Kicking thru to Kununurra…

I miss-timed sunrise by half an hour or so, and stood out in the darkness of early morning, watching and waiting for the sky to lighten…

Early morning out on the Stuart Highway...

Today, mindful of a few comments about my recent lethargy, I decided to make my first day on the road a big one…!! I intended to cover about 835 km and cross the Northern Territory into Western Australia and get amongst the Kimberlys…

Christie came out to say goodbye, and took a few final photos of the bike and I, before I hugged and kissed her farewell, and made my way down their long drive and out onto the Stuart Highway…

“Paul isn’t very good with goodbyes…” she had said before I left, “but he wishes you a safe journey and demands that you call us regularly to advise us of your progress…!!”

“Tell the Colonel that I love him too…!! I had said as I rode away… I knew I would miss Paul and Christie in the days to come…

I stopped off in Adelaide River to refuel, filling my spare fuel bottles as I did so… The distances between fuel stops can vary between 150 and 250 km out here in the Northern Territories, and I did not fancy a long wait in the hot sun for a good Samaritan to help me out if I came unstuck…!!

Adelaide River is also home of Charlie the Buffalo, who appeared in the Crocodile Dundee movie...

Large signs on the entrance to town explained that Adelaide River was the home of “Charlie”, the huge water buffalo that was featured in the Crocodile Dundee movie, although I very much doubted that the original “Charlie” was still alive to tell the tale…!!

Heading for Katherine... Alice Springs seemed like a bridge too far...!! Which was just as well, because I wasn't heading in that direction anyway...!!

I bought a cup of coffee to go with the two I already had in me, and watched a large flock of Lorikeets feeding on an open area close to the service station…

I was still amazed that so many of the species we considered pets back home, were as common as sparrows out here…!!

A pair of cockatoos sat preening each other on a branch barely a few metres above me head… An old guy who was sweeping the forecourt, shook his broom at them, mumbling, “Messy buggers…!!” under his breath as he passed me…

“Those “messy buggers” go for a few grand back where I come from…!!” I thought to myself as they flew across the highway and out of sight…

You never can tell where their biltong comes from...!! The advertising confirmed my suspicions...!!

Eager to clock up the miles, I rode the next stint to Katherine a little too “hot and heavy”, and had to stop there to fill the 3rd and 4th fuel bottles I carried, just to make sure I would make it to the next stop…!!

After turning on to the Great Northern Highway, GiGi fell silent... It was after all a mere 558km before she needed to speak again...!!

Graphic signs such as this one line the highways...

Exiting Katherine, I saw a sign saying that the next service station was 193 km away, and slowed down to recalculate how much fuel I had with me…

Ignoring the little warning voice that whispered somewhere in my head, I put my head down and headed west, telling the Big Fella that we were in for yet another “close run thing”…!!

The countryside was flat and fairly featureless and would stay that way for the next 2 000 km until I reached the coast late the following day… Hardy shrubs stood dotted between waving long grasses, with the odd eucalyptus tree poking up from the red earth… These trees were nothing like the tall “Blue Gum’s” I was used to, but rather a gnarled and stunted species with branches growing out in every direction…

The first thing that struck me after just a few kilometres, was the volume of dead Wallabies and other smaller animals that littered the roadside… Apart from the one live one I had seen in Litchfield National Park, and a handful we had seen on the way to the Mary River, I had yet to see a single live Wallaby during my rides… (Seven days have passed since I left Darwin, and this status has not changed…!! Thousands of dead ones, but yet to see a live one…!!)

It is safe to assume that most of these animals are knocked down at night, either by motorists crazy enough to be out there considering the volume of carcasses I have seen, or by the ubiquitous “Road Trains”, who ply their trade across the northern and central states of Australia…

Road Trains such as this one can be a little tricky to overtake...!!

I stopped to take on some water, and refuel the Big Fella...

These road trains are often made up of three 12 metre long trailers, or four 10 metres trailers, and show a pretty handy turn of speed considering their massive length and size…!!

I shuddered to think of the carnage on South African roads if our drivers were ever allowed to get behind the wheel of one of these monsters…!!

They carry containerized goods, heavy machinery, cattle, and entire Porta-camp style homes that are on their way to be erected in a mining village somewhere…

Trying to overtake them is a bit of a lottery if the wind is blowing from either side of you, but not so bad when it is either behind you or blowing into your face…

You can feel the turbulence they create a long way back, and riding up to a point where you dart out to overtake, you are buffeted from one side of the road to the other…!! Not pleasant on a bike…!!

And you had better be holding on tightly when these “trains” come roaring towards you…!!

The rush of air as they pass, sucks you towards the rear trailer in the line, and then as it rushes past, just as suddenly lets you go, leaving you fighting for control…!! A wind from one such behemoth lifted my front wheel clean off the ground for what was only about two seconds, but felt like an eternity…!!

The last trailer in line also sways alarmingly, sometimes coming across the centre line and hogging as much as a metre or more of the lane you are in…!! All in all, they did not pose too much of a problem, but there were times when I wondered if I was going to make it past one of them in one piece, or was going to be blown clean off the road when one thundered towards me at 120 km/h…!!

Crossing the Victoria River Bridge... Anxiety had me biting holes in the Big Fellas seat at this stage...!!

About 80 kilometres short of my planned fuel stop, the Big Fellas engine fell silent… The fuel management system had long since been telling me that our range was “0”, but the Big Fella had soldiered on and very graciously given us a further 20 kilometres…!!

We cruised to a stop under the spreading branches of a tree, and I hopped off to refuel from my spare bottles…!! A rider on a KTM passed me, and I gave him the thumbs up to show him I was OK, and watched as he roared away to the west…

“Mmmm…!! Maybe I should have flagged him down and asked him to ride with me…!!” I thought, while I poured the four litres into my tank and silently prayed that it would be enough to get me to the next fuel stop…

We were riding on fumes when I got to Victoria River Roadhouse...!! How else do you get 22.28 litres into a 22 litre tank...??

I rode the next hour with jangling nerves, counting off the kilometres and riding at the pedestrian speed of 80 km/h, trying desperately to conserve fuel…

During this time, I did get a smile out of the fact that the Big Fella had his 7th “birthday” on this tour…!!

Somewhere just short of Victoria River, the Speedo ticked over to 110 000 km, at the same time recording that we had covered 70 000 km on my World Tour since leaving home 19 months ago…!!

That took my mind off the more dire little matter of running out of fuel, but only for a short while… Then my grin faded and went back to the determined scowl my face wore until we spluttered into Victoria River Roadhouse, literally riding on the “smell of an oil rag”…!!

After filling up, I introduced myself to the KTM rider who had passed me, and was chatting to a small group of other riders nearby… Andy Dunn was from Melbourne, and was on his way to Broome as well, riding the rougher roads solo… We chatted while I wolfed down a burger, and then decided to ride on together to Kununurra, about 250 km further to the west…

Andy Dunn, who rode with me for the last 250 km to Kununurra...

Andy’s KTM 990 Adventure was a thirsty beast, and not nearly as fuel efficient as the Big Fella, so we rode at an average speed to 110 km/h, which suited me just fine at that point, as we would be gaining an hour and a half on our watches when we crossed the state line into Western Australia, and there was still plenty of light to get us to Kununurra before sunset…

Known as Boabs locally, these Baobab trees line the road in the Northern Territory...

We began passing Australia’s version of the Baobab Tree, known locally as a Boab…!! While very few of the ones I saw matched the giants of Africa I was used to, these trees nonetheless were just as interesting, the majority of them bottle-shaped, the main trunk narrowing to a taper just before the branches began crowning…

It takes all shapes and sizes...!!

I wondered which legends the Aborigines had woven around the story of these great trees, and if it differed from one told in African villages… There it is said that once the Baobab grew big and tall, far taller than it is today, it become arrogant, lording it over all the other trees in the forest… The gods had finally decided to act against the Baobab Tree, and tore all the Baobab trees from the ground, and then shoved them crown first back into the earth…

And that is why to this day, Baobabs look as though their roots are on the outside, and their trunks go down into the centre of the earth…!!

Crossing the border into Western Australia... It was like entering another country...!!

Who let them stray, then...?? Round the buggers up and fence them in...!!

About 45 kilometres short of Kununurra, we came to the state border… Here we had to get off our bikes and surrender to a quarantine inspection… The officer on duty checked our panniers and asked us a series of questions regarding any food we were carrying…

It is illegal to carry any fruit or vegetable across this particular border… Their main preoccupation was stopping the migration of Cane Toads from the Northern Territory into Western Australia, but I later heard that the battle was already being lost against this South American assassin…!!

It had already devastated a wide swathe of Eastern Australia, responsible for the near extinction of many wild animals, including the Goanna Lizard in it’s northern ranges… Even the population of Saltwater Crocodiles had been greatly reduced by this highly poisonous toad… Only the wily crows had learned how to deal with it by flipping it onto its back and eating only the fleshy underparts of the belly…

The Cane Toad secretes a potent poison from glands on its head and shoulders, bringing a slow death to anything foolish enough to eat it…

The long day in the saddle was beginning to tell on me as I followed Andy into the outskirts of Kununurra… My back and shoulders ached and my neck was sore from being buffeted by not only the passing trucks, but also the headwind that we had been riding into…

Our first stop was at the City Camping ground, as this was where Andy thought he might stay… While he checked on camping spots available, I asked the manager if he had any other accommodation available… He informed me that they had one last cabin and that it would cost $170.00 for the night…!! While I tried to digest this unpalatable bit of news, Andy came up and said he was going to try another campground on the far side of town…

Later afternoon and with 800 km behind me, I only had another 35 km to go...!! Big first day in Oz...!!

He eventually found a better spot but I was out of luck, as they had no rooms available… I had managed to stay well clear of any form of tent-assembly for 19 months, and was not about to start now, after an 835 km ride across a baking semi-desert…!!

I wanted a comfortable bed, so while Andy rolled out his “swag”, (a large bedroll that needs no assembly whatsoever…!!), I headed back into town and found a room at the Kununurra Hotel…

The basic room cost $180, and included a just as basic continental breakfast… Cooked breakfast cost an extra $20.00…!!

Internet was an optional extra, and came in at the price of $2 for 10 minutes or $10 for an hour…!! I could not understand how such a high price was being charged for such basic services…!! And then it dawned on me… This part of the country was so sparsely populated, yet a popular destination for tourists, and mining employees, that they could charge just about anything they wanted, and get away with it…!!

Simple lodgings for the simple price of $180.00....!!

The only thing missing from the reception areas I walked into, was a sign saying “Take it or Leave It””…!!

Although I have to admit, that everywhere I went, I was greeted with a smile and service and information about alternative lodgings was gladly given… Not so in many other places in the world…!!

Later that evening, Andy joined me for dinner and a few cold ones, and that came to over $50 each…!!

Afterward, we shook hands and made arrangements to meet in Broome in a few days time…  Andy was going to ride the Gibb River Road, a 4 x 4 route that I wasn’t in the mood to attempt with a heavily loaded bike…

It was also a two day affair, over 700 km of gravel and in places, some thick sand thrown in to further test your resolve… The lady in reception had earlier told me that although the route was very scenic, and wound through gorges and rugged mountains, it was definitely a route reserved for off-road vehicles, and that had sealed the decision for me…!!

I had to nurse the Big Fella through another 60 000 odd kilometres and I was not about to end my journey on the Gibb River road…!!

I on the other hand, opted to put in an even bigger day than the ten hour one I had just “enjoyed”, and tackle the 1000 plus kilometres to Broome, riding along the Victoria and Great Northern Highways…

©GBWT 2011