May 21 to 22, 2019
After a day to catch up on laundry and bicycle maintenance we were back into our saddles and on two wheels heading north for a 236 kms ride over two days to Bedourie. On the way out of town I passed the ruins of the old Royal Hotel which served Birdsville as a watering hole for thirsty cattlemen as well as a place to stay before the Birdsville races became a major, national event. Today it awaits preservation and restoration. Also on the way out of town we passed the water plant where Birdsville taps into the hot underground water that comes to the surface under force and near boiling hot. The energy is harvested to supply the town with 40% of its electricity and all the hot water anyone would care to use.
Further up the road rest the Waddi trees, a rare and interesting species native to the Simpson desert. These trees can live up to 1000 years and are fire resistant. The wood is incredibly dense and hard enough to damage an axe head. Aboriginals would often use it to transport fire from one location to another.
The road on thee first leg of this segment was a mix of gravel and pavement with gravel predominating. It was a long hot grind to our roadside camping spot in the desert. Adding to the pain was a detour the blocked our route just as we came to end of the gravel. Due to flooding on the main route another 90 kilometres of gravel awaited us the next day.
The ride that day was as expected, a real gravel grinder. At least the gravel was well graded and had little to no wash boarding. I decided to make an early start to avoid the stronger easterly winds that would be mostly head winds until the road turned to the north. Lake Mahattie is quite large and the detour around it added another 40 kms to our journey. Eventually the route turned to put the wind most at our backs and we were able to make better time to the much greener lands around Bedourie.