2011 in Pictures:

The very best Happy New Year wishes to everyone!

Thomas

Now that I have come to Australia I don’t feel that the trip is over just yet. The next continent waiting somewhere over there on the other side of the Pacific Ocean would be South America.

A plan has now evolved to fly to Argentina and start cycling north through Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador, Colombia and onwards through Central America, Mexico and the US before taking another flight to Europe and cycle back home to Denmark. That would make the circle complete.

View Stage 2 in a larger map

I will stay in Australia until my visa runs out in June 2012 for some more work and a bit of sight seeing on this fascinating place. After that, bring on stage 2!

Luck would have it that the rumours about the favourable job situation in Alice Springs turned out to be true. I had my first job in hand 24 hours after I arrived in town. And so it seems that my life for now will be very different from the cycle nomadic life I have been enjoying the last 10 months.

The diary will take a break for a while as I recharge my bank account. But, stay tuned. There will be other updates on this channel coming soon.

Greetings from Down Under.

Tom

Last night I stayed at a camp site and met a couple of German backpackers who are travelling around Australia in their wan. Like me they were also almost completely out of money – they did however share one of their last beers with me Friendly bunch the Germans!

In the morning as my new friends passed me on the highway, they even stopped with a cup of hot tea. Danke!

The rest of the day my mind was solely focused on reaching Alice Springs or “The Alice” as she is also called: a name that has been on my mind a lot lately. I knew from the morning that it would be a long day, and with the wind back in its usual direction (right in my face) it did require all my mental and physical focus to keep pushing.

Somewhere along the road I passed the Tropic of Capricorn. I’m now once again a fair distance from the equator which I remember crossing on a boat between two Indonesian islands. Soon thereafter I reached the highest point marker on Stuart Highway. I knew that from that point it would be downhill for the rest of the day, and I silently started to celebrate.

I felt very relieved to finally arrive in Alice Springs. I had now made it half way across Australia – the bike and myself intact.

Since leaving Denmark I have not been staying in the same place for more than 7 days. This is likely to change now if finding work in Alice Springs is as easy as they say. Wish me luck!

For the fist time in weeks I did experience something that would resemble a tail wind. It only lasted for half an hour, but even 20 km of smooth cruising certainly lifted the spirits. Soon the wind was back where it seems to belong here in Australia – right in the face!

I reached Tea Tree in time for lunch. I have been seeing signs for the last 300 km but when I arrived the place only consisted of 5 houses. I bought a little food in the expensive shop just to be sure I have enough to reach Alice Springs.

The only thing more straight than Stuart Highway seems to be the railway that also crosses Australia from north to south.

Apart form the crack in my back wheel rim that I discovered a couple of days ago, my bike is now developing another problem. The chain and chain ring are now so used (I have not changed either since I bought the bike 18000 km ago!) that the chain slips every time I put some power into the pedals. Once I reach cruising speed on flat grounds everything is still OK. I’m not hoping to meet any big mountains.

Apart from the bike I’m also beginning to feel rather worn out myself. Usually I have a break every 3 or 4 days – mostly because I arrive in an interesting place where it seems worth spending an extra day. The thing is that a rest day wouldnt make any sense out here. There really isnt anything else to do but keep cycling. Once I reach Alice Springs tomorrow (hopefully!) it will be a big milestone.

Last night over the fire at the camp site I was stating, people asked if I was going to visit Devils Marbles. As usually I hadn’t looked in my guide book, and if my new friends hadn’t told me I might as well have passed right by. I’m glad I didn’t. The rounded granite stones there are quite a sight. This is the beginning of the Red Centre of Australia – a landscape that is very different from the flat bush lands I have been cycling through for last couple of weeks.

I arrived at the same time as a bus full of Japanese tourists. As and sat there and ate my breakfast a few even took photos of me. Funny people.

If Devils Marbles is a sign of what to expect from nature in central Australia I’m already hooked!

Cycling is once again getting a lot more enjoyable. The head wind was a bit less insisting today, and for the first time in a while my average speed was above 20 km/h. Stuart Highway is also suddenly getting more quite. No more huge road trains.

At night I found another great spot to wild camp. From here it is only 250 km to Alice Springs. With a bit of luck I will get there in two days.

The super market in Tennant Creek is known among cyclists to be the only reasonable priced place to buy food for 1200 km between Katherine and Alice Springs. As soon as I arrived in town, I went there to fill up the bags.

A few of the people I had met also mentioned a public park with a free shower – another thing not to be missed! I gave my clothes a wash as well. As I was waiting for my clothes to dry while having a small feast of my newly bought food, I once again felt ready to face the outback.

Back on the road I met Ivan, a cycle tourist from Serbia. Among many other things, Ivan was carrying a didgeridoo on his bike. I guess weight is not an important theme for every cyclist. As Ivan was heading to Asia I was able to give a few tips. Likewise Ivan explained how easy he had found a job in Alice Springs. Very promising for me. Even though I have hardly spent any money the last week, the expedition funds are running low.

It is interesting what difference a day can make. While yesterday’s ride might have felt like meditation, there was not much left of that feeling today. The constant head wind and the long stretches of nothingness is starting to get to me. In theory the wind barely means I’m moving a bit slower than usual, and since I’m not in a hurry to get anywhere it shouldn’t be such a big deal. In reality, it is just a pain in the ass!

Next I discovered a crack in the rim of my back wheel. Not the most convenient place to discover this since there is still 700 km to Alice Springs and the nearest bike shop. I’m quite confident the wheel will make it to Alice, but the discovery was another mental hit on a day where I needed a push.

Tennant Creek is the only real town between Katherine and Alice Springs. Yet, I didn’t see any compelling reason to stop there and pay for accommodation at a backpacker’s or a camp site. Instead I stopped 5 km before town, pulled the bike to the side of the road and set up my own camp.

Already during the night in my tent I could hear the winds picking up. At least I was mentally prepared for another day of fighting it.

After I said goodbye to Vytautas and Wan at the camp site I was once again left to myself. When people ask me what is so great about cycling, I often argue that it is just like mediation. This might not always be true – when cycling on a busy highway in Asia with crazy noise and smog levels it actually feels more like the opposite. On the other hand, today’s cycling was indeed like 8 hours of pure mediation: Apart from the head wind there is really nothing to disturb the mind out here.

I love it!

One of the joys of cycling is that you see the landscape change almost from day to day. So far there has been a thick bush vegetation on both sides of the road (which gets very boring to look at after a few days) but today the landscape changed to more open spaces of flat land. The night temperature also drops a few degrees every night by now as I’m getting further and further away from the sea.

At some of the rest areas along the highway you are allowed to camp for free overnight. I probably come across one such free camp site every second day, but as I want to be cycling from sunrise to sunset I usually pass without stopping. Today I saw a sign for a free camp site just as the sun was setting. Perfect timing!

As usual my arrival attracts a fair amount of attention. The Australians are not shy to stop by for a chat – after all there are not many cyclists out here. I’m also getting offered a lot of free food. Today ham, cheese and a whole glass of homemade wild berry jam. Yummy!

A few moments later another camper van rolled into the rest area. Out came Vytautas from Lithuania and Wan from Taiwan. They had bought their old camper van for 400$ and were now touring Australia. We had a great chat – some of it which Vytautas even turned into an article you can read here if you happen to understand Latvian (or know how to use Google Translate).

One night in a pub and the next surrounded by super friendly people at a free camp site. My outback experience has certainly not been as lonely as I would have expected. I’m enjoying every day of it.