Hello from Inland Australia.
 

Hi everyone from a guy with a dream or a nightmare, I'm not sure which.

The 'stead' is an old Ricardo road bike which I recently aquired for next to nothing at the local opportunity shop. Guess I might have paid too much. I haven't ridden for nearly 35 years so I'm just beginning to find a whole world of pain but that's to be expected. The idea being to get a bloke, who smokes and is the wrong side of 50 a bit fitter.

Having toured the Eastern States over the past 3 years with my tent and a car, I am looking forward to the adventures waiting to the West from here. The dream is to build the ageing body up over the next 18 months or so and with appropriate equipment, resume touring Australia, this time by bicycle. I've got a feeling that these forums are going to prove invaluable. In fact they already are helping.

I live in Mildura, Country Victoria, Australia atm, originally a Newcastle lad, but Mildura is a great staging point for the assault on the deserts and plains country to come. So I have a while to "create" a suitable weapon with which to tackle the task, I can buy racks, paniers, tools etcetera, fit them to the old road bike and then swap them across to whatever I finally decide will form the skeleton for my tourer. Who knows I might even find a travelling companion or two. Are there that many insane people in the world?

Cheers ozylynx

Welcom ozylynx! To answer your question, yes, there's many other insane people in the world. There was the guy who rode his bike from Scandinavia to Nepal, then climbed Everest solo, and closer to home, there's this guy on BF who toured across Australia.

http://www.bikeforums.net/forumdisplay.php?f=192

Looks like you found the right place to get started for your trip. Good luck!

If you are looking for insane cyclists, I think you are in the right part of the world to find them. I wish you well and Good luck.