Australia
By Catherine Dixon (Cat) and Rachael Marsden (Raz)
We have arrived in Brisbane after riding over 3,400 miles across Australia, mainly into a headwind and having completed the Australian stage of our journey around the world. We crossed the Nullarbor desert riding the longest straight road, cycled in extreme temperatures, (over 45 degree heat and less than 10 degrees on the coast), and changed our route to avoid the bush fires which are devastating Australia. We saw extreme drought in New South Wales and Queensland, and most of the way we have been followed by a swarm of flies. We met amazing people, who have been extremely kind, supportive and generous. Australia has been hard, the toughest stage so far, but utterly amazing.
We arrived in Perth in early November and with the help of Nigel and Trish and with a send off by MND WA (Western Australia) and the lovely Sarah, we set off, heading out of Perth towards the Perth Hills and on route to the Nullarbor desert with our mascot Nik the Stolen Goat and his new friend our new MND puppy called Shelia.
We soon realised that Australia was going to be challenging. Even during the second day out of Perth we experienced significant distances between towns, flies, headwind and heat. We passed through the wheat-belt. The landscape was vast – and the wildlife amazing. We saw fabulous birds including the rare black cockatoos, parrots and the famous Kookaburra. We were heading towards the Nullarbor desert, the vast desert between Perth and Adelaide which stretches across Australia and includes the famous longest straightest road. It was almost 1,700 miles between Perth and Adelaide and it was hard to believe that much of this would be uninhabited.
The Nullarbor is a vast desert which includes a plain with bush land as far as the eye can see. The soil is red in colour because of the vast amount of iron ore it contains. There are no towns, but the desert it serviced by Roadhouses which are significant distances (if you are cycling) apart. Road Trains which are massive lorries sometimes oversized carrying huge pieces of equipment of up to 5 massive trailers long, thunder across the desert and we needed to get off the road as they passed.
We travelled along the longest straightest road into a headwind. Because of the distances between roadhouses we sometimes cycled over 100 miles each day – 121 miles being the longest day. As we crossed the Nullarbor Plain we could see the Ocean. It was fantastically blue and the beaches along the coast deserted. We thought we spotted whales out to sea. We wild camped (free camp in Oz) one night near the coast with the wind nearly blowing the tent over.
We had seen some amazing wildlife on route including a dingo. We had also ridden along side a mob of Kangaroos and spotted families of Emu. We also saw a significant amount of roadkill – especially kangaroos but we had also passed by dead camels, wombats, eagles, wallabies and emus. The smell and general carnage made it pretty grim at times.
We were almost half way across Australia when the temperatures started to get really hot (as opposed to just hot ). We cycled in over 40 degree heat and saw that the forecast for the next day predicated around 45 degrees with wind gusting at over 40 miles per hour. We decided to set off early to avoid the worst of the heat and wind. We left at 4am and cycled nearly 70 miles. Having lingered too long in a café, the last 10 miles were incredibly hot and windy. The wind had stirred up the dust and the sky was full of red dust. We saw a campsite in the grounds of a farm and pulled off the road. We knocked on the farm door seeing a sign inviting us to have a look around. The farm had been the residence of the Matthews family, the parents had died and the family had preserved the farm as it had been in the 1970s, including the place settings on kitchen table complete with the parents’ spectacles. What with the wind, dust and heat, we were incredibly grateful to have found shelter. We spent the afternoon at the farm setting off early evening for the final 40 miles to Kimba, which claimed to be half way across Australia and where we met up with Angus again!
We were on route to Melbourne via the Great Ocean Road. We managed to camp on top of a sprinkler system one evening thinking it was torrential rain until it suddenly turned off like a tap. We saw painted grain silos and where offered accommodation with Jenny and John on the back of a conversation at a local café.
We crossed the State border into Victoria and headed south to the Great Ocean Road. It was raining and cold as we set off from Port Campbell on route to the Twelve Apostles. The good thing about the rain was that we were the only people visiting the Twelve Apostles, which is an iconic sight and beautiful in the early morning light, the downside was that it was cold. 10 degrees at the coast and colder as we climbed high through fabulous rain forest. We were wearing sandals and fingerless gloves, our breath was freezing and it was hail stoning . We lingered way too long in the café at the top of the hill, before setting off on the freezing descent.
We finally made it to Melbourne meeting up with Jonathan a distant cousin of Raz and staying with the lovely Jennie and Lynton. We visited the Oxfam team in Melbourne hearing from Tania about their fantastic work, especially with the Aboriginal communities and supporting women.
We were on route to Brisbane, the final part of our epic journey across Australia. We stopped in the small town of Oaklands where we were invited by some truckers at the bar to the local club. We later learned that clubs in Australia are where the local community gather, often to eat and generally to be social (not like clubs in the UK). Tentatively we went along. We were made incredibly welcome, details of our ride where announced and the raffle monies donated. We also looked at the route with drivers who regularly went north. Bush fires had been burning along the coast, around Sydney and on route to Brisbane. The fires were early this year and have been devastating. We decided to change our route to avoid the fires and smoke. Unfortunately, this meant that we were unable to stop in Newcastle where we had arranged to send spare parts for Alice.
We crossed the border into New South Wales, stopping in Wagga Wagga, meeting up with Fiona and Richard and taking the morning to have Alice’s cables replaced whilst having coffee with local cyclists. We headed north into an area of devastating drought. What was once fertile farmland is now barren in parts. Livestock has been sold and the remainder is being fed with food transported in at great cost.
This area was incredibly hot and exhausting to cycle through. It was hard to drink enough water to keep hydrated. We stopped in motels as it was too hot to camp as the night time temperatures were really high.
We made it to Moree having crossed the State border into Queensland, where we “took in” the famous waters and we were then on the final push to Brisbane. It was simply too hot, but we kept cycling, stopping in Forest Hill with Edwina and Gary and finally onto Brisbane on a day which broke records for its high temperature (43 degrees).
Australia has been an incredible experience. We believe we have seen the real Australia with its generous and hospitable people, it’s amazing wildlife but also with its incredibly challenging environment. The bush fires are devastating, people are losing their homes and the wildlife is being decimated. The drought has been ongoing for years with some places not having rain since 2016. This is laying to waste what was once fertile farmland. The winds are also changing – apparently much stronger in some areas than in the past – certainly we spent many hours battling into a headwind.
Many people we met are skeptical about climate change, but from what we have seen on our journey so far, the climate is changing. We saw massive flooding as a result of an extended monsoon in South East Asia and significant drought in the beautiful Australia. We saw a sign as we headed into Queensland which simply read “Pray for Rain”. I’m not sure this will help but we will be thinking of the amazing and generous peoples of Australia and hoping for rain to end the awful drought and bush fires sweeping this beautiful country.