 days in a heatwave and than get wet in a thunderstorm. I did camp on clay which is easy till it rains. It turns in mud than and know I completely understand why some roads are accessed only by 4WD. After rain that is not a road any more. Just a muddy track.

Another night a fox try to steel my food. Luckily the backpack was to heavy for him. He took it while it was only standing 1m away from me. i was reading and did not hear him. I chased him away but he came back after a while. It was a restless night because with every sound I thought he was back again.

I visit Mount Remarkable NP and was a bit disappointed there. Because of the fire season all the backcountry camping was forbidden. I understand you have to be careful but it is hard to understand when you just had been wet from the rain that lastest 12 hours

Okay, this is it for now. I am going to explore Adelaide for the rest of the day.

greetings,

nico