No more kangaroo!

I spoke too soon. That very night, one of the riders had a nasty tangle with a kangaroo. We don’t want riders coming in when it’s dark, but this bike had had to go into Adelaide for a quick fix and that meant no option but a final couple of hours at night to catch up with the main group. It was a small roo, killed outright but enough to batter and bruise one of the team and leaving the war wounds visible on the bike. Still, no permanent damage done and a salutary lesson to all.

The stop at Quorn was the night of the Royal Wedding and it felt like the whole town had turned out and crammed itself into the only pub to watch it on the big screen. Our hostess, Nadine, managed to keep the food coming but everything stopped for the wedding vows – even the most cynical of outback bloke, seemed to shut up. The next morning we leave early, to Nadine’s warning “Watch out for the hoppers – it’s still early. They’ll be up on the Pass”. And so our final bit of twisty road (in the whole of Australia!!) was met with a gentle ride to avoid the fate that had befallen one of us the night before.

The temperatures climb as we reach Coober Pedy. We’re in an underground cave hotel, formerly an old opal mine, which keeps things cool. A fascinating tour by the owner shows us a complete labyrinth of tunnels under where we sleep – on tunnelling out the mine to make rooms, he also tumbled on an ancient pocket of opalised sea shells, which he keeps for display to the visitors rather than sell for the cash!

It’s onto the Northern Territory. The Outback for real. And Uluru. I went expecting not to be impressed. Just a lump of rock in the desert, right, and some very long straight roads to get there. Not to mention the rain! How can it rain in the desert?! All the locals say it’s been the wettest season they remember, so it was a chilly and wet days ride to get to the huge monolith. We were to be denied a sunset on our first night, as the rock stood under stony black skies. But the next day was bright, the roads dry, and we took a ride around the rock – the road so unbelievably close – you are just drawn to it, it is mesmerising, it holds your gaze. It felt a privilege to be there. And that evening, the whole team rode out to the sunset. Just beautiful and worth the square tyres to get to see it.

A quick dip into Alice Springs en route north, where Van Man, Brenden, has a different type of tangle with a kangaroo. His is a nicely done fillet on his plate that reeks its revenge during the night and wipes him out for the next 48 hours. (By the time Brenden feels ready to try kangaroo again, some five days later, his body tells him no and that’s another night up – no more kangaroo, eh?!).