Pre – Ride report
Our most recent life member – Peter Damm, has given me the thumbs up to copy his first post on his ride, (with his wife, Suzanne) across the Nullarbor. Links to follow the ride – and hikes – are at the end or the article.
Peter Skinner – Ride Reporter
Planning - by Peter Damm
Crossing the Nullarbor has always been on our bucket list. Somehow it always seemed to be a ride we’d do, but most likely some years off. While searching around for somewhere to tour this winter the Nullarbor kept on coming to mind. So, we decided this year would be our year. We’ll be rolling along Australia’s longest straight roads.
The core of the trip now decided we set our minds to where we would start and finish. Perth, Esperance and Kalgoorlie were all likely start locations as they all have good airports. Adelaide seemed the logical conclusion.
Perth turned out to be too far for the time we had available. Kalgoorlie had the super pit to visit but Esperance with its coast and nearby Cape Le Grand National Park won out. We’d fly to Esperance, spend a couple of days hiking in the national park then start riding.
Two years ago we cycled from Port Augusta to Adelaide as part of a longer tour and we'd prefer to ride in new country. Then an old memory surfaced about giant cuttlefish spawning off the coast of Whyalla. Google confirmed winter is their Whyalla time, the local dive shop offers snorkelling tours for mug punters like us and we could be there to see them. So Whyalla is our end point.
From Esperance we hug the coast as much as possible beside the Great Australian Bight to Port Lincoln then up the west coast of the Spencer Gulf for our date with canoodling cuttlefish in Whyalla. Along the way we’ll take a break from riding to hike in some national parks. There is a 3 day hike in the Coffin Bay National Park and a 6 day hike in Lincoln National Park on our list.
After clicking and tapping away at the computer over a few weeks we had a neat two-page summary / cheat sheet of the tour. Every day was allocated, some to riding, some to hiking, some to rest. Camping locations were identified, distances and total climbing calculated. We felt very organised. So much for plans created in the calm and sterile environment of the home office - We’ll see what happens on the road…
Updates are at https://www.crazyguyonabike.com/doc/SMPD2023GAB
Scroll down to the bottom of the table of contents to see the latest entry.
PS Suzanne is carrying a Spot tracker. You can see where we are at any time by clicking https://maps.findmespot.com/s/SRVM
The intended route is shown in the following link:
2023 Ride Across the Nullarbor