Day 104: Rest Day

May 25, 2021

I had a little sleep in until 7:30am.

This campground is a little oasis and is very popular. The no vacancy sign is still up today.

I went across the road and had a nice coffee in the cafe/shop.

Then I went to the information centre.

I found out that Krys who shot the big croc regretted it and later turned full circle and became an advocate for saving crocodiles.

I spoke to the staff member Jason. He told me about the condition of the roads, where the water points are and where the roadhouses are.

He spoke like a cyclist and not a car driver. He understood what my requirements were. He said he had given similar directions to another cyclist last week.

He eased my worry about the road ahead.

I spent some time in the centre planning out my next week.

It is 226kms to the next town. I'll do this over 3 days.

At 10:20am there was 7 caravans lining up to get into the caravan park.

I went to the post office to get a card to send to the person who gifted me the treats on Day 95. There were not many cards to choose from.

I wrote him/her a nice thank you and posted it off. I wanted him/her to know how it made me feel on the day.

I then went to the shop to buy a couple more items.

Fresh produce is difficult to find and more expensive than what I pay for it in Canberra.

I'm not complaining, I'm grateful that I can buy it. Freight costs would be high out here.

It's been days since I've had this much to choose from.

Hopefully this will get me a lot closer to Darwin

I spent some time getting rid of the outer packaging material and squeezing it all into my front panniers. I still have many dehydrated meals too.

I've probably got too much food but I don’t want to have to rely on roadhouses for food other than hamburgers etc.

This is the torx tool I bought yesterday for $13.

I used it to open up the Rohloff ex box.

I did this in the shade of the camp kitchen.

It was filled with aluminium dust. It should be squeaky clean except for a little grease.

The cables were wearing down the inside of the aluminium housing.

The aluminium dust became compacted in the cable channels, thereby raising the cables even more from their original position.

I cleaned out the dust from the channels on the round thing and then put it all back together.

It took me an hour but it's working like new again. A great relief.

The cables looked fine. I do have a spare inner cable set if it falls apart.

I carry two spare tubes with me plus lots of repair patches.

These tubes have held the air remarkably well. I haven't put any more air into them since I left home 103 days ago.

As a reward for fixing my bike, I jumped in the pool to cool down.

I've achieved a lot today, sorted out my route for the next week, bought lots of food and fixed my bike.

I'm feeling confident again and am looking forward to riding in a more remote part of Australia.

Today's ride: 4 km (2 miles)
Total: 4,696 km (2,916 miles)

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Toby TesterHi Vince, just letting you know that I'm following your progress around Australia. In fact, I set up my browser to load your page along with other pages - news, email etc. My name is Toby and a fellow touring cyclist, but nothing on your scale!
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2 years ago

Rita McCarthyGreat to see you’re well prepared. Good luck on the next leg of your journey.
Reply to this comment
2 years ago

Vince McCarthyTo Toby TesterHi Toby,

Thank you for getting in touch. Be careful about bike touring. It can become addictive.
I try to not think about how big my planned ride is. I just try to focus on one week at a time.
So far so good, I'm having a wonderful time.
Take care.
Vince
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2 years ago

Vince McCarthyThank you Rita,

The next 2 weeks will be pretty big. Hopefully I'll survive.

xox
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2 years ago