Day 133 | 6 km outside the National Park: that's Uluru-Kata Tjuta NP
65 km | zzOz total: 6,830 km
Another typically tough day at the office.
The amount of traffic, general terrain and lack of solid road formation combines on the Great Central Road to give only isolated stretches of easy riding.
When it’s slow going I always think that at some point in the day there’s going to be that easy 10 km that’s just going to whiz by. Always seems to appear on even the hardest slog except today it would have been 20 km. Suddenly you are motoring along, no worries, wheels whirring with little effort.
Just when you think it’s going to continue all the way to the bitumen you plunge back into the sandpit, down in the granny cog to keep the power up, forward momentum, because it’s not so easy to start up again from a standstill when there’s not much solid under the wheels.
And bumpy bigtime.
I managed to ride all of it, some right up the bank again, the fat tyres and limited pressure giving some traction.
Just when you are just about over the soft stuff a gravelly section appears, vibrating the hands and forearms into an arthritic condition, but at least I can move to the middle cog.
And occasionally sublime.
The inspiring moment today was coming over a rise and spotting the oddly formed rocks that constitute Kata Tjuta, like some giant set of mis-shaped dentures from the west, not so far away. When I came a few years ago, by 4WD, from the opposite direction this rock heap seemed more interesting, varied, surreal than the big rock, Uluru, that’s now 40 km beyond.
But with that sight there’s also the understanding that the dirt, err, sand road is coming to its conclusion, asphalt is only about 10km away and with that the swarms of tourists on their often flying experience. The tourists are of a different type here, dropped in for a few hours, on a flying vacation, all perfect, mobile phone coverage, cafe lattes, the lipstick tourists, not the dirt road speedsters I’ve been encountering for the last 3 weeks.
It’ll take some adjustment after the mostly solitude of the GCR.
I promise to be on my best behaviour.