Equipment

The Bike

Cannondale F4, with the nasty, unreliable headshok suspension removed in favour of a rigid Salsa suspension corrected fork and cane creek double-xc headset to convert to the smaller steerer tube.

Trap for young players...don't buy a bike carrying a cannondale headshok unless you want to have it break under light use in less than 12 months of ownership only to be told it's fair wear and tear and not covered under warranty. Oh, and then be told that it needs to be serviced every couple of months...and by the way they don't service it here because they're too fiddly and the fork has to be sent to Sydney, and that'll be a couple of weeks turn around, and $120 bucks a pop etc etc. I think you get the idea...

Having said that, with the headshok fork gone plus some other changes mainly for fit, the bike went really well. The derailleur problem could have happened to any bike. The rigid fork and new headset was fitted by Bio-Mechanics and they properly fitted the bike to me after the fork change. I was comfortable on the bike for the whole trip apart from on the flat spinning in single-speed (as is well expected).

Other changes to the bike: Brooks B17 saddle (no sore bum, yay!), Schwalbe Marathon XR tyres (heavy wheels = bad, no flats for the whole trip = who cares about the extra grams), some components to fit me such as a new seat post to get the seat further back, ergonomic grips etc.

Panniers: Ortleib waterproof (yes they were) front panniers used on the rear, plus some gear spilled over into small dry bags lashed on top. I also had a handlebar bag with tools and stuff needed during the day such as camera, wallet, phone, maps etc. Gear weight on departure with a full load of food (5 days worth), including the bags themselves was around 14kg. 6ltrs of water for longer hops between water (eg. camping between Hawker and Quorn) made the all up weight of gear 20kg. The only other tourer I saw on the trail had panniers plus a full trailer...poor bastard.

Camping
Took my old one person tent, thinking that all I would need was something to keep the mozzies and the dew off. Mistake - it bucketed down!

Normally in the wet I would use a fly and my bivvy bag. This would have been a better option giving me room under the fly in rain for cooking etc. And the bivvy as a modern version of a swag when the weather is good. But leading up to the trip we had the worst heat wave on record for November and the bivvy isn't good in hot weather. So I took the tent (see mistake above).

Slept on one of those really light self inflating mats. Indulged in a self inflating pillow. And took my down sleeping bag in favour of a much lighter (but colder) summer weight bag - had some cold nights so this was a good choice even with the extra weight. Also had a down vest that packs into a tiny stuff sack...this was appreciated after sunset most evenings.

Used a feather weight Kovea stove. Uses a Butane cannister - took too big a cannister, but the nature of this fuel is that it is hard to buy outside of specialist camping shops. Trade off in its favour is that it's a really light fuel source. And really hot too.

Tools
Had plenty of tools, and I thought this was too heavy and considered leaving some behind. As it turned out I used them all apart from the puncture repair kit (see tire choice above). My advice is if in doubt take it. Apart from in Melrose you will not find a decent bike shop along the whole trail. Next time I'd take a spare derailleur hanger - I reckon I could have bent the derailleur back to a form that would have mostly worked, even if only to act as a chain guide and tensioner for single speeding. But making a new hanger needs some fancy metal work.

Food
I started with 5 days of food in my bags, this was intended to be used camping in between towns. As it turned out through short cutting sections of the trail for various reason I only camped outside of towns for one night. Doing it again I would carry the same amount. Doing the trail "properly" would use up a good bit of this food in the first few days. Dinners carried were freeze dried meal-in-a-bag type stuff. Not only didn't I want to carry heavy food, I didn't want to waste the water needed to clean the pot. Lunches: nuts and scroggin...good calories and protein. Breakfasts: packets of instant porridge...good fuel to start the day. And of course, coffee and a tube of sweetened condensed milk.