Nullarbor Water Supply Situation - January 2014

[Aushiker]

Tim has posted details of water supplies as at January 2014 in his journal at Crazy Guy on a Bike. Might be useful for riders heading across the Nullarbor. Just click on the page " Border Village to Ceduna: Thank god the Nullarbor is over! (includes information on water locations)" when visiting his journal.

Andrew

[recumbenteer]

thanx Aushiker... I'll be needing this info in a few weeks.

[FXST01]

I'll be needing this type of info later in the year.

[Warin]

I've taken a look along there with OSM ...
OSM is missing some of that data, and there are discrepancies eg 51km peg or 52km peg? typo by someone? Unfortunately CGOAB is copyright so i cannot add that data to OSM (they want copyright free). There are a few reservoirs maybe 500m off the road too, water may be there .. could be good for a wash. I've added anything close to the road that could be of interest that is available on OSMs (bing) satellite view.

Oh, it can take a while for new data to propagate through to the maps .. the .nl site looks to be a day .. other sites may be a month?

[zebee]

I think his bagging the roadhouse owners is a bit rough. Water is bloody expensive there anyway as it all has to be trucked in. Does he think there's a tap no one's telling him about?

(And does he think any stuff is as cheap to them as it is to a Woolies in Melbourne? Has he never thought about transport costs and economies of scale?)

I do have to wonder about someone doing that kind of ride in that weather figuring they can scrounge what they need, then complaining.

But I suppose that's my Western Australian upbringing, includig the time I spent on a farm with no water you didn't haul. Water is precious, whining because you have to pay for it is ridiculous.

I think anyone crossing the Nullabor should budget for water or arrange for supplies to be trucked beforehand. Yes you might be able to scrounge but relying on it seems a bit dangerous to me.

[Aushiker]

I think his bagging the roadhouse owners is a bit rough. Water is bloody expensive there anyway as it all has to be trucked in. Does he think there's a tap no one's telling him about?

Are you sure they are not using rain water tanks? Frankly I have experienced what Tim experienced and I think you have got the wrong end of the stick. I asked about water at Billabong and got asked if I was in a car? Yep, I could have water for my car's radiator, but not to fill my water bottle! Really about saving water and the cost of water and all that; total load of rubbish to put it politely.

Funny thing was that the person saying no and giving me a lecture on water and how scarce it was no doubt had a shower that morning (all polished up he was behind the counter); I had washed in a river (who is wasting water?) .... That same person by the way was happy for me to ride on without water ... total lack of understanding of the environment despite his stupid lecture ... stupid ingorant view and a lack of value of human life. Wonder how he would feel if he was treated in the same ignorant manner.

BTW in 3,000 km of riding that was the only time I was treated like that; thankfully I came across a lot of decent people to make up for it.

Oh Billabong has a number of massive water tanks right along side capturing some water at least from the sky given the pipes setup.

Another roadhouse further north also adopts the same attitude but if you camp there (the cost is less than 3 litres of water) guess what you get free access to? Yep water.

Oh on the Northampton to Carnarvon run there is a couple of concrete water tanks alongside the road offering .... wait for it ... cold free water and guess who uses it/wastes it? Cyclists or motorists? In the time I was stopped there, I say a saw a lot of dishes being washed and water wasting away.

The bottom line for me is how often to cyclists come through and need water? Selling water in shipped in plastic containers at $5.00 for 1.5 litres .... they sell petrol for damn sight less and they cannot spare a litre or two for a the odd cyclist? Something wrong with their value systems

Andrew

[beanspropulsion]

NVM the scrounging water what about that website?

It's 1994 all over again....

[Warin]

Are you sure they are not using rain water tanks? Frankly I have experienced what Tim experienced and I think you have got the wrong end of the stick. I asked about water at Billabong and got asked if I was in a car? Yep, I could have water for my car's radiator, but not to fill my water bottle! Really about saving water and the cost of water and all that; total load of rubbish to put it politely.

'Rainwater' tanks might get some water from passing rain.. but that does not always supply enough. So good drinking water is brought in, at quite some costs to top up in bad years, some places (people) need more water than others. And the water that is brought in goes straight into the 'rain water tank'. Places like that usually have a bore water supply for washing (cloths & people) and save their 'rain water' for drinking. William Creek springs to mind. Cost of water in various places exceeds that of petrol. Coober Pedy as one example. Some places still use the Hover twin tub washing machine - as the spin water can be put back into the main wash - thus saving water.

Most people are reasonable. Then there are the others. The Adaminaby BP was to be avoided, now under new management. you'll find them here and there and they get known.

I'd not promote theft ... but I'd support information propagation. Most travelers along the nullabore usually talk about the petrol prices and where is cheaper to stop, if you can add to that who is helpful (and those less than helpful) then that too goes into the mix of where to stop. Places with bad reputations do suffer a reduction of trade.

[RonK]

I think anyone crossing the Nullabor should budget for water or arrange for supplies to be trucked beforehand.

It is clearly impractical for a cyclist to carry sufficient water for a crossing, and difficult to organise to have supplies trucked in, particularly for overseas visitors with no local knowledge.

Having made the crossing quite a few times I've experienced the extremes mentioned - in some places the people are pleasant and will go out of their way to assist travellers, but others are surly, mean spirited and voracious. Almost every cycle touring journal I've ever read about the crossing makes similar observations. Isn't a great impression to send visitors away with?

As far as I'm concerned, businesses that treat customers poorly and price-gouge them should expect (and deserve) to be bagged.

[mjg9001]

The roadhouses use bore water, and rainwater, and they desalinate the former. They can be a bit pissy about giving cyclists filtered water (there's a cost to them associated with it) but they're invariably happy to let you fill up on bore water. The bore water is completely drinkable even if there's signs everywhere saying its not. It's got a high mineral content, which your bowels might struggle with, but it is perfectly ok to drink. Never had a problem as long as I was polite, asked permission to fill up, and did so discretely ie so that motorists didn't hear me asking for freebies.