Alice Springs: biking in desert

I pressed the rear break of my bike a bit more and..."click"—a silent sound slowly came from behind to warn me; the world stopped for a second. But next second it was running again, and pretty fast. I was going with uncontrollable speed down the hill, above rocks, jumps, through turns. I would never go this fast on trail this technical. It was time to end it—I used the "ice skating" technique. It worked differently than I intended but the result was same—I was not moving anymore. I laughed, I was so happy. And it was not only the adrenaline in my blood. It was the amazingly bright orange all around me, it was the blue sky, or maybe the two kangaroos curiously watching me.

I got stuck in Alice Springs: I arrived sooner and had a ride to Katherine only 5 days later. It felt it's going to be an eternity as Alice is really a hole in middle of nowhere.

Those five days turned out to be the highlight of the whole trip. I rented a bike the next day at first just to get around but soon I discovered that there is surprisingly a lot of trails all around of Alice. And actually I must say some single tracks are brilliant: some are technical some are fast. And biking in desert is so different from biking at home.

Except few short single tracks around the telegraph station you won't find many trails marked. But it's obvious local take care about it as sometimes there is even a bench in middle of nowhere :). I regret not getting to know more local bikers. Try to ask at the rental places.

You can start with The West MacDonnell mountain bike track—a nice 15km technical single track.

But anyway lesson learned—spend a bit more on bike rental :-). Particularly if you go to desert with no civilization and no signal. Or better, get a friend with you also.