April 24, 2024
Cycle Day 2 - Acacia CP to Adelaide River
Cyced 53km today and the total journey is 101km so far
Temperature is 35 degrees with last nights low of 24 degrees
Winds today were from the East and light approx. 10km per hour
Unpowered camping = $20 at the showgrounds
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Well our summer tent set up sort of worked mmmm sort off! Got in there just before the sunset and the mossies came out and it was hot in there (around 29 degrees) but not that sweat was dripping off you but more just sitting on your skin. However during the night you felt the temperature drop to a very pleasant 24 degrees so we both had a good nights sleep. Not sure but somehow I have woken up with a whole heap of mossie (at least we think they are) bits all over my 2 legs and no where else. I did think midgies but not sure if they were around there. They are bit welts and the hot weather is not helping. It is taking a great deal of will power not to scratch them but last time I came out with welts like this from midgies I scratched them and it took weeks to heal!
Let me show you what we had for dinner last night. The servo does have hot meals but they are the usual deep fried stuff - something we are not ready to crave yet (but give it time!) So it is Heinz peppered steak tinned chunky soup and noodles. On any non cycle touring day I would turn this down but I was starving and we are cycle touring so it was absolutely delicious!
As you can probably guess by now it is hot up here in the Northern Territory and will continue to be so until possibly after Broome where we hope the day temps will get below 30 degrees. We are anticipating the night temps will be below 20 degrees once we get to Katherine but the day temps will continue to be in the 30s all the way across to Broome and possibly further south.
We left this morning at just after 8am and by first break just after 9am we are completely saturated and my shirt is clinging to me on the back and Neil had massive sweat marks (now Neil doesn't normally show signs of sweating but no one is immune from sweating up here ... not even Prince Andrew!)
The riding is pretty go for the first 30km (until about the turnoff to Batchelor/Litchfield NP) and then the road looses its shoulder and the lanes feel like they have narrowed a bit - probably the old highway. But what is really obvious is it is really lush and green after a very late but wet wet season. We think we will have to do a bush camp after here and we are not sure how successful we are going to be as there is not too many spots so far as the grass is just too long to find anything - in another month it would be easier to find one and the grass will all be dead and it would be easier to spot openings.
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the higway follows the rail way line and yesterday we didn't see any but today at around 11am the Ghan passed us travelling south to Alice Springs/Adelaide
Leanne and Russel - I just can't resist this dig at caravaners ... there was a guy staying at the Acacia CP who himself was a grey nomad and he said there is one thing he hates - grey nomads caravaning! But wait there is more .... yesterday a caravan overtook us on the double lane highway out of Darwin and instead of easing off just 5km per hour or moving into the next lane earlier he maintained his speed and another car in the other lane came up alongside him just as he was overtaking us and he begins to move over into the lane with the car edging the car over even further and wait there is another one ... today there was a long straight section of highway and we were riding in the lane, hardly any traffic, in fact none behind us, and a caravan behind a small mobile home decides to over take the mobile home with us just 50m ahead, the mobile home immediately pulls over almost coming to a stop and we jump onto the shoulder - now why the caravan just didn't wait until we passed them before over taking the mobile home is a mystery that will never be solved - Crikey we see so much bad driving by everyone that I should write a book!
One thing with this hot weather is there is higher humidity in the morning around 60-70% and this drops to around 40-50% in the afternoon so by lunchtime it is already at the days high and any body of water we see (even if it is a fetid puddle) looks very inviting! Even when we crossed the Adelaide river it looked really good to just throw ourselves in - there were a few locals swimming in there when I took this photo.
Not sure if there would be crocodiles in there!
We get to the showgrounds after picking up some eggs, bread and breadrolls for dinner tonight as there is no facilities to cook here at the showgrounds but there is a pool!
Neil has bitten the bullet and cut of his sleeves of his long sleeve riding shirt (bit ridiculous having long sleeves in this heat let alone using a heavy cotton shirt - long sleeve light shirt would be better and I did offer to make one like my shirt but he turned me down)
the place is beginning to fill up as it is ANZAC day tomorrow and everyone comes for the dawn service and on the other side of the park is where they go for morning tea...
the area just above the tent was under water 2 weeks ago! The grass is long in fact too long for the tent so we are on shorter grass under a tree and we just keep moving everything to chase the shade.
Tomorrow is a rest day here as we think the roads will be busy with the ANZAC services here - they are expecting over 400 for morning tea (but not 400 camping in the showgrounds - it just holds the morning tea function)
Today's ride: 53 km (33 miles)
Total: 101 km (63 miles)
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