We had a great two days resting at the Ceduna Foreshore Hotel.  It’s a lovely modern hotel and restaurant owned by the local community with profits reinvested in local facilities. After my beer drought through the Nullarbor I believe they are now building a new community centre from my bar profits – I’m glad my thirst can have some lasting community benefit. This is the view I had from my bar stool:

From Ceduna we headed southwards to Streaky Bay – a slight detour but the wind was blowing that way so why not!  After two rest days in Ceduna and a following wind you think we would fly along. Well not when you’re our age – two days is just enough time for all the joints to start seizing up and it was like putting two tortoises on a bike – it didn’t look nice or smooth moving.  Now before Susan reads this I would like to add that I was actually the only one who looked like a tortoise! All that said, the two tortoises got there (110km) and came across a lovely motel (run by a Scotsman).  Here is a picture of our cabin to show we don’t always have to rough it. 

Dinner that night was beer and curry. Wonderful.  

After a couple of nights in Streaky Bay we headed back on the road east. Again, the wind was behind us and we were happy until I developed a little bit of a sore knee! 

Now all through Canada Susan had sore knees and being a sensitive guy I could tell she was in real pain especially when she was tearful.  So before we came to Australia Susan took collagen tablets to help her knees and we spent a fortune in Perth buying collagen powder.  We’re not sure it’s working that well as she still has sore knees but not as bad as before – I can tell as she hasn’t cried yet. 

Now there are two types of people when it comes to dealing with pain. There are those like Susan who soldier on and just cycle through it. She doesn’t stop giving 100% on the bike regardless of the pain she feels. As I like to say she is tough as old boots 😀

Then there are people like me who are as tough as marshmallow, a BBQ marshmallow! I’m the can’t cope type. So when my knee started to twinge I’m immediately thinking this is going to get worse.  ‘Oh, uh, uh, this is bad’. ‘It’s ligaments’. ‘Uh, uh, uh’ every time the pedal goes round. ‘I’m not going to make it, I’ll never get to Sydney’. ‘We’re going to have to stop’. ‘Uh, uh, uh’. Susan doesn’t help, of course, when she tells me ‘Do what I do just cycle through it and think of something else’ Think of something ****** else!  That’s not what I want to hear! I want somebody to blame. Yes, I want somebody to blame for my sore knee!  I don’t know why but I think shouting at them might make me feel better. I try to keep calm and we stop the bike. ‘This is bad’ I say.  Now at this time, I’m not getting much sympathy from Susan who has now pedalled through Canada and Australia for 10,000 km with sore knees. But really that’s not what this is about! This is about me!! 

Eventually I realise there is nobody around to give me a sympathy and we are on a road alone in the wilderness.  So I get back on the bike and miraculously mange to pedal onto our next destination at Minnipa.  On route we passed through Poochera which is famous for the discovery of the Dinosaur Ant.

Due to its body structure, this ant is regarded is the most primitive alive and one of the first ants to evolve from the wasp.  It’s a living fossil and Poochera is the only town in the world to survive on ant based tourism! Interesting or what?  We stayed for 5 minutes whilst Susan used the facilities and cycled on. The excitement was too much. 

We reached Minnipa after 96km. That’s 96km with my sore knee. All is not lost, however, and we may at least make Adelaide because Susan has new remedy for sore knees – she drinks jelly and I’ve also joined the jelly club. Yup apparently jelly has gelatine which is a source of collagen and good for joints. Now it appears that you can’t buy jelly in cubes anymore and it all comes in packets of crystals. So now we have a bedtime nightcap – a cup of jelly and two ibuprofen. 

Now this is a drink you have to finish reasonably quickly because if you let it get cool it starts to set in your cup. I wonder what happens when it’s in your stomach.  Does it set? I mean I sat there last night and I’m sure my stomach was getting larger as this jelly set. Susan said it was just the beer and that got me thinking all sorts of chemistry things – just how does beer and jelly interact? Now drinking jelly isn’t something I would recommend but today we found some Port Wine jelly and I’m actually looking forward to my jelly nightcap tonight. 

So as it stands just now the cycle across Australia is off!  Susan says she can carry on with her two painful knees but she has no idea what I’m going through. I will, of course, try to carry but, really, how am I expected to cycle with such a serious twinge in my knee! 😂

When we did get to Minnipa we had a good evening at the motel with a range of other travellers swapping travelling stories. We enjoyed it but you had to be a traveller to stay awake.  Today we had a great day with a short 39km to reach Wudinna.  It was our  shortest cycle to date and we finished by lunchtime. After Wudinna it’s 100km of wilderness so we will leave that for tomorrow.  

This area is known as the Gawler Ranges and is the largest area of granite in the world.  Of course, we have already cycled the Nullarbor which is the largest limestone bed in the world. I may even start a cycling geological tick list. In recognition of our locale, here is a marvellous granite statue in Wudinna titled the ‘Australian Farmer’. 

Tomorrow we head for Kimba and hopefully Adelaide in a week or so. I hope I can be a brave soldier just like Susan. Now, where’s my jelly!