David's Journal Entry

After leaving the roadhouse, with the necessary photos of Theo and his colleagues dumped into the cloud, we were confronted with a good deal of nothingness. Today's only real excitement was passing out of the Northern Territory into South Australia. As circumstance would have it I was pulling from the front when we hit the border after a nice fast stretch of road. Having stopped briefly for even more pictures, Mike took the reins and was rewarded with the smoothest, flattest roads one can imagine and even benefited from the prophesied tail-winds. Naturally, once we swapped roles again the hills arrived...circumstances, nothing more...but amusing nonetheless. South Australia has been kind thus far, although it is fair to say the shoulders are somewhat thin.

The 169km ride was a full day's worth and we ate like pigs at every opportunity. Bacon and egg rolls, cheese and beef pies, sour jelly snakes, cheese and salami wraps and much more. Powered by porridge in the morning and a food bomb and mug of soup at the close of play we endeavoured to consume as much fuel as we could. As nightfall approached we both headed to bed, tired and satisfied, I am quite sure I will be asleep by 8pm tonight, and given the warmth of the evening I suspect it will be deep into the early hours before I need to climb into my sleeping bag.

Things I learned from my first bike touring ton!

• Plan for opportunities

• Recognise opportunities

• Be prepared to fail

• Consider what's needed

• Give it a go