Food, water Stuart, Plenty Highway, Adelaide-Darwin/Cairns

[pbekkerh]

Hello
In the next month I'll be cycling from Adelaide to Darwin, via Oodnadatta and Uluru. Is there a list or map about water & food supplies along the way ?

Poul B-H
Denmark

[MustangSally187]

Hej Poul,

That is a very long ride, over 3000kms!

The easiest will probably to map your journey out with Google Maps, then you can see how far you will get each day, and the corresponding towns.

Farvel,

Luke.

[pbekkerh]

Hello
I had originally planned Adelaide-Darwin and posted accordingly on the SA branch. Someone there came up with the brilliant idea to go to Cairns instead and finish with some diving on the GBR.

I'm now investigating the route: Adelaide-alice-plenty hwy-mt isa-barkly hwy-cairns

Have they repaired the Barkly hwy after the flooding ?
Plenty hwy looks very deserted, is that the case ?

I might also skip Alice and go straight up from Adelaide, but that cuts the trip rather short, about 2699km compared to 4100km

Poul
Denmark

[pbekkerh]

How far is it between water points on the Plenty highway between Alice and Mt Isa ?

I read that there was a gasstation appr. 220km from the Stuart hwy fork.

How much traffic is there on the Plenty, being a "hwy" ?

I am speculating about how much water to bring.

If i should calculate with a bike breakdown and how many days of water in that situation.

[V17L]

Hi
There is Gemtree Caravan Park on the Plenty Hwy. This is the first stop after leaving the Stuart hwy and heading west. There is Harts Range Community after that. Can't comment on the rest of the hwy to the Queensland border as it's been years since I have been there.

The road stops being a sealed single lane road about 20km after gemtree. Then it's dirt to the border. There are some big road trains traveling down the Plenty as there is a quarry at the end near jervios.

The Plenty has traffic from Gemtree back to the Stuart hwy as the tourists go there to search for garnets and other gemstones.

Much lighter traffic on the Plenty than the Barkly. Can't advise on the barkly since the rain.

After the first cold snap of winter the flies disappear.

[casual_cyclist]

There is a blog (of course) of someone who has done Darwin to Melbourne. It seems a bit ad hoc, but might provide something useful.

http://australianbiking.blogspot.com/

start: 10th of August
6 weeks
4000 kilometers
1 bike
12 liters of water
12 kg of stuffs
and me.....

I'm going to across Australia starting by the north and my goal is to reach Melbourne in 6 weeks of time.
I will travel most of my journey on the famous stuart highway sleeping in some roadhouses or in the middle of the desert with my tent and my sleeping bag. I should precise during the night, the tempature goes under 0°C, arround -5°C, that's for the desert.

[pbekkerh]

I just found a site (http://www.exploroz.com/NT/Red_Centre/R ... Barkly_Hwy) with roadconditions for Plenty and Barkley HWYs and most of Plenty was flooded. Considering the flooding started 1 1/2 month ago, they'll probably not have diasappeared when I arrive, so I've changed the route again, to skip Plenty and go to Townsville instead of Cairns. I'm considering going to Uluru by bus from Alice (if going there at all). Everything to keep the distance to a sensible 3800kms.
see a map here http://tiny.cc/Qm2Ry

Poul