Round Australia by bike - Day 022 - Doon Doon to Halls Creek

Day:	022
Date:	7 June 2008
Start	Doon Doon Roadhouse
Finish	Halls Creek
Daily Distance:	271km
Daily Speed:	21.5
Relative to Schedule:	-601km
Daily Podcasts:	n.a.
GPS Track	Here
Journal:	A tough day, despite not being high kilometers.  Firstly, I ended up sleeping on a concrete apron adjacent to the toilet block under a huge steel canopy that provided good weather protection.  I was going to use the BBQ shelter, but some campers decided to use it for a BBQ before I got there.  How unfair!  Anyway, my five hours sleep was interrupted by various visitors to the facilities and by the sound of torrential rain and violent winds at various times.  The latter inspired me to get up and make sure my airing clothing had not been blown to Indonesia. When I did get up at 12:30am it was raining and windy.  I left at 1:30am (takes a little longer to pack up when using the tent and air mattress) in the abysmal weather.  I had visualized that there would be days like this, and I wasn’t disappointed, except for the fact that it was in the Kimberleys in the Dry Season and it’s not supposed to rain. The first 100km to Warmun Roadhouse was particularly hard work into the wind and because I was very sleepy.  Additionally, the road was hilly.  I arrived at Warmun at 7am, having made very slow progress and decided to have a big brekky, which it was.  It rained torrentially while I was there and was still raining hard when I left, much to the amusement of the staff and some local aborigines, not to mention the people looking out of the window of the Greyhound Bus making a scheduled stop at the time. It pretty much rained non-stop for the rest of the day, with varying intensities.  The wind diminished a little, which helped, but with the constant hills, I frequently struggled to keep my speed above 15kph.  The road was covered in puddles and I was very wet, though not cold.  My wet weather gear seems to be doing the job.  I had my lights on all day as did most of the traffic.  I got lots of sympathetic toots and waves.  The scenery, somewhat masked by low cloud, was still impressive with low hills and rocky crags always visible on both sides.  It was cattle station country and there were cattle and horses roaming freely on the road.  There has been a lot of rain in the last 24 hours and the authorities have begun closing some of the gravel roads, including the road into the Bungle Bungles, a nearby spectacular eroded rock mountain range, which I’m sure will annoy a lot of tourists. I finally arrived in Halls Creek, a largely aboriginal town with a sad reputation, where I had managed to pre-book an egregiously over-priced motel room, which I was glad of in the circumstances.  I was very tired towards the end of the day, and am looking forward to getting some uninterrupted (though short!) sleep tonight and another very early start for the 289km to Fitzroy Crossing where I have booked another expensive motel room.  There’s nothing between here and Fitzroy Crossing , but the road is relatively flat and swings towards the east so maybe the winds will be more favourable.  It looks like the rain is clearing.