Day 15 - Cuttaburra Crossing to Bedourie

Today was the first real decision we've had to make on our route. The direct road to Bedourie was closed due to water. The detour route added an additional 55km and would have made for a 130km day on dirt - not an attractive prospect. Having sought the advice of locals in Birdsville, we were assured the water was only knee deep and ran for maybe 1km. We decided the cyclists could manage "a little water" and set off on the direct route while leaving the vehicle support to take the long way around.

Excitement was high amongst the team as the road petered out and a lake of water spread out in front of us. The only indication that there was a road in front of us was provided by the tips of white road markers poking above the surface and disappearing into the distance.

All was well initially, with water lapping at the base of our pedals and an element of competitiveness in anticipation of the first one to come a cropper. But as the water got deeper we all had to work much harder to keep the legs pedalling and to stay vertical.

Suffice to say we all took a swim. There was plenty of opportunity as the supposed 1km of water turned out to be in excess of 7km long!! And the water level for a good part of that journey was nearly a meter deep. We all had a good shot at riding as much as possible, but with water fully obscuring the wheels and shocks we made a strange site with four guys steering a set of handle bars along the surface of a lake! AP took the honours staying upright for the longest on this leg and earned the new title of "water rat".

Both Pete and Andrew ignored the road markers at their peril. Off the edge of separate causeways, each of them found bottomless holes and disappeared over their heads in mid conversation - much to the amusement of the others.

Whilst we may not have elected to take this route if we'd known the extent of the water, we were treated to a rare view of wetland wildlife. Here on the edge of the desert and start of the Channel Country, we saw swans, egrets, cranes, pelicans and several families of wild pigs camped in the swampy corners.

Most of us agreed this adventure was one of the highlights of our trip so far. A great adventure and a bunch of laughs along the way - although Pete may have lost his sense of humour temporarily after having to leave his bike and swim after the walkie talkie as it floated away after yet another dunking.

Alan and Julie were greatly relieved to see us emerge on the other side. What we thought would be a 30 minute paddle turned out to take two and a half hours! Despite being tired we mounted the trusty steeds and completed another 70km ride into Bedourie to finish the day at around 3.00pm. The water must have tampered with Pete's tyres with the Flat Monster visiting again.