Another great day on the bike. The cold and my desire to have bacon the eggs for breakfast saw an 8 am start. Temp was 9 c then but with yet another fine days the sun quickly saw the temp start to rise and my clothing start to come off. Reached 26 c by the afternoon. Knocked out the first 74 Kms to Eirdunda – turn off to ayers rock – in quick time with a a handy tail wind that saw a plus 30 average. Was great though to be able to stop for a little bit to eat and a coffee before the final 108 Kms into stuarts well.
The land changes here and a few craggy faces and small valley climbs and evidence of inland rivers – mostly dry. Flies now a nuisance if you stop – but the good thing is that when you remount the bike you can cycle away . This unlike the Alaskan highway where they have these real aggressive horse flies that can take a bite that eats a small chunk of your flesh. Evolving with fast moving herds of caribou – they are much more difficult to ride away from.
the wind assistance was not there for the last half – seemed to swing about every which way. was pleased finally pull into Stuarts Well at just after 4pm.
My first day leaving Adelaide – I struggled to make 100- and I wondered if I was going to warm to this big task. Now I have done 2 180 km days end on end and feel much better than I did at the end of day one. Feels great to be alive. – fit and well and only 90 Kms from Alice Springs. A pleasant surprise as Charles and I are back together again for the final run into Alice. He rode for 3 days – I did 2 big days. .

They cooked me a special order for dinner last night – the kitchen grumbled at it – but a large mixed grill arrived on one plate and a full second plate with cooked vegetables. Think the body needed lots of replenishment after so much exercise.

Then came the entertainment. Dinky the singing and piano playing Dingo. Kid u not!
There was an audience of perhaps 18 tourists – grey nomads- and Jim the proprietor – raconteur and owner of Dinky tells his ( very long winded) tale. One of Dinky’s claims to fame is that there is a question about him in trivial pursuit. – something like where does the Australian singing and piano playing dingo live? other interesting trivia is that while the Aussy Abo’s have been here for upwards of 60 – 80,000 years ago – academics believe that the dingo has only been in australia for a short time – as short as 5000 years . Jim was also very entertaining – disabusing us of the notion that Australian parents in the NT bring up their children by sticking their fingers down dingos throats!