Cycling on Lake Hart 22nd May

We are not game to take our brand new caravan along gravel roads yet, so after our sortie to Lake Eyre (South) and Coward Springs without caravan, we hitched up and headed south to get back on the Stuart Highway at Pimba.

The Lake Hart lookout was said to have great views, so we pulled off for a rest. Yes, below us was a vast salt lake, with a railway beside it. At this point the railway carries both the Indian-Pacific and the (new) Ghan. We like trains.

John preparing to ride down to Lake Hart

I thought I'd go and take a closer look at both the railway and the lake. A brief walk, no, the track looked reasonably smooth. Why take a bike all this way? So that you can cycle down to and across salt lakes, of course.

I got down to the railway pretty quickly, checked for trains ... no such luck ... carried the bike across the tracks and cycled out across the salt. It crunched ominously. I thought what happens if the wheels go through the salt. Well they didn't. The salt was at least an inch thick, but it was damp, and there was indeed mud underneath. I thanked my lucky stars.

Bicycle sculpture on the salt at Lake Hart