{"id":1115,"date":"2016-09-14T22:36:47","date_gmt":"2016-09-14T12:36:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cyclingwild.com.au\/?p=1115"},"modified":"2016-11-01T22:08:07","modified_gmt":"2016-11-01T11:08:07","slug":"oodnadata-by-bike-part-3-a-reflection-one-year-on","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cyclingwild.com.au\/blog\/oodnadata-by-bike-part-3-a-reflection-one-year-on\/","title":{"rendered":"Oodnadata by bike: Part 3 : A reflection one year on."},"content":{"rendered":"
I arrived in the City of Churches 13 days after rolling out of Alice Springs to little fanfare and celebration. A mate shouted me a smorgasbord of Gouger streets finest Chinese food, I devoured most of the five courses on the table and then slipped into a beer coma by around 10 pm.<\/a><\/p>\n It was quite an easy task to pen the first two chapters of this journey, they were in lands I had not traveled by bicycle and were the main driver of the trip to word and motivation came easily. The road home just seemed like a formality as it passed through areas I had traveled many time before by bike, foot and 4×4.<\/p>\n Getting to Marree in a way seemed like the finish, I was almost out of the desert, the Flinders ranges loomed large on the horizon and a friends Pub was only a 185km ride south. I was back on the sealed stuff for the first time in 1100km.<\/p>\n <\/a><\/p>\n Upon reaching Marree mid afternoon, I decided to stop, charge my batteries, have a good Pub meal and continue on my way in the morning. I had also spiked the interest of a Spanish guy who was about to head north on his journey, he was a little stunned at my lightweight set up and the kilometers I had chosen to tick over every day. \u00a0He had two panniers of food 25lt of water and planned to take 30 days to reach Alice.<\/p>\n I rolled out of Marree predawn under threatening skies later to find via my Spanish friends blog that the road north was impassable to bikes by midday, he was forced to turn around and spend another night in the campground.<\/a><\/p>\n I rolled south with the first tailwind I had in over a week, it was an icy desert wind but the ease of rolling on sealed roads was helping me to push the pedals hard. There was also a surprise treat in store for me, the ruins of Farina<\/a><\/a><\/p>\n The Farina Station has the usual tale of riches to ruin that dominates SA’s northern pastoral area’s. Established in a time of unseasonable abundant rainfall in the 1880’s, by 1920 it was a dust bowl over run by rabbits and prone to vicious sandstorms. In\u00a0the 1960’s the town was abandoned and only the station masters and station hands remained. Today the ruins of the town are being restored by a group of hard working volunteers. The Bakery including it’s underground wood fired oven has been restored and operate’s\u00a0during peak tourist times.<\/p>\n