Stuey Time

Day 38

7 May 2009

Stuart Highway

76.65km

Total Riding Time: 3hours 37minutes

Underground sleeping was different. Felt like sleeping in the enclosed garage. There were only 1-2 other occupied camping cubicle on that day.

The interior is made up of a walkway that branches out to different camping spots/cubicles. Each cubicle has a light switch and that’s about it. There was a tent being pitched in one of the cubicle. It’s a bit weird having a tent under the enclosed cave.

Vacant spot

Washing was one of the priority.

There is a toilet called the ‘Thunder Dunny’ located outside the toilets. It’s a barrel toilet that could be used when the real toilets are closed for cleaning. The management are an organized lot.

After checking out from the campsite, we headed again to town center for food and water reload. We may need about 3-4 days worth of supplies. There isn’t any major town again after this. Just a few roadhouses along the way.

The 3/4 shopping trolley cart is loaded and very heavy too. Shoud be good for 3-4 days.

As obvious as it is, Tim Tams was on special.

The next resource we were hunting for is water. Coober Pedy has restricted water supply. I think everyone needs to buy water from the council and same goes for the travellers. It’s pretty affordable nevertheless 20cents for 30L.

First time on this bike journey we felt like pumping fuel. The water dispenser has the massive powerful fuel pump usually found in petrol station. Just that good clean water is coming out from the water pump. The water pump is actually design for huge barrels on campervans and 4WD. Basically if you have a 1 gallon barrel you insert your 20cent coins and it spits out 30L at one go and you are fine.

However, we had 2 10L water bladder and about 8 1.25L water bottles. It’s very tricky to try to move the pump and direct most of the water into the small opening of the bottle. Overall I think we only managed to fill about 27L of water into our containers and spilled about 3L inevitably.

The bicycles felt extremely heavy. Not sure how much it all weigh now probably 60-65kg per bike. However as the Stuart Highway is sealed all the way and we were riding with a tailwind it’s hardly noticeable.

Classic Coober Pedy views

One quite stretch of road

About 2 hours since leaving Coober Pedy, Anh busted his rear tyre again. We suspect all the loads are resting more on the rearwheel as he is pulling the BOB and run no front panniers. Too much for the rear wheel to handle.

Tricky small leak

After patching up the leak we kept riding along the sealed highway. We started pretty late today about 12.30pm but manage to cover good distance because of favorable tailwinds pushing us along the ride.

It’s Coober Pedy Time!

Day 37

4 May 2009

Coober Pedy

29.75km

Total riding time: 2hours 21minutes

Coober Pedy is famous for its opal mining activities and underground living. The town existed because there are considerable amount of opal found in the area. Underground living is a common practice because this town boils in the heat of the day approaching summer time. So it seems staying underground helps to maintain a comfortable temperature for the residents all year round. Survival is pretty tough out here.

This signage must be native to Coober Pedy. The message seems to imply that if you wander off towards the mining areas without permission, you may end up in a mining shaft and possibly break a few limbs in the process.

Just about 5km off from Coober Pedy town, we spotted Riba’s.  Monkey Mia did suggest to us  that this would be a good place for accommodation because it offers underground camping. We thought it must be a good idea to camp under a concrete roof after so many nights camping in the outdoor.

The reception staff was a nice guy. The deal was for camping a night underground, it cost AUD17 per person inclusive of an opal mining tour in the evening. Riba’s camping ground used to be an existing opal mine. They have refurbished it to become an underground accommodation facility.

We decided to come back to Riba’s later in the afternoon. We need to ride to Coober Pedy first to eat up well, buy some fresh food, get internet access, make some phone calls and probably visit the underground attractions in the town center.

It’s Coober Pedy Time

Fish and Chips was the breakfast. It’s miles away from the ocean but after a while of not eating any fresh fish it taste pretty gold.

Next stop was the supermarket. Coober Pedy has 2 major supermarkets. I guess we were like kids in the candy shop when we descended on all the food selection. Never had grocery shopping felt so exciting….!

Some main landmarks in Coober Pedy is The Big Winch. It is situated on top of the hill. While we were up  there, we had a good view of Coober Pedy. It’s actually very dry and barren here. Dust prevails all the time. It’s not a pretty town but it plays an important role in the opal mining community. Green plants or trees are almost non existent here too.

Still can’t figure out what are all those structures?

The next stop was the Underground Art Gallery.

Basically art works for sale are displayed inside the cave like gallery. It was midday when we arrived at the art gallery and it was hot although it’s still the month of May. When we got into the gallery it was so much cooler. Now we understand why underground living here is the way to go.

The underground church is also a good spot to visit.

‘Underground’ church meetings are held regularly at Coober Pedy. I think that’s about 4-5 churches around the town area mostly underground built.

We stumbled upon this display cardboard that records human powered travelers traveling through Coober Pedy. Looking at the list the last person before us was a push biker who left Coober Pedy 3 days ago and his name is Gilles Alberty. It would have been good to have caught up with Gilles again since The Great Ocean Road.

The most luxurious and highest rated star accommodation in town is The Desert Cave Hotel. If you want luxury and fine treatment I guess this is the place to stay. Nevertheless we made a brief tour into the underground hotel.

Grand Entrance

There is an opal jewellery shop in the hotel. This is an example of a rare and precious opal gem stone up for sale. Precious opal reflects many different mix of colors.

After running around the whole day and running low on calories we decided to consume a 2L tub of ice-cream for lunch. Pretty unhealthy but the sugar and the cooling effect does help. I guess we have to compensate dinner with a more balanced meal.

After checking in to the ‘cave’ camp we followed the tour that was conducted as part of the deal. The opal mine cave tour starts at about 7:30pm. The guide was the owner of the mine/camping area and really has a good detailed knowledge about how mining opal is done out here.

In addition to observing and listening about how opals are harvested, we do get some practical hands on practice like how to plant a TNT into the underground walls to create a blast. That’s the most fun bit!

The miners also uses a pole locator. This metal poles can swing around detecting opal embedded deep in the rocks. It starts rotating and would paused by itself when it detects opal beyond the walls. This helps the miner to know where to start blasting and drilling for opal.

Can’t quite remember what this crank was used for. Nevertheless it was a good upper body workout

After finishing the tour which took about more than an hour we head to the kitchen and cook some proper dinner. It was really good to use a proper size hot plate to cook instead of our small compact camping stoves.

Tonight’s camping spot felt very different. All surrounded by rocky walls and roof. Felt very enclosed. If there were any storms that hit tonight we’ll be pretty safe.

Woomera Xpress

Good Morning World!

Day 36

5 May 2009

Woomera to 5km from Coober Pedy

111.34km

Total Riding Time: 6hours 51minutes (LT)

Some sugar and cremes for the morning

Today we’ll be attempting to ride as much as we can along WC road towards Coober Pedy. It’s almost always the same problem-running low on food. Our food supplies would only last us for another 3 meals and there is still 4 meals ahead of us. So the key word today is ration.

Sometimes the surrounding can be extremely monotonous. Spotting a truck tire along the way creates excitement…at least there is something that stands out and look different!

That’s the morning tea break spot for today. Shades are always good out here.

More rocket testing up the skies. This one is blasting across on top of our heads…Close call

As we rode along towards noon, we met the tour bus again. This tour bus runs tours from Coober Pedy to William Creek and back. Mr tour guide was very generous in offering us fresh drinking water from his loaded bus. The tourists on the bus wanted a photo. So we requested a photo from them too. In the meantime many questions were shot at us but there were a nice bunch of people.

That’s a massive crater like depression on the ground. Wonder what sort of artillery  blew such a big hole here. This spot would be a good spot to camp for the night but it was still too early in the day. For comparison Anh is in the crater (blue pants).

One of the more spectacular terrain along this route is the Moon plain. The moon plain is famous for it’s eerie moonscape like surrounding. It’s nothing for many miles and as far as the eye can see. Littered dark brown gibber stones are scattered throughout this vast plains.

Cycling astronauts on Moon Plain. Anh is living his childhood dream.

Many movies were filmed in this area. The more famous ones are Mad Max & Priscilla Queen of the Desert.

We met the incredible dog fence again. The battered looking dog fence signage. Probably this signage would have served as a rifle target practice looking at the holes on it. Smart improvisation out here.

Dog Fence Acrobats. Dingo jumping over the fence

It’s 20km to Coober Pedy

Today was a long ride for both of us. Headwinds was quite mild and we were cruising along at about 16km/hr which is good on the unsealed track. We were mentally drained from the monotonous surrounding throughout most of the day. The moon plain was a good diversion for the mind.

We decided to set up camp along a dried creek bed. Looking at our food supplies, it would be enough for dinner tonight. However it’s just about 5km from the next big town. We could get breakfast there tomorrow morning.

We were excited with the fact that we’ll be enjoying more facilities tomorrow after about 5 days of remoteness.  Conversations for the night was filled with anticipation of what to expect in the next town, how good are the supermarkets, some clean clothes for laundry and a good shower. Basic stuff but it’s a luxury for us out here at that time.

Talent Time

One of the issue that I used to struggle with is how having desires to ride a bike or running glorifies God. When i was growing up, I spent my schooling years attending a local church. In church, I notice there are often opportunities for members to participate in dramas, acting, musical or teaching. These are all awesome activities for outreach such as being a part of  a  Christmas presentation team.

However, I personally never really have a deep desire and passion to get involve. I usually end up getting involve because most of my friends are in it or the team really need someone to play a certain role in the drama. I felt that sometimes God gave talents and passion to certain people for church related activities. If you do not have these church talent activities or passion you are stuck! But I was wrong…..

God gave each one of us different talents (Talent here is a gift in an area or different areas).  I found the answer over the years as I continue to ask God to reveal it to me. I always knew each individual is  fearfully and wonderfully made (Psalms 139:14). That means God created everyone of us unique and gave each one of us different talents, desires, passion in different areas to reach out to people of different groups, interest, backgrounds and cultures.

God gave everyone of us talents and I believe it sits deep within our hearts. So how did I truly realized that this is what I am called to do in this season of my life? When I think about my talent (in this case riding a bike/running) it creates excitement sometimes sleepless night because of the excitement. I felt at peace when I do it. It is often effortless when i get into it without needing much motivation or push from others.

In the parable of the talents (Matthew 25:14-30) there were 3 servants. The first 2 servants were faithful with their talents. There were given 5 talents and 2 talents of money each by their master. They both went away and invested in the money and each came back with 10 talents of money and 4 talents of money. The last servant receive 1 talent of money and went and hid it and still came back with 1 talent of money.

How this parable apply to me is this. The master in the parable is God. The servant in the parable is us humans. God gave each one of us talents which could be different gifts, abilities or interests. Every one is given a different proportion of talents (could be in the same area or different areas) because each one of us is unique. It dwells deep within our hearts. If we do not know the talents or gifts yet ask God. In Matthew 7:8 it says For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened. God the talent giver is also the Passion Giver (quoting from Ryan Hall’s video). So often times when you have a passion for something that builts up and does not harm others it is most likely from Him.

The key message in this parable is this. We need to be faithful with our talent/talents God has bless us with. We must find out what this talent is and start using this talent for His glory. What I felt I need to do was to start using the talent which is the first step (in this case ride a bike). How could the talent then reach out to others would be up to God to orchestra it. Our main role is to engage into the talent which is being faithful on what we have been given. In my case I engage in this bike ride trip (talent). The fruit that came forth from faithfully engaging into this talent was God gave me revelations during and after the journey which creates the desire for me to document it in this entry  through words & photographs and sharing it to you the readers.

The other lesson from the parable is that there is no point comparing. Everyone is given a different portion of talents based on how God has designed us. Some of us receive 5 talents some 2 some 1. All we need to be concern about is to use the talent to our best of abilities and be honest with ourselves whether we have give it our all. Comparing only causes us to feel inadequate or on the flip side looked down on others. We may even covet other peoples talent and always feel discontented with our gifts. What all this does is it robs away the joy of using our talents to its maximal potential.

Hence success in the eyes of God is primarily based upon how faithful we are with our God given talents. God demonstrate this fact in Matthew 25:21 “His master replied, ‘Well done good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share your master’s happiness!” Success in the eyes of God is not based upon how high of a position in an organization or how much income we are able to earn compared to others. In my example my success (in the eyes of God) in riding my bike is not based upon whether how many kilometers I rode a day or if riding in a competition whether I win a medal or even riding in the shortest possible time to get to Alice. The reason I do it is because of knowing that God has bless me with this talent and by faithfully using it to my utmost ability in expressing it back to Him, I glorify God. That’s how God measures success in us I believe.

So let us all find out our individual talent and use this precious talent that we have been bless with for His glory.

Entering the Warzone

Day 35

4 May 2009

Oodnadatta Track to William Creek Road (Woomera)

72.05km

Total Riding Time: 5hours 23minutes

Springs & Shocks

Day 35

3 May 2009

Lake Eyre South to 30km from William Creek

92km

Total Riding Time: 6hours 14minutes

The Mighty Oodnadatta

Day 33

2 May 2009

Maree to Lake Eyre South

91.76km

Total Riding Time: 6hours 19min 29secs

Day of the People

Day 32

1 May 2009

Lyndhurst to Maree (SA)

103.06km

Total riding time: 5hours 56minutes 55seconds

Presents from Adelaide

Day 31

30 April 2009

Beltana to Copley

61.83km

Total riding time: 3hours 55minutes

On the Edge of the Outback

Day 30

29 April 2009

Alpana Station to out of Parachilna (SA)

69.7km

Total Riding Time: 4hours 48min