NeilR

Here one for Marney. 

A picture of me holding a something a bit unexpected.  A salt water croc.  This one still has the safety catch one, insulation tape holding its mouth shut but that came off later so we could look at his teeth. 

Wuffy and Kenneth had hidden in my camera bag and refused come out. 

Made Mount Isa with no further issues and a new tire has been fitted that has solved that problem. It is not a tyre I have tried before but have heard that they are OK. Has to be better than the one that was on there.

They also inspected the chain and sprockets and gave them both the last rites. With a bit of care, they were confident they would get me to Townsville as they could not get parts until Monday at the earliest. The bike is booked in at the Suzuki dealer in Townsville for the new parts to be fitted either sometime Monday or most probably Tuesday morning. At least I am not stuck at Mount Isa till Monday or Tuesday this way.

This has meant quite a large route change as I was intending to be heading up to Normanton today and then east to the Atherton Tablelands and then further north but that is not an option at present. The current plan is to get to Townsville tommorow afternoon and find somewhere to stay till Tuesday morning. Then find some stuff to do over the weekend, this may involve a reef or Hayley’s left field suggestion of an NRL match, time will See. I was planning on a stay somewhere next week on the way down fron Cairns so this will be it instead.

Will have a bit of a think about a revised route over the weekend.

Staying at the Julia Creek pub tonight so I can get an early start in the morning.

Day got off to a reasonably early start and then the “fun” started.

Headed off,  thinking get some distance in before it gets hot.  I wish. Only got about 20km and started shivering it was so cold, had to stop and find my jumper and warmer gloves I have not needed for a few weeks.  Had a strong cross wind all day that was for some reason very cold.  The jumper stayed on until I pulled up tonight.

First fuel stop was Elliot which was lucky because the next one at Renner Springs is closed as it burnt down.  I had enough fuel to get me the Three Ways anyway so no problem.

Next stop was Three Ways which is where you join the Barkley Highway to head east towards Queensland.  When checking the bike, I noticed the chain was a little loose but not enough to worry and the wear line on the rear tire looked a bit odd.

Next stop was Barkley Homestead Roadhouse which is approx the halfway point to Qld and about 500km to Mount Isa, the next town of any size.  At this point, I discovered that I have two rather serious mechanical issues to deal with. 

First was that the rear tire was basically torn to pieces in the middle of the tread and was below the wear marks.  Looking at the tire and trying to figure out what to do, I think I was given some wrong  advice on tire pressure when I had the tire fitted that did not allow for the bumpy abrasive road surface and the higher speed limits in NT.  All I could do was drop the tire pressure and hope I could make Mount Isa.

Second issue which is bad but not as urgent is the chain has started to destroy itself and the sprockets.  Had very little sign of any issue as I check the chain tension every night when I lube the chain and have only had to make a couple of small adjustments so far. My guess is all the sand and abrasive grit has finally destroyed the o-rings in the chain and it is now basically eating itself.

Got to Cammoweal late due to riding much slower to conserve the tyre and have a basic room in the caravan park, basic as in, box with door, windows, light,  small air con and bed and thats it.

Checked the bike and with the drop in pressure, the tire survived better than I hoped, so it should be OK to get me to Mount Isa.  The chain though was worse than I expected but it should get me to Mount Isa also.   

Have the address of the local Suzuki dealer and am heading there in the morning. 

The tyre should not be a problem as it a common size and one of several options will do, as I have done all the off road bits for the trip.  The annoying part is I had it checked at the dealer in Darwin and he advised that it should be fine to get me Cairns.

The chain and sprockets are more of a problem and I can see me getting stuck somewhere for a couple of days to get it fixed.  Always knew this could happen, but I would prefer to be on the coast somewhere but you don’t get a choice in these things.

Bit of a pain how the two unrelated issues happened together and so suddenly,  but I suppose when you ride further in two days than the majority of riders in 6 to 12 months, is it really that sudden.  Probably ridden further inthe last 5 weeks than some ride in a decade or a lifetime.

Onto Mount Isa in the morning to see what fate has in store for me next.  All adds up to make it an adventure.

Headed off early to Darwin with the main aim of a visit to a crocodile farm and some shopping as the bike needs another oil change and the food bag needs a restock.

Arrived at Crocodylus Park at nine and wondered if this was a good idea, as it looked a bit like a tourist trap designed for the tour bus set.  Turned out to be a very interesting and infomative morning.  It is the public face of a research centre and crocodile farming enterprise that processes about 30 crocodiles a day for their skin and meat.  Had a look around until the tour started at 10. 

The guy hosting the tour had been involved with the operation from the start so he knew his stuff.  It started with feeding some crocs in a large pond by suspending meat on a moving wire over the pond.  Whilst this was happening, we got a bit of history lesson on crocs and the first of many reasons why it is very bad idea to be near or in the water near a salt water croc.  After thaf it was onto the pens that hold their breeding pairs.  A couple of the males were over 5 metres  long and when you are that close and see how quick they move,  I am not going swimmimg outside a swimmimg pool up here.  These were fed pork shanks via a stick and string with the kids mostly getting the job.  After that it was onto the pens holding the diiferent age groups of junvenile crocs plus sone fresh water crocs and and explanation of the differences. 

There was then a discussion about the justification for farming crocs and the proccess involved.  The justification was pretty simple, by farming crocs for their leather and making it available commercially, there is no point in poaching due to the low returns and heavy fines so there is no pressure on the wild population.  Makes sense to most people but their has apparantly been some lively debates with the sandal wearing vegans etc but to me it is not much different to sheep and cattle except crocs are a quite a bit harder to handle.

Then for the bit I was not expecting.  At the end of the tour, the guy disappeared for a minute and returned with two small salt-water crocs with their mouths taped shut.  Its now time to hold a croc, no-one seemed keen so I ended being first.  It was surprising smooth and soft skin as the armour plates do not harden until later in life.  I then handed him onto a young girl who was not yet convinced this was good idea as she was not too pleased when I let go but them realised it was OK.  After that most people had their photo taken with one of them.  I ended up with the croc a few times as people got organised for photos etc.  Not something I was expecting to do on this trip.

After that it was off to find some oil and restock the food bag.  Got back mid afternoon and gave the bike its service and a bit of a check over.

Off done south early in the morning.  Not sure how far I will get as it depends on how the days go and how hot it is.

The boys with our german friends on their around the world ride. Interesting that Bea said she would pose with the Drop Bear. Wuffy thought it was hilarous and I told Kenneth not to worry I would explain it to him later.