Is there actually anything to see?
At first glance, it might seem that a bike tour through the Outback would be dull and monotonous. A glance at a map reveals the Stuart Highway shooting straight through a featureless expanse of desert for thousands of kilometres. The landscape is hostile and unforgiving, just barely capable of sustaining human life, and yet – it is teeming with life and full of surprises.
To bike tour down the Stuart Highway is to follow in the sandy footsteps of the early pioneers who struggled to cross the continent 150 years ago, and later, the overland telegraph route which connected Australia with Europe. For the history buffs, there are lots of information plaques and remnants from this era of exploration.
The route passes quirky villages, each of which tries to distinguish itself with some bizarre superlative; you have the smallest police museum, the most remote traffic lights, the town with the most UFO sightings. These villages are isolated and home to a quirky group of people. You have to be a certain kind of person to live in a village with only 6 residents!
Meditation
The Outback is not a route you tour to meet people, but rather to escape the busyness of normal life. After the chaos and crowds of India and South-East Asia, it was a welcome change to pedal through the desert with my routine synchronised to the rhythms of the sun.
At times, pedalling through the Outback was like running on a treadmill, and I noticed no change in the landscape and never pulled the horizon any closer, but it is a spiritual journey, with lots of thinking time. The vastness of the outback with its blue skies that balloon above you is the perfect environment for this.
Dealing with Discomfort
Right, I’m gonna be honest with you here. Cycling through the Outback is a test of how much discomfort you can withstand.
The distances are huge, and the changes are slow. Your bike will be at its heaviest, loaded down with days of food and water. It will be hot, and water will be scarce
But all that is insignificant compared to the biggest issue. The flies.
I could see the flies, great clouds of the horrible things, leaping up from the nearest cow-pat, and joining the swarm that encircled me. I could see them rejoicing that they had fresh eyes to buzz into. In this dry landscape it's the moisture they’re attracted to, so a sweaty cyclist looks as delightful to them as a cold beer and a swimming pool would have looked to me! I could feel them mopping up the sweat on my forehead and around my eyes and nostrils. I lost count of how many I accidentally swallowed or snorted. Mealtimes, which was sometimes the only enjoyable part of the day, whipped them into a frenzy, as they plunged themselves like kamikaze pilots into my pasta and tuna, where they promptly drowned. The lengths they were willing to go to to completely ruin my day was rather remarkable.
To survive the outback you’ve got to be headstrong. If you’re not at the start, you will be by the end!
Water
Water is all-important in the outback. You always need to know where your next water is coming from. There’s enough water out there so don’t worry too much, but it’s something to prepare for.
Any named location on your map will have water, and I always managed to get it for free. Occasionally I was told the taps were bore water and they recommended buying bottled water, but I drank it anyway without issue. There are also rest areas, which collect rainwater.
If you come off the Stuart Highway, the distances between water and food increase and you must plan more carefully. The longest distance without water I experienced was 200km on the Red Centre Way and on the Oodnadatta Track. On unsealed roads, that meant 3 days without water. In 40°C+ heat, that meant carrying 25 litres (25kg!).
Food
Australia is an expensive country, and Outback Australia can be 2 or 3 times more, making prices outrageous. If you are on a bigger budget, you can probably buy food most days from a roadhouse or village.
If you’re on a smaller budget, like me, I stuck to buying food from supermarkets; Woolworths, Coles, IGA, which meant I had to carry up to 15 days of food at a time, but saved some money!
I bought my food in Darwin, Katherine, Tennant Creek, Alice Springs and Leigh Creek.
Where to Stay
World-Class Wild Camping.
The Australian Outback is probably the easiest place in the world to wild camp. You might be the only person for 100’s of kilometres around.
Camping in the Outback in a unique and priceless experience. Sunset turns everything to gold, as the dying sun casts a warm hue, and at last the temperatures begin to drop. With no light pollution, there seems to be more stars than black-bits in the sky. The aboriginal people find constellations in the black gaps between the stars; whereas we have Orion’s Belt, the Plough and the Southern Cross, they have the black emu.
Rest Areas.
To stop tired drivers causing accidents there are rest areas dotted every 100 – 150km along the Stuart Highway where free camping is permitted. These are often at an important memorial for the early pioneering expeditions or the overland telegraph route. They have basic facilities such as toilets and a water tank, but more importantly, are a great place to meet other people and fend off the loneliness. You can often wow the grey nomads (retired campervan travellers) with your tales of cycling and blag some free food.
Roadhouses.
Roadhouses are a bit of a one-stop shop to the passing traveller, where you can get a beer, a pub dinner, buy some groceries, stay in a motel-style room or a campsite. I found them a little expensive so avoided staying in roadhouses, but I did cheekily dash into the showers when no-one was looking to have a wash.
Couchsurfing/Warmshowers
You will be able to find a couchsurfing/warmshowers host in Darwin, Alice Springs, and possibly as you get within a few 100km of Adelaide, but opportunities are limited.
Detours
I strongly urge you to consider these detours as exciting alternatives to the Stuart Highway
Lichfield/Kakadu National Park
In the Top End, just outside Darwin, the Stuart Highway passes between two National Parks, Lichfield and Kakadu. Lichfield is less of a detour and more bicycle-friendly. There are lots of water holes and waterfalls to swim in (enjoy these – there aren’t many chances to swim in the Outback). You will also see huge Cathedral Termite Mounds, and the rarer magnetic termite mounds, which align facing north to south to minimise sun exposure (and look like headstones in a cemetery).
Red Centre Way
You can tie in the MacDonnell’s Mountain Range, King’s Canyon and Uluru (Ayers Rock) in a one week detour, 'The Red Centre Way'. This is a chance to get onto a dirt route and visit some of the icons of the Australian Outback.
Oodnadatta Track
This is the quintessential Outback, just as you’ve seen in the photos. It’s a whole lot of nothing out there, but it’s also quite beautiful. It follows the route of the Great Northern Railway which is an interesting stage of history in the taming of the Outback, and it passes Lake Eyre and Oodnadatta.
Mawson Trail Section
I did the Mawson Trail, which is painfully indirect, and turns a 450km section into 900km. I’m not sure I’d recommend the entire trail, but the section from Blinman to Hawker through Flinders National Park was jaw-dropping scenery, on exciting off-road trails. It’s a tough ride on a loaded touring bike, but well rewarded.
Go Ride The Outback!
So, hopefully that’s made you consider the Australian Outback as a fun, adventurous, challenging place to ride a bike. If you have any questions, or if you’ve done your own tour through the Outback, I’d love to hear from you!
[…] the outback on two wheels is no picnic, as I expected. I wonder whether my Camel-Bak full of water would last from one “watering […]
Great trip. I did most of this route from Adelaide to Mt Sarah, then the Central Australian loop, in two trips with a friend. But riding southbound has made it hard for you with headwinds. We had tailwinds from the southern Flinders Ranges onwards, northbound in May-June; these are the prevailing winds, from the south.
Great job – It’s a tough but rewarding place to cycle!
Yeah – I didn’t make it easy by 1) going southbound, and 2) doing it in late spring/ summer… but it was a great trip!
I loved reading this Jo! It reminded me of my ‘holiday of a lifetime’ in Australia a couple of years ago, when i visited a childhood friend in Victoria. We took the train from Melbourne to Adelaide and thence across the Nullarbor plain to Perth. The journey took 3 days and I loved every moment that I spent gazing at the strange, blank scenery, mesmerised by the sunrises and glimpses of the odd camel and dingo near the track. We alighted a couple of times, and yes, FLIES! I have such happy memories of the time I spent down under.