Posts by BIKE-HEDONIA
Dust & Joy
The map showed only one main road running East along the coast, and I'd just found it completely closed by road works. Not a good start...
Escape from Dili
I woke up hungry in Dili that morning and could feel my energy fading as I packed up my things. Beastie was still locked up in the ship...
First night in Dili
That first night in Dili, I bought myself a beer and watched the light fade over the traffic along the Avenida de Portugal. On the othe...
Landing in Dili
The day I flew to Dili I was almost sick with excitement. Only one day into my life as a grown up person of thirty, and here I was flyi...
Reality Check
I'd made it to Darwin; Asia was just beyond the horizon. I could practically smell it. Seeing it was more difficult. Five times a day I...
Smoke gets in your eyes
I'd soaked in the hot springs and from there it was an easy run into Darwin - just four hundred kilometres up the highway.
I wasn't in ...
Bitter Springs
I woke late in a lather of sweat and humidity. The sun was on my tent and it was steaming me slowly like a greenhouse tomato.
I'd slep...
Last Road to the End of Australia
I emerged onto the great north-south sweep of the Stuart Highway at Daly Waters. It's a smooth strip of bitumen that neatly bisects Aus...
Heartbreak Hotel
I woke in the pink of dawn and packed up my roadside camp, eyes still blurred by sleep and grit. There was no shade and I was racing th...
Roadside Assist
I pulled out of Barkly Homestead and turned off the main highway. Instead of following the main road west until I hit the gigantic nort...
Into the Northern Territory
In Camooweal that morning, I treated myself to a milky coffee at the road house where I fueled up. It had been a nice camp spot down by...
A Fine Balance
I'd investigated different routes from Boulia to Mount Isa, and the minor road through Urandangi looked like it might be fun. Local enq...
Vulnerable
I pulled off the road near a water tank, somewhere between Boulia and Mount Isa. The sun was dropping rapidly; time to find some firewo...
Beastie Disassembled
By the next day I knew I'd be waiting a little while for my new tyres to make the migration from east coast Australia to the outback, b...
Hot winds and a technological death
I was just leaving Birdsville when I noticed a new, rough note in the sound of Beastie's single-cylinder thump. It wasn't quite a rattl...