When my partner and I flew from Amsterdam to Adelaide (with a stop in Abu Dhabi) in June this year it was with a simple aim in mind: to ride our bikes over the most remote backroads in South Australia and experience somthing which is short supply in our over-populated planet today: space, emptiness, no people, no cities and high rise buildings – i.e. the opposite to our apartment in Rotterdam, in a the multi-story building surrounded by other buildings.

And our experience of living in that busy area of the world was intensified by weeks of not being able to leave due to the historic heat wave which arrived in Europe this year in the spring – and saw temperatures in Rotterdam hover for weeks at 30 Centigrade plus – absolutely unprecedented. The other side of the coin was that we couldn’t go anywhere else in Europe, because in most countries it was as hot if not far more so. 

South Australia was the option, especially as it was winter and futhermore, a wet one. Perhaps the idea of seeing rain – as well as feeling cool – influenced our decision to fly directly to Adelaide with a stop in Abu Dhabi.  

Even in South Australia, the suburban sprawl is constantly moving outwards in every direction. The world population is increasing and space, wilderness areas, are decreasing. And so our excursion into the vast spaces of northern South Australia and the eastern expanses of Eyre Peninsula. We generally based ourselves in caravan parks, staying in our tent or a renting a cabin and from there, rode our bikes into the outlying areas, using paper maps and following backroads which often continued for many kilometres with no side roads.