ADVENTURER Aaron Arnold is relishing the prospect of a new and exciting exploit.

Already he has cycled solo across Australia from Darwen to Adelaide.

That was an intrepid 3,400 miles, covering 52 exhausting days of heatwave, flies and astonishing landscape.

Now 28-year-old triathlete Aaron is planning to go back and attempt the 5,000 mile trek from Perth to Cairns.

It's guaranteed more thrills than sitting in an office tapping a keyboard!

Aaron, of Westleigh Lane, Leigh, is a man on the move. "Cycling the Stuart Highway from North to South Australia has been a burning ambition ever since I was a kid," he said. "It was as hard as I expected. But now I want to try something even tougher."

He shipped a lightweight 21-gear American mountain bike out to Australia for the trek. "I had to carry all my gear, including camping equipment for all the times I was alone in the middle of nowhere.

"I also needed tools for the bike. I had 30 punctures on the trip."

Aaron, whose father lives in Adelaide, took a series of detours through the journey. "I wanted the see the sights," he said.

And he did: Ayres Rock, King's Canyon, Gosse's Bluff, Meteorite Crater, Finders Range and Palm Valley.

The former swimmer with Howe Bridge Aces, who won the U21 title in the North West Championships in the Lake District in the early 90s, first tried the trip starting in Adelaide. "I went 80 miles but realised the weather was against me," he said.

"So I went back, journeyed to Darwen, and then began again - in high humidity and temperatures hitting 45 degrees.

"Heat exhaustion was one of the problems on the trip. So were the big roadtrains, the flies which can keep up with you - even on a bike! - and a 15-mile swarm of locusts."

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.