To the Tip of Cape York, then South

Hi all.  We've made it to to the Tip and then down to Airlie Beach and now theres only 1000km to go.  Since the last post we flew through the Northern Territory and Queensland, headed north, got to the Tip and then turned South again.  Now we're on the final leg and enjoying all that Queensland sunshine.


Day 10, Clean the bikes, wash the gear and explore Alice Springs.  It started to cloud over in the arvo and then it started to rain.  max temp in Alice of 13 degrees for the day.  What happened to heat? 

Day 11, Bikes into the shop for service.  Beers and steaks at Bojangles Saloon.  Still raining.  Apparently this is the wettest year ever.  The Alice area has had rain every month this year.  Oh well, we'll live.

Day 12, Bikes still in the shop.  Craigs Carby jets were sticking and pouring fuel out the overflow line.  The bike wasnt ready till 1:00pm so we decided to wait till the next day and spend another night in Alice Springs and have another of those huge steaks at Bojangles.  Went to the tourist information centre in the afternoon to find out about road conditions.  Turns out the all this rain has closed the Plenty Highway and the Sandover Highway.  Pretty much all dirt roads in the NT are closed.  We reassessed the plans and decided we would have to take bitumen roads to Queensland and reassess around Mt Isa.


Day 13, Friday17th Sept.   562km (4266km total)

Finally we were out of Alice and it felt good to be moving again.  We headed north towards Tennant creek and dropped into the "Devils Marbles".

We also found some wierd place that claimed to be the UFO capital of Australia.  Strange people up there in the NT. Drummo was not impressed.

Anyway, we pushed on towards Tennant creek and I only got 295km north of TeeTree Roadhouse and I was out of fuel.  Something wrong there.  Topped up with the spare 8 litres I was carrying and then noticed the fuel was running out the carby overflow again.  The shop hadn't fixed it.  Only 30km to Tennant Creek So we hammered in as quick as we could (gotta Love the 130km/h speed limit in the NT)  From there we decided to top up and do the extra 30km out to threeways roadhouse, camp there for the night and open up the carby ourselves.  Mic adjusted the float level and greased the o ring on the main jet and we put it back together.  Seemed to fix it.  Not sure what they did in the shop for a day and a half......

Day 14 Saturday 18th Sept.  835km (5101 total)

Left Threeways pretty early and hammered along the blacktop at 130/km/h.  fully loaded, that was about the limit for my bike.  Mics was just coasting.  Thats the benefit of 950cc I suppose.  No real standouts along here.  Bitumen riding through the centre is boring.  The distancd signposts werent for a town, but for the border instead.  QLD400, QLD 350  etc.  Most had been removed as souvenirs.  About 350km before the QLD border we finally broke out of the overcast conditions and got some sun!!  and Warmth!!.  Haleluja.

    

Pushed on to Cammoweal and from there the dirt roads seemed to be good.  No cops in town to get info from so we took a punt and headed south back into the dirt.  200km down to Urandangie and we pulled in for a beer at the "Dangie Bush Resort"  Fancy name for a shed with a bar..... 

We were planning on stopping here but the clouds were looking dark again andf it was 90km back to bitumen, so we pushed on again.  by 5:30pm we hit blacktop and discussed camping.  Decided to keep going 80km further to Djarra.  What a great decision that was.  Turns out it was the weekend of the Djarra Rodeo.  Biggest night of the year for the town.  The main street was closed off (1 of 3 streets in town) and the whole district was in the pub for a big night.  And when in Rome......  Rum is bad.  Drummo got a bit carried away and was kicked out of the pub by the cops. 

I think it was about 4am when I finally got to bed.  Big night.  And it was pouring with rain.  Glad we didnt decide to camp out on the highway.  Or even worse, at Urandangie!!

Day15.  Sunday 19th 521km  (5622 total)

Woke up around 9 with a killer hangover.  Cops were in the next room so I asked to blow in the bag to check myself.  0.058.  Too high so I had to wait a few hours before I could ride.  Dragged my carcass around and prepped the bikes.  Finally on the road again around 11.  Felt like shit.  And it was raining again. Rode 90km to Boulia and thought hard about just stopping there and sleeping for the rest of the day.  But instead we pushed on.  only 50km on and the clouds broke up and we had sunshine.  Single lane bitumen with mud each side.  Anytime a car came we basically had to stop and pull off the raod.  Luck that didnt happen too much.  Pulled up at the Middleton Pub.  And amazingly, I managed to handle 1 beer.  It was hard though....

  Then on to Winton.  But there were roos everywhere so 80km/h maximum was the call.  Pulled into Winton and stopped at The Australian Hotel.  Strange place.  Like an asylum run by the inmates.  But $30 for the room and the beer was cold. 

Day 16  Monday 20th  193km (5815 total)

Up early again and stop at the servo to get fuel.  A huge lineup of cars, trucks, busses, everything.  The power was out so no fuel for the past 2 hours.  Just started as we got there.  Lucky.  Had a quick brekky and ride to Longreach.  On the way we stopped at a rail siding called Rimbanda.  My Supervisor used to live there and asked my to get a photo for him if I went past.  I think he might be a bit dissappointed.  Theres just a run down 3 sided shed there now.

We got into Longreach and went to the Qantas Museum.  Excellent.  Lots of photos and a tour of the 747 parked there.  Drummo loved it.

Didnt go to the Stockmand Hall of fame.  The whole arvo was spent at the Qantas museum.

Day 17.  Tuesday 21st.  845km (6660 total)
We had planned on heading North from Longreach, through Muttabutta and towatds Atherton, but again, rain had closed the roads!!!  So it was east towards Emerald.  Stopped at Barcladine so Drummo could get a photo with an old lathe. 

     

From emerald we planned to head to Charters Towers, then changed our minds.  Why go to Charters Towers?  Mackay was closer and we would be on the East coast!  So Mackay it was. 

We went through the Drummond Ranges and stopped for some photos. 

We rode through a coal mining district with mines everywhere.  Then we got to the edge of the dividing range.  Riding down a very steep hill in pouring rain, with knobbly dirt tyres is..... interesting.  Very shaky in parts.  But made it safe enough.  Had a quite night in Mackay.  Few beers and bed early. 

Day 18 Wednesday 22nd

Basically just blasted through to Townsville.  Stopped in at Airlie Beach on the way for a beer and rang our cousin Kevin.  Will be catching up with him on the way back down and ataying in airlie for a few days then.  Nothing very spectacular on this leg.  Just field after field of sugar cane.  And some steep hills.  Stopped for photos at the big mango and the big Brolga.

The road went through some nice green country.  A big change from the red scrub and mud a week ago.  Starting to look very tropical.

Day 19  Thursday 23rd.

Townsville to Cairns.  Stopped at the big gumboot in Tully.  Apparently they recorded 7.9m of rain in a year, which is the height of the gumboot.  There you go. 

Got into Cairns about 2:00 so spent the arvo having a look around town.  Beach wasnt quite what I expected.  More of a mudflat.  Looked good at high tide.  The only real swimming option was a man made lagoon on the foreshore.  There was also a buskers festival on so the place was chockers with carney folk.

Ended up a big night.  Not sure when we got home.  Lost my phone some time through the night.

Day 20  Friday 24th. 

Big in the shop getting fork seals replaced and changing the front sprockets for more torque in the dirt to the cape.  Spent the day looking around Cairns.  Got a new phone.

Day 21 Saturday 25th

Prepping the bikes in thearvo and realised I had 12 broken spokes on the rear.  Damn!  all the bike shops shut.  Have to wait till Monday to get new spokes. 

Day 22 Sunday 26th

Lazy day in Cairns.  Couldnt find a pumping sunday session.  Cut the gear down to minimum needed for the Cairns-CapeYork-Cairns leg.  Organised to leave the excess at the park we were in.  Sweet.

Day 23  Monday 27th. 

08:00am the bike shops open and we're there getting spokes.  Also picked up a new radio charging unit as both of ours have died.  Must be the rough roads.  Finally prepped and ready by 1:00pm.  Hammer north through more cane fields and onto the Daintree River Ferry.

 Then rode through the rainforest to Cape Tribulation.  Beautiful area. 

From Cape Tribulation we rode the Bloomfield Track.  more nice country with some small river crossings and steep climbs.  Good ride.  And at the end of the Bloomfield track was The Lions Den Hotel.  Great place.  Camped there, had a few beers and Pizza for dinner. 

 

Day24  Tuesday 28th

From the Lions Den to Archer river.  Huge days ride.  We stopped into Cooktown and fuelled up.  Then into Lakefield National Park.  Few creek crossings and roads were excellent as far as Kalpowar Crossing.  Nice spot.  We stopped for a refreshing dip in the small pools downstream of the crossing.  Very nice.

After that, the road turned to crap till we got to Musgrave Roadhouse.  Big patches of Bull dust.  Big holes.  100km was pretty tiring.  Got to Musgrave around 1:00 so carried on to Coen.  Stopped at the Sexchange hotel for a beer.

Carried on and got to Archer River roadhouse by 4ish.  Camped there.

Day25 Wed 29th.
Up early, pack up camp and on we go.  Flew up to Bramwell Junction where the Telegraph track starts.  Here we go.
about 5km in, we got to the first creek crossing.  Dry, but steep banks.  Got through without too much problem.  Then into the sand.  Mic came off and I walked back to help him.  this was hard work and I could feel myself heating up.  After a bit of this I knew I was done.  Couldnt do 60km of this.  So I made the call as we headed back to Bramwell Junction.  Stopped there to cool down and get some fluids in.  Then took the developmental road to Eliot falls for a refreshing swim.  Very nice.  But felt a bit lacking in mojo after being beaten by the track.

Day26  Thursday 30th.
Left the falls and cruised into Bamaga and Seisa.  Sorted some accomodation then rode out to the tip.  Great bit of road through tropical forest and then a 500m walk to the end of the cape. We made it!! We had the place to ourselves for about 45 minutes.  Lots of photos, a bit of a relax in the pool.  And then other groups started to arrive.  Had a chat to a few poeple for a while and then 12 blokes on a bike tour turned up.  We had met them at Archer River and they were doing some other tracks as well.  Had a chat to them for a while.  Turned out they were camping at the same place as us.  A few beers that night.

Day 27  Friday 1st
Took a tour across th Thursday Island.  All up I was a bit disappointed.  I had hoped for a bit more cultural stuff.  But TI is just a town going about its thing.  Still, had a good look around.  Nice place.
Back to the campgrounds and a few more beers.

Day28 Sat 2nd
Rode out around the airport anc checked out the old plane wrecks.  Seems like nmost of the highlights around Cape York relate to WWII.  Radars, plane wrecks, fort on TI.  Bit of a relaxed day.  Watched the Grand Final (again) back at the camp gouund.  Good afternoon.  Pity about Collingwood.

Day 29 Sunday 3rd

Big ride.  The mood has sort of shifted.  We have made it to the cape.  That was the big target.  Now its just a relaxed commute to see QLD and visit friends and family.  So we started it by knocking out 650km of the 2700 left.

We didnt intend to do that much, it just turned out that way.  We got to Archer River and the NRL grand final was still an hour from starting.  So we pushed on.  Ended up at Musgrave roadhouse.  Walked in, bought a beer and then the game started.  Perfect.

Day 30  Monday 4th.  

Left Musgrave and got into Hahn River roadhouse for brekky.  Then we noticed that my right pannier mounts were broken.  We strapped it in place and took it easy for the last 100km of dirt.  Plans to go back to cape Tribulation were shelved and we took off back to cairns to get the pannier mounts fixed.  Stopped near Laura to check out the Quinkan rock art.  Good stuff.

Got into Cairns and organised repairs.  Also organised a few tours.

Day31 Tues 5th
Took the skyrail up to Kuranda.  The town is like the Freo markets, except clean.  Not as many hippies as I expected.The views from the skyrail were excellent.  I love tropical rainforest.

Day32 Wed 6th.
Reef tour.  We went on a smallish boat out to Mickalmas Cay and snorkelled the reef.  Nice.

Day33  Thurs 7th.

Left Cairns.  Hooted down to Townsville.  Nothing special.

Day 34  Friday 8th.  Townsville to Airlie Beach. 

Stopped in at Bowen.  Checked out the spot where they made that Australia movie.  Tried to ring Mic's mate Ian who apparently lives here somewhere.  No answer.  Oh well.

Airlie.  Nice.  Booked into Magnums backpackers.  Beers.  wander around town.

Our Cousin Kevin came over about 5 and we had a few beers with him.  He's living just down the road in Cannonvale.  Will be stopping in on Sunday.

Pretty much just relaxed and did the tourist thing.

Day 35.  Saturday 9th  Cruising around Airlie.  Then we bumped into Ian.  He was down from Bowen for the weekend.  Cool. 

Well, thats about it.

We are now planning on being in Brissy maybe Thursday of Friday.  Put the bikes onto the truck.  Catch family and say hi.  Not sure what we will do between here and there.

See what happens........

The very wet RED CENTRE

Well, its now Wednesday 15th September as we are on our 2nd rest day in Alice Springs.  The bikes are in the shop bein serviced and we are checking out the town. 4 good pubs, lots of beer so everything is OK.

We have now both had a few biggish crashes. Mic is on 6 and I am on 4.  2 of my crashes were highsides at about 40km/h.  Lucky no busted bones, just a few bruises and sore muscles.  The voltaren gel works wonders. 

It rained for day 2 of the Gunbarrel and all the way to Warrakurna (Giles).  Luck the roads werent closed.  Great Central road was 220km long a mud hole.  Fun looking back, but not fun at the time.....

So from here we were supposed to take the Plenty highway to Urandangi on the NT / QLD border, but that is closed due to flooding and so is the Sandover Highway, so we will be using the bitumen highway to get to Mt Isa.  Oh well, at least we will get there some how.

So now  will give you a few excerpts from my diary. 

Day 1 Sunday 5th 571km (571km total)
Set off 1 day later than planned, but we are finally on the way
Shot south towards Augusta and Cape L:eeuwin for the official start point of the trip.  50km out of Augusta it started to rain and I didnt have my dry insert in the jacket.  Oh well, a bit of rain never hurt nobody.  Stopped in Augusta and put in the dry liner.  Pushed on to the cape and met Maurine, Kelli and the kids.  Took a few photos and introduced our 3rd travelling companion Drummo.  (for those not in the know, Drummo is the third brother who could not make it on the trip with us, so we brough him along anyway without him knowing.  Poor bastard)

From there we blasted out to Wagin stopping only to get alcohol from the Bridgetown Bottleshop.  We stayed in a great little Motel called (funnily enough) The Wagin Motel.  Met the bloke and his wife who manage the place and I think we may have inspired them to do a trip of thier own. (If you read this, do it, and good luck)  Warm beds and hot showers were perfect after a cold days ride.

Day2 Monday 6th 340km (911 total)
Set off after tightening a few bolts on the pannier racks and fuel mounts.  Stopped at lake grace and grabbed cash from the bank.  Chatted to a guy in the bank that was headed the same way as us the next day.  Maybe see him on the way.  20km past Lake Grace, Mic's bike broke down.  Fuel Pump shat itsself.  Lucky we had a spare so we put that on and after 3 hrs were back on the road.  Refuelled at Hyden and blasted onto dirt roads to the old Bounty mine and the start of the Holland track. We camped at the start of the track and looked forward to the next days tackling of the famous Holland Track with its pannier busting reputation.

Day3 Tuesday 7th  320kms (1231 total)
The holland track was HARD!!  5 hrs to do 148kms.  a few good crashes along the way and we were both happy to get to the end.  Battered and weary.  And this is only day 3!!!  I had a few slow speed offs in depe sand and so did Mic.  Then Mic had a big off and crashed through some small(ish) trees.  Lucky nothing busted.  20m from the end of the sand my pannier hit a tree stump and sent me flying over the handlbars landing on my left shoulder.  Lucky to keep my collar bone intact.  Got past the samd and into the last 10km of hard clay and mud holes.  One of them caught Mic and into the mud he went.  Bike was OK though.  Then, just 2km later, showing his fatigue, mic came off on a perfectly flat straight bit of road.  From there we agreed to just cruise easy to the end, 8km away.  When we made it to tyhe end, we both gave a huge sigh of relief and sat down and relaxed for a while.  After a rest, we blasted in to Coolgardie, refuelled and caried on to Ora Banda.  Pub meal, hot shower and a good nights sleep. 

Day4 Wed 8th 432km (1663 total)
Good roads, dirt and bitumen, via Kookynie, and ended up in Leinster wioth Al and Janny.  We had a rest afternoon , serviced the bikes, and had a few beers with Al and Janny.  Nice relaxing day.  Tomorrow we head to the start of the Gunbarre Highway.

Day5 Thurs9th 380km (2043 total)
Headed East from Leinster.  Got near Bronzewing and realised we might  be on the wrong tracks when we pulled up next to a Cat 785 dump truck and a fitters ute.  Oops.... we were on the Bronzewing sattelite pit to workshop haul truck route.  Asked the fitter for directions to the office and the road north.  He pointed us in the right direction and told us to watch fot the other dumpy headed this way.  Didnt get a photo unfortunately.  WOuld have been great to get a photo for the bikes in front of a 150t dump truck.
From the office we headed north on station tracks, through a big mud hole, (about 600mm deep)and finally onto the Wiluna/Carnegie road. 

Pushed on but had some minor fuel overflow problems with my carby.  Fixed in about an hour.  Got as far as the HarryJohnson Waterhole 70km from Carnegie.  Camped there.

Day 6 346km (2389 total)
Got up early, band pushed through to Carnegie.  Refuelled, filled all extra tanks and started the Gunbarrel.
First 180km was easy till we got the the Warburton shire boundary.  Then it all truned th shit.  I dont think theres been a grader on that track for the past 50 years.  It was bloody hard work.  Rocks, mudholes, corrigations, sand, deeper sand and even CORRIGATED SAND.  It was bloody hard.  Mic came off once, headed off road into some trees again.  Whats with mic and trees!!!  We met a guy in a Patrol towing a big caravan.  Chatted for a few mminutes and carried on.  It was good to know there was someone behind us in case something went wrong.  We got to about 30km short of Beadell camp (where Mike and Rod camped a few weeks earlier).  We stopped at 4:30 to run over the bikes with spanners and check EVERY bolt after the days corrigations. Then we saw out mate in the Patrol go past and we were along on the track again.  Camped for the night and watched the rain clouds gather.  Not a good feelingh being 220km from the end og the gunbarrel with rain clouds overhead......

Day 7.  463km (2852 total)
Woke up after a night of consistent drizzle dreading the condition ofthe tracks ahead.  Onto the bikes quickly and underway.  35km down the track er caught up with our mate (bernie and Dennise) in the Patrol.  He had leaking shockies and was a bit worried about making it in to Warburton.  He was also a bit worried about us being out here with the rain about.  So we all stuck together till the end ot the trail.  Us up front calling out road conditions and hazards, him providing noral support and a backup for us if things turned bad.  The last 100km of the Gunbarrel and Heather highway was almost as bad as the day before.  I cam off once in a slippery mudhole.  slow, no damage.
By the time we got to Warburton, it was bucketting down.  Bernie bought us a cupof coffee and it was great.  Cold hands wrapped around wark coffee cup.  Niiiiice.  Talked about camping at Warburton but the guuy at the servo said they expected 30mm of rain in the arvo and would probably close the road for a few days.  So onto the bikes bloody quick and pushon to Warrakurna.  Got there (near the Giles weather station) and booked into the "motel"  Great night with another warm bed and hot shower.  Old mate Bernie pushed on and unfortunately we didnt see him again after he went through Warrakurna.

Day 8 346km (3198 total) we slipped and slid out of Warrukurna the next morning after a night of rain.  The roads were very slippwery and I just didnt have my groove on at all.  crawling at 20 tyo 30, it was looking like a looooong day.  Mic came past on a good bit and picked up the pace.  Once up to about 80, it got easier.  Sliding through the mud with momentum.  Getting out of shape and just powering on to stay upright.  Its a wierd feeling, getting into trouble and putting on wristfulls of throttle to power out of bad spots.  Anyway, the road got better but then turned to shit after the WA / NT border. 

From there it was a 160km mud slide to the bitumen at Katajuta (Olgas)  Hard days riding with me coming off once into a BIG mudhole and highsiding it again.  Sore shoulder and knee.  A few bruises.  Mic lowsided once but was an easy slide with no damage or injury.  We were both very happy to spot the bitumen as the Katajuta hills loomed in low clouds.  the last 50m stretch of mudhole leading up the the bitumen nearly got both of us with both bikes crossed up from one side of the road to the other, all sorts of out of shape.  Bloody close to a few more falls.  But we were finally at Katajuta with bitumen from here to Yulara.  We stopped at Katajuta and got a few photos.  Htese hils and canyons atre SO MUCH BIGGER than I imagined.  They are HUGE.  People entering the gorge were tiny dots.  We took some photos and pushed on to Yulara to camp for the night, deciding top check out the rock the next morning.  Camped in a cabin, had a few beers and a nice dinner in a cafe.

Day9 Monday13th 506km (3804 total)
First up we called out to Yulara Autos and collexcted my spare tyre.  my rear was still ion OK nick so I just put the spareon the top of my kit to carry it to Alice.  Then off to the Rock.  Again, its bigger than I expected. 

A few good photos and we sat in silence looking up from the base of this huge rock.  Then a qyuick blast on the Bitumen to Alice springs.  Kings canyon troad was closed with water over the bitumen and Finke Gorge was closed with the Finke river FLOWING!!!.
Giot to Alice ion the arvo and booked into a caravan park for 2 days rest and bike servicing.

The adventure continues.........