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12 Apostles
Or about 6 now? :)
Warnings to drivers probably because they'll sometimes cross the road to get to another gum tree. Or could be joke warnings for tourists. Drop Bears, the silent killers...
I felt bad about giving you the fear about water but it could've easily been 10deg hotter and estimates of time to services goes out if you get fierce headwinds.
road surfaces are really smooth and maintenance is good
Yeah, I used to bitch about Melbourne roads... until I moved here.I got asked a thousand times how I had managed to control the bike with my 'disc' wheel
I had your back on that question for twitter, etc :)
My survival strategy was to move here.. I'd still kill about 3 drivers a day if they were legal..
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There were warning signs round there about koalas, but I wasn't sure what the risk was - were they going to cuddle me or what?
They were warning about drop-bears not koalas. https://australianmuseum.net.au/drop-bear
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hippy
Colonel_of_Truth
@frank9755
I saw 5 live kangaroos altogether. And about a thousand dead and decaying ones in the Nullarbor. The last live one I saw was bouncing down the road in front of me and kept tripping up. Didn't seem the smartest of animals. Eventually went off the road to the right and smashed into a fence.
I did see most of the GOR in the daylight but there were a few hours in the middle where it got dark so I missed some of the scenic bits like the 12 Apostles.
There were warning signs round there about koalas, but I wasn't sure what the risk was - were they going to cuddle me or what? It was so cold the night I "slept" at Lavers Hill that I wouldn't have minded a couple of them for warmth.
The flies were everywhere in the daytime but they were hardly any at night so bivvying was no problem. The daytime ones were bastards; one type could keep up with me at c.20kmh and could bite, even through shorts and jersey.
My bike was good.
I'd panicked a bit about water as it wasn't hot across the Nullarbor, so a normal setup would have been fine with, say, 3 bottles - which is what everyone else had. Still, better to carry more than run out.
I didn't use the aerobars the last couple of days as I was worried about Shermers: neck got sore and I couldn't fully extend so couldn't actually see from the aerobars. I would set them a bit higher in future.
I had some foot / achilles / shin issues which meant I had to keep adjusting stuff, like cleats and saddle height, all the time.
Was pleased I used my best wheels: road surfaces are really smooth and maintenance is good - 0 potholes in WA and about 3 in SA. Wheel covers were good: nobody else used them and, because they don't do TTs in Australia, no-one knew they don't affect handling, so I got asked a thousand times how I had managed to control the bike with my 'disc' wheel. Managed to knacker my back tyre - sidewall puncture - just like TCR, only this time I had tubes. Had to do a boot, then begged a spare off 3 tourists going the other way, who had stopped to give me a cheer and an energy bar!
Jesse is up for doing it again, but he's obviously got to let things take their course following Mike's death, and decide if it's sensible to put it on / what casualty rate is acceptable, etc. Rapha seemed to be ok with doing it - I had thought sponsors might run a mile if / when someone got killed. Also he said he needs to work out how much money he sunk into it, which must have been a fair bit.
I have to say I'd be wary of doing it again from a traffic danger point of view (everything else about it was great), but you've got the experience of riding there and will have worked out survival strategies better than I did!