Tuesday, 5th of April: White Cliffs towards Tibooburra (123km)

7 Apr

Hi all!
Don’t ask me why, I couldn’t sleep well that night. May be because I had to much to think about and to do on the internet while it was possible to do? Any way, I went quite late to bed and woke up early.

Beside the short of the night, it was very calme and is worth both the detour and the little extra price in comparison to a standard hotel. I had breakfast prepared all my stuff and could even get some fresh bottles of water. I had the others since day I thought it might be good to change them as well.
Just before leaving, I met a couple (Mark and girlfriend) who wanted to have a look at the mine “behind” the underground lodge. They are  travelling by car with surf board and much more to dsicover their australian country. They wanted to learn how one can travel with “so little of baggages”… while it is even to much what I all have on board.
Before leaving White Cliffs I bought a new bottle of coke (works for me as doping… hehe) and had some town seeing: they have had one of the first solar powered station (based on mirrors, with an excellent efficiency of 20%) and then cycled through the field of old holes where people had tried their luck in the past.
Then I took the road towars the north-west in direction of Tibooburra. The street to the east are said to be still flooded. Frankly, I did not want to have a try…
The dirt road was pretty cool and the wind came nearly from the best direction: 7 o’clock. After about one hours, the couple had joined me “again” as they were heading to the same direction as me. I could grab a handfull of sweeties (thenks for the energy! (-:) and they left.
So I continued the road… after a while, it got a little bit “hilly”, alternating some little hills and creek where the water could flow in rain time.
I ate for lunch the fresh baked bread I had got from Honor (the women from the PJ’s Underground B&B) had done the evening before and had a little rest into the shadow of a tree. Some more kilometers further, two cars arrived at my height and stopped: 5 geologist doing some measures came out. They were woundering what a guy would do cycling (pushbiking) here around and stuff like that. As the water I had started to be “short” (I still could purify creek water, which is my very last alternative – you never know what’s realy inside of it!) I warmly accepted some of their as well as the two apples and three cereal bars… THANKS A LOT! :-))
I as well learnt: those nice looking “kind of melon” beside the road are not poisonous… they are just very bitter, which I can confirm as I tried it out later on… To bad… I would have ate them all 😉 But I wouldn’t be alone to do it 😉
About 30min before dust I saw a farm at the left side and wanted to ask if it’s allowed to camp on their ground. Nobody there…. even the laundry was hanging out. And as water was running for the trees, I allowed myself to take a little wash as I didn’t wanted to enter the tent with dirty legs later on. Back on the bike I continued for some few kilometers where I found I resting place beside the road. After eating the last rest of bread, I felt asleep.

Good night
Georges

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/77632992

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