Stewart Law

We’ve barely cycled a hill since we left Vietnam. Back in Asia we just weren’t fit enough for it so took flatter routes to cycle ourselves in to this adventure.

We had a bit of a weird experience just outside of Adelaide, I won’t write about it right now because I’d rather just focus on our positive experiences in Aus, of which there were many!

We called the hotel in advance to confirm they had a room, they did. The woman on the phone was LOVELY. She was the warmth we so desperately needed after a series of unfortunate engagements.

We had an average day planned, we wanted to cycle ~70 miles to Port Augusta. On route we picked up a BEASTLY tailwind.

Our route through New Zealand took us from Queenstown in the stunning south Island all the way up to Auckland on the North Island.

After Ceduna, our next major milestone was a town called Kimba. Kimba marks falfway across Australia, Woah!

We got to Ceduna and stayed in a motel for one night then moved into a cabin on a caravan park. The cabins are a good budget hack for us here.

Breakfast, somewhere along the west Australian desert. We’ve cycled here from the UK and that is pretty mind-blowing, even for us and we did the pedalling.

The FINAL day of the Nullarbor Plain, if you remember we set ourselves an ambitious target of five days and as you can see, we missed it by rather a lot!

Have you ever known a time zone change in increments other than 1 hour? We hadn’t until we got to South Australia.

Nullabor Roadhouse to Nundroo was largely uneventful, to be honest. It did have one thing though, the knowing that this day was the penultimate day!

If there's one thing you want to get right before you go cycle touring it's your bike. Your comfort in the saddle is a prerequisite to your happiness on tour. That's why we decided to build out our bikes.

Cycling in Australia turned out to be much tougher than we were expecting. There is a lot to say about this massive country so I’ll break it down into states, but before I do I’ll mention the weather and time of year.

Our first few weeks in Aus were slower than anticipated. We promised that we’ll do big days between Norseman and Ceduna to make up for it. Well, now we’ve left Norseman it’s time to actually deliver on that promise 😬🫠

We try get to campsites as they’re pretty cheap for what you get! A pitch at a site costs between A$10 – A$40 (£5-£25) and for that we can grab a shower which helps a lot with a good nights sleep in a tent.

Between Albany and Esperance we were properly introduced to road trains. Honestly, road trains come fast and they are a bit scary! But most are kind enough and give you plenty of notice with a horn from way back.

Shout out to Dempster Sporting who took the first pic of us. We visited the store in Esperance and bought a few bits – new inner tubes and a light for the back of my bike.

Getting back on the road has helped me to feel my best self again. It’s a bit cliche, but after two years of inactivity, this cycle tour is giving back in more ways than the first.

Within 24 hours, we went from, “there’s no way we will manage 100+ mile days here,” to, “we can do this!”

If not for our taxi driver we would not have known about The Gap and Natural Bridge. Everyone who comes here goes there, he told us. It was on route to the Whaling Station so we figured we might aswell go.

Liam and Danielle had told us about Albany Whaling Station. They said it was worth visiting, though Danielle warned, very sad. I booked an extra night and a taxi to take us.

We put our sleeping mats away wet and now they’re a bit mouldy 😲 I don’t even know how they got damp/wet, but I sure am kicking myself now. It’s not too bad and hopefully it won’t get worse.

We sat down, on the side of a road, dunkin HobNobs into a black cup of tea that we’d brewed up on the side of the road, roughly 35 miles in both directions from two towns.

After five years we finally got to meet Paul and Tracy. We left West Perth and cycled along perfect cycle paths for a full fifty miles. We enjoyed the cool air and blue skies…