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.....
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.
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........
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