July 25 Jabiru (NT) to Broome (Western Australia)

OZ Travel Log for 7.25.2007 Jabiru (NT) to Broome (Western Australia)

Jabiru-Mary River Roadhouse-Pine Creek-Katherine
Jabiru: Caravan sight was right in town with the bakery 5 minutes away. The nights were quite entertaining as the aborigine’s were in great form either chanting or howling along with the dogs. This generally continued until the wee hours of the morning where they either ran out of piss or passed out! Leaving Jabiru heading south west to Katherine was a good ride with the roads following the contours of the hills. Stopping for fuel at Mary River Roadhouse, had a bit of a problem as to whether or not you were loading up with flies or fuel………

Katherine caravan Big 4 site had to be the best that I've been in so far. Good facilities and green, green grass to lay the tent down under the trees.


Katherine-Victoria River-Timber Creek-Kununurra
Crossing into Western Australia, the numbers for the Northern Territories are: GPS for NT was 4866.96km at 1241hrs (Perth time).
Going through Quarantine as you enter WA, they removed the 25 kilo's of Cadbury chocolate I had in my backpack...........contraband!
Once I was into WA and heading down the road I had my first major helmet bird kill. It was a wedge tail eagle with a 3 meter wing span............or maybe I lie a bit..me thinks it was along the size of a sparrow(believable).


Another great idea to bring in an alien species to control a local pest……..!

Kununurra was the next stop for a day or two. Made a side trip up to Lake Arglye, which contains 6 times the water volume as Sydney harbor. It is also the largest man made lake in the southern hemisphere.



Kununurra-Wyndham-El Questro Wilderness Park
Next stop was the Gibb River road with a side trip up to Wyndham. Nothing to report there and being Sunday, talk about no one out in the public eye did find an Afghan cemetery though. The afghan’s were brought over in the 1840’s along with the first camels to Australia. As the camels proved to be so efficient in the desert, hundreds of camels were imported along with their trainers.


Now onto the Gibb River road, El Questro was the first night stop and it would be the only stop. Corrugated all of the way in and eating dust from every idiot driving a 4WD vehicle. The water crossings were a bit of a challenge being the biggest one was axle deep and 100 meters across just before getting into the sight itself. A couple of bikers before me had gone just a bit too fast, stalled out and dropping their bikes.




El Questro-Halls Creek
Getting out of El Questro the following morning at 0600hrs hoping to beat anyone else along the road was wishful thinking but when I did hit the sealed road you could have heard me scream for miles.


Halls Creek was the next stop with the tent sight in the middle of town. Again being entertained into the late hours by the aborigine’s. Next morning the temp was in single digits but as I had over 600km to cover to get to Broome, the earlier the better.

Halls Creek-Fizroy Crossing-Willare Bridge Roadhouse-Broome
It was another very long ride with the roads strenching straight to the horizon. The only break in routine was either a town or roadhouse every 250-300km down the road.
Broome it is for the next couple of days. With a very heavy dew in the morning all of my gear was wet but I think again it could be a lot worse sitting in the morning rush hour traffic getting into Honolulu.


The famous Australia Bottle Tree


Termite mounds

July 17 Mount Isa(QLD) to Jabiru (Northern Territories)

Travel Log for 7.17.2007 Mount Isa(QLD) to Jabiru (Northern Territories)

Just a few Notes:
KiwiRoss, who I had met back in Collingwood, New Zealand, another biker from Canada, has been diagnosed with a terminal brain cancer. He is with his wife and may god let him die in peace. Another time, another place I hope I can buy him a proper pint.

Webster dictionary: defines the word flat as traveling the OZ outback. If flat and riding a road in a straight line for hours on end then OZ is the place.

Bull Dust: See if you can visualize riding over a road that has a dust layer to it but doesn't have any form or substance. Think of the same material wet and it is like driving over black ice. And you and the bike are going down regardless.

Body Weight loss: 5.5 kilo's at this point.

Petrol stations and Cadbury Chocolate: does eating a 7 lb Cadbury chocolate bar have anything to do with my weight loss?

Getting back to the basics.

Mount Isa-Camooweal-Barkly Homestead (NT)
Out of Mount Isa to Barkly Homestead for the first segment into the Northern Territories (NT). As soon as you hit the NT, the first 50km is pot hole heaven. I was following a road train (truck with 4 trailers) weaving through the pot holes and knowing the driver was painting the air blue. Some of the pot holes were large enough to swallow the bike…..just image hitting these at night!




Now Barkly is just what appears. Fuel, food, caravan site and nothing for 100’s of km in all directions.

Barkly Homestead-Three Ways-Renner Springs-Newcastle Waters-Daly Waters
Once you reach Three Ways, its Stuart Highway north to Darwin.

Barkly Homestead to Daley Waters: Pretty much as the day before, straight roads and a long time in the saddle. Having a small bike, 650cc, in the last couple of days just gets old fast. You just want a bike with 1200cc’s under the bonnet and just put the needle on 250km/ph and leave it there. It has been just so bleak out there with nothing on the horizon to break it up.

Daly Waters to Katherine: Short day and a stay in the big city of Katherine. Nothing happening here.

Katherine to Darwin: Into the big city of NT. One road in and out of the city. Caravan park tent site was like the low income housing project in the major cities. The bike was in to BMW for replacing the front fork seals.


While in Darwin did travel to Litchfield National Park. Being the adventurous lad that I am, it was the dirt road into the back of the NP. Here I was traveling along at 70km over this bit of dirt, come over the crest and before me was the biggest track of bull dust I've seen. Couldn't get around it so through the middle I went, the bike and I were one on this bit of travel and at times the only part of my body attached to the bike was the death grip I had on the handle bar. What really amazed me was that both I and the bike ended up right......does the phase, "oh shit!!" mean anything?



Doesn’t this map just make everything soooooo simple when you are traveling!


Darwin-Annaburroo-Jim Jim Road-Jabiru
Darwin to Jabiru: As soon as the bike was fixed I was on the road. Decided that I had a few hours on my side that I would take the Old Jim Jim Road (dirt) through the Kakadu NP. The road was in good nick up to the 30km mark as the road graders were re-shaping the road surface. I should have know better to continue on but being that it was only another 70km of road left.........we are getting the picture! Yes sir, bull dust and corrugations all of the way.


And to make life a bit more exciting we will throw in a series of water crossings. Before each water crossing we have a very large sign stating that there is crocodiles in these waters and no swimming is allowed!

Ask me if I wasted my time going across the water crossings. The last water crossing was a bit of a pill. It was mud leading up to it and on the other side was soft deep sand. Being the expert that I am with 2 1/2 years of travel under my belt with the beamer. It was through the creek and into the sand, the bike went one way and I the other. After spending a bit of time wondering what went wrong, brushing the sand off me and helmet, had a few choice words about a certain grey nomad bike driver....! Dug the bike out and it was down the road to Jabiru.

July 10 Cooktown to Mount Isa (Queensland)

Travel Log for 7.10.2007 Cooktown to Mount Isa (Queensland)

Cooktown-Laura-Lakeland-Mount Molloy-Mareeba
It was Cooktown to the north or was it south...? As I was looking to travel up Cape York with grand ideas of going to the very last petrol stop...checking with the Cooktown police station, they recommended that I take the scenic dirt road to Laura, which accordingly to one of the policeman was in grand shape (You know where I am going with this story). I get on the road to Laura and the corrugations were a bloody nightmare to the point where I had to stop completely to keep the bike on the road. It was 100km of corrugations to Laura plus a couple of water crossings along with eating dust from 30 dirt bikers and another lot of 4WD’s......I finally get to Laura and being the bright lad that I am I again ask if the road up the Cape is any better? The statement was if I thought the road to Laura was bad the road up the cape was worse.

Enough said, south is was, back to sealed roads and the turn west to Normanton.

Now Mareeba caravan site was a bit of fun. The first place they directed me to was flat, dirt and if you attempted to drive your tent pegs into the ground, a stick of dynamite was needed. We next moved onto another beautiful site right next to the loo and I think the septic tank was acting up a bit. Finally I found a patch of green next to a family of 10 kids from England on their holiday. Isn’t life just grand!

A few stats for those that just love numbers:
On 7.4.2007 at 1304hrs according to my GPS I had covered
4593 km which if we do the numbers would have me traveling across the USA.

Mareeba-Atherton-Ravenshoe-Mount Surprise-Georgetown
Getting back to turning to Normanton, first stop was Georgetown for the night. If you blinked, you passed through the town proper. Population under 200 and still leaving. Did manage to buy a pair of Chinese thongs, size 13, for $9.00 from a Vietnamese couple running the local roadhouse. Asked why a pair of cheap Chinese thongs that would cost any where else for $1.00 was so expensive. Did I ever get an education of the cost of doing business out in the outback. I bet this guy could sell the dust off the road for a profit!

Georgetown-Croydon-Blackbull-Normanton-Karumba
Next day it was onto the town of Normanton before heading north to Karumba. For the younger set, the name Karumba was a two step dance developed for Ginger Rogers and Fred Astaire!

Karumbar sits right on the Gulf of Carpentaria. Me thinks that it never has had a bad sunset and is the place to be to watch the sun settle over the horizon.







Karumba-Normanton-Burke & Wills Roadhouse-Gregory Downs-Lawn Hill National Park-Adels Grove
Karumba it was for 2 days before moving south to Lawn Hill National Park. The dirt road from Gregory Downs to Adels Grove is in good shape and riding at 100km/ph was a breeze. Staying at Adels Grove was a great, had fuel and definitely rated 4 stars for the food, facilities and staff. While at Adels Grove I made a trip to Riversleigh fossil fauna site. I think it is listed as a World Heritage site.




Adels Grove-Riversleigh-Flora-Mount Isa
From Adels it was south on the dirt road, bloody rough and rocky for the first 20km, but just going via the dirt road saved me over 220km in travel. Eventually Mount Isa on the horizon. Mount Isa is the prime example of a mining town; large, noisy and dusty. Mount Isa it is until I leave tomorrow for Cape Crawford, Northern Territory and a time deference of 30 minutes.

Notes: Temps are around 20 during the day but once the sun is over the horizon.....talk about getting the woolies out.

The beamer has a front fork seal going bad so this will have to be addressed in Darwin.

Tasmania was going to be the place to be for September but from what all I hear it will be cold, cold, and damn cold. Thoughts are now running to leaving the bike in Melbourne and return in January.

July 2 Winton to Cooktown (Queensland)

OZ Travel Log for 7.2.2007 Winton to Cooktown (Queensland)

Winton-Hughenden-Charters Towers
Another caravan site, another night in the tent with the temp hovering around 5 degrees Celsius.
So from Winton we are going north to Hughenden for a bit of the roadhouse food then into Charters Towers for the night. Met a couple from Tasmania and the subject got around to Tassie in September time frame. The reply was," A bit fresh!". Other words find some other place to go as it is cold and miserable. Recommended time frame would be December and after.

Charters Towers - The Lynd Junction - Ravenshoe,
Single lane road, road trains, dead cattle, roos, pigs and the what ever....It’s like a bloody meat market out there.
Ravenshoe had a -7 degree morning but with 17 layers of clothing on.....





And you want to argue the right of way with this Road train…………..!

Ravenshoe-Atherton-Maree-Mt Carbine-Lakeland-Helenvale-Cooktown
From Ravenshoe to Cooktown the roads were dual lane, weather got warm enough that I had to take clothing off. It was the best drive yet, the terrain was similar to driving the north coast of New Zealand's North Island. So unusual to be able to drive around bends and not have to face the straight of straight roads that are so much a part of the outback.


If anyone can tell me why there is a boat out in no where…………the nearest water is 100’s of km away




Some of that good deep fried, 10 day old food and free coffee to go along with it!!

It will be Cooktown for the night before heading north up to Archer River Roadhouse on the Cape York Peninsula. From the roadhouse there is no fuel for the next 600 km so it will be turn around time and head southwest to the Gulf of Carpentaria, Karumba Point.