Day: 063
Date: Wednesday, 02 September 2020
Start: Wangi Falls (Litchfield National Park)
Finish: Adelaide River crossing on Daly River Road
Daily Kilometres: 87 (click for Julie's Strava and photos)
Total Kilometres: 6450
Weather: Hot, humid & sunny
Accommodation: Tent
Nutrition:
Breakfast: Peanut butter & pita bread
Lunch: Trail mix
Dinner: Soup, 2-minute noodles
Aches: Nothing significant
Highlight: It may have been the toughest 44km of our trip, and we spent a lot of time cursing the soft sand and flies, but the Reynolds River Track showed us a great cross-section of Litchfield National Park. Being a 4WD track, there was no road verge and we felt very close to the surrounding bush. Much of it was open woodland, with wallabies common, while at the river crossings, it was jungle-like. Elsewhere, there were open treeless plains dotted with tombstone-like magnetic termite mounds resembling vast graveyards. The magnetic termite mounds are like large wings or fins, all aligned south-to-north to maintain even temperatures for the termites inside. And of course, we spent a magic and refreshing hour or so at the Surprise Creek Falls plunge pools along the way.
Lowlight: The flies were in plague proportions along the Reynolds River Track. They were constantly landing on our faces or crawling across the front or inside of our glasses. March flies were biting us on our exposed skin and even through our clothing. I got many bites through the back of my cycling gloves. Julie was losing her cool (not often seen).
Pictures: Click here
Map and Position: Click here for Google Map
Journal:
We left the campsite a little before 7am, and rode about 6km down the Litchfield Park Road to the start of the Reynolds River Track. Once again, we had a choice between going a slightly longer route, with sealed road all of the way and passing through some small towns, or taking the 44km 4WD track and back roads (sealed) with no towns until tomorrow night. We took the 4WD track, but after striking a lot of soft sand in the first kilometre, the thought of returning to the sealed road and going the other way, certainly crossed our minds. But we persevered, and although the cycling was never easy, there were long sections where we could ride so long as we didn't mind corrugations or rocks, but our speed was very slow. We had to ford a couple of rivers, one of which involved about 50 metres of wading, but they were knee-deep at worst and clear enough for crocodiles not to be an issue. Elsewhere, there were long and short sections of soft sand where we had to dismount and walk. I fell off twice when suddenly hitting soft sand and was covered in sand/dirt by the end of the day.
We detoured off the track a short distance to Surprise Creek Falls at lunchtime, which included wheeling the bikes some distance along a walking track to the first plunge pool. On the advice of a couple just leaving as we arrived, we scrambled up some rocks to get to the top pool, which we had to ourselves, and went for a well-earned refreshing swim (in our cycling gear). After that, we found a shaded spot next to the pool and ate our lunch.
By the time we hiked back out to the track, we were ready for another swim. It was another 38C day, with humidity, and most of the time there was no shade. Under constant assault from the flies (see above), and frequently dismounting to drag our heavy bikes through soft sand was totally exhausting. Just getting off and on the bikes so often was a work-out. By the time we finally reached the sealed Daly River Road at the end of the track, both of us were dog-tired, with Julie announcing she had "got nothing" left.
From there we set off on the final 34km of the day, aiming for where the road crossed the Adelaide River, which we believed would be our best chance of finding water. After a few kilometres along the undulating road, the tables were turned, and I hit the wall, totally running out of energy. I could barely get up the hills and had to have several short breaks. Julie had to keep stopping and waiting for me.
We finally reached the Adelaide River, which had plenty of dark deep water under the bridge, and took a dirt track into an adjacent area where we found a place to camp. We were the only people there, though it had obviously been used for camping in the past. After setting up our tent, we walked into the forest bordering the river aiming for the sound of running water. Though I wouldn't have been keen to have a wash in the river we saw from the bridge, I thought we should be safe where water was running over rocks, and so it was. We found a little pool with a sandy bottom amidst the jungle-like vegetation where we took it in turns to have a good wash, and topped up our water bottles from a small chute (upstream!).
Back at camp, we cooked dinner and were soon smearing insect repellent over our freshly washed bodies to ward off the mosquitoes. I was still feeling completely exhausted, and was quickly into bed after eating and went to sleep without updating my blog, a very rare occurrence.
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