Bliss- a lie in in the morning.

Followed by domestic duties washing everything that got wet in the flood, inspecting the bike for necessary repairs and reloading the food bags.

The bike needs new brake pads and chain (the wet red sand chew out the contact surfaces surprizingly fast, the sound of grinding bits was distressing) but otherwise seems ok. Also needed new handlebar tapes and gloves (to replace the ones I think I left on the bar of the White Hotel in Leonora).

A few phone calls to bike shops in Adelaide identified Bicycle Express (http://www.bicycleexpress.com.au/) as having a good range of bike parts and, as importantly, a very helpful attitude. I recommend them highly. I used them again after more parts were needed a few weeks later.  Bicycle Express staff (Liz) understood what type of gear I wanted and picked it off the shelf. Turned out it matched my requirements very closely). Gear was dispatched by StarTrak express post that day to Yulara Resort post office.

Name-brand shops (Giant, Avanti) did not have a good range of touring-type stuff and gave the impression of being more interested in serving weekend road-warriors than tourers on what I was told was ‘old’ and ‘out of date’ gear (my year old touring bike with basic mechanical disc brakes).

Rest of the day was spent drinking coffee and relaxing.