Cycling The Globe

Distance: 126.49 km
Ridetime: 07:05:14
Average: 18.9 km/h
Total distance: 13194 km

I love life on the road in the outback. Finding a campsite as the sun sets, cooking a simple meal and watching the stars on the big wide screen TV as the night arrives. What is not to like?

Not too long after getting started in the morning I reached Pine Creek – a tiny settlement 100 km from Katherine. This is the real Wild West (or North) of Australia. I didn’t need to buy more food as my supplies from Darwin are holding up fine, but just the chance to sit down on a real bench to eat is now a luxury!

I’m not alone on the roads out here. The campers are out in big numbers as well. Partly Australians who are escaping the “winter” in the southern part of the country, and partly tourists who are renting a camper van for a couple of months to see everything. If it was not for the campers the roads would be empty – I almost never spot a normal car.

As I filled my water bottles I met a lady in her seventies who had been driving her big camper van around Australia for the last six months – alone. Interesting crowd the Australians!

An hour further down the road I met yet another interesting personality. I was expecting this meeting because the camper folks I had been talking to all mentioned “The crazy guy with a big beard walking along Stuart Highway with his wagon”. The crazy guy turned out to be Sylvain from France. He left home four years ago and walked all the way to China where he bought I cheap local bicycle. Then he cycled through South East Asia. In Bali he gave the bike away, and now he is walking again.

I hope to meet Sylvain again in Katherine. I reached the city at sunset. It would take Sylvain another 3 or 4 days to walk.