Carrying enough water was our main worry before leaving, but it turned out to be not much of a problem. I had three water bidons on the bike frame, a large bum bag with a 2 litre wine cask in it, and I could carry a 1.5 litre plastic bottle in a front pannier and two or three 600 ml bottles of powerade or similar in the back panniers, giving a total capacity of about 7 litres. Mostly though I only needed to carry about 4 litres at the start of the day. This worked out to be about 1 litre per 40 km. Or about half a litre per hour. If you relied on the water tanks you could probably carry less on some days, but 4 litres does not seem to be too heavy a load. You would need more if camping out of course, as we drank water or soft drink like fishes when we got to the roadhouses at the end of the day.
Water tanks.
These large concrete tanks are topped up with good water by the road authorities and we found them to be clean and unvandalised. The tanks were sometimes next to a galvanised-steel shade structure, which was very welcome when having a break. In case of pollution from dead birds or animals we added some PuriTabs to the water, but it seemed clean.
The tanks were spaced about every 80 km in South Australia, at motorist resting areas, which are cleared areas where you can pull off the road in safety. Not every rest area had a water tank though, and information on their location was not readily available. There were some signs in South Australia indicating the distances to the next rest area and whether there was water there. A publication by the SA road authority did have their location specified in it. The tanks seemed to get less frequent across the border in the Northern Territory, but there were a few. The locations are given later in the route description, as best as we can remember. Also refer to the details in Gloria Newhaven's web sites given at the end.
Roadhouse attendants usually did not know where the next water tanks were as most of the attendants seemed to be recent arrivals who had never gone any further north!
Dealing with Road Trains
The road trains - large trucks with two or three trailers - carry most of the fresh food, goods and cattle between Adelaide and Darwin and to the towns along the Track. Over a period of a month on the Track we were passed by probably hundreds of these large vehicles.
Trevor had some experience of road trains on previous rides across the Nullarbor and through Queensland, but I was a little worried about these thundering behemoths. Stories abound of their drivers "get out of the way" mentality, but in practice they turned out to be not so menacing. The really big boys, with three trailers, are speed limited to 92 km/h, and they seemed to keep to that. The steady low revving diesel engine can be heard for kilometres behind you on the flat and because of the low traffic levels on the Track, and the long straight sections, there is usually plenty of room for the road trains to move over the centre line a little and pass safely.
If the drivers see a problem, like oncoming traffic, they will give a blast on their horn. In this case, the louder or longer the horn blast the faster you should get off the road. However, in general, the gravel shoulder is often loose or rough, so it is best to stay on the bitumen unless you really have to leave it, and let the traffic go round you. Be extra aware approaching bends or crests. The paved shoulder, when present, is often narrow and can have steep edges.
I was more worried by motor cars, which were going much faster and sometimes did not leave as much room as they could. I had a fear that someone would fall asleep at the wheel and drift off the road, but the chance of that happening just as they passed us were pretty small I figured.
The shock of the bow wave from the passing road trains can be substantial. Sometimes, with oncoming road trains, the buffeting slowed us right down to a crawl. If passing from behind, it could give a welcome push. It is best to keep a straight line and a firm grip on the handlebars. Be prepared to correct your line if pushed to one side a bit, especially if the shoulder is poor.
Close shaves
We did have a few close shaves, but probably only once was the truck driver really to blame. The other times there was oncoming traffic and there was no room for the road train to move over when passing. On one such occasion a road train caught up to us by surprise just over the crest of a hill on a bad section of rutted shoulder, with oncoming traffic (half the Australian Army in convoy. I would have moved off onto the gravel shoulder but I was trapped in a wheel rut on the very edge of the bitumen, and punctured my tyre on a rock sitting in the rut just as the road train was passing within centimetres.
The most dangerous case occurred when we moved off the road in a hurry onto the gravel shoulder in response to an urgent horn blast from a road train coming up behind us and seeing oncoming traffic, on a rare bend in the road. The road train passed closely but safely and we were just about to veer back onto the road when another road train, following too closely behind the first, rushed by. The moral of the story is: there may be another one still to come.
So, it can be dangerous on the track, and you should keep your wits about you and try to anticipate trouble, but road train drivers are skilled and seem to be generally not out to get you. We met some drivers in a road house cafe who had passed us a number of times over the four weeks we were on the road. One burly bloke, when asked by Trevor what he thought of bicyclists on the Track, not knowing that we were cyclists, said " they're just f*$#%g nuisances, mate, and I can't understand why anyone would want to do that". I thought later I might have said to him:" I can't think why anyone would want to drive up and down this road all year, either!'' However, to avoid bloodshed, then or later, I said nothing.
Night cycling
Cycling at night should probably be avoided as oncoming traffic could reduce the chances of drivers seeing you when overtaking. Take lights anyway in case you do need to cycle at night.
|1 Intro|2 why and when to go|3 what to take|5 on the road|6 places along the way|7 distances and water|8 web info|9 Trevor Briggs|
