Louise had had swimming with whale sharks on her bucket list for a long time. But the huge, gentle creatures are seasonal visitors that usually leave the waters around the Ningaloo Reef near Exmouth, in late July or early August. The 5 week delay in Cairns had made this a casualty in that we would only get here in mid-September at best. But lady luck dealt us a generous hand – they had left but a week or so before we reached Exmouth, they had returned.

We consulted the Visitor Centre on the Thursday afternoon we arrived and booked to go out on Saturday afternoon with Exmouth Dive Centre. At the point of sale, it had been made clear that there were Whale Sharks in the area that day but there were no guarantees that we would get to swim with one.

The photo above right is on board with Danielle giving us the pre-swim. talk. The spotter planes had confirmed multiple sightings and soon we were ready to get up close and personal with these goliaths of the ocean.

During the first swim with one I was attempting to swim alongside and take photos. I succeeded at neither. These shots were taken by Sara, the Italian photographer lass.

Left is a shot of my thumb in the vicinity of a Whale Shark on my second swim. This graceful fish, and yes, Whale Sharks are fish, was a female moving slowly through the water just below the surface, probably warming up after or before some serious plankton harvesting at cooler depths. At one point I was swimming about 3 metres to her left with no others humans in sight – an unforgettable experience.

Exmouth – Ningaloo Marine Park

We rode around the top of the peninsula from Exmouth, through the Cape Range National Park which is a World Heritage Site, and south far enough to reach an unmarked turn-off to the beach that had been described to us. After 200 metres we parked our bikes behind the dunes and walked through to the beach upon which the calm waters of the Ningaloo Marine Park were gently lapping. To anyone watching, it may have seemed as though Mr and Mrs Stig had come to the beach.

Apart from a few kite surfers, the place was deserted. That is, except for turtles.

It was the breeding season and turtles were mating in the waters right there as they might have been doing for hundreds of years. Speaking of duration, the male mounts the female and hangs on for 2 to 3 hours in a challenging and amorous aquatic bonk. His limbs didn’t seem entirely suited to this endeavour and we saw a few capsizes and premature partings. The sheer effort proved exhausting and the chap below was apparently washed up on the beach. On closer inspection, he was simply buggered from his nuptials and raised his head periodically to draw breath. In a few months, the females were due to climb up the beach and lay their eggs.

We felt privileged to have been able to visit this pristine site and witness such a beautiful haven of wild life.

With these lines I finally get up to date with these blogs – tomorrow morning, 27 September, we ride south from Exmouth to Coral Bay.

 

Above you may be able to read the mileage on my speedo on the morning we left Darwin – it says 31,791 kms.

From Darwin we travelled nearly 500kms to a bush camp just short of Victoria River Road House. Our two nearest neighbours were gold diggers en route to different destinations where each harboured hopes for The Big Nugget.

Early up on 7 September and we crossed into Western Australia, a land mass approximately  seven times the size of France.

Not far beyond lay Kununurra, our destination for one night. Someone had described it to us as an attractive little town but we were left pondering what sort of crumby conurbation they had for a benchmark. We sampled supermarket, liquor store, café and motel – yes, a night off from the tent – and have no complaints. Perhaps the town’s value lay not in the quality of its buildings but in its location as the gateway to the Kimberley.

El Questro

On 8 September we rode happily out to enjoy a 3 night stay at El Questro.

By prior arrangement, our panniers, top-boxes and strapped-on luggage was collected from the Kununurra Information centre, thereby allowing us to ride unencumbered the 103 kms to El Questro, not far down the east end of the notorious Gibb River Road. The road was sealed all the way to the turn off into El Questro but we wanted to be much less top heavy and nimble as we tackled the 16 kms of unsealed road in, which included a couple of river crossings. You may recall that we struggled with, and Louise had a couple of spills on, the unsealed road to Gumlon Falls, causing us to abort the visit. Thus it was with a modicum of intrepidation we entered this enormous station, renown globally for its wilderness status and wealth of natural assets.

The road was great, not rutted or corrugated and we found 50 kms per hour a comfortably cautious speed. Until we got to the first river crossing. I walked it to gauge “bottom and depth” and then had a go in first gear. The water was about 0.3 metres deep but with the back wheel driving, the bike carved its way across with my legs dangling like a tight-rope walker’s arms. I got quite a buzz from it. Louise had a go but too cautiously, which invited problems, such as the temptation to stop and think about it ………. so we both walked her bike across. Just before reaching the El Questro station and camp site, we had to cross the Pentecost River. This crossing was a bit longer and at one end, a fraction deeper. This time I crossed grinning and whooping like an ape – marvellous fun. Louise wasn’t tempted so I took her bike across as well. But her time was approaching fast.

Having struck camp (below), we contemplated which of the various thermal pools, gorges and other natural attractions we would tangle with. Virtually all of them required us to go back out along part of the same entrance road, significantly, the part that lay beyond both water crossings. Louise needed no second invitation and across she went without even a wobble. There’s no photo as, by prior agreement, I was standing in the water ready to help!

On Saturday we set off to walk and climb the El Questro Gorge, both tackling the two water crossings along the way. However, the track off the main drive that led to the Gorge soon became soft sand and both of us struggled with this – see photo on left. We knew that weight as far back as possible (off the front wheel) and a bit of speed was required but neither of us were up to this with unfaded memories of the Gumlon Fall track rushing back, particularly for Louise. We left the bikes at the side of the track (photo above) and walked the couple of kms to the beginning of the walk proper.

This walk was described as 5 on a scale of 1 to 5, 1 being the easiest. Initially it was a track to be followed over stones under a palm tree canopy but as we progressed, the sides of the gorge grew higher and drew closer. The halfway point is defined as the 1^st decent pool with access beyond being an energetic and nimble climb up through a 3-metre-high crevice, starting from a depth of about 1.5 metres below water level! No worries.

The next challenge was a boulder stairway – same result. On to the last biggee which was a climb up the side of a 5-meter waterfall.

We were struck by the differing approaches age brings. We were all caution, thinking of the implications of a slip and fall, plus the more difficult descent with legs leading the way. But 25-year-olds, as we once were, nipped up with barely a backward or downward glance.

The reward for all this excursion was not far beyond. The entrance to the final chasm and waterfall-fed pool, had a smaller pool as its vestibule with a frond lined jumping-in rock. Per the photos below, ladies second in this case!

This was enough reward in itself – we both savoured the cool, clear water after the sweaty climbing – Louise shown below. But then we clambered a little further to a longer, deeper pool with a visible rock at the far end where the waterfall landed…………. doubling as a diving platform. All was shade due to the 100+ metre high gorge walls barely 4 metres apart.

The walk was 9 kms long and left us feeling contentedly buggered and beer-worthy.

The Sunday deserved a more leisurely style so we tackled the first two thirds (3.2 kms round trip) of the Champagne Springs walk, far enough the inspect a 1,000 year old Boab Tree. What a different world existed when it was a seedling.

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This tree was massive in girth, about 17 to 18 metres in circumference but not so much so in height. Above left, Louise poses to indicate relative size.  It was quite irregular in shape, being bulbous overall but with odd-looking protrusions, the one above right being like a mouth but hopefully not like one that Sam encounters professionally.

I really don’t like snakes but this does not explain why there are no photos of any here. We simply haven’t seen any, despite others here doing so exactly where we have been or were going.

El Questro was a veritable oasis teeming with bird life, with many of the usual suspects singing to us in the early morning – 5 am when we were in that part of WA.

We have been impressed by the various Aussie camping set-ups. The photo below

shows a rugged caravan that is capable of river crossings and in shot, acting as restaurant and TV room in one. Many had satellite TV allowing the owners to keep up with the footie, the TV screen being the bright rectangle towards the right.

On Sunday, our last night, we shunned the camp kitchen and our own catering skills, instead treating ourselves to a meal in the restaurant. Fortunately, the dress code was ‘bush’.

Anyone heading into this part of Australia should visit this place: www.elquestro.com.au

Lake Argyle

From El Questro we back-tracked past Kununurra to Lake Argyle for one night. The camp site was high on a bluff looking SW over the lake that bore similarities with the Marlborough Sounds. But better still, it offered an infinity pool to capture the mood.

In the 1970s the lake was formed by a A$300 mil dam that has been upgraded over time with hydro-power generation and other complimentary structures in the region to

facilitate irrigation to over 10,000 hectares of horticultural land that would otherwise by bone dry for more than half the year.

The Bungle Bungles

On 12 September we left Lake Argyle early and returned to Kununurra, topped up our supplies and ventured on to and down the Great Northern Highway to Turkey Creek Roadhouse.

The next morning we rode 50 kms down to Mabel Downs Station Caravan Park for our guided tour of the Bungle Bungles, a natural ‘outcrop’ of extraordinary-looking rocks that were only revealed to the world in the 1980s. In 1987 they inspired the formation of the Purnululu National Park and have been accredited with World Heritage Site status.

Our driver and guide was no less that “Bushy” in the photo below.

You may have encountered the hardy breed before. Initially I suspected Bushy eats gravel with sump oil for breakfast. He whirled the 4×4 30 seater ‘go anywhere’ bus along the track and after 1.5 hours turfed us all out at the southern end of the Bungle Bungles to walk a couple of kms to Piccininni Creek Lookout. The walk took us over the dry creek bed that reminded me of the South Island’s braided rivers – except that this creeks river bed was solid sandstone as shown in the right hand photo.

The Piccininni Look-out revealed a classic Bungle Bungle landscape – as shown below.

From there we walked to Cathedral Gorge, past or rather through a clearly visible fault line that moved 70 metres in one hit when it last bothered. A close look at the photo will show a clear vertical ‘cut’ which is mirrored diagonally across the gorge.

And on to the “Cathedral” itself. The photo below, like most, cannot do this place justice. What a venue for an opera – in the dry season. You can make out where the water drops in – it’s the black tongue to the left of picture

By the time we wandered back to the bus, we had walked 5 kms and Bushy had laid out a simple but healthy lunch. His own take on a ham & salad wrap was to take a couple of slices of ham instead of the wrap, then fill it with more ham. The green stuff didn’t tempt him.

From there we motored 30 minutes to the north end of the Bungle Bungle range where we were encouraged to walk into the Echidna Chasm.

This walk took us out of the 40-degree heat into Echidna Chasm where the walls were over 100 metres high and for most of it, were barely 2 metres apart. The temperature was refreshingly cooler. Bushy then whizzed us back to camp by 4.30 allowing Louise and I to forgo the BBQ and ride the 50 kms back up to Turkey Creek before dusk which arrived around 5.15. This had us on full alert as we were approaching sundown when the roos like to bound across the road and wild cattle wander onto it and glare at oncoming traffic. An example of this hazard is shown below.

It was a great excursion with such a unique set of landscapes. As we farewelled Bushy I was inclined to modify my earlier view of him, concluding that his morning meal of gravel and sump oil may just have a teaspoon of honey in it.

The following morning we set off south and then west along the Great Northern Highway, enjoying an overnight bush camp 100 kms beyond Fitzroy Crossing which some people we met at Lake Argyle tipped us off to. Finally, on 15 September, we rode the remaining 290 kms to Broome, leaving the Kimberleys behind us.

The Journey to the End of The Top End

Our particular corner of the Roebuck Bay camp site in Broome was a bit tatty but the beach was beautiful and the salties absent. We had bumped into a couple of fellow bikies in the Information centre. Lance and Dave were both from Oregon, USA and had rented a Suzuki V-Strom each from Brisbane and were doing an anti-clockwise ‘lap’ of Aussie, but in a much shorter time than ourselves.

My observations of Broome are modest as most of the day we spent there was in the library, accessing the free wi-fi and trying to make progress with this web site. The little we did see was of a newish town selling pearls and catering to the standard cruise ship bunch, the over fed, newlywed and nearly dead brigade, waddling around like rotund pink beacons seeking something to amuse them on their daily ration of shore time. I asked Louise to shoot me if ever I showed an interest in a cruise.

On 17 September we left Broome and rode …………

……. Into The Pilbara

stopping at Sandfire Roadhouse where we met Kiwi Rob. That afternoon,  the Americans and 3 Kiwis all camped at the beach site across from Sandfire Roadhouse.

The next day we all headed into Port Hedland for provisions and to look at the ships loading iron ore. The public viewing point gave only a glimpse of the loading bays.

I was told that when loaded, there was 20 metres of boat below the plimsole line. The one above right is being ushered out to sea by some eager tugs, with not a lot showing above the waterline. All are bound for China, where the bulk of the Pilbara’s iron ore is sent. Where some of it comes from is covered a below under “Tom Price”.

Without staying at Port Hedland, we rode south to Karijini National Park, Dales Gorge camp site in particular. Travellers we had met had raved about this place but for us, the reality was disappointing. The camp site was barren, virtually devoid of shade trees, important in the upper 30s. The ground was hard and red with tent pegs standing no chance. Rob headed off on his Moto Guzzi after just one night.

Dales Gorge itself (photo above) was refreshingly verdant. We did the full 2 hour walk ending at Fern Pool – shown above.

The two remaining pairs of intrepid motorcyclists all departed Dales Gorge and Karijini National Park on the 20^th September, going different distances that day. Rob about to depart one day (left), Lance and Dave the next (right).

 

Tom Price

We rode the107 kms to Tom Price, a mining town built by Rio Tinto specifically for the workers at its Tom Price iron ore mine. On arrival at the Information Centre, I snapped up the chance to go on a tour of the mine leaving 30 minutes later.

On the right is an overview of the operations of the Tom Price mine.

 

 

Left is some of the gear. The Komatsu 830e was the larger of the dump trucks in use. The rear of one and front of another are shown lurking in the garage, more like a hangar, see  photo below.

The figures that poured from our guide’s mouth were mind-boggling. The Komatsu trucks cost A$4.5 million apiece with each tyre a cool A$40,000.

The actual open cast mine pit below was once a small mountain but now only the shoulders at each end are visible and in between them an oblong hole that is deeper than the mountain was high.

This single mine produces around 28 million tonnes of iron ore per year and in 6 years will be exhausted. Rio Tinto has 15 other mines in the Pilbara, collectively producing 318 million tonnes of iron ore in 2015. One is 16 kms from Tom Price. So they built a conveyor belt to transport its production to the Tom Price processing site. The cost: A$15 million per kilometre.

Each train that takes the ore about 400 kms to Port Hedland is itself 2.6 kms long. The drivers are paid A$240,000 a year but will soon be relegated to the scrap heap due to automation arriving with the “Fat Controller” residing in Perth.

The Hammersley Range in the Pilbara is about 600 kms long and made mostly of iron ore of one grade or another.

The scale of the Pilbara and its iron ore operations, like Australia itself, is massive. The map below was displayed on the Nanutarra Roadhouse wall, showing the length of our journey from Tom Price to Exmouth.

But it was dry in there so the last day’s ride west, on 21 September, took us 630 kms to Exmouth and the Indian Ocean Coast of Western Australia. This marked the end of our journey across Aussie’s Top End with the trip south to Perth and beyond about to start.

 

 

 

 

Hidden Valley Tourist Park is one of only two places tents are catered for in Darwin. We nabbed a good possie and made this our base while we attended to various bike maintenance jobs and a long overdue effort to update our respective blogs.

Bends in the roads in The Top End are so few and far between that tyres wear more quickly due to only the centre doing the work. Ours were legal but the next sensible place to replace them is Perth, some 6,000 + kms away. To reduce the risk of an expensive hold up between Darwin and Perth, we replaced all four tyres. A more challenging job was to change the tops on our reserve tanks. This became a wild goose chase with a happy ending. I opted for black irrigation fittings and had the great pleasure of meeting John Gibson in his engineering workshop. With his oversight and indulgence, the job was completed and a few cold ones shared.  He bade us meet him at the Darwin Sailing on 31st where the sun and a few beers went down in the outdoor evening warmth that is so comfortable in Darwin – at that time of year. We met up gain at the Saturday morning Parap Markets, grabbed Asian soups and followed him to his partner’s studio. Winsom Jobling is recognised in Australia for her particular form of art ………. which is ‘paper’. She described the process and showed us many examples of here work.

The photo on the left is of large example of paper made from banana tree stems. There is no drawing or printing superimposed – the art is the paper itself. The process is elaborate. Much work and care is involved. The result has an organic form of beauty to it. On the right is an example of paper (made from what in this case I didn’t note) with a pattern upon it made from natural dyes collected by Winsom from the bush. The work ‘speaks’ of Northern Territory. For my tuppence-worth, I preferred the unprinted papers and enjoyed seeing a photo of an exhibit where beautiful paper has been folded into the form of an evening dress. Winsom has made three dimensional works made from the paper – these move my boat the most. If curious, google her.

By the time we had sorted our bikes and updated our web sites, we were keen to get back on the road so only one day was spent peeping at Darwin’s tourist attractions.

Aeronautical Museum

Darwin was Australia’s “front line” in World War II, with its proximity to Asia and the threat from the Japanese. Today, Darwin’s airport is a significant RAAF base which ‘leases’ landing rights and ground operations to commercial players. To minimise the risk of aerial mishaps, the control tower is run by the military and only the military.

The US airforce had a major presence in WWII due to it being the RAAF’s most northerly base.

B52 Bombers were able to fuel up and, subject to their load – fuel/bombs – were able to circumnavigate the globe without passing over much land. For more information, visit:  http://www.darwinaviationmuseum.com.au/

The B52 sign above didn’t take up much space in the giant hangar but the actual B52 itselftook  up virtually all of it. Gifted the above B52 for display to the public. A massive hangar was erected and today, the Darwin Aeronautical Museum offer the public the opportunity to view several military aircraft from the past, all assembled around and under the gigantic B52.

Underground Fuel Depot Museum

Yes, an unusual exhibit but part of Darwin’s World War II story. Following the Japanese aircraft carrier armada’s attack on Pearl Harbour on 7 December 1941, the elderly, plus most women and all children we evacuated from Darwin and efforts to bolster its defences cranked up. On 19 February 1942, a handful of days after completing the substantial fuel storage tanks to supply the military effort from this strategic base, that same Japanese aircraft carrier fleet attacked Darwin and flattened a large proportion of it, including the newly erected fuel depot. An underground fuel storage depot made up of tunnels was commissioned and 400+ civilian men set to it with basic equipment and in rather warm conditions. The job was completed just before the end of the war and today, fuel-less, the underground fuel depot is available for inspection by the public. The scale is impressive, even if the depot’s active life was virtually nil.

 

Military Museum.

Entering the museum visitors are promised nothing less than one of Tommo’s Pies. Having sampled many Aussie pies, I felt I should give this one a go. It didn’t live up to its name!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Military Museum had an indoor matrix of display cases and exhibits., with visitors gaining a good understanding of how World War II came to Australian soil.

The educational impact was assisted by audio clips and a brief video, that provided an account of Darwin’s involvement in WWII and how various characters played important roles. The photo on the left is an illustration of the Japanese offensive. On the right an explanation of the anti-submarine nets.

There endeth this overview of our time in Darwin. We rode out the following morning, headed south to Kathryne, then veered west on the Victoria Highway in the direction of Western Australia and in particular, the Kimberley.

 

 

On 18^th August it was bye-bye Kathryn and north towards Darwin for 40 or so kms then east 22 kms to Edith Falls. This place had been talked up by various folk we had met but the reality was not a disappointment – it was better. Excellent bush camp site a mere 5 minutes walk to the lower pool, ideal for a cooling dip. Marco and Ursula, a kiwi couple we met on the last night at Kathryn, joined us in there.

The first morning we walked up to the Upper Falls where to wallow and swim in the pool below the waterfall and as the photo below suggests, under the waterfall for some of us.

The next morning we made the longer trek (90 minutes) up to Sweet Water, another pool and set of falls. Marco and Ursula we keener to avoid the heat and set off before us and somehow we failed to connect at the top. Louise and I had found this beautiful set of mini-falls and pools where we wallowed and revelled in the complete lack of people.

Thus it was that after 3 nights at Edith Falls, we rode for 3 hours north to Darwin and our new Kiwi mates rode south to Kathryn as an overnight stop on their way to Alice Springs.

The Kakadu National park, north east of Kathryn, is about the size of Switzerland, yet in the context of the Northern Territory, let alone Australia, it is a small green patch on a large NT map. we bought a permit and spent 3 nights in it. The first was intended to be at Gunlom Falls at the far end of a 37 kms unsealed road. Sadly, the seasonal blitz of 4×4 tourist traffic had churned this into transverse corrugations amid loose red gritty dirt, making riding our top-heavy bikes challenging. Louise succumbed with two spills, damaging both her panniers. With most of the lap around Aussie left to do, we retreated and resolved to stick to sealed roads unless our own inspection of the surface persuaded us an unsealed access road was within our modest off-road capabilities.

We headed further into the park and stayed two nights at Cooinda, handy for the sunrise Yellow Water Cruise.  The enthusiastic guide told us how the Buffalo grass rises with the water level of the three Alligator Rivers which was low due to The Dry. Large expanses of grazeable land disappear during the wet, allowing the salties to spread out, only to be forced back to their more confined territories in May-June. With his help, we saw: Magpie Geese; Egrets; Night Herons; Cormorants; Willy Wagtails; Crested Pigmy somethings; Whistler Kites; Sacred Kingfishers; Sea Eagles; Red Tailed Black Cockatoos; Sulphur-Crested Cockatoos; Golden Tree Snake and multiple salties.

The salties held a fascination for most on the boat. We learned that Estuarine Crocodiles are the most aggressive crocs in the world. Males grow up to 7 metres long, females 3 metres. We were introduced to “Harry” whose territory we passed through. He was a 5 metre bundle of fun.

The water temperature is around 27 degrees causing the salties to cool below the preferred 34. Having been immersed all night feeding, they climb up the banks as soon as the sun rises, recharging their batteries with menace.

Having made running repairs to Louise’s panniers at Cooinda, we headed right up to the north east corner of the park, past Jabiru (where we posted Sam’s birthday card), in time to pop the tent up at the enjoyably bush Merl camp site before riding the short distance to Ubirr. Here we joined a two hour guided walk up through the craggy rocks that served as a gallery for ancient rock art.

The education was much appreciated. What processes informed the age of the art, the stories behind each drawing and how the Aboriginal occupation of the land changed over the millennia with climate change.

The Rainbow Serpent drawing above has the explanatory sign below which delivers an unambiguous message: “Keep Your Children Happy and Safe”.

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The ranger dismissed his class by sending them clambering up Ubirr’s highest rock in time to gaze all around to Arnhem Land (a large Aboriginal Reserve) to the north and east, north west to the Van Diemen Gulf into which flow the West, South and East Alligator Rivers, then west to distant hills beyond which was Darwin.

There were up to 50 or 60 people on top of Ubirr and all fell silent as the sun slowly sank to and below the horizon. There was something spiritual about this place, it put me in mind of Cape Reinga at the northernmost tip of New Zealand where the Tasman Sea and Pacific Ocean enjoy and enthusiastic meeting.

Our time in Kakadu concluded the next day with an early up, brief breakie, tent down, gear stowed and a 70 km ride down to Burrungkuy at Nourlangie for one further Ranger talk from 9 am to 11 am. Again, excellent educational content covering ancient sites, tools, occupation and more rock art. Another Dreamtime story, another Spirit Ancestor example, Namarrgon (pronounced narm-arr-gon) is the Lightning Man, an important creation ancestor responsible for the violent lightning storms Kakadu experiences every wet season. We saw drawings of him (left) at the Anbangbang Gallery (think: rock-face-in-a-cave) at Burrunguy (Nourlangie Rock). He uses his stone axes to split the dark clouds and make lightning and thunder. Namarrgon’s story began on the coastline of the Coburg Peninsula and ends in a rock shelter in the sandstone country of the Arnhem Land Plateau – where he remains today. During his travels he left his power behind at many places. On his last journey he approached the escarpment from the east, looked over the sheer wall, then took out an eye and placed it high on the cliff at Namarrgondjahdjam (Lightning Dreaming).  Here it sits, waiting for the storm season. This is a sacred and dangerous place that must not be disturbed or catastrophic events will follow. During the build up season you can see Narmarrgon’s children, aljurr (Leichardt’s grasshopper) on the fragrant pityrodia bushes which is the only plant they eat. Then, as every Wet Season begins, Namarrgon, the Lightning Man, asserts himself as great black storm clouds approach from the north, complete with blazing lightning strikes down from the angry skies.

These Kakadu insights into the Aboriginal relationship with the land, their family rules and structures were fascinating. Most of all was the use of drawings of the Spirit Ancestors to help record stories and hand down their belief system.

Finally, we rode out of Kakadu through the afternoon heat to Kathryn where we plopped gratefully into the pool at Notts Crossing Tourist Park.

Undara lies on the western slopes of the Great Dividing Range where the weather has transitioned from the coastal rains of Cairns, through cool and cloudy on the top, to clear blue skies and heat to the west. Heading west from Undarra, a road sign might have said: “No Clouds Until Darwin”.

After Undara there is little to report other than to say it was a 6 day blast through a vast amount of not very much. For Kiwis reading this, think of the MacKenzie Basin as a 5 cent coin being tossed into the middle of a footie pitch – that might give a clue to the terrain and the scale.

Friends Dagy and Odette both suggested our tent was too big. Our little tent below left

is supposed to be wide enough for three people but we are left wondering what sort of relationship three people sharing it might have. My head touches one end while my feet are up against the door. There is a covered ‘vestibule’ front and back for storing stuff out of  sight. By contrast, at a camp site at Camooweal, we met Nick and Yvette who were also doing a lap of Aussie but for whom nothing smaller than the whopper of a tent (on the right above) would do!

After Mount Garnet, our overnight camps were at: Mount Surprise, Normanton, Cloncurry, Camooweal (we entered Northern Territory immediately west of this unremarkable place – look closely at the sign) ………….

………………. Three Ways, then 556 kms up to Mataranka (wonderful dawn dip in a natural hot spring) finally arriving in Kathryn on 16 August, some 317 Kms south of Darwin.

Notts Crossing Tourist Park was our Kathryn base, staying 3 nights. On 18^th we made a day trip to Beswick, an aboriginal community about an hour SE of Kathryn. Here we were treated to a gallery of local Aboriginal art works and had lengthy chats with Tom Lewis who manages the place and organises the annual “Walking with Spirits” festival. Sorry – no photos to share.

This tourism attraction is superbly well done. Jerry Collins, a major station owner and beef producer in the eighties, learned about the virtues of diversification having found himself over-geared as Aussie went into the nineties recession. Having sold off some stations and negotiated a unique deal with the Queensland Government, he was left with a much-reduced beef operation and a lease of a small portion (“Lava-Tube-Land”) of his old and first cattle station, the rest of that station having become a National Park. The two hour tour of the Lava Tubes (example right)involved a solid delivery of information pitched just right. Lava tubes were created when the last volcano in the region erupted approximately190,000 years ago. The shallow gradient caused the lava to flow slowly, solidifying on the top to form a crust with the flowing lava underneath naturally finding and flowing down watercourses, in some cases for around 60 kms. The super-hot flowing lava cuts into the igneous massive granite below and essentially, a tubular-shaped hole opens up between flowing and solidified lava. In the places where the roof of the tubes collapse, the rain forest vegetation that was on the surface at the times, thousands of years later, continues to exist in the resultant depression, creating deep green islands on an arid sparsely vegetated landscape. These islands we explored by the Aboriginal people with the Lava Tube caves probably being regarded with suspicion and therefore not used as living places.

We had ridden 3,100 kilometres from Sydney to Cairns and then driven Landie about 2,000 kms round trip up Cape York and back. About 5 weeks later than expected, on 9 August, with both bikes fully sorted, we were ready to hit the road again. Darwin lay 7 days riding away if we averaged 400 kms per day. Photo below shows the kilometre reading on my bike. After the previous ill-fated attempt in the rain, we picked a ‘weather hole’ and left Cairns between major showers and before some real wet weather arrived. This time the exit route was south of Cairns and up the Gillies Pass, onto the Atherton Tablelands for the inevitable cuppa at Café Louise in Atherton. Night One was at Mount Garnet, not far short of the Undara Lava Tubes. Due to the extent to which we were behind schedule, this was to be the only attraction we interrupted our blast west for.

 

We found a friendly little motel complex in north Cairns – The Balinese –  that had the advantage of being a short walk from The Cock and Bull pub, resplendent with wall-mounted flat-screen TVs all showing sport. Our initial stay was between the house sit and trip in Landie which coincided with an early British and Irish Lion’s Tour game against the Maori All Blacks. After Cape York, we returned again long enough to see the 1^st test.  Then, when departing Cairns in the rain on 3 July for the journey west, we both came off on a diesel-soaked left-hand bend. I hit it first and slithered across the oncoming lane and into a rock face. Louise had a second or so of notice and came off more delicately.

So back to Cairns and the Balinese to sort the bikes out.

 This involved insurance claims with mine being a write-off. Two major strokes of luck: (i) I wasn’t a write-off, not even bruised; (ii) A BMW F650GS was on Gum Tree in north Cairns. I bought the beaut red bike (left), same model as Loise’s beyond it. While the to and fro was going on with the insurance company, we left for a 6 day Workaway Stay (similar to WWOOF) on a Daintree property where I was able to draw upon landscaping skills acquired on our Tai Tapu property, such as building steps up steep banks and making retaining walls. Below are

the two structures I had a hand in at Peter and Peggy’s gorgeous property close to the Daintree River.

Then back to the Balinese.

While in the Daintree I heard the dreadful news that my special uncle in Colchester had died so off to England we flew on 21 July to attend a family funeral on 31^st. For most of the time we were there we stayed with Sophie and Logan in Winchester, a beautiful historic city surrounded by classic English countryside. Sophie demonstrated the quality of her father’s parenting skills by taking us to the Wykham Arms as soon as we had dropped our bags. Before the table above became available, standing in that fine example of a fine old English pub with Sophie, Louise and Logan, supping a pint of hand-pulled Gales HSB (Horndean Special Bitter), was a beautiful moment in time.

The Colchester Thompson family had arranged a small, family-only service on 31 July with a larger celebration of a magnificent life well lived on 2 September. It was good to get there to be part of the occasion on 31 July despite the rawness and pain that my cousins and Auntie were suffering. Since most people reading this will not know the personalities involved, little else will be noted here except to say thanks to the Colchester Clan for keeping me in the loop and inviting me to both. On the flights back to Far North Queensland there was plenty of time to reflect on D. E. M. Thompson and what a wonderful man and Uncle he was. I shall miss him a lot.

And so it was back to The Balinese on 4 August.

Both bikes were going to receive attention in the Cairns BMW garage while we were away with the hope that all would be sorted when we returned. This proved to be wishful thinking but with terrific service from Westco Motors, Cairns, and Will Lamberton in particular, we were finally ready to go late on 8th.

Bye-bye Balinese.

 

 

 

 

Only the Monitor Lizard in the previous post (below) was captured on camera but as we rumbled up and down Cape York in Landie we saw:

Small snakes, dead and alive, were spotted on the road, the former being a little broader than the latter;

Small kangaroos bounced off into the roadside scrub before 9am most mornings;

Birds included: Cockatoos, Red-tailed Black Cockatoos, Laughing Kookaburras; Kite; Sea Eagle; Galah; Rainbow Bee-eater; White Ibis; Lorikeet;

One saltie 400 metres away;

One skinny rather dishevelled dingo loped into the road ahead, paused to look at Landie, then darted into the bush;

Monitor Lizards;

Then when back in Cairns ……

…………. butterflies in Cairns Botanic Gardens.