ENGLISH
After leaving Port Lincoln we made our way to the west tip of the Eyre Peninsula and the lovely Coffin Bay township and national park. Coffin Bay is one of my favourite places from our whole journey. The town itself consists mostly of holiday homes and a couple over-priced general stores, but is located on some of the most naturally beautiful scenery we have encountered. It lies on a sheltered bay, surrounded by national and conservation parks. It is also the best fishing we have encountered. One afternoon we were able to catch six or seven tommy ruff (Australian herring), one salmon-trout and a trevally, as well as a myriad of other things that were too small and had to be thrown back. Cooked up with some lemon and a bit of rice they made a great meal that evening.
We spent a couple of days around Coffin bay, fishing and exploring the natural surrounds before heading north again. This final leg of our journey was made much easier by the lovely cool sea breeze blowing from the south-east for most of our way north-west to Ceduna. There were fewer little towns to pass though on the west coast, and most nights we were able to find lovely free camping spots to avoid wasting money on over-priced and usually not-so-pleasant caravan parks.
As we got close to our destination, Ceduna, we were ahead of schedule and were able to slow down the cycling and take it a bit easier. We spent more time fishing (but didn't catch anything worth keeping), and more time in the towns that we passed thorugh. One of these was Streaky bay, a lovely peacful spot where we spent the best part of a day and got a great lunch at a sea-side cafe. On the down side, it is the only town since leaving Sydney that tried to charge us for water. We were told we could get drinking water from the town council, but when I went to ask they said it would cost $10 to fill four bottles! We went back to the cafe where we had lunch instead and they happily filled them for free.
We would have liked to spend some more time swimming than we did, but that lovely cool southerly breeze that helped us out so much while cycling made it a bit too cool and windy to get in the water. However, on the last 25km stretch into Ceduna that changed. We woke up that morning with the wind already fairly strong, but it wasn't until we were almost packed up to leave that we realized the wind direction had changed. It was now coming from the north-west, and must have been 20+ knots when we finally started cycling, with gusts easily past 30 knots. That day the sun was out in full force, and with those strong, hot headwinds coming from Australia's interior it made this last day one of the hardest yet! But with the thought that Ceduna was so close, and promising ourselves a good lunch and cold drink when we got there, we were able to struggle through these 25kms and make it to Ceduna by early afternoon on Friday, December 3. Two months and 3800km after leaving Sydney we were there!
On the way into Ceduna we had met another cyclist from Perth who was touring around Australia supported by his wife and kids in their caravan. That evening we had a lovely bbq with their family, and took the next day to relax in Ceduna. Our second evening in Ceduna we went down to the foreshore where you could see a fantastic storm making its way across the water towards us. The sky was imminently dark, and we could see flashes of fork lightning cutting through to the ground and water below. That night during dinner, and into the next morning there were heavy rains, lightning and roars of thunder as the storm moved over us. Several times the thunder was so loud that I jumped, and it's sure that it was right over us. The storm made packing up and getting to the bus the next morning quite interesting, but taking advantage of what little breaks there were between downpours we managed and made it to the bus safe and sound. We are now in Adelaide after the 12 hour bus journey and more rain as we cycled to the caravan park late last night. Tomorrow we will get on a plane back to Sydney and onto our next journeys.
We will update you with some west-coast photos soon!
FRANCAIS
Apres avoir quitte Port Lincoln, nous nous sommes diriges vers la partie ouest de l'Eyre Peninsula, a Coffin Bay plus precisement. Cet endroit est magnifique, l'un de nos favorits. Le village consite en quelques maisons de vacances, deux petits magasins (tres chers) et une jettee pour accueillir les bateaux de peche. Le paysage fait parti des plus beaux que nous aillons rencontres, une sorte de baie tres abritee, borde de parcs nationaux. C'est egalement l'un des spots de peche les plus reputes, et nous avons eu pour la premiere fois un grand succes avec nos bas de ligne lancees depuis la jettee: plus qu'assez de poisson pour tout un dinner! Nous avons meme eu la chance de voir nager un pingouin a toute allure juste sous nos pied, gracieuse creature une fois sous l'eau!
Nous avons passe quelques jours a explorer la nature environnante et manque de rentrer dans des oiseaux a plusieurs reprises tous au coin d'un virage en bas de pente:
- un gala, sorte de mix entre un pigeon et un cacatoes
- un magnifique gros aigle ou vautour d'environs 1m80 d'envergure qui se repaissait d'une carccasse avec l'un de ses compreres,
- et un emeu (pour ceux qui ne connaissent pas, c'est l'autruche Australienne... c'est GROS!)
Le vent du sud que nous avons de face pendant toute la semaine precedente lorsque nous descendions la peninsule s'est maintenue tout du long, si bien que la remontee fut bien plus facile. Il y a une justice dans cette nature finalement!
Sur cette dernierre portion jusqu'a Ceduna, beaucoup moins d'habitations et plus d'opportunites pour le camping sauvage, ce que nous apprecions grandement car c'est gratuit, mais surtout parceque c'est plus amusant de vivre de manniere plus primitive et proche de la nature (tout le contraire des caravan-parks ou nous passons de temps en temps). Ceci dit, quand on fait beaucoup d'effort physique par temps chaud, je dois dire que pouvoir prendre une douche chaque jour aurai ete un confort bien apprecie.
L'autre aspect exeptionel de la cote ouest de la peninsule c'est le debut de la "Great Australian Bight" qui se prollonge tout le long de la cote pendant plus de 1000km en direction de Perth. Les point de vue sont a couper le souffle. Nous posterons des photos bientot.
Pour notre dernier jour de velo pour rejoindre Ceduna, nous n'avions que 25 km a faire, mais au moment d'enfourcher nos montures, nous sommes surpris de voir que le vent forssissant ne venait plus de la direction habituelle, mais de la direction opposee, c'est a dire tout droit de l'interieur des terres. L'air est extrement sec, et le vent tres rafaleux - probablement plus de 30 noeuds a certains moments-, si fort qu'a cause de la prise au vent offerte par nos paniers, nous sommes deportes dans les graviers sur le bas-cote de la route a plusieurs reprises. Le passage intermittent des road-trains (camions geants avec deux remorques) qui ramene le ble fraichement recolte devient pour nous un reel danger ce jour la et nous preferons nous arreter competement sur le cote a chaque fois que l'un d'eux se presente sur la route. Ce jour la, la temperature atteint les 36 degres et a notre arrivee nous sommes epuisees... et ce n'etait que 25km!
Nous passons a Ceduna la journee du lendemain pour attendre le bus qui nous ramenara a Adelaide. Un gros orage arrive a mis-journee et la foudre tombe tout autour de nous. Le spectacle est grandiose et nous sommes bien content de profiter de l'abris du camping pour nous proteger de la pluie torentielle. Le jour d'apres le tonnere gronde toujours et nous essayons de ranger nos affaires lors d'une accalmie... mais nous sommes rattrapee par les averses avant d'embarquer dans le bus... du jamais vu pour cette partie du monde en cette saison.
Nous voila donc repartie vers l'est a retracer certaines des routes empruntees auparavant, mais cette fois confortablement assis dans le siege du bus, nos velo ranges dans la soute a bagages. Douze heures plus tard nous arrivons enfin a Adelaide ou il nous reste une heure a pedaler pour rejoindre sous la pluie et dans la nuit notre camping... il est 11h du soir. Notre vol pour Sydney partira demain.
Les photos viendrons plus tard.
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