Simply cycling around
Second day spending in Mataranka and second day swimming in nice warm waters. That’s holidays :-) This time I’ve been to “Bitter Springs” another spot on the other side of Mataranka and still in the Elsey National Park. I’ve tried to go early the morning to avoid the crowd and actually it was good. I could see turtles!
Yes, it did rain last night but not as heavy as I was afroad of. And today, the good weather is coming back, good! For the first time in Australia I had the chance to taste a natural thermal pool and I must say, it’s very VERY nice :-) Not even crowded, like ten people at a time and all stayed together when the other half was empty most of the time. People were maybe scared of the rapids where I found that spot being the best. Very nice place!
Another hot day today and it’s certainly gonna be like this all the up now. This is why I’m cycling early the morning, then find a place where I can stay out of the sun until 4pm, then I’m coming back on the road for the rest of the afternoon and find a spot in the bush because of the lack of rest area. Fortunately, Larrimah is on my way, about 60km from where I’ve slept last night. FOr the first time in Australia, I’ve seen a real crocodile. It’s in a cage, it’s a tiny one, but it’s a real one! :-)
After two and a half days doing nothing I’m back on the saddle! I still have 3 weeks to go until I fly from Darwin to Bali so I will surely stop in different other places like Mataranka, Katherine, Edith Falls and I don’t know yet. I wish I had more food with me because life is expensive around here. And every road house sell nearly the same stuff like: ice creams, beers, soft drinks, Chips, and spare pieces. How can I get food for my breakfast with that?! Anyway, I’ll make it!
Another lazy day today and I enjoy :-) I wish I would have some connection or Wifi here to update my blog. Steve asked to the roadhouse and the woman said it’s broken. In fact we can see the Wifi signal but we can’t use it. Rah! For once, I’m on a good spot, stay a bit longer and there is a problem with internet. Bad luck! Or maybe it’s good luck. It means I should not think about my blog and just do nothing!
It’s about nine o’clock now and my tent is under the sun but that’s fine because it’s not that hot yet. See, no one around here. This is a pretty nice day as usual up here. No clouds in the sky, more than 30 degrees during the day. The stuart highway is just behind these trees and we can hear and distinguish the traffic from here but I don’t really bother. Just behind my tent there is a big cage with five birds in it. They look like parrots. On the left side, outside of the picture (I like saying that as it’s very useful to describe something which is not visible :-) there is a tiny swimming pool. And the shadow coming from the bottom of the picture is the toilets and showers.
This is one of my worse cycling experience today. Everything was perfect until I had that bloody “puncture”… That single, tiny, blood, little hole made my day unforgettable. I had two solutions to fix it, an easy one and a tricky one: I’ve chosen the tricky one. It did work but not without pain in the ass (if I can say that).