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'Cycle Across Oz' is a long distance cycle touring business, based in Melbourne. To date, Cycle Across Oz has run three cycle tours on the Perth - Melbourne route and one on the Darwin - Adelaide route. During the early part of the Darwin to Adelaide tour in 2006, the talk turned to planning a cycle tour across the Top End. After an extensive reconnaissance trip in the winter of 2007, Cycle Across Oz have put together an exciting itinerary to journey across the top of Australia and to further explore the true challenge of Outback Australia.
Our aim is to take you, the cyclist, on a wondrous adventure holiday across the continent of Australia. Adventure, superb scenery, solitude, brilliant night skies that will take your breath away, and the unique Australian fauna and flora are all waiting for you to discover - at the pace of a cyclist, one can only enjoy.
The tour commences in Rockhampton on the Queensland coast close to the Tropic of Capricorn. We will then travel through Outback Queensland onto the Barkly Tablelands in the Northern Territory and from there into the Tropics to finish in Darwin. Along the way, we will explore remote towns in Outback Queensland with evocative names like Emerald and Dingo and historical significance, like Barcaldine, headquarters for the Great Shearer's Strike, or Winton, where Qantas was founded and Banjo Paterson wrote Waltzing Matilda in 1895. We will pass important fossil fields - Dinosaur Country. We will be in Mt. Isa for the weekend of the famous Mt Isa rodeo where station hands come from far and wide to show off their rodeo skills. We will take time off to explore Nitmiluk Gorge near Katherine with pristine waters from the Arnhemland Plateau. We will pass the airfields built in the Northern Territory during World War II and we will finish in the thriving port of Darwin, gateway to the Kakadu National Park and home to Mindil Beach, famous for its sunset markets. We have planned rest days in Longreach, home to the Australian Stockman's Hall of Fame and the Qantas Founders Outback Museum, in Mt Isa for the rodeo, in Daly Waters with its quirky pub and in Katherine, gateway to Nitmiluk Gorge.
This is not a tour for the faint hearted. That said, any reasonably fit person can do it - whether you are 38 or 70 (the age ranges for previous trips). You don't have to be super fit - just committed enough to ride 5 to 12 hours a day for at least 5 days consecutively. Of course, making the ride as comfortable as you would like is your priority - increasing your mileage before the ride will help enormously. We ride our first century (100 miles) soon after leaving Rockhampton - day 4, in fact. We will ride 3 consecutive 100 mile days too. Rest days are every 4 or 5 days, so there is time to recover but you do need to be happy to ride 5 consecutive days over 100 kms a day.
Cycle Across Oz provides a unique opportunity to travel very cost effectively across Australia without risk and without losing that pioneering feeling. The trip is primarily a camping trip. We use 4 star caravan parks wherever possible, which have good facilities for dealing with camp life. We will be bush camping, in camps set up well off the road , on several nights when distances between towns are too great. For many, there is nothing better than camping under the stars to the light of a camp fire. On most nights, you can choose to upgrade your own accommodation by staying in a cabin or motel room in most but not all stops. So you need also to be comfortable enough camping in a tent after a day's riding.
Rather than provide all your food needs, we have had great success in leaving food under your control. We do provide evening meals in the bush camps and on specific nights along the way (for example, in the Daly Waters pub). We also provide tea and biscuits for morning and afternoon breaks (when a ride includes an afternoon break). For the remainder of the time, you can then choose your own budget, your own styles of food and your own mix of eating out or eating in. Typically what riders have done is provide for breakfast in camp and lunch on the road and use local facilities (the pub or club or roadhouse or restaurant in town) for evening meals. The van does have cooking facilities and most caravan parks have too making it possible to cook in camp should you so choose and whenever you choose.
Doesn't matter as long as you are comfortable on your bike. Road surfaces are good, favouring road bikes - no real need for mountain goat capability. On past trips, we have had a range of road bikes, more conventional touring bikes, hybrid bikes and mountain bikes. The unusual bike brigade has been represented by a Moulton, a Bike Friday and a Thorn tandem. Whatever you choose, your bike should be in good mechanical shape as there are long stretches between bike shops. There are bike shops in only Rockhampton, Emerald, Longreach, Mt Isa, Katherine and Darwin and some long gaps in between. You do need to be able to carry 2-3 litres water, provisions and spares for a day - no more than a pannier or handlebar bag will be needed.
© 2008 Cycle Across Oz ABN 17 420 128 935.
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