May 23, 2019

Bedourie is much like the other Outback towns we have visited in that it is small, even by Canadian town standards. Most have had populations under 100, at least one hotel and caravan park, pub and as Mark Twain put it, “some talk of building a church.” It is surprising that towns of this size can financially support even this modest infrastructure unless you consider tourism. Tourism, as much as cattle and sheep appears to be the oxygen that sustains rural towns. These towns are some distance apart and each seems to try to make the most of whatever is has around it. I can personally attest to the fact the beer is properly chilled in each and every pub we have passed.

Along the way today we crossed the Tropic of Capricorn marking the most southern position to receive the un-slanted radiation from the sun. Thankfully, those hot, direct rays are on the way north, above the Equator to the Tropic of Cancer where they will pause briefly and retrace their route south ending up again at the Tropic of Capricorn next September to mark the middle of Australia’s summer. If this were not so, our rides would be unbearably and even fatally hot.

Camping tonight is in the desert again but there is the town of Boulia another 80 or so kilometres ahead. I’ll bet the beer is cold!

Boulia!

May 24, 2019

At last, an easy day’s ride! On seventy some kilometres of blessed pavement today, the wind be damned. Most of us took the option of an early start to take advantage of the cool, still morning air. The road now is paved for the rest of our journey with the exception of road construction. It was my misfortune to hit a section under repair just as two road trains rolled through raising clouds of dense, choking dust in their wake. Most road train drivers slow down for us aand othe vehicles on gravel sections but where the road is paved, it is warp speed please Mr. Scott. If you ar on two wheel you best be well over and stopped when they roll by at speed lest their draft suck you right off your bike.

The rest of the road was an easy ride even with the wind turning against us. Still, I was hot, tired and sweaty upon arriving in Boulia. I wasted no time finding the local pub and ending my quest for that cold beer.