Report Number 35 –Sydney -Dated 5 May 2008

I am staying in a cabin at Botany Bay which is not too far from the airport and there is good public transport to Central Sydney.
I've just spent the day doing the final dipping. As 'the rules' say it can't be done in a harbour or bay I had to go out to the coast and clamber over rocks carrying the bike. These RTW cyclists do strange things!

The ride from Adelaide was good. I did part of the Barossa Valley and then followed the Murray River for a few days. This area is where a lot of the well known wines come from but they are cheaper in the Auckland supermarkets. The route crosses from South Australia to Victoria and then into New South Wales. In Victoria I was there for the coldest April day on record but it's been fine and sunny since. There was more Nullarbor type desert and then rolling hills and farmland. There were several beautiful historic towns along the way.
Bikes are allowed on the motorways here and the Hume Highway became a motorway for the last few days. The shoulder is wide except on some bridges but there is a constant stream of traffic whizzing past. As I was coming into Sydney I had a puncture and taking all the gear off and fixing a puncture on an extremely busy motorway is not a lot of fun.
I'll do a brief summary of the 4 stages of the RTW in a day or too.