London to Auckland - stage six

London to Auckland - stage six. The story of the recent adventures of one of our volunteers.

Australia - November 2019 - January 2020 - All About the Cycling

We'd been told that the Austalian customs were very strict on bringing outdoor equipment into the country - it has to be spotless. So even though we knew we had scrubbed everything to within an inch of its life, it was with some nervousness that we walked into the customs area of Perth airport. But the officer there just waved us through and didn't even check - but at least our consciences were clear!

From Perth we cycled south along the west and south coasts of the state of Western Australia, which turned out to be absolute gems and almost devoid of tourists…

We then crossed the mighty Nullarbor Desert - a 1,200km stretch of nothing much except desert….

Food and water for this part of our journey needed careful planning and we had to carry an additional 10ltrs of water each as the temperatures got up to 45C at times. On a couple of occasions could see the smoke from bush fires and at one point fires had closed the main highway behind us, so it was definitely a big undertaking.

However, the Australian are fantastic people and the many motorhome and caravan owners ('grey nomads') on the road would regularly take it upon themselves to look after us by giving us cold drinks and food. This friendliness also extended to the many different people that we stayed with throughout Australia and so we had a great time! From the desert our cycle route took us through Adelaide and along the Great Ocean Road to Melbourne, where we spent a very different Christmas and New Year to what we are used to in the UK and Ireland.