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LOOPING OZ |
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The Savannah Way By Meredith
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Day 31 We finally left Cairns on a dreary morning following a rainy night. Our tent had become drenched overnight, and as we’d packed up we’d found that there had been a leak in the floor of the tent and quite a few things were sopping wet. Nonetheless we packed everything up, hopeful that we’d be heading in to drier territory.
We went through to Innisfail so we could go up the range via the Palmerston Highway, the only other route to and from the tablelands. Like all the other routes, this was a beautiful way to move from the coast to the highlands. It was a lovely road with great views and lots of gentle sweeping curves. Towards the top of the range, we took the tourist route through to Ravenshoe and it was a magnificent back road with lovely curves and twists and very few vehicles – which was a good thing as it was quite narrow and the bitumen was wet.
From there we went through to Innot Hot Springs where we camped the night. By the time we arrived at Innot the sky was looking less grim and the dry earth indicated that little rain had fallen in recent days. Once we set up our tent and draped our gear across bikes and boulders, everything was able to dry out and we had no further problems with water or drenched gear.
While everything was drying out we went into the hot springs and had a lovely soak in the pools. Once we were lobster red and as relaxed as anything, we went for a wander and found the source. It was very hot, steamy and quite picturesque with local children make dams in the cooler part of the spring.
Day 32 The next day we left late in the morning after Alan had done some essential maintenance on the bikes. We travelled through to Croydon along the Savannah Way. The traffic was not so bad and the weather was not too hot. Travelling this road you have no doubt that you’re in the outback.
Day 33 Croydon was an interesting town with a lot of historical sites and buildings to investigate. There is a Chinese Historical site a short distance from town which is interesting to browse through. There is also a fascinating grocery store in town that is part museum and part store. The actual store part still uses the original shelves and has lots of the original fittings throughout. There are quite a few old buildings in town and Alan had a good old time snapping away.
We left Croydon around mid morning and headed out to Karumba on a very straight, flat dull road. It was a bit of a worry because it reminded us what the roads can be like in some areas of the North West of WA.
We camped with my sister and her family at Karumba. That afternoon when my sister and I were at the ablution block we started chatting to a woman who was cutting her hair and found out that she was a hairdresser and would give anyone a quick trim for $10. So we said, “You beauty!” and my sister, my niece and I all had a good snip and then we sent her over to the caravan to give Alan a well needed trim all round. The fishermen next door, seeing what was going on, called out for her to come over and trim their mullets before she was done. A nice little money earner for a traveller!
Day 34 We had a nice quiet day doing a bit of maintenance on bikes and gear and doing a lot of eating and just the right amount of drinking. Very pleasant.
Day 35 We waved goodbye to my sister and family early in the morning planning on a big day of cutting ks. We were starting to get worried about how long we had taken to get to the far side of Queensland. The road from Cloncurry to Mt Isa was quite beautiful, though the bulk of the road was not very stimulating. There was a lot of wind for most of the day and it took a fair bit of concentration to hold a good position on the road.
The winds did nothing for our fuel economy and my bike ran out of fuel about 8kms outside of Cloncurry. We transferred some fuel from Alan’s bike and were able to get to Cloncurry. With a fair bit of daylight remaining we kept high-tailing it through to Mt Isa, which is an interesting place, though we found the caravan park where we camped a bit stinky from the mine fumes.
After our big 602km day we slept really well that night, all rugged up because it was surprisingly cold – getting down to about 5 degrees.
Day 36 The road out of Mt Isa was beautiful too. Great rock piles and striking hills with rock shafts thrusting through them lined the road. The hills and flats were bedecked with grasses, plants and rocks in green, gold and umber. But as the road wore on, the landscape became flatter and more monochrome.
Just before Camooweal my bike gave up the ghost. Alan made some adjustments and nursed it into town where he jigged a few more things and coddled the bike across the border into the Northern Territory and out to the camping spot.
Day 37 The road to Renner Springs continued flat and hot with lots of wind. The most amazing thing was the huge grass fire fronts that flanked the roads and hills along the way. That night at Renner Springs the fire front was heading towards us and though we were told it was nothing to worry about, the smoke and visible flame didn’t help me to relax!
Day 38 The road continued on unchanged from the day before. The mornings started cool but as the day wore on the road and the air heated up making for an uncomfortable ride. Not too may highlights on this day, though we did see a number of oversized trucks carrying army tanks along the road. We eventually reached Katherine and decided to head out to Nitmiluk National Park to enjoy at least one beauty spot in the NT.
Day 39 We had a lovely day exploring the gorge. In the morning we went for a walk to get a bird’s eye view of the first gorge. Then in the afternoon we hired a canoe and paddled up the gorge and had a pleasant wallow in the water. Although we were told that we didn’t need to worry about crocodiles, we had to avoid certain beach areas because that was where the crocs come to lay eggs. I am sure at one point we could see the tracks where a crocodile had come out of the water and laid it’s eggs on the sandy slopes.
Day 40 We left Nitmiluk early to make the most of the cool morning and after another long day, arrived in Kununurra in Western Australia. There was some lovely landscape along the way, particularly around the Victoria River area. We found Kununurra to be somewhat changed from when we had been there before and decided that one night would be enough.
Day 41 We started the day with a magnificent 2 hour flight over Lake Argyle and the Bungle Bungle National Park. Spectacular country from every angle. Once we got back on the ground we took a quick ride out to Ivanhoe Crossing for lunch where we watched people contemplate the river covered crossing.
We had a lovely short ride into Wyndham and found it to be remarkably unchanged from when we had last been there. Wyndham is a lovely little town that appears to have a great sense of community. It is definitely an outback town with all the characters you’d expect. The manager at the caravan park was covered in head to toe tattoos including his face which was thoroughly decorated.
Day 42 We had a quiet morning with a bit of R&R all round for the bikes, gear and riders. In the afternoon we went for a bit of a tootle out to the Wyndham harbour and then for a longer ride to have a look at the Prison Tree, a hollow boab tree purportedly used as a prison at some time in the past. The road out was another corrugated dirt road that took some time to traverse. We met up with a couple of locals enjoying the river and they advised us of a short cut on the way back. It was getting quite late as we headed for home so we were grateful for the shortcut, which took us across a hard flat mud plain into town. Alan was more confident on the surface than me so had zoomed ahead, which was fine until I came to a Y junction in the middle of the whole thing and could not tell which way he’d gone. The ground was too hard to leave much in the way of tracks and I could no longer see Alan’s slight dust cloud. Just as I was deciding that one particular smudge on the road was his track, he came back in to sight to show me which way he’d gone.
That night we watched the lunar eclipse along with a few of the locals. While we were at the hotel the bar attendant came in and said “You can see the eclipse really well from out the front. But I couldn’t look for too long because it made me dizzy because it was spinning so fast.” She wasn’t joking.
Day 43 On the way out from Wyndham the next morning we popped into have a quick look at ‘The Grotto’ which was a small gorge in the hill side. We went through Halls Creek and had a quick look at old halls Creek. I was pooped so had a snooze under a tree while Alan wandered around the town. We continued on and stayed the night at a rest area more or less half way between Halls Creek and Fitzroy Crossing
Day 44 Another long hot ride ending at Derby where we went to a lovely little café to cool down and chow down. That night Derby had an 11.3 metre tide which you could see well, before and after, from the jetty.
Day 45 We’d decided we’d go to Broome for a few days and got in in good time and picked up our mail from the Post Office. Broome had grown a lot and was a big tourist town so we changed our plans and decided to head for Barn Hill Station camp area on the coast a hundred ks or so out of town. The turn off to Barn Hill was clearly marked and we slowed down and entered the dirt road to commence the 10k trek to the coast. The only problem was that the track was actually quite sandy and they had very big speed humps along the way that collected large drifts of sand. Within the first 100 metres I’d come off in the sand. We had a rapid rethink and decided that the sand was a bit too dodgy and we’d take about an hour getting to the coast at the speed we would have to travel. Alan was concerned that he might fall off too, so we decided it was best to give Barn Hill a miss. So we went back out to the highway and headed towards Sandfire Flat Road House where we spent the night. The ride was meant to be a short one that day, but after all the changes to our plans it had ended up being another long hot ride.
At Sandfire Flat we camped next to a young Japanese guy who had ridden from Sydney to Sandfire Flat in three months. He’d had to get a new bike in Broome because his frame had cracked due to metal fatigue. Prior to pedalling through Australia he’d taken a year to ride form Alaska to Argentina.
Day 46 We had a dull short ride into Port Hedland the next day. The road from Broome to Port Hedland has to be one of the worst ones around – 'dull' hardly captures the mind numbing flatness of the road.
We used to live in Hedland many years ago, and in fact met and married there. So it was great to catch up with some old friends who have lived there all this time. That night Alan went off to the football with Allan and I went off to the opera with Jenny to see the Australian Opera company’s Carmen. We had a great time and enjoyed the show and the voices and had to have a bit of a laugh at the plot, as Jenny said, "And this is high-brow?"
Day 47 We started the day with a big walk into the Port Hedland township to have a look at all the old places we remembered. It’s quite surprising how many places have not changed at all. In the afternoon Alan did some work on the bikes while I knocked up a chocolate mousse to take out to dinner at a friend's place.
Day 48 After a big night Alan spent the morning tinkering and replacing the rear tyre on my bike while I did some domestic chores in preparation for our big day tomorrow. We’re heading off to Karijini Gorge for a few days.
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