Three deserts, a full Lake Eyre and 6,300 km: Craig Johnston's record ride across Australia

On 23 July Craig Johnston wheeled a loaded bicycle to Byron Bay, the most easterly point of mainland Australia, and pointed it at the other side of the country. Steep Point, in Western Australia, is the most westerly. Between the two lie about 6,300 km (3,900 miles), three deserts and the Nullarbor Plain.

Johnston, 56, from Gymea Bay in the south of Sydney, got there in 44 days and 10 hours. The record for the crossing without a support vehicle, set in 2023, was 61 days, the St George & Sutherland Shire Leader reported. He took more than a fortnight off it.

“No one can get their head around the fact that I do it just for fun.” — Craig Johnston, to the St George & Sutherland Shire Leader

A tent beside the track

Johnston has spent 38 years as a ground engineer at Sydney International Airport. Unsupported means what it says: no van, no crew, no one driving ahead with dinner. He slept in a tent beside the track, or in a pub room when a town had one.

The route ran inland from Byron Bay through Lismore, Kyogle, Inglewood, Goondiwindi, Mungindi and Lightning Ridge to Tibooburra, then to Cameron Corner, where New South Wales, Queensland and South Australia meet, and on across South Australia and the Nullarbor.

By the Leader’s account, the ride gave him torrential rain, strong headwinds, closed roads and mechanical trouble. Food parcels he had sent ahead did not turn up. He went for long stretches without seeing another person. He also saw Lake Eyre, the salt lake in the South Australian desert that is usually dry, full of water and crowded with birds.

“I just love endurance riding and camping out.” — Craig Johnston, to the St George & Sutherland Shire Leader

The arithmetic is simple and unforgiving. Forty-four and a half days for 6,300 km works out at roughly 140 km (88 miles) a day, every day, on a bike carrying a tent and food.

The bike was built for him three years ago at a cost of A$11,000 and has now done 25,000 km (15,500 miles). Some of those were last year, when he won the Terra Australis, a 6,300 km race up the country from Wilsons Promontory in Victoria to Cape York in Queensland. That one had no support vehicle either.

Next on his list, he told the Leader, is the Tour Divide, the 2,700-mile (4,300 km) race along the mountains from Canada to the Mexican border.

Why this matters

What the ride shows is what steady effort adds up to when it is repeated. A day of 140 km is one many club riders could manage once. Johnston managed it 44 times in a row.

The evidence for far smaller doses is strong. In 2017 researchers at the University of Glasgow followed 264,337 people in the UK Biobank study for five years and published the results in the BMJ. Those who cycled to work had a 41 per cent lower risk of dying early, a 45 per cent lower risk of cancer and a 46 per cent lower risk of heart disease than commuters who did not walk or cycle. They averaged about 30 miles (48 km) a week.

“Cycling all or part of the way to work was associated with substantially lower risk of adverse health outcomes,” said Dr Jason Gill, of the university’s Institute of Cardiovascular and Medical Sciences. It was an observational study, so it shows a link, not proof of cause.

If a long ride appeals

• Carry your own kit once. A bike with luggage handles differently. Find that out on a 30-mile ride, not on day one of a tour.
• Ride two days running. The second morning tells you what the saddle, your hands and your pacing are really like.
• Start with distance, not speed. Our guide to swimming and cycling covers bikes, e-bikes and first rides if you have not been on one for a while.

Check with your GP (family doctor) before a big jump in training if you have a heart condition or have been inactive.

For the same idea on foot, Karl Bushby has spent 28 years walking home to Hull.