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Report of a self-supported and self-planned bicycle tour on the famous Birdsville Track, Australia. Monsoon rains added an unexpected degree of difficulty...

Summer, Sun, Sand and Mud - cycling the Birdsville Track, Australia

Waltraud
2004-03-05 13:53:55

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and in pastures, possibly due to their positive effects on regulation of the ground water level. The undergrowth in the Eucalyptus forests is a dense mixture of grass trees, cycads, and vines. In between these, we discover huge spider webs made of golden thread! Colorful butterflies cross the road and at the road side we find run-over pythons – the longest was 2.30 m long.

Then we discover an echidna, crossing the street in front of us. As soon as it discovered us, it rolled into a ball, and even though we waited several minutes, it did not want to show us its face. Echidnas are strange animals, the are somewhat like mammals, since they milk their young, but then the lay eggs, similar to birds.

The Expedition Range

We reach the Dawson Highway and now have to get used to even more increased traffic. There is not much choice in roads to the Pacific. Once more we are fighting the wind over one hill after the next. Due to the humidity our shirts don't dry again. In the distance we see a higher mountain range – we want to reach it today. It seemed like 20 km, but ended up being 60 km of ups and downs. The forest through which we are passing is full of plant species unknown to us. Giant Eucalypt trees with pink bark, yellow flowering acacias, lianas, grass trees, bottle trees, etc. Unfortunately the forest areas have tremendously shrunk over the last decades. Now forest is limited to small patches at the mountains, where farming is not worthwhile. We like the name of this mountain range: Expedition Range. The pass we are crossing is 455m above sea level, which is really not much for a mountain range. Since Australia is a very old continent, also the mountains have suffered a lot more erosion than young mountain ranges like the Alps or the Himalaya. We spend the night on the pass to be enjoying a long downhill the next morning, and also it is a lot easier for us to find a secret camping spot than it would be in the farming ...