The Cycling Adventurer

   Perth-Adelaide 1997

Day 24   

Home  |  About Me  |  Touring  |  Ultra-Cycling  |  How-To...  |  Advocacy  |  Sailing  |  Links  |  Contact Me

Index  |  First  |  Previous  |  Next  |  Last

Mechanical disaster strikes on the hottest day

Disaster struck today. About 10km after I left Nundroo at 725am, the rear axle bearing collapsed. The problem manifested itself with a grating sound and an excessively wobbly rear wheel.

I spent about an hour on the side of the road trying to work out what I could do. I stripped down the hub and I eventually realised that the inner cup on the gear side of the hub had broken altogether. That presented me with huge difficulties.

I attempted an improvised repair, but was in two minds about whether to press on towards Penong or return to Nundroo. I tried to head back to Nundroo, but gave up within a kilometre because the hot northerly made riding very difficult. I turned again, retraced my tracks and headed on towards Penong. The very strong northerly wind had set in as forecast, and the temperature was well on its way to the forecast maximum of 37 deg C at Ceduna; the unshaded temperature about 130km west therefore was higher by another four or five degrees. The wind gave me some assistance, but not much because it came almost directly from my left side.

The hub problem became more severe. I stopped again twice to disassemble it and try to give myself a chance of riding to Penong this evening. The second repair effort revealed the balls had dropped out of the bearing entirely, because the retainer was so badly distorted. I rode on metal-to-metal.

I devised a plan to use some suitably sized washers from a roadside sign to keep the cone tensioned on the hub sufficiently enough to reduce the wobble and still enable me to make forward progress. Unfortunately, the usually prolific signs seemed to evaporate. I took considerable time and 15km of wobbly riding, mostly downhill but also with some patient walking... to come across a sign that had what I wanted. I inserted the washers, and they seemed to help, and I made almost as much unimpeded progress for the remainder of the afternoon as earlier in the day. I rode a total of 44km from start to finish, but 35km remained to arrive in Penong.

I passed two young Japanese women sitting in the shade at the right side of the road. Their bikes were leaned against a post. They were taking a break from the heat. I pedalled past and asked if they were okay, and they nodded. They must have been the pair of Japanese riders mentioned in Nundroo yesterday, although no-one mentioned they were women.

I still had to walk the bike five or six kilometres after the makeshift repairs to the rear end. I started to worry about my water supply. I still had two cans of beer on a front pannier and tried one when I did the last repair with the roadsign washers. The beer foamed when I opened it, and I lost half of it. The other half was so hot that it was unpalatable. Later, I saw a house close to the highway. It seemed to be unoccupied, but I walked along the driveway and knocked on the door anyway. Sure enough, it was vacant. I checked all possible sources of water, but there was nothing. I found out later that the immediate district used to have a population of about a hundred, but now was down to between 10 and 15, such was the overwhelming challenge of trying to make a living on the land.

I decided to finish riding and set up camp at the ruins of the old Boobakie schoolhouse about a kilometre further along the highway from the dry house. My water supply was down to only 750ml. I left Nundroo with just four litres, including a 1.5-litre bottle of Evian mineral water. The water from the taps at the roadhouse was tainted, and I thought the extra bottle of Evian would see me through to Penong. I was mistaken.

The Boobakie school site has two windmills and two tanks about 200 metres off the road. I investigated and found the water from the outlet pipe of one of the windmills to be a little salty, but acceptable enough to sip and pour over head and body. The day had not been pleasant, and relief from the water was very soothing.

I set up camp and settled back to have a coffee and contemplate my options tomorrow. A very dilapidated Toyota LandCruiser ute drove up and stopped. The guy said he noticed something next to the school while he was looking for a mob of sheep, and wanted to see if the tent was something that had broken away in the wind.

We chatted a while about my problem, and he told me the wind was about to change to a south-westerly and strengthen. He suggested that I move the tent to the other side of the school ruins. He drove off, then came back two minutes later and suggested that I would be better off spending the night at his house, in the sleep-out. He said he would go off to find his mob of sheep, and come back to pick me up along with my gear.

By the time he returned, the wind had indeed changed and strengthened to the point where I had to keep a well-placed foot on the tent at all times to make sure it did not go tumbling off by itself across the paddock towards the highway. We introduced ourselves. He was Danny Mahar.

The axle and bearing are items I looked at before leaving Perth. In fact, very early examination identified that something might have been amiss because of a slight binding when I spun the wheel on the axle, what appeared to be a bend in the axle itself, and some scoring of the thread. But the bike was new, and I did not really give it that much thought at the time. In the end, the rear axle has been a monumental problem, and I will probably have to replace the whole hub.

Danny and I decided to have replacement bearings sent from the Ceduna Sports and Outdoor Centre tomorrow morning. They should arrive at 1.30pm in the roadside mail delivery.

Danny lives in a 106-year-old house built by his family when they settled the area. I was introduced to his parents, Danny senior and Helen, who live in another nearby house, and sister Karen and her four children, who were on a visit from Port Lincoln.

The only person missing was Danny's lady, Jane, who was in her home city of Melbourne for a couple of weeks of holiday.

The Mahars have been on this 16,000-hectare property since settlement. That area apparently is a small holding for this part of the country! The family crops wheat with some barley and oats, and runs about 2,300 head of sheep.

Danny Mahar's 106-year-old farmhouse where I stayed
we fixed the bearings in the rear hub.

The property also runs along the coast for about 16km, and has some of the best fishing spots in South Australia, as well as the State's only shark-proof beach, thanks to a reef and headland. It reminded me of the beach at Singing Winds back in Western Australia.

It was pleasant when the cool change finally came through. The change seemed to follow me for much of the afternoon; every time I looked back, I could see black clouds, and the sun would go behind them. But as I pressed on, even at my handicapped speed, the sun seemed to move back into a clear area of sky and continue beating down on me. The cool wind from a new direction after I pitched the tent brought welcomed relief.

The heat also brought out swarms of small black flies that pestered me throughout the day. The Rid did a good job keeping the flies at bay from my face, but I can imagine my back was a swarming mass on more than one occasion.

The unpleasantness of the day was exacerbated by the heat absorbed by the water in all the bottles I carried. Every time I took a draught from one of the bottles, no matter whether it was a bidon on the frame or from within the packs (as in the cans of beer), the liquid tasted as though it was heated to make tea or coffee. This certainly is not good. Freezing cold water can be just as bad for the drinker in these hot conditions, bringing a shock to the internal system.

The fluids weren't the only things to suffer in the heat. When I stopped for those roadsign repairs, I found my tub of margarine had melted and leaked its greasy contents into the bottom of my food and utensils pannier. The mess was disgusting, although I was able to dispose of most of the problem in the nearby rubbish bin. I did another wipe-over after I pitched camp at the Boobakie school ruins and before Danny discovered me.

Talking to Danny, the solution for riders who consistently travel in hot weather should be to acquire a traditional canvas water bag or bottle. The ideal shape would be to fit in the triangle from the stem back between the top and down tubes. By soaking the outside then filling the bottle, the water is able to seep steadily to the exterior and evaporate, a process that naturally reduces the temperature and keeps the contents cool. The method has been used for decades by people working the land in Australia.

Danny is an advocate of taking salt tablets while working in very hot conditions to reduce muscle cramps. I took salt tablets when I was much younger and trained tinuously for top-grade field hockey, but I had not really bothered since about salt tablets, even while living in a very hot climate in Far North Queensland for almost three years. My salt intake usually is through meals, and I have not had any problems with muscle cramps since leaving Perth, or indeed, in doing the trips or commuting beforehand in sometimes quite sticky conditions. I did note previously, however, my increased consumption of salted potato crisps.

During the evening, we chatted about various subjects, including the Aborigines and especially the situation at Nundroo Roadhouse that I had seen the night before, the Yalata Community, and how some of the local Aborigines are different in their outlook.

The two maroon panniers on the rear are starting to look very second-hand with grease stains from the chain and gearset, as well as plain dirt. They also have lost much of their colour through the intensity of the sun. The sun's power out here is incredible. The reds in printed pictures or photographs usually have disappeared if they have been hanging for any length of time. The colour is slowly being drawn out of a number of my own fabric items apart form the rear panniers,. My cap has an interesting light-and-dark blue pattern around where my helmet fits. I hate to think what would be happening to the top of my head with its sparse covering of hair had I not been wearing the helmet and cap as protection! The green panniers on the front are holding up quite well, although the little green cooler bag carrying my valuables is another to show signs of fade-out. I am planning now to put every fabric item, including the panniers, through a washing machine when I get to Ceduna to at least get my stuff to look clean.

Above all, I am looking forward to getting back on the road again tomorrow to continue my progress.

Index  |  First  |  Previous  |  Next  |  Last

Top of Page