Round Australia by bike - Day 021 - Timber Creek to Doon Doon

Day:	021
Date:	6 June 2008
Start	Timber Creek
Finish	Doon Doon Roadhouse
Daily Distance:	315km
Daily Speed:	n.a.
Relative to Schedule:	-601km
Daily Podcasts:	Here
GPS Track	Here
Journal:	I got up with very little enthusiasm, tip-toed around in another cabin with paper-thin walls while I got ready and was on the road around 1:15am.  I tried not to think about how many more days I would have to do this.  I have had enough. Once riding I found it was quite warm (20+C), and soon stopped to take off my jacket.  I also noticed that there were no stars in the direction I was traveling, which was a bit ominous, and probably explained the higher temperatures.  I tried to put my negative thoughts behind me and focused on maintaining a good pace and finding a radio station I could listen to.  I finally found a staticky ABC Radio National station and enjoyed listening to their various current affairs programs as I cycled along.  I stopped after 60km to have a snack in the dark at a rest area, surrounded by sleeping caravanners, and again after another 60km in another rest area just as dawn began to break and the caravanners began stirring.  The light revealed spectacular rocky crags and ridges near and far.  As usual my fatigue abated a little as it got light and my mood lifted.  I continued on the undulating road through similar country, spotting another loping dingo crossing the road ahead, until I reached the West Australian border where there was a quarantine station and they checked my bags for fruit and meat.  I gained 1.5 hours moving into a new time zone. It was then about 40km into Kununurra, a significant regional town.  The area is near the huge man-made Argyle Dam which provides irrigation water for a variety of tropical crops and there is also plenty of mining activity nearby, as well as plenty of tourist attractions.  I stopped at a huge service station/store for lunch and didn’t bother going into the town itself.  The place was buzzing. I left Kununurra, with the intention of riding another 100km to Doon Doon Roadhouse which was about where I wanted to end my day, but where I was not sure there was any accommodation.  The road had turned south and the wind was a strong south-easterly, making the riding slow, barely above 20kph, and I was tired.  It was also forecast to rain, but I didn’t get more than a few heavy spots of rain every now and again.  However, both the wind and rain are forecast to continue for the next two days, which is not good news. Offsetting the weather and fatigue was the magnificent Kimberley scenery I was now riding through.  Long high rocky ridges overlooking the valley and great views from the higher road elevations, although the hills added a bit to my misery.  I arrived at the Doon Doon Roadhouse to discover they had just given away their last accommodation, but I decided to stay in their campground where they suggested I sleep under the BBQ shelter because of the impending rain, and I had a nice shower.  I had a chicken schnitzel at the roadhouse for dinner and intend another early start tomorrow.

Round Australia by bike - Day 020 - Katherine to Timber Creek

Day:	020
Date:	5 June 2008
Start	Katherine
Finish	Timber Creek
Daily Distance:	277km
Daily Speed:	24.6kph
Relative to Schedule:	-586km
Daily Podcasts:	Here
GPS Track	Here
Journal:	On the road soon after 1:00am, I cycled out of the sleeping Katherine and turned west on the Victoria Highway towards Western Australia.  The lights were soon behind me and I was once again riding beneath a cloudless starlit sky.  There was almost zero traffic and it wasn’t too cold.  The road was undulating, though gradually climbing, and it was relatively slow progress.  I stopped a couple of times for sandwiches I had purchased the previous days and enjoyed the bush at dawn.  As the sun rose, a large dingo sauntered out of the bush to my left, took a look at me, deciding I was of no consequence, and continued on its way into the bush to my right. Soon after, I entered the Victoria River region which comprised deep red rocky bluffs bordering the Victoria River valley.  The scenery was great and offset the strengthening headwind.  The road gradually descended into the valley and then followed its floor until finally crossing the Victoria River adjacent to the Victoria River Roadhouse (187km).  I arrived about 10:45am and had a late breakfast sitting on their verandah watching the world go by including the tourists and a National Park Ranger organizing a burn-off of grass surrounding the roadhouse.  Wherever, you go up here, it seems like they are deliberately slow-burning the undergrowth, and the smell is familiar and occasionally tedious. From the Roadhouse only had 92km to go to Timber Creek, my target for the day, but the very warm weather and gradual ascents made it hard work.  I arrived about 3:15pm and took the opportunity to do a load of washing as well as my other chores.  Dinner was a hamburger and chips, and I bought sandwiches and other supplies to get me to Kununurra (228km) the next habitation en route.  I may be camping by the roadside tomorrow night as there doesn’t look likely to be any accommodation where I will be.  I’m planning the usual very early start tomorrow morning, especially since I recall the first 200km tomorrow is very exposed and prone to be very hot.

Round Australia by bike - Day 019 - Daly Waters to Katherine

Day:	019
Date:	4 June 2008
Start	Daly Waters
Finish	Katherine
Daily Distance:	273km
Daily Speed:	25.2kph
Relative to Schedule:	-567km
Daily Podcasts:	Here
GPS Track	Here
Journal:	Got up at 12:30am and was on the road shortly after 1:00am listening to the cricket and admiring the starry skies.  Even though I was now travelling north along the Stuart Highway, the main link between Adelaide and Darwin, there was little traffic.  In fact, I generally have no problem these days on my snack breaks while traveling at night to just sit in the middle of the road and look at the stars and listen to the night sounds of the bush while I snack and rehydrate. I made reasonable time although there was a slight opposing wind and I reached Mataranka (168km) by 8:45am where I had the smallest “big brekky” I have seen on the trip.  There are some great thermal pools near to Mataranka, but they’ll have to wait for another time.  Just before reaching there, the road crossed a tropical swamp on a long causeway, where there was a covering of exotic water lilies and many different kinds of waterbirds.  Otherwise the scenery was the usual arid savannah, with occasional cleared pastures. The weather became very warm after breakfast and probably reached the low 30s centigrade, with the sun blazing down from a cloudless sky.  The road also became quite busy with tourists, road trains and some oversize trucks so that I was always checking what was coming up behind.  On the plus side, I was getting lots of support from everybody including friendly toots from road train drivers and even had some tourists pull over to take pictures of me while I rode past. I reached the southern outskirts of Katherine around 1:30pm, and made my way to the Casuarina Street Primary School, where I gave a short presentation on my trip to Rodney Gregg’s students, who have been following my trip, and answered their questions.  They were very supportive and interested.  I hope I make it this time.  I called in on my first Round Australia trip last year, and then bombed out, injured, a week later.  Hopefully, history will not repeat itself. From the school I rode into central Katherine and checked into my motel room.  After a shower, I enjoyed the luxury of sufficient time for a visit to the adjacent supermarket and a short walk around town before adjourning to my room to eat some Asian take-out food and a whole litre of ice-cream (I wasn’t sure I could do it, but it was easy!) and do my chores.  Katherine is an interesting town.  It has an outback/government town feel to it, and is peopled by transient grey nomads (caravanners) and European backpackers resupplying and booking sightseeing, along with the local inhabitants, including a large number of aborigines.  Many of the latter don’t seem to have anything to do (and probably don’t….I don’t imagine there’s a lot of work around here), and tend to gather on street corners or sit in the shade of trees chatting. I’m hoping to get another very early start for my last day in the Northern Territory.

Round Australia by bike - Day 018 - Cape Crawford to Daly Waters

Day:	018
Date:	3 June 2008
Start	Cape Crawford
Finish	Daly Waters
Daily Distance:	270km
Daily Speed:	25.6kph
Relative to Schedule:	-550km
Daily Podcasts:	Here
GPS Track	Here
Journal:	I slept well despite the paper thin walls of my “deluxe” (bed PLUS fridge) allowing me to hear every word of the bed-time conversation of the elderly couple next door.  I decided my mobile phone alarm clock would wake them as well, so just trusted myself to wake around 2am, which I did.  I tip-toed around packing and getting ready and was on the road about 2:50am.  It was the usual bright starry night, but I was disappointed to find that I am now so remote, I had difficulty tuning in an AM radio station to listen to the cricket from Antigua.  I finally found a static-ridden station and made do with that for as long as it lasted. I couldn’t see what was on either side of the road, but presume it was the standard lightly-timbered savannah.  It’s hard to tell at night, but the road seemed to keep climbing and there was a slight headwind, so my average speed seemed frustratingly slow.  There was no traffic and I didn’t see another vehicle until about 7am.  Because there was nothing in between Cape Crawford and Daly Waters, my target for the day, I had loaded up on provisions the previous evening at the roadhouse store.  I stopped for a sandwich breakfast at about 100km as the sun began to warm the day and then had a sandwich lunch in a rest area at about 180km.  Apart from the stops and a couple of rest breaks, the whole day was pretty much spent cycling westwards through undulating savannah and arid forest country on a narrow strip of bitumen, under an increasingly hot sun.  There was a following breeze for most of the day and I was pleased to make good time and reach Daly Waters soon after 3pm and get a motel room for the night.  I called Rodney Gregg, a teacher at Casuarina Primary School in Katherine, and arranged to call in there between 1pm and 2pm, as he had requested, to meet his class and tell them about my trip.  It means an early start (on the road before 1am), but it suits me to finish early as well and I have booked a motel room in Katherine to follow the school visit. Today was relatively comfortable and, apart from a few saddle sores and numb toes on both feet, I seem to be in reasonable shape.  I have been cycling with my right shoe unbuckled and my Achilles problem has abated.  I’m hoping that a few more “on target” days will build my confidence and well-being to the point where I can think about recovering some of the lost ground.  If I can get 300km back before I get back to NSW and IF (and it’s a big IF!) I don’t encounter any problems, I still have an outside chance of getting the record.  For the moment, I’m just happy to get into a routine of hitting my daily targets.

Round Australia by bike - Day 017 - Barkly Homestead to Cape Crawford

Day:	017
Date:	2 June 2008
Start	Barkly Homestead Roadhouse
Finish	Cape Crawford
Daily Distance:	374km
Daily Speed:	25.4kph
Relative to Schedule:	-543km
Daily Podcasts:	Here
GPS Track	Here
Journal:	I got up at midnight, feeling very tired and somewhat dreading the day ahead, although also a bit excited.  This leg of the trip was a journey into the unknown.  I hadn’t been up this road (Tablelands Highway) before and both Eugen and Erik, the previous and current record holders had chosen not to go this way, presumably because it was a bit unknown and remote.  Anyway, I left shortly before 1am, farewelled by two young guys from a nearby motel room who were having a quiet smoke before retiring after a long night in the Roadhouse bar.  One of them was genuinely interested and envious and came to have a good look at the bike. The narrow strip of bitumen headed north into the darkness under the usual brilliantly starlit skies.  You cannot beat the Australian outback for night skies.  There as a slight following breeze and it was cool but not cold.  To my relief the road surface seemed fine and I made good time.  The total distance to be covered, according to the road sign was 378km, with rest areas at approximately 150km and 290km.  I decided to make these my breakfast and lunch stops and to have short breaks every 50km, which worked well. I did not see another vehicle until around 7:00am and the only sign of life I saw before then were the distant lights of a cattle station and a couple of winking lights from high-flying aircraft.  As the sun rose, the countryside was revealed to be mostly dry grass prairie with some trees and occasional cattle and kangaroos.  I reached my target breakfast stop to find a number of caravanners getting ready to leave for the day.  One couple immediately offered me a cup of coffee which I gratefully accepted and we chatted while I ate one of the sandwiches I had bought the previous night at the roadhouse. Then it was onwards across the Barkly tablelands with the terrain gradually becoming more undulating and varying from timbered scrub to vast treeless plains.  Traffic was extremely light, maybe two vehicles an hour, and I enjoyed the scenery aided by a strengthening tailwind. Towards the northern end of the Tablelands the road crossed a few low forested ridges with some rocky outcrops and then, as it neared Cape Crawford, followed a picturesque river gorge that included some spectacular red rocky cliffs.  In this area I came around a corner to find a very big tiger snake thrashing around on the road with its back broken, presumably by a car which had just passed going in the opposite direction. The Roadhouse at Cape Crawford is primarily aimed at tourists and had a nice shaded and grassy campground which also house three helicopters used for scenic flights in the local area. I arrived at 6pm, having had a successful and pleasant, if tiring day, obtained a basic cabin for the night and enjoyed a chicken schnitzel dinner in the dining room before getting an early night.

Round Australia by bike - Day 016 - Camooweal to Barkly Homestead

Day:	016
Date:	1 June 2008
Start	Camooweal
Finish	Barkly Homestead Roadhouse
Daily Distance:	272km
Daily Speed:	25.1kph
Relative to Schedule:	-644km
Daily Podcasts:	Here
GPS Track	Here
Journal:	The party music from the Camooweal Pub echoed over the small settlement until midnight, along with lots of shouting and laughter.  The Camp Draft was obviously a great success, but I’m sure there were going to be some sore heads for Sunday’s events.  The noise woke me a few times, but not enough to prevent me getting needed sleep and when I woke at 1am to begin my day, the town was deadly quiet.  I quietly packed and was on the road by about 1:50am.  It was cool and cloudless with a slight headwind that forced me to pedal a bit harder than I would like.  The quarter moon had not yet risen, so the stars were particularly bright. I passed into the Northern Territory after 15km and continued on without stopping until I reached the remote Avon Downs Police Station.  It’s opposite a wayside rest area and I remembered from my last trip that they offered free self-serve coffee for travelers.  Even at 5:00am the water urn was hot and the picnic table lit and I helped myself to a reviving cup of coffee in the quiet of the night.  Unfortunately, I managed to get sprayed by a sprinkler that came on to water their grass as I was leaving, but didn’t get too wet. I had another minor mishap as I was riding out of town.  I reached into my coat pocket to retrieve my radio and accidentally flicked out the little plastic bag containing a spare button and material that sometimes comes with new clothes.  It disappeared into the darkness behind me and I did an emergency U-turn to retrieve it, almost falling off in the process and having to step particularly hard on the pedals to maintain momentum.  Anyway, I couldn’t find the little bag on the road and resumed riding.  When I changed into my highest gears a little later the chain began slipping and I guessed that my little U-turn stunt had misaligned the rear derailleur.  I toyed with the idea of returning to avon Downs to try and adjust it, but decided to continue riding using the gears I had in the hope that it would sort itself out or, when daylight came, I could try and make the necessary adjustments.  An hour later there was enough light to see and I discovered my little missing plastic bag tightly wrapped around the rear sprocket.  It took a few minutes to remove completely, but that solved the problem. I stopped around 8:30am after 135km at a rest stop and ate some sandwiches for breakfast that I had bought the previous day in the warmth of the early sunshine and spent some time chatting to a young backpacker who was touring in a minivan with a mountain bike on a rack. As the sun rose, the wind swung round to come from the south-east and I made good time for the balance of the journey to Barkly Homestead Roadhouse despite some long gradual climbs which yielded good views across the dry scrubby savannah.  In some places it was more dry grass prairie with almost no trees in sight. I reached the Roadhouse at 2pm and checked into a motel room where I spent the first 45 minutes changing my rear tyre, tube and internal wheel taping, using the new tyre Sharon had mailed to me in Mount Isa.  It may have been my imagination, but the rear tyre seems to have had a very slow leak since the punctures back during the first week.  The old tyre had done plenty of kilometers anyway, so I felt I had got my money’s worth and I wanted to stop worrying about the rear tyre pressure all of the time.  I have a very big day tomorrow (374km) to Cape Crawford, although I’ll camp beforehand if I need to, so plan to leave before 1:00am.

Round Australia by bike - Day 015 - Mount Isa to Camooweal

Day:	015
Date:	31 May 2008
Start	Mount Isa
Finish	Camooweal
Daily Distance:	192km
Daily Speed:	25kph
Relative to Schedule:	-592km
Daily Podcasts:	Here
GPS Track	Here
Journal:	I got up at 3am and was on the road by 3:45am.  Despite the slack day yesterday and eight hours sleep my motivation was still low and I almost dreaded wheeling the bike out of the motel door to begin riding.  I guess it’s a combination of fatigue, missed objectives and the immensity of the task ahead.  I’m not daunted by the distances I have to ride, but dislike doing it when I’m not getting enough sleep.  On some nights, particularly when roadside camping, I feel like I have barely stopped riding from the day before when I have to start riding again.  One of my running heroes in the 1970s was Dave Bedford, the great and ground-breaking English distance runner.  He experimented with running vast distances in training and also, at one point, with running as many as five times a day.  When asked what this was like, he said that sometimes, as he completed one training run, he met himself leaving for the next one.  That’s how I feel some days.  Anyway, I feel the need to regroup and reassess and have decided to switch to the mode I used in last year’s attempt where I endeavoured not to camp and was prepared to have some very long days, and some quite short days, depending on where the towns are.  When camping, I tend to ride late and don’t sleep as well.  At present, I am two days behind a 50 day schedule.  I’m not going to bother trying to make up any time in the short-term.  Instead, I’ll stick to the daily targets as best I can and hope no bad days (headwinds or bike or body trouble) intervene to put me further behind schedule.  That’s the plan, anyway….we’ll see what happens. Once I got riding today, it wasn’t too bad.  The first three hours were in darkness, beneath a brilliantly starlit sky along a mostly flat road with barely any traffic.  I listened to the Test Cricket on my radio and around 6am thought of my friends back at Terrigal setting out on the monthly 10km running time trial.  It was cold in the shallow valleys but I resisted the temptation to put on more clothes.  There was a slight following breeze which gradually strengthened as the sun rose.  The countryside was most savannah lightly-timbered with scraggly trees and mostly covered with long brown grass.  Cattle could be seen here and there and I disturbed a number of eagles feeding on kangaroo road kill as I whizzed along making good time. After about 100km I stopped in a half-completed rest area and enjoyed some sandwiches for breakfast while warming myself in the emerging sunlight.  I guy driving in the other direction stopped and came over for a chat.  He was on his way from Darwin to Brisbane but was hoping to pick up some work in Mount Isa.  He told me that there was a Camp Draft (like a rodeo) on in Camooweal, my target for the day, and that the small town was very busy, making it unlikely I would find any accommodation.  Oh well, maybe I would be roadside camping after all, since the next habitation was 272km further on. I continued on to Camooweal, arriving at 12:30pm and tried the first place advertising cabins, but they were booked out.  However, at the second roadhouse, they had one basic cabin left and I took it.  First I had a big brekky and then had a shower and did my chores.  The little town is certainly busy with the Camp Draft.  On the way in I could see a large gathering of trucks, horse trailers and caravans off to the left, along with penned cattle and some horsemen, and the wafting sounds of a loudspeaker system.  In town, which is just a main street with two roadhouses, a butcher’s and a pub, there was quite a lot of noise emanating from the pub and various stockmen, many of them aboriginal, lounging around town in the required dress of boots, jeans, big buckles and beaten up hats.  There were also a number of young kids, some similarly dressed, patronizing the roadhouses, presumably on a rare trip into town.  I imagine it will be quite noisy here tonight. I plan to go to bed very early tonight and leave before 2am for the 272km ride to Barkly Homestead roadhouse, and then make a similarly early start the next day for the very long and challenging haul (374km) to Cape Crawford across the Barkly Tablelands along a minor road with no facilities whatsoever.