Well it is 2015 now. It only seems like a month or two ago I spent NYE 13-14 in a cavers hut in NZ after a day of blackwater rafting. A memory-blurred few weeks ago seems to take me back to camping out in the Namadgee national park near Canberra following one of the hardest rides I have ever done over the NYE 12-13. So with a little reflection on […]
The last fortnight has been awesome, truly great and just plan good. Over the past two weeks I have had some great adventures in Alice Springs, Canberra and possibly even around Sydney though I might have to think a bit harder about that one to come up with an example. Over the long weekend I was lucky enough to be able to go up to Alice Springs for the weekend […]
Tomorrow is my last day in Alice Springs. As it turns out the world around me wanted to say goodbye on Wednesday by offering an amazing day of rain followed by on of the best sunsets I have ever seen, and living out here that is a big call. Sitting at the first saddle of the Mt Gillen walk I was treated to rainbows, glowing mountains in the distance, golden […]
Yesterday I had a mid-week adventure to rival all others. Central Australia has received vast amounts of rain recently (20-60mm) and as a result all of the gorges have been filling up, and as anyone who has been following the blog would know I have been making the most of it! Yesterday’s mid week adventure was to Palm Valley, an isolated valley full of cycads and palm trees an hour […]
Rainbow Valley is about an hours drive from Alice Springs. The large, multicolour sandstone monuments rise out of the low lying sand dunes and claypans that surround this isolated relic of a bygone landscape. Everyone I’ve spoken to about the valley has told me the best time to visit is early in the morning or for sunset (campsites look good), but I’m really glad we went out during the middle […]
Last night while driving out to Simpsons Gap we could see the thunder heads of a summer storm in the desert. The rain it may have produced certainly never reached us so we remain stuck in the sticky heat of humidity in the desert. It is nice that the desert is so green at the moment, but honestly a little respite would be great!
This long weekend we headed out to Ormiston Gorge (1.5 west of Alice) for a nice little summer camping trip. When we left it was a chilly 37 degrees so I was expecting a weekend of unpleasantly hot weather. As it turned out the cloud came out, the water level was seriously high and everything was awesome aside from some vicious and evil mosquitos. The past year or so the […]
I took me new Surly ECR for its christening ride yesterday. For anyone one who has read and day dreamed about these – they are more amazing than you could have imagined. For a quick bit of nerd out, my bike has been built up with a pd8 front hub, alfine 11 rear hub, old man mountain rack and near standard parts everywhere else. At 17.5kg it is by no […]
Hi All,
The blog has been a little quiet for the past few months, but it is Christmas time and I thought it time to join the cheeriness. So have two photos! One in my christmas present to myself for the next few years, the other is a strange likeness of me that I just happened to find on the internet!
Over the weekend some friends and I went camping at Redbank Gorge and climbed Mt Sonder. It was an awesome weekend with lots of swimming, but 35 degrees on the last day of winter is a bit rude really. Anyway, I survived, I didn’t reach the top of Sonder because I couldn’t handle the heat, but I had a great weekend. Enjoy my happy snaps!
The Graceful Cyclists 