UPDATE - EASTCOAST

Sorry about lack of updates lately, just been relaxing and taking some time off inside my own head. Yes I know how that sounds, but you know what I mean. I can really feel the trip really beginning to take its toll on me. Though this area of Australia is really nice and interesting, the beaches are really nice, I'm beginning to feel pure hate towards that bike (almost). I think it's because my mind is realising that it isn't much left now. Only 732 km left until I'm in Brisbane and this journey is over. I cannot wait. Every bone in my bone wants me to push hard and get it over with. To do long days and just get north and cover the distance. But at the same time I need to explore Australia as well. So the plan is to do no more than 100 km a day, get up to Brisbane and then see if I can find some WWOOFing work on a farm up in that area. That will enable me to sell my bike, see the area and have no food expenses. Then when I'm getting closer to my return flights from Sydney I'll head down a couple of days before on the train or flying.

Anyhoodle, I had a great time in Newcastle with my new friend Marty. She was an amazing host and showed me all of the city. I even got to see a koala bear! So nice!

Because the wind still had a kick in it, biking wasn't too pleasant today. So decided to take my short day today and a longer day tomorrow. Need to get to a place about 5 km north of Nabiac, which means about 95 km in total. Fortunately the forecast said hardly any wind and sunny. Plus I've spoken to the couple I'm staying with tomorrow; the Highway have a emergency stopping lane all the way up which I can ride on. Which means I get heaps of space which is nice.

Also bought a new high-vis vest, cause the old one (which cost $3 on eBay) is falling apart. So now I'm visible and safe on the road. My phone keeps acting up, so had to manually track my progress today. Will try and restart it tonight. Hopefully that will do the trick.

Almost there... Almost there.

--

Sorry for mangel på oppdatering i det siste, har slappa av og tatt en time-out oppi toppen. Jada jada, veit hvordan det høres ut, men du skjønner hva jeg mener. Jeg kan virkelig kjenne at turen har sliti meg greit ut. Selvom denne delen av Australia er utrolig fin og interessant, strendene er utrolig, har jeg begynt å føle rent hat for sykkelen (nesten). Jeg trur det er fordi hjernen min veit at det ikke er langt igjen. Bare 732 km til jeg er i Brisbane og denna reisa er over. Jeg gleder meg! Hele kroppen bønnfaller meg om å gi jernet og bli ferdig med det hele. Å gjøre lange dager, komme meg nordover og fullføre distansen. Samtidlig så må jeg se Australia. Så trur planen er å ikke gjøre mer enn 100 km om dagen, komma meg opp til Brisbane og se om jeg kan finne meg no WWOOFing arbeid på en gård i det området. Det vil la meg selge sykkelen, se området og ikke ha noen utgifter o forhold til mat. Så når det da nærmer seg avreise datoen fra Sydney, drar jeg ned et par dager før.

Uansett, jeg hadde det utrolig hyggelig i Newcastle med min nye venn Marty. Hu var en utrolig vert og viste meg hele byen. Jeg fikk til og med se en koala bjørn! So fett!

Fordi det var godt med vind idag, var det ikke spesielt digg å sykle. Så bestemte meg for å stoppe tidlig og heller ha en lang dag imorra. Må komma meg til en sted 5 km nord for Nabiac, som betyr at morgendagens total blir 95 km. Heldigvvis sier værmeldinga at det blir lite vind og godt med sol. Pluss, jeg har snakka med det paret jeg skal sove hos imorra; hovedveien har en «nød-skulder» hele veien opp som jeg kan sykle på. Noe som betyr at jeg får nok av plass.

Har også kjøpt meg en ny refleksvest, fordi den gamle (som kosta $3 på eBay) faller fra hverandre. Så nå er jeg godt synlig og trygg i traffikken. Telefonen min driver av å oppfører rart, så måtte manuelt legge inn dagens økt. Skal prøve å restarte den ikveld, så håper det vil fikse problemet.

Snart framme.... Snart framme.

A day in Watervale, paradise

Decided to stay an extra night in Watervale, with this amazing couple, because this is a beautiful area. There are over 20 wineries within a 30 km radius. There are so many. So if you can imagine that, driving down through the stunning valley and at every turn-off you see a sign for another winery.

The Riesling Trail runs from just north of Clare down to Auburn. It used to be where the old railway line passed through the valley, but all that is left now are the black and white station signs at each towns. Now it is a very well maintained (fine) gravel road, offering cyclists a break from the cars, trucks and all other sorts vehicles.

Today was also the first day I've noticed the change of seasons. Autumn is coming. The leaves are changing colour and the trees are going bare, ready for winter. It reminds me so much of Europe, this area of South Australia close to the border (of the eastern states). So much trees, greenery, farm and above all, life. Western Australia had some, but the majority of Australia’s population lives on this side of the country and I can understand why, it's beautiful here.

Anyhoodle, like I mentioned, staying with a lovely couple. One of them is a nurse in a local hospital and the other works at one of the wineries. So this morning when I asked if I could stay another night, she gave me a map of the area and suggested a few wineries I should check out.

So off I went on my bike. Had no luggage on, which felt incredibly weird! I was really unstable for the first couple of kilometres (and more so after the first couple of wineries).

So you turn up at the winery and head into the cellar. Here you can learn more about the particular wine they produce and get to taste some of them.

I am by no means an wine expert, far from it, but I do appreciate a good red wine. Because I'm riding at least 120 km tomorrow, I had to limit myself in how much I actually tried. I haven't done enough wine tasting to get into the culture of spitting it out again after having touch you tounge for five seconds. So when you've been to four wineries and tried over seven different types at each place, you do notice the effect when get back on that bike again.

So first stop were two award-winning wineries, the Kilikanoon Winery and the Penna Lane Wines. Both had very friendly staff, that were passionate about their products and were able to provide you with detailed information about the entire process from grape to bottle. Penna Lane Wines also serve lunch on the weekends. We're not talking cheese and crackers here, but lovely and rich flavoured country style meals, made by the winemakers mother. Lovely woman. Makes a killer broccoli and bacon soup with fresh bread. YUM! So after having tasted the wine and also their homemade chutney and jams, I was on my merry way down the road.

Next stop was the Mitchell Winery. Though it was quite an interesting place, seeing as they produce everything there and I could see the entire process, the wines weren't AS GOOD as the others. Later I was told they mainly produce wine for other wineries, which is used to mix in with their own wines.

Last stop for the day was the Skollogalee Wines. Their Shiraz was quite good, fruity and rich on flavour. The Riesling however (which is what this area is known for) was exquisite! I'm not a big white wine drinker and Riesling just brings back bad memories from high school of pre-drinks before going to some godforsaken house party. But this was totally different to the standard German Riesling we're accustomed to in Europe. It had a much more of a citrus flavour and a lot more refreshing (yes I know I'm not using the “proper” wine terminology here, but sue me...).

After this I decided to call it a day and headed up to Clare to do a bit of food shopping, before taking the Riesling (bike) trail back down to Watervale (15km south of Clare).

It was the feeling of pure joy seeing the valley, riding on the trail and passing through vineyard after vineyard. The changing colours, autumn coming in. The sweeping hills with rows of vines neatly lined up next to each other. This to me is like my own personal Disneyland. It's magical, colourful and ever-changing.

And as I was riding down from Swan Hill into Watervale, faced with the spectacular scenery, I could not help but to think of Europe. About how much travelling New Zealand and Australia has made me love Europe even more. It might seem odd to some, but I'm more determined than ever to settle down in a European country after having seen all this. It reminded me of Pembrokeshire and Brecon National park in Wales (UK) and about the fjords on the west coast in Norway. Even the forests close to where I grew up and the variety of rivers.

So to family and friends; relax, I'm coming home to Europe, not settling down in Australia. Though I still don't know which European country, but at least you'll have me within reasonable flying distance.

A huge thanks to Louise and Kerstine for having me. They have a beautiful home and a lovely (and friendly) greyhound. Both do something they're are passionate about and I greatly admire that. I wish them both the very best of luck and hopefully I'll meet them again some time in the future, maybe on a bike trip in Europe. Who knows.

Tomorrow I'm heading off again. Leaving the Clare Valley. I hope to do just over 120 km tomorrow and then do about 110 km the day after into Renmark.

Quorn to Gladstone - 120 km

I don't know why, but the Blogger app automatically places my photo at the end... So scroll down first, look at them and come back up here again. Might make more sense.

---

Felt a bit like Donald today. As I was setting off from Quorn, my mate Paul pointed out that my back tire seemed a bit flat. So he brought out his bike pump with a pressure gauge. Guess what? Turns out the pressure in my tire was 40psi. The ideal pressure is 60psi. That's a shortfall of 20psi... Have you seen the Donald Duck episode Clown of the jungle? Donald tries to take a photo of the beautiful birds, but another bird messes with him. When he finally manages to get the shot and is going to take out the film for developing, it turns out he never put film in it in the first place. He goes loopy. That is how I felt this morning, haha.

Anyhoodle, set off. Heading; south. Immediately I noticed the amazing scenery. After Port Augusta it has improved ten thousand times. The ONLY interesting thing between Esperance and Ceduna was the Bunda cliffs. So seeing sweeping hills, trees and wildlife every day, all day is a most welcome thing. All the locals I've spoken to have all said it will only get better from here. Excited!

Small towns all over the place. Today I passed through six towns, all quite nice. Finally staying within civilisation. Less water and food to carry. Also breaks up the day a lot more and motivates. As I was causally peddling through Melrose, I passed a well equipped bike shop. A BIKE SHOP, in a town with less than 200 people. Got talking to one of the staff and he told me there's a lot of mountain bikers coming through here because of many good tracks in the area. Staying there for a good 30 minutes. So if you're passing through this way, make sure you stop by. They also have a cafe and free WiFi!

Along the way I passed these big hollow trees all over. Reaching probably 20-30 meters into the sky, they all have partly or fully hollowed out bases. So cool to see.

My new setup is working great. I'm still carrying 45ish kg, but all on the bike. It took some getting used to, but so much easier to build up speed. I mean, I was flying today. Reached a maximum speed of over 45km/h and a good average of 22.1km/h (according to my speedometer).

Because I'm now only doing 100-120 km a day, I can take my time and stop at places I like. Not having to rush like I had to on the Nullarbor. Also stopped in a town called Laura and ended up talking for ages with the lovely ladies in the information centre.

After setting up my tent (it needed to dry first) and making a lovely tuna & cous-cous dinner, I had to bring my sewing kit out. My tights have started to...shall we say open up to the world. These tights are amazing. I bought them in St. Maxine in southern France in 2008 when my grandparents took me to see one of my great aunties whos got a house down there. Beautiful place by the way. St. Tropez, Nice, Monaco... If you ever get the chance, go. It is absolument magnifique!! Sorry, back to the tights. We went shopping and bought a few gym clothes, including those tights. So I've had them for six years. Six years! Still going strong, but might have find another pair when I get to Sydney.

Like I said, I'm truly starting to enjoy Australia now. Finally getting interesting. Can't wait to see the rest. Tomorrow is a short day, only 80 km. Heading to Watervale, where I'll be staying with a nice couple I met through the cycling site Warm Showers (cylist version of Couch Surfing basically). Then from there I'll head towards Renmark, camp out and hopefully arrive on Sunday.

Nos da! (Welsh for 'good night')

Pimp my ride

Upgrade Viking style
My ride has now been transformed and I'm pretty sure I could hear my beautiful bike let out a great sigh of relief at the thought of never having to pull that trailer again.

So yeah, like I've mentioned previously; I intended to replace my trailer with panniers somehow when I got to Port Augusta. Well, universe came to my rescue and it all worked out perfectly fine. Paul, the great guy I'm staying with here in Quorn (a town just outside Port Augusta) had some old panniers he had used on his 10 000 km journey around Oz in the late 90s. So we did a clean swap; my trailer for his panniers. He even phoned up the guy he sold his bike to and asked if he could have the pannier rack back (Photo: silver rack and red bags). Sure enough, 20 minutes later, this nice chap rolls in on Pauls old mountain bike and warmly says You can have 'em if you, no use to me. So I start the process of unscrewing the rack from his bike.

After some tweeking and headscratching, I manage to mount the rack on my bike. Perfect fit.

The issue of water is something that is always on my mind. When I crossed hell, I mean the Nullarbor, I always tried to have a minimum of 9 litres of water when starting out each morning. Now, with the trailer I simply whacked them in there and off I went. Now I had to think of something new. Pauls old bike hade this great front rack above the panniers which he had used for water (Photo: black rack which holds the blue water cintainer). I asked his mate if I could buy it off him, but alas he was using it himself.

Did some research online and found the exact same one on eBay for $5.99 plus shipping. However, seeing as it was in China it could take up to a month to get here. And I don't have a month. So after a few frantic Google searches, we found a bikeshop in Wyalla (a city 100 km south of Port Augusta) that might stock it. Phoned them up and they did. Asked if it was anyway I could have it brought up to PA. She put on the next Premiere Stateliner bus which was headed for PA. Price? $29 for the rack and $10 in shipping. So taking into account I could have what I needed with hours of enquiring, I'm quite happy with that. Then after picking up it from the bus stop, we headed to a department store, which has got everything from undies and onsies to fishing rods and shampoo, to see about finding that perfect water container.
There it was, on the shelf, in bright blue; a 5 litre water can which would fit perfectly on my new front rack. Only $9! Bargain.

So now I've solved the issue of the trailer (in theory). Tomorrow I plan on spending a couple of hours trying to repack everything and see what to put where and see if it will work in real life. At least now I'm in a part of Australia with more towns, people, supplies and shade. So don't need to carry an stupid amount of food and water.

Rule? If it doesn't fit in the trailer, I can't bring it. Pure and simple.

It's funny isn't it? How the universe works. If you really want something, the universe will help you get there one way or the other.

Tomorrow: Go through stuff, test-pack, test-ride and plan future route.