Day 107

Date:- 29 June 2010
Distance:- 84.51 Km
Distance to Date:- 5348.0 Km
Start:- Soudan Rest Area
Finish:- Wonarah Bore Rest Area (4)
Comment:- Up about 6am this morning after a reasonably good nights sleep. Had breakfast then commenced packing up. I had to move my bike and trailer to where I can load it, and on moving it I noticed I had a broken spoke. Guess where, rear wheel cluster side (chain drive) Fortunately I am carrying the tools for such an occasion. So remove the wheel from the frame, deflate the tyre and remove the tyre and tube. Remove the cluster and remove the broken spoke. Insert new spoke only to find the spoke nut still had the remains of the old spoke embedded in it, and I don’t carry any spare spoke nuts. Fixed problem the best I could and reassembled the wheel, back into the frame and will hope the repairs will carry me through to Katherine.

On the road by 8.20am with a SE tail wind and an excellent road. Cloudless skies once again. Quite a bit of army equipment being trucked west today.

Rode past the Wongarra Aboriginal Settlement and onto the Wunara Store Rest Area (3) The store is closed, no toilets, no water, just an area to camp.

Stopped for my break about 11.30pm and while I was having it a Britz Camper Van stopped, 4 young girls jumped out and wanted to know if I was OK. If they could give me a lift somewhere. I said no and they then offered me a bottle of water, filled one of my water bottles and gave me to Mars bars. It was a very nice gesture.

Saw about five or six wild camels in the distance, other than that an uneventful day. Arrived at the rest area and met up with a gentleman I had met at an earlier rest area and he gave me a very nice cup of coffee. Set up camp and wandered around a bit, then did my diary before cooking tea and retiring to bed.

Tomorrow my destination is the Barkley Homestead about 40km from here. Again no mobile phone coverage.