This is the first Saturday night I have ever spent in a Dry community, probably good considering yesterday I was concerned about the consistency of my beer intake in recent days.
Got up and went for a walk about 6am to try to get some photos of the sun rising on the surrounding red rock escarpments. It was a bit of a fizzer, and did not light up the surrounding hills like I had hoped. Good to be up and seeing a bit of early morning activity all the same, with a few Kangaroos hoping away through the scrub, bird active, and bubbles ominously coming up through the water in the river. The Victoria River is the longest river in the Northern Territory and interestingly drops only 500 feet in the last 300 miles, with the last one hundred miles being tidal (that is if the information in the road house bar is correct). Of course as with all bodies of water around here it is full of Crocs, who will climb over each other to get to you if you go within a stones throw of the water, and if you are in a low bridge then don’t look over the edge because they can jump out of the water getting ¾ of their body out of the water. All good scary stuff when you come from a country that the scariest thing in the waterway is an eel that might bit your toe if you are very lucky. Reasuringly, Crocs get most of their energy through some sort of photosynthesis apparently, and when they eat its just about always fish that they are interested in. Of course the bubbles coming up were probably from frogs or fish, not maneaters. Never the less I tempted fate like a man who knows no fear and leaned over the edge of the bridge rail for a few photos. It was about 20-30 metres up. This was a new bridge with the other one bellow it being I guess 5-10 metres high and clearly inadequate in the wet season as it looked in pretty good condition. It must really rain here in the Wet Season, there are heaps of floodways that we keep crossing and I get the impression that half of the northern territory is under water in the Wet.
We had some breakfast after another lesson on the virtues of the 1999-2000 Landrover Defender, which apparently is the one to have as the Germans made it, prior to Ford getting control of Landrover and putting electronics into it! Good info if you a re looking for an old Landrover defender. I’m not, I think, but maybe I should be? Anyway we headed off about 8.15 as the Roos had been very active this morning and we did not want one as fork decoration. The first hour or so was very picturesque as the road swept its way down the Victoria river. The Boab Trees started to become more frequent and they add a real character to the bush. They are a tree with a massive trunk with disproportionately small branches coming out the top of the thick trunk, most of them do not have leaves on them at the moment. The hills are all red rock and really stand out against the green and yellow bush vegetation mix. There was the odd area of piled up boulders of red rock. It really does look like an ancient landscape.
We stopped for the odd photo but mostly just rode down to the border of Northern Territory and Western Australia. I got a bit behind Dad at one point due to him passing a caravan just before a series of corners, so opened the taps momentarily to catch up and to make the most of the lawless Northern Territory, got up to a three figure speed that had a seven in it and may have been a tiny little bit over the 130 limit, with the bike just wanting to keep going despite the massive load of luggage on the back. I was concerned that I might get the wobbles so that was fast enough thank you. Apparently the speed limit was introduced recently as with the no speed limit there was a gumball rally race being held but a Ferrari crashed at about 260km/hr and killed 7 people (once again a fact relayed from casual conversation so may be utter BS). I would suspect this event, if true would have been the final straw in a series of crashes, as the roads are not really up to high speed, the 130km/hr is every bit fast enough considering the road quality.
We pulled into the Quarantine station at the Western Australian border. They wanted to look in our Bags so we shut down and unloaded a couple of bags for them. It was pretty hot at this stage and the two quarantine officers were perspiring heavily. We asked them how long it takes to acclimatise and they claimed some people never acclimatise then went on to discuss how they are looking forward to getting down south to Perth where it is less humid. Further confirmation that we are not the only ones finding it hot, the trucks are bursting into flames and the Quarantine officers are covered in sweat. After they were convinced that we were not smuggling fruit into WA we carried on into Kununarra.
Arrived in Kununarra and after fueling up went for a ride around town to find spot for a cuppa and a break. Dad pulled his bike to bits trying to work out what was causing a warning light but I couldn’t take any more and retreated to the air conditioned café for a coffee and carrot cake. Dad came in shortly after having discovered that the park light had a blown bulb. This was not immediately obvious because the bike computer puts a half charge through to the brake light when the park light blows, so it appeared that it was still going. Clever, they think of everything, next they will even put an indicator that this is what has happened rather than just a general warning light and no hint of what the problem is. I headed back to the garage and got a replacement bulb and once all reassembled we headed South aiming for Hall Creak. The heavens opened as we rode out of Kununarra, and we got soaked as we waited at a road works prior to riding over the Dam that has created lake Kununarra. A few minutes later we were in full sunshine again and rapidly drying out. It was quite a refreshing little shower really.
After about 1 hour I was feeling pretty sleepy and pulled into a rest area. There were a lot of people parked up in their Caravans and a few camping there also. We pulled up to one of the shaded concrete tables. There was a friendly couple there in their caravan. I described how I thought this was a good place to make a Coffee and test the burner out since replacing the O-ring, as there were not too many flammable things in the near vicinity. Concrete table, gravel all around and a big puddle next to us if it all went wrong, perfect. I described to the couple the Kakadu uncontrolled burn episode and they started to look quite nervous. He demonstrated all of his gas cookers and talked about how they were very safe and predictable. I said “Don’t worry this will probably be fine”, as I pumped the pressure into the MSR tank. I suggested to Dad that he might want to stand back and then threw a match at the cooker and jumped back, all standard MSR lighting techniques. The naked flame burst into action and burned vigorously. The guy said “Help, is it meant to be doing that!” and stood up from his chair. I said “Ooww yes, it doesn’t seem to have any petrol squirting out the side this time”, “Are your sure that’s alright?”, ”Uhmm, yes this is looking good” as I turn on the valve and the flame jumps higher, “help, are you sure its OK”, “Yes, its looking good” as I give the tank a few extra pumps of pressure to confirm my confidence. I have always found that looking confident, even when the proverbial is hitting the air reticulation device and you are thinking “Rude word! What is going on here?” helps others to relax in the knowledge that someone is in control.. Then ithe flame settled down into the usual MSR flame and I threw the Coffee machine on and had a boil up. Everyone relaxed.
They were an interesting couple to spend some time with and we discussed global warming, planetary cycles in climate, history and then got onto the war. She was originally from Germany and was reassured by Dad not to worry about the war, you are welcome in NZ and Australia. She seemed relieved (or was that irritated) and pointed out that she was nowhere near alive when the war happened, and that she had been living in Australia for 19 years, and had visited NZ many times. Changed my conversation repair gearbox into top gear. This does seem to be happening less frequently the more we are travelling and meeting all sorts on the road.
We talked about our plans to get to Hall Creek and they warned us that Hall Creak is pretty rough and we might want to stop at Turkey creek instead. We said our farewells and headed off fully caffeinated. The country became really interesting as we rode further along the Kimberly Ranges. Lots of red earth and red rock buttresses coming up through the bush. The road snaked its way through the terrain with big sweeping bends but nothing that required slowing down from the 110 limit. Really spectacular and once again looking like an ancient land.
We tested out the ABS a few times as there was a lot of stock on the road including horses. Over the course of the day we have seen kangaroos, dingoes, cattel and horses. We eventually arrived at Turkey Creek and it seemed a good place to stop. They had a motel so we grabbed a room and unloaded. Dad had a shower, I phoned home, and then talked to an elderly couple Bruce and Eileen, travelling from their home in Melbourne having just come around in the opposite direction to us, but on the same path. She gave me some maps and advice about where they have been. Went for a run (walk) as the sun was going down. Interesting that there is a closed community of Aborigines here and the signs make it clear that visitors are not welcome, also a lot of high fences. The signs say Road Closed, only locals past this point. Made me think of “little Britain” but this is real.
Had dinner in the roadhouse, which was very busy with the place full of people from this closed community coming for Pizza as this is a regular Saturday night routine apparently. As I mentioned before this is a dry community so no alcohol for sale. Water and Tea only. Met another NZ couple at dinner who have been meeting up at various spots with Bruce and Eileen.
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