Saturday 13 august Route Map I got away from Cracow bright and early at 7.30 and had an enjoyable ride at first, though it seemed mostly uphill for the first 60km.  I reached Eidsvold  (93km) at 12.15 and charged up in town for 2 hours at an RV stopping area.  I wasn’t tempted to stay…

Saturday August 12  Route Map Finally heading back south again now, it was a very pleasant ride following an old railway line for 40km, then through the Theodore irrigation farming district, and then harder going up a long valley into Cracow. I left at 7.30 and arrived at 12.30: that was 101km with 4h15m saddle…

 Friday, august 11 route Map Easy-peasy ride into Moura – though there was one ginormous hill to conquer – and I scooted in by 1pm.  Once again, in my delicate psychological state I found I needed another treat day, and so I opted for a motel unit, this one at the Moura Meridian being a…

Day 19 Route Map Once I’d somehow or other organically made that decision (to “head east, young man”!) my mood picked up considerably – funny creatures, aren’t we? – and in the crisp morning air I didn’t even mind the hard uphill slog for the first 50km, and then the long downhill run into the…

Route Map 7 August Rain threatened early but did not eventuate, and I had a dream run – a beautiful ride with no wind – for the first 45km to the gorge turnoff. I exchanged photographer duties with a passing German tourist in a hire car.  Result as shown. OK, a bit stilted, but he…

Route Map 6 August [Hot as hell, narrow bitumen and crumbling edge.  Not for the faint-hearted!] Well, that’s another new daily distance record –  though it went pretty much unheralded at the time. Easy kilometers, I guess, except for the last 25, which I had to negotiate in complete darkness on a narrow crumbling tarred…

[Though not far in distance, this was the hardest day yet, both physically and psychologically] Well, I got more than I bargained for – and not in a particularly nice way, either.  It was the damned wind – a constant buffeting northerly gale gusting directly into my face at 30 km/h at 8 o’clock when…

[The longest single day’s ride I’ve done, so far. Narrow tar section, poor shoulder with drop-offs in places, and plenty of big trucks to keep me on my toes.  Coming into St George well after dark felt especially dangerous.  And OK, so the featured image, above, has nothing whatsoever to do with my bike ride,…

[Hot and exhausting, but the road was safe enough and there was not much traffic anyway] Hebel wasn’t exactly the blooming oasis I’d been eagerly anticipating for the previous 50km, but at least I got a cold beer and a nice steak sandwich in the pub. I moved on after a pleasant hour or so,…