Distance: 733km
Dep: 10:30am
Arr: 6:00pm
Temperature: 4°C - 19°C
Total distance to date: 12,036km
Route:
- Yulara
- Ghan
- Marla
- Coober Pedy
Caption: That feeling of leaving a place way too late for a long ride? Yep, that's us, at the accoms in Yulara, doddling until 10am before grabbing brekky in the town centre.
It was one of those mornings where it was warm and toasty in bed, cooler but bearable in the room, and a walk-in freezer outside. I touched the glass door of the hotel room and it was as though I touched the wall of our fridge. We reluctantly crawled out and started to get dressed. Apparently we took our sweet time because by the time we loaded our bikes, grabbed breakfast, and hit the road, it was 10:30am - way too late for a 733km day.
Nena's fuel tank was still quite full even after yesterday's visit to Uluṟu, and Steph had a full 10L in her jerry can. We would certainly make it to Erldunda again, as it's only 250km from Yulara. As soon as we left the township, we jumped straight into battle with the strongest headwind we've ever had. It felt like a bull had his head down and was pushing against the top of my helmet. We were only going normal speeds but it felt as though we were going 200kph because of all the drag that was happening on our bikes and bodies. Nena's fuel gauge actively calculates how much range we have left, and the kilometres were dropping off like flies.
Caption: Our first refuel of the day, while getting absolutely blasted with wind.
We pulled into the Mount Connor lookout to refuel, and although we split the 10L equally, Nena's fuel gauge barely moved up at all. I went into such a full tuck position to squeeze the most out of Nena's aerodynamics, so much so that I haven't been this way since my days in the womb. We kept our pace steady throughout the ride, and I made it all the way to Erldunda with 7km of fuel to spare. My body was stiff from being knocked around while the muscles were still cold.
We left Erldunda quickly due to the flurry of eager tourists that flooded out of the many tourbuses in the carpark. The ride to Marla was another slab - much of the same scenery gave me plenty of time to reflect on what we achieved in this ride. A distance ride such as this one is as much fun as it is hard work. There's a physical and mental endurance aspect to it, and it's incomprehensible to most people who don't ride motorbikes.
We broke the ride down into days, which is then broken down into "legs" or distance between fuel stops. Each leg could be very different from each other, but for much of the Outback, it consisted of long straight stretches of batting anything from high winds, road kill, rain, heat, cold, animals, and your own thoughts. But it could also be a brain massage - long periods of time given to your brain as an opportunity to heal from past trauma, think about current events, mentally digest issues, and plan for the future.
Caption: Before we knew it, we're in South Australia!
It wasn't long until we met the South Australian border after the final town of Kulgera. The last time Steph and I were here, we turned east from Kulgera and onto a dirt road that would eventually lead to Finke, then Mt Dare, then into the Simpson Desert.
Marla was the first town since Katherine that had anything more than a standard servo-style convenience store attached to it. A mini supermarket with plenty of souvenirs, plus a cafe that served decent calamari and chips with salad. Fresh food is hard to come by in the middle of the Outback, so seeing fresh tomatoes was a mood changer after spending the last 5 hours inhaling dust. It was also plated by someone who actually cares for food. Yulara, take note.
Caption: South Australia is extremely flat and dry. It has distinct wide open plains of nothingness, not even trees for most of it. The nice thing are these huge roadtrain sized rest stops to refuel safely away from the highway.
Bellies now full, we hopped back on to tackle yet another 200km+ leg, this time with the sun setting quickly to our right. As much as we loved riding, we were keen to make it into Coober Pedy by sunset. The check-in already closed at 5pm, but we had to arrange after-hours check-in because who in their right mind would still be riding at the same time animals are out and about?
Caption: Extremely high winds reduced our range by 10-20% today. A scary thought if one isn't prepared. I started riding with my neck gaiter up to protect my cheeks from further wind damage.
The monotonous symmetrically tree-lined road started opening up into expansive rocky plains that painted the whole scene a deep rusty red. It was as though someone took a blank canvas, drew a red line directly across the middle, and painted the bottom half red and the top half blue. South Australia is so flat that its horizons play tricks on you, making it seem like you're moving forward in slow motion when your cruising speed would normally attract plenty of wee-woo wagons in the city.
Caption: South Australia is so flat the horizon starts playing tricks on you.
White, pink, and brown dirt started littering both sides of the road in small conical piles. Signs reading "ACTIVE MINE - DO NOT ENTER" warned travellers that if they proceed further, they may fall into a hole, never to be seen again.
Caption: Trying to push that setting sun a bit higher into the sky so that we'd have a longer time to ride in daylight. It didn't work.
Coober Pedy is the Opal Capital of the World, made famous due to its extremely hot weather and unique cave dwellings for many of the 1800 residents. The "dugouts" keep a relatively cool indoor temperature without the need for air conditioning, especially when they spend many days above 40°C.
As we approached the town, the sunset whispered one last breath across a cloudless sky - a celestial gradient of pink, violet, and blue, painted in smooth, parallel strokes just above the horizon. I checked my rearview mirrors where the sun had slipped beneath the flat, endless land, leaving only a final breath of fiery orange, glowing like an ember at the edge of the world.
Caption: The beautiful sunset while heading into Coober Pedy, along with distinct little mounds of dirt on both sides of the road.
We finally checked into our hotel, dropped our bags, and headed right back out to grab fuel and the best Indian food in the outback. It was our last ride day over 600km, and it pains me to think that it's one of the last times we'll enjoy the simplicity of rolling into town, finding an easy park, and not battling any traffic lights.
Caption: Coober Pedy is a very quiet mining town, but this restaurant is always full of people. Perhaps it's because it's next to the Shell, but they also do great gyros. We didn't eat here this time though.
Tomorrow we meet our friends Kim and Mark at Roxby Downs for a much-needed catch up!
