Hi Everybody,

Details and Analysis of my day 13 : http://connect.garmin.com/activity/20025880

I left from Marla at 5h19 in the morning a bite tired of my long ride yesterday. Anyway even if I was not feeling totally fresh I had the tenacity to reach Coober Pedy. The temperature was quite low around 17 degrees. It was a long journey to reach Coober Pedy as the distance was almost 230 km. The time spent on my saddle was 8h59 min. The total of my journey was 11h45 min.

The condition was not very nice as for nearly all my ride I had the wind (30 km/h) against me up to 2 pm. The landscape had changed and became more dry. No animal I could see and the traffic was still low as since 3 days.

Around 82 km South of Marla, I crossed Cadney Homestead. It was an old style outback ranch. It had the desert essentials, petrol, puncture repairs, cold beer for the road train drivers. Also a nice camels camp was there.

As you can see my pictures, the landscape had changed and became more and more dry and lunar.

After 7h40 min I have done a break close to a rest area at only 76 km from Coober Pedy. It was 3 pm. The temperature was around 32 degrees. While I ate my cereal bars, I had a surprised to meet John Vaughan Fowler. In fact he is riding as well from Darwin to Melbourne and was stopped close to us to introduce himself. He is from Oxford.  He is doing this riding to celebrate his 50th birthday on the 19th of December. He left Darwin the 18th of November and he will plan to arrive in Melbourne for his birthday. His family should welcome him. His main reason is also to raise funds for the Roald Dahl Foundation, The Parkinson’s Disease Society and Parkinson Victoria.

It’s a very nice gentleman and I will plan to welcome him in Melbourne on the 19th of December. Anyway before, there is still a huge distance to do for both.

I reached Coober Pedy at 5:03 pm after almost 9h cycling. As the time zone had changed I lost 1h of rest. When I thought I arrived at 5 pm it was in fact 6 pm. I have to eat quickly to rest for tomorrow.

Coming into Coober Pedy the dry, barren desert suddenly becomes riddled with holes and adjunct piles of dirt. The reason for all this rabid digging is opals - the fire in the stone that’s made this small town a mining mecca. The surrounding desert is jaw droppingly desolate - a fact not overlooked by international film maker who’ve come here to shoot “end of the world” epics such as Mad Max 11, Red Planet,Ground Zero...Coober sweats with wide eyed opal fever.

The next destination will be Glendambo. I will do again 250 km

See you tomorrow hoping alive...