Round Australia Bike Ride - Day 043 - Hells Gate to Highway 16

Day:  043

Date: Thursday, 13 August 2020

Start:  Hells Gate Roadhouse

Finish:  Junction Highway 1 & Highway 16, Northern Territory (NT)

Daily Kilometres:  115 (click for Julie's Strava and photos)

Total Kilometres:  4632

Weather:  Mild to hot and mostly sunny

Accommodation:  Tent

Nutrition:

  Breakfast:  Egg & bacon rolls

  Lunch:  Ham salad sandwiches

  Dinner:  Soup, 2-minute noodles

Aches:  Nothing significant

Highlight:  Entering the Northern Territory after six weeks on the road.

Lowlight:  Corrugations, followed by soft sand/dust and rocks.  It was, for the most part, a very hard ride today.  Often our speed was less than 10kph as we sought to make progress through endless corrugations, looking for solid, slightly less uneven, ground and bumping up and down with everything shaking.  I fell off twice when I couldn't disengage my cleat fast enough when the dust became too soft to make forward progress.  We were teased with a few more even sections, but it rarely lasted long  and once we entered the Northern Territory, the road was rarely easy.

Pictures: Click here

Map and Position: Click here for Google Map

Journal:

We slept in until 6:30am, knowing that the roadhouse did not open until 7am  and we planned to get breakfast there as well as some sandwiches for lunch (and, of course, some Coke for the road).  We let the tent dry a little, after an unexpected overnight dew, while we had breakfast and then packed up and left soon after 8am.  Later than we had intended, but we were crossing into the Central Australian Time Zone today, so would get 30 minutes back.

The Northern Territory border was 50 kilometres away and we had been told the police would be there to check our entry permits.  In those 50 kilometres, we encountered our first bad roads, and also some crews working on road maintenance.  At one place, we were told to follow a grader through a section as he graded it, but as we suspected, the dirt was to soft to ride on and we ended up pushing our bikes through.  We reached the border in the late morning, but apart from warning signs, no police or any other controls and we pedalled on.  It was in the middle of nowhere, so I was not surprised.

The savannah woodland was quite thick in places and as we got further into the NT, some impressive dark rocky outcrops began to appear.  There were occassional cattle roaming through the woods and a couple of water bores, but no other signs of civilisation apart from a rare passing vehicle or truck (and lots of wrecked ones by the road).

It had become very warm and fighting the testing road conditions (see above) was wearing us down, though we didn't stop for lunch until around 1pm.  We were going through our fluids fast, and although we still had plenty left, we resolved to top up our water, either at a creek crossing (none had any water, apart from one signposted as contaminated, near an old mine), or if offered by a passing motorist.  We got our chance for the latter near the top of a killer hill, up which we walked the last 100 metres, when a passing tourist offered us water and we accepted.  He waited for us at the top of the hill and we drank our fill as well as topping up some water bottles, giving us enough to camp for the night without finding more water,

We had thought, with some luck, that we might reach the Calvert River today, where we do hope to find water, but it was 141 kilometres, and just too far in the hot weather and difficult road.  We kept pedalling, albeit slowly, until around 5:45pm when we followed a track off the road and found a place to camp.  We quickly set up, had a flannel wash, which barely impacted the thick layers of caked dust, ate dinner and went to bed, very tired, knowing we have to do it all over again tomorrow. 

Round Australia Bike Ride - Day 042 - Burketown to Hell's Gate

Day:  042

Date: Wednesday, 12 August 2020

Start:  Burketown

Finish:  Hells Gate Roadhouse

Daily Kilometres:  178 (click for Julie's Strava and photos)

Total Kilometres:  4517

Weather:  Cool early then warm to hot and sunny all day

Accommodation:  Tent

Nutrition:

  Breakfast:  A few jelly beans

  Lunch:  Hot dog, ice-creams

  Dinner:  Hamburger & chips

Aches:  Nothing significant

Highlight:  Maybe not really a highlight, but we were happy there was less gravel road than expected.  Probably only 20 kilometres, when we thought it might be up to 50.

Lowlight:  Arriving at the Tirranna Roadhouse, where we planned to get breakfast, at 8am and finding it did not open until 8:30am, according to the sign.  Of course, we could have hung around for 30 minutes to see if it opened (not guaranteed), but we had a big day in front of us and didn't want to waste time.  There was another roadhouse 60 kilometres down the road, so we had a drink and a few jelly beans and kept going.

Pictures: Click here

Map and Position: Click here for Google Map

Journal:

Our stealthy departure soon after 6am from the closely packed and thin-walled cabins at the caravan park was foiled when I accidentally banged the bell on my bike which is quite loud. Curses!

As usual, the early riding was sensational.  The sun was slowly rising in a clear sky behind us (and in our rear-view mirrors) and the savannah grassland around us gradually came to life.  Wallabies, a brolga and an eagle were seen, as well as many other birds and plenty of cattle.  Along the way, we forded the Gregory River, which was flowing and bordered by lush green tropical vegetation.  An oasis in the dry savannah.

After 30 kilometres, we reached the small Tirranna Roadhouse where we planned to get breakfast, but it was closed (see above), so after a short break we continued on.

In another 60 kilometres we reached the Doomadgee Roadhouse, located in an aboriginal community that has made headlines in the past for the wrong reasons.  In fact, we had been warned in Burketown to be careful of our belongings in Doomadgee, but that may just have been some white prejudice showing through.  Anyway, we are always careful of our belongings, and it was no different in Doomadgee.

The roadhouse was a busy place, with a constant stream of locals driving or walking in to buy various things.  A fairly extensive electronic menu was displayed behind the counter, and it turned out we could have anything we liked, as long as it was a hot dog: so that's what we had for lunch, sitting on the nearby grass in the shade of a tree on what had turned out to be a hot day.

Later, when I went back into the roadhouse, a local in his 50s asked me politely whether I would mind telling him how old I was.  He was impressed, and we ended up having a long chat as we waited to be served.  A lady, who I presume was his wife, was in front of us in the queue with a friend.  At one point she turned and took a good look at me in my (flattering) bike shorts then said something to her friend and they both dissolved into a fit of giggles.  I suspect the comment was non-complimentary!

From Doomadgee, which we left around 12:30pm, we knew we were in for a long hot afternoon to reach our goal for the day, the Hells Gate Roadhouse, 81 kilometres away, some of which was going to be gravel road.  By the time of our first break, we both felt very dehydrated, and thankful we had purchased extra fluids at the roadhouse.  Even then, we could have done with more.  The temperature was in the mid-30s (°C), and even Julie, who was earlier saying how much she liked the warmth, was changing her mind!  Despite the warmth, we were still enjoying the ride, with almost no traffic and the end of cattle country.  Now the vegetation was endless savannah woodland which, in many places, had the undergrowth burned away by low-intensity fire, presumably lit by the local indigeous people.  We even saw some brumbies (wild horses), along with the usual wallabies.

With about a litre left between us and only 48 kilometres to go, we were fine, and rode for another 90 minutes, and onto gravel road before we took a final break, and drank the last of our fluids.  We arrived at the Hells Gate Roadhouse a little after 5pm, well-satisfied with our day's effort.  We paid the camping fee (all cabins booked, presumably by roadwork crews) and bought another cold 1.25 litre bottle of drink each, which we drank while setting up our tent in the very nice and large grassy campground.

There were slim pickings at the roadhouse for dinner and drinks, which we ate in the outside eating area next to a loud half dozen "well-hydrated" backpackers, but the staff are exceptionally helpful and friendly, and the facilities are good.

Tomorrow, after 50 kilometres, we cross into the Northern Territory.  There is a border control there to prevent people from COVID hotspots entering.  We have filled out an online application, so are hopeful it all goes smoothly, but you never know.

No internet access for the next two to four days as we tackle the 320 kilometres of questionable quality unsealed road to the next settlement/resupply at Borroloola.

Round Australia Bike Ride - Day 041 - Burketown

Day:  041

Date: Tuesday, 11 August 2020

Start:  Burketown

Finish:  Burketown

Daily Kilometres:  0

Total Kilometres:  4339

Weather:  Cool early then warm and sunny

Accommodation:  Cabin

Nutrition:

  Breakfast:  Egg & bacon rolls

  Lunch:  Egg & lettuce roll, custard donut/Chicken salad roll, chocolate brownie

  Dinner:  Pizza, ice-creams

Aches:  Nothing significant

Highlight:  None really

Lowlight:  None really

Pictures: Click here

Map and Position: Click here for Google Map

Journal:

Not much happened today.  We were slow to get up after our late night and walked over to the town cafe for breakfast, which we ate at a table outside.

Then it was back to the cabin and some laundry, trip-planning and lazing around until it was lunchtime and another walk across the manicured town park to the same cafe for lunch.  It was quite warm by now, but very pleasant sitting in the shade outside the cafe watching the small town world go by (very slowly).

On our way back to the cabin we detoured via the town information centre and exhibits and then the post office, hoping to mail back home a few more things we don't need any more.  Alas, it is closed on Tuesday afternoon.  I returned to the cabin to do some more trip planning, while Julie walked down to see an old artesian bore that still brings to the surface scalding hot mineralised water, where it runs off and evaporates to leave a landscape of mineral deposits.

After more lazing around, we walked to the town cafe yet again to get dinner and had a welcome early night.

Round Australia Bike Ride - Day 040 - Normanton to Burketown

Day:  040

Date: Monday, 10 August 2020

Start:  Normanton

Finish:  Burketown

Daily Kilometres:  227 (click for Julie's Strava and photos)

Total Kilometres:  4339

Weather:  Cool early then sunny and warm

Accommodation:  Cabin

Nutrition:

  Breakfast:  Ham, cheese & chutney sandwiches

  Lunch:  Ham, cheese & chutney sandwiches

  Dinner:  Ham, cheese & chutney sandwiches again!

Aches:  Nothing significant

Highlight:  Yet again, the first few hours of riding were excellent.  After turning onto the Normantown-Burketown road, a few kilometres outside of Normanton, we saw only two vehicles in the next two hours.  We rode abreast down our private bike path with shadows shortening and the landscape lit up by the rising sun.  Wallabies scampered through the bush and flocks of birds circled or perched in the trees.  Perfect.

Lowlight:  Having made the decision around 6pm to continue on to Burketown for the night rather than camp, the last 50km seemed to take a very long time, even though in reality it took just over two hours, a good time for us.  Part of it was not knowing whether we would have accommodation when we got to Burketown (confirmed by phone with 20 minutes to go), and part of it was that after the last light of the setting sun disappeared, we seemed to be in a kind of endless dark tunnel populated by road-sense-deficient wallabies, kamikaze grasshoppers, and never-ending bumpy floodways.  On the plus side, it was a beautiful crimson-orange sunset, and later, multitudes of stars, best visible in the outback, were awe-inspiring.

Pictures: Click here

Map and Position: Click here for Google Map

Journal:

At 6:30am, we sneaked, literally, out of our motel room, since it involved taking our bikes and gear along a narrow wooden verandah past the sleeping occupants of a number of other rooms trying to avoid banging the various tables and chairs that obstructed our path.  (Mind you, yesterday morning, when we were sleeping in, some other occupants had no problem holding a loud conversation outside as they left at 5:30am.)

After loading our bikes in the motel courtyard, we were on our way through the still-sleeping small town of Normanton and soon enjoying a beautiful dawn in the outback (see above).  Knowing that we had 100 kilometres of unsealed road after the first 55 kilometres of sealed road, and an adverse wind, our stretch target for the day was to get to the end of the unsealed road and camp somewhere near the Leichhardt River crossing, leaving 72 kilometres to Burketown, the next settlement, where we had a cabin booked for tomorrow night.  However, we were also happy to stop earlier today if the conditions were too difficult.

Once the sealed road ended, we were relieved to find the gravel road quite good.  There were mild corrugations in places, and some soft edges, but when the wind let us, we made good time.  The wind was from the south, and our overall direction was west-southwest, meaning that whenever our road veered to the left, the wind became a factor, and whenever it veered right, we cheered.  The countryside was also a factor.  Long stretches of open savannah grassland did nothing to dent the force of the wind, but elsewhere, savannah woodland provided some protection.  Overall, it was still enjoyable riding, with our always-welcome breaks taken beneath trees, and if possible, out of the wind on a beautiful day.

It was cattle country, some behind roadside fences, and others roaming freely.  Cattle grids were frequent and we saw a couple of large homesteads from the road.  Usually we just see sign-posted side roads to the station homesteads.

By lunchtime, it became apparent that our rate of progress would get us to the Leichhardt River by 5pm and that's how it turned out, despite some roadworks sections that slowed us a little.  When we got to the river, we found a broad hard rock river bed, with channels/billabongs filled with inviting translucent green water.  No crocodiles were visible, and maybe none were there, but we resisted the urge to take a plunge.  In the distance, near one of the large billabongs, were some trees, looking like over-decorated Christmas trees, filled with hundreds of screeching cockatoos.  Quite a sight.

Camping on the rock riverbed near the billabongs was not an option with our tent, but we could see a number of campervans and caravans in the distance and thought we might try there.  However, when we reached the access side road it was soft sand.  We could have dragged the bikes in there, but decided to see if we could find somewhere more accessible a little further on (we were carrying enough water).

This proved a fateful decision.  Firstly, the country immediately opened out with few trees or places to camp discreetly. Secondly, our direction of travel turned north and we were speeding along with a nice following wind.  After about 45 minutes of fruitless campsite searching as we rode, we decided that, with 51 kilometres to go to Burketown, maybe we should continue on, even though we wouldn't get there until after 8pm.  I tried, also fruitlessly, to get sufficient phone signal to call ahead to the caravan park where we had booked our cabin for tomorrow night to see if we could get the same cabin for tonight as well.  We decided that, if no cabin was available, we could always just pitch our tent in a corner of the caravan park, so kept pedalling as the sun set (see above).

Eventually, I got enough signal to call, but there was no answer, so I left a garbled message …... and we kept pedalling.  With twenty minutes to go, the park proprietor called back and confirmed we had a place to stay.  It took a little while to find the park when we got to the poorly lit Burketown, but we finally made it.  Check-in also took a little while as they were using a COVID-19 form that required the listing of each place we had stayed for the previous 14 days!!

Our cabin is a little pokey and over-priced (and I did find a dead grasshopper on my pillow and another on top of the toilet cistern), but we're grateful to the proprietor for going the extra mile to call back and open after hours to help us out.  Showers were welcomed by our very dusty bodies and now we're having another day off as a reward for completing two days in one (and for having a very late night, by our standards).  Bookings have also been made up ahead, though that may be changed tomorrow.

Round Australia Bike Ride - Day 039 - Normanton

Day:  039

Date: Sunday, 09 August 2020

Start:  Normanton

Finish:  Normanton

Daily Kilometres:  0

Total Kilometres:  4112

Weather:  Mild to warm and sunny

Accommodation:  Motel

Nutrition:

  Breakfast:  None

  Lunch:  Fish, cabana & chips/Doner kebab & chips

  Dinner:  Chilli con carne & rice, ice cream

Aches:  Nothing significant

Highlight:  Restful day

Lowlight:  None really

Pictures: Click here

Map and Position: Click here for Google Map

Journal:

We slept in, then did some more detailed planning for the next eight days so that we knew what food to buy when we went shopping later in the morning.  Our plan was to visit a cafe for breakfast on our way to one of the small supermarkets, but it was closed, as was every other cafe and pub in town on this Sunday morning.  In the end we visited each of the three small supermarkets in town, a couple of kilometres of walking because it's a spread-out town, and multi-sourced our needs.

We gave up on breakfast, and returned to our room to sort and repack our food, before having lunch at the adjacent Purple Pub bistro.  From there we went for a walk around the more historic northern end of the town.  Like most of the smaller outback towns we have visited, it is quite clean and well-tended with wide grid-patterned streets and some well-preserved older buildings, but it also has lots of defunct businesses, vacant lots and a sleepy seen-better-days feel.  That said, there were plenty of campervans and caravans in town, and regular road trains rolling through, so some business is being done.

On our walk we also visited what was claimed to be a life-sized replica of a locally-shot saltwater crocodile (now protected) accepted by Guinness as the largest recorded of the species.  It was massive.

We then returned to our room and spent the rest of the afternoon relaxing before attending to a few other chores and having our usual microwaved dinner.

We expect to be camping by the road tomorrow and won't have internet access, as will often be the case for the next week, so the blog posts will become intermittent.

Round Australia Bike Ride - Day 038 - Croydon to Normanton

Day:  038

Date: Saturday, 08 August 2020

Start:  Croydon

Finish:  Normanton

Daily Kilometres:  155 (click for Julie's Strava and photos)

Total Kilometres:  4112

Weather:  Mild to very warm and sunny all day

Accommodation:  Motel

Nutrition:

  Breakfast:  Shared egg, lettuce & pineapple sandwich and chilli chicken wrap, and muffins

  Lunch:  Chilli chicken wraps

  Dinner:  Fettucine carbonara/Sundried tomato & chicken pasta, ice cream

Aches:  Nothing significant

Highlight:  Once again, the breaks we had during the day were special.  Even though we enjoy the bush and have plenty of peace and quiet while cycling, the rests, when we can stretch out, relax, and savour the silence, broken only by the quiet rustle of leaves in the breeze or the squabbling of some birds, is magic.

Lowlight:  None really.

Pictures: Click here

Map and Position: Click here for Google Map

Journal:

We were a bit slower to get going this morning and it was about 6:40am before we cycled out of the caravan park and out of the tiny town of Croydon to the sound of a few barking dogs in the pre-dawn gloom.  Maybe it was because it was the third ~150km day in a row, but more likely it was because we expected the day's ride to be relatively easy with flat terrain and a breeze that was either cross or following.  And maybe it was because we had decided to have tomorrow off in Normanton while we sort out our supplies for the next week's riding.

Our expectations of easy riding were not disappointed and we cruised along at a good pace on an almost traffic-free road for the first couple of hours, stopping for breakfast around 9am with 100km to go.  There weren't as many animals around, just a couple of wallabies and the usual birds in the savannah woodland that bordered our route all day.

That early good progress continued for the rest of the day, with thirty-minute breaks taken after every ninety minutes under the shade of a roadside tree on our little blue groundsheet.  The routine is usually to eat one of the snacks we are carrying, drink lots (flavoured milk/Powerade/Coke), and check Maps.me to see how far we have to go, and in Julie's case, the elevation profile.  There's usually five minutes free to have a pretend nap as well before we hit the road again, and then it's a few hundred metres before the legs start working properly.

As we neared Normanton, we spotted a distant flock of brolgas near a station dam, which was a highlight (though we had seen one solo earlier in the day).  Neither of us are ornithologists, which is a bit of a handicap when we see so many different kinds of birds each day, but that doesn't stop us enjoying and appreciating the variety.

We reached the sleepy Saturday-afternoon Normanton around 3pm and checked into our motel which is attached to the town's Purple Pub.  After showers, we went to the small grocery next door for some drinks and microwaveable dinner, and while there, checked out what was on offer that we could carry for the next week.  There's another small grocery about a kilometre away that we might also need to visit tomorrow to optimise our choices.

Normanton is a decision point for us, and we have decided to continue following Highway 1 and the Savannah Way north-west to Borroloola in the Northern Territory (NT).  There are just a few tiny resupply points, and none for the last 320km (with uncertain water).  The road is also notoriously bad and mostly unsealed, so the riding will be slow.  It's not a route many cyclists take.  The alternative is to head 400km south from here to Cloncurry and then Mount Isa and from there across to Tennant Creek in the NT before turning north.  This route is all on sealed road, with more resupply options, but is a lot further.  I have ridden it several times before, and although it appeals from a "security" perspective, we have decided to get out of our comfort zone and take the challenging route.

Round Australia Bike Ride - Day 037 - Georgetown to Croydon

Day:  037

Date: Friday, 07 August 2020

Start:  Georgetown

Finish:  Croydon

Daily Kilometres:  148 (click for Julie's Strava and photos)

Total Kilometres:  3957

Weather:  Warm to very warm and mostly overcast

Accommodation:  Cabin

Nutrition:

  Breakfast:  Egg & lettuce sandwiches

  Lunch:  Ham, cheese & tomato sandwich/Chicken salad sandwich

  Dinner:  Chicken Kiev & vegetables, ice cream

Aches:  Nothing significant 

Highlight:  We reached the top of a long gradual climb at 12:20pm about 10 minutes earlier than our planned lunchtime, to find a lone picnic table under a little shelter which was too good to pass up so we stopped for lunch.  It was a very peaceful spot surrounded by the almost soundless forest, and there were long periods with no traffic at all.  After eating our sandwiches, we briefly lay down on the benches and savoured the restful moment, perhaps wishing we could stay there longer.

Lowlight:  It's a toss up between (A) being identified as a father and daughter cycling team by a passing motorist we later met at our caravan park, or (B) Julie misjudging her dismount (failing to release her cleat) in front of our cabin on arrival, and knocking me off my bike in a chain reaction, leaving us both in a tangled mess on the ground, much to the amusement of a passing fellow camper.

Pictures: Click here

Map and Position: Click here for Google Map

Journal:

In many ways, today was a copy of yesterday, except that we didn't pass any habitation all day, apart from the occasional side road signposted to a cattle station.  We left about 6:20am, made good time along a flat road almost devoid of traffic through the waking bush.  There were lots of kangaroos and wallabies about and we even had a dingo trot across the road in front of us.

We stopped at 8:30am after 50 kilometres and ate our breakfast, sandwiches purchased from the roadhouse last night, by the roadside entertaining a nearby herd of cattle who probably hadn't had as much excitement in months.  After breakfast, the road was busier, a little more undulating and the roadside bush varied between savannah woodland and savannah grassland.  We took a mid-morning break at 10:30am then continued on into a growing headwind that meant we got no pedalling relief on the flats and downhills.  It gradually wears you down, even though the hills weren't steep.

At 12:20pm we stopped for lunch (see above), with 107 kilometres done and 41 to go.  That remaining distance dragged in places, particularly as the temperature was now in the low 30°Cs, though there was an overall descent and the headwind became more fickle.  We took a short break with 21 kilometres to go and finally reached the old gold mining town of Croydon (which has clearly seen better days, though is neat and tidy) a little before 3pm and checked into our cabin in the local caravan park.  We were both feeling very tired and glad of the early finish.

After showers, we walked to the small nearby service station/grocery and bought overpriced supplies for tonight and tomorrow.  Like today, there will again be no habitation en route to our destination.