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Melbourne to perth solo ride in early February 2018 Melbourne to perth solo ride in early February 2018
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Australia / New Zealand Topics specific to Australia and New Zealand only.
Photo by Marc Gibaud, Clouds on Tres Cerros and Mount Fitzroy, Argentinian Patagonia

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Photo by Marc Gibaud,
Clouds on Tres Cerros and
Mount Fitzroy, Argentinian Patagonia



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  #1  
Old 14 Nov 2017
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The other thing to do is goto any of those websites that compare the sizes of the continents as world maps distort the size of Australia and make it look substantially smaller than it is - Mercator Projection.


200 to 300kms a day is very easy to do, following around the coast you may get sidetracked - beaches, national parks, various "BIG" things. Once on the Nullabor Plain and with scenery not changing a great deal and only limited access to anything either side I think you'll find that a 1000km day is not out of the question.


Don't ever - EVER - ride at dusk or dawn unless you wish to have a large kangaroo share the bike with you.


Road trains use the Nullabor - about 50m long. Treat with caution, don't stop on the road.


Water - make sure you carry enough to cope with a 2 or 3 day delay/breakdown on the Nullabor. If you go in February you'll need 4 litres a day just riding, you can really dehydrate in high temps sitting on a bike, if you have to do any hard physical activity that can go up to 8 litres a day. Cover up, never get tempted to ride without gloves and good clothing even if its hot.
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Old 15 Nov 2017
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The basic suggestions above are to stick to the coast and follow that around. If you find it cool temperature wise then you can go inland a bit - as soon as you feel it hot return to the coast.
I'd advise taking a gps to help navigate the cities at least.
From Port Augusta to Norsman fuel stations are few and far between .. there should be signs warning of how far it is to the next fuel stop. This section include the 'Nullabour' .. there are short tracks off to coastal views - these are worth doing to see what is there.

Shortest route is 3,420 km... 5,100km if you stick closer to the coast. That is a little too long to recommend a single route. Particularly when you don't give an indication of what you want to see.
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  #3  
Old 16 Nov 2017
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Originally Posted by Warin View Post
The basic suggestions above are to stick to the coast and follow that around. If you find it cool temperature wise then you can go inland a bit - as soon as you feel it hot return to the coast.
I'd advise taking a gps to help navigate the cities at least.
From Port Augusta to Norsman fuel stations are few and far between .. there should be signs warning of how far it is to the next fuel stop. This section include the 'Nullabour' .. there are short tracks off to coastal views - these are worth doing to see what is there.

Shortest route is 3,420 km... 5,100km if you stick closer to the coast. That is a little too long to recommend a single route. Particularly when you don't give an indication of what you want to see.
I would prefer to ride along a the costal road(GOR) is a must.
Will ride in slow pace and sure will stop before dark.
I really want to enjoy the scenery road for 20 days on the bike !!!!!
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  #4  
Old 4 Dec 2017
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As other have already said, it's the worst time of year for this journey. If you ride in protection gear you will be very hot. If you ride with bare arms and legs you will end up with wind burn.


I highly recommend a visit to Koonalda, an abandoned cattle station a few km from the highway. You can sleep inside the house or cottage and see the huge auto graveyard. The gravel road in was rough and not signposted when I was last there. There are several videos of the place on Youtube.

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  #5  
Old 15 Nov 2017
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Originally Posted by RogerM View Post
The other thing to do is go to any of those websites that compare the sizes of the continents as world maps distort the size of Australia and make it look substantially smaller than it is - Mercator Projection.
Absolutely correct.

Australia is around 95% as big in area as America’s lower 48 states. Exclude the USA's share of the Great Lakes (Superior-Michigan-Huron-Erie-Ontario) and you'll probably find that the comparable land masses of Aus and the contiguous states are very similar.



America’s Lower 48 = 3,119,885 square miles (8,080,464 sq km)
Australia = 2,941,300 square miles (7,617,930 sq km)

[Source: Wikipedia]
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Old 24 Jan 2019
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Originally Posted by RogerM View Post
Water - make sure you carry enough to cope with a 2 or 3 day delay/breakdown on the Nullabor. If you go in February you'll need 4 litres a day just riding, you can really dehydrate in high temps sitting on a bike, if you have to do any hard physical activity that can go up to 8 litres a day. Cover up, never get tempted to ride without gloves and good clothing even if its hot.

This is an important note. You may drink more than 4 Litres of water a day just to survive summer temperatures across the nulabor. I worked in that area in the early 2000's for a few weeks in Feb and temperatures rarely dropped below 30c, usually in the high 30's and early 40's for days. Working outside we would easily go through 6-8 litres per person per day plus other drinks etc.
There is no abundance of shade so you are exposed on a bike which makes breaks etc important to find somewhere you can sit in the shade. We actually sat in the shade of the bikes on another trip as that was all we had.. good times.
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