July 22nd.
The Bae
chair has finally arrived the main
problem seemed to be the customs in
Sidney who held it for nine days before
releasing it because they thought
it had drugs in it! They are now holding
the Fujitsu laptop and refusing to
release it unless we give them a resident
fixed address... the case continues...
Having done
two days P.R. work ,stocking the food
cupboards and general 'fix its' to
the cycles and chasing missing post
we were up bright and early to do
some filming with the BBC in and around
Alice Springs before we met the
Mayor for
a send off from Adelaide House. The
BBC, ABC and Imparja (Channel Eight
News) were all in attendance.
We made
our way out of the city and had travelled
6 miles when I had my second puncture
in as many days, the tyres are obviously
getting near to the end of their life
and ready for a change.
We set off
once again and for once the usually
now straight road took a sharp turn
to the right ,the wind had been strong
since leaving Alice Springs,but was
now straight in our faces. The day
was going to be hard with no give
,even though the road was to be flatter
than usual.
The scenery
changed today becoming more barren
in places at times but looking very
much like the Lowlands of Scotland,leaving
the cold wind to embrace us even more.
We have noticed more wildlife than
of late,wild 'ferral' ponies and cattle.
There have been an abundance of Eagles
flying above our heads - a wonderous
sight -they were after the fresh road
kill.
We covered
63.5 miles in less than 5 hours despite
the cold winds and averaged 13.9 mph
to finish 9 miles south of 'Jim's
Place' at Stuarts Well,which was yet
another roadhouse consisting of a
petrol station,cafe and caravan site
behind it. We returned to Jim's Place
to spend the night before more filming
with the BBC and were called upon
by the District
Governor
of the Lions Club who was surprised
that we had made so much ground.
Tomorrow
we will be setting off down the highway
towards Erldunda,Desert Oaks where
we will turn off and head west for
one night to stay at Ayres Rock on
Friday to do some final filming and
return to Erlunda on Saturday evening.
Sunday it will be all systems go when
we start our charge towards Coober
Pedy.
July 24th
Today was
a very long day filming with the BBC,
but we travelled south to Kulgera
during a cold and blustery day,. This
made the day feel longer and the whole
team is feeling very lethargic on
the whole.
July 26th.
We have
made very good ground today and probably
had the best day of the journey.
The day
started with a change in the wind
,which turned NE instead of the usual
Southerly head on wind that we have
faced so far since leaving Darwin.
Also the roads were more favourable
than recently. This helped to make
good
progress
from the beginning and we clocked
18.2. miles in the first hour and
another 18.5 in the second hour. I
clocked 1 hr 25 mins and 25 secs for
the marathon distance. We covered
91.8 miles to finish North of a place
called Marla.
