NeilR

Well the started out well with the breakfast cruise in Katherine Gorge.  We were served a full cooked breakfast plus all the other usual stuff.  The boat had no fixed seats and was set out with tables and chairs so you could watch the canyon going by.

Did not do the heli trip as they had no other bookings for the day and two is the minimum unless I wanted to pay double.

So it was off towards Bathelor.  At the roadhouse at Pine Creek I had a nice long chat with a german couple Helmut and Bea.  They are riding  a pair of fully rebuilt Honda Africa Twins that are over twenty years old.  They started a round the world trip in Germany 11 months ago and have crossed Russia, Mongolia, Siberia, had to miss China due to cost of a guide at 10 thousand euro, Cambodia, Loas, Indonesia, East Timor and after three weeks they finally got their bikes out of customs to start the Australia leg.  All this was with no outside support.  The bikes look to have been very well prepared and you get the impression that alot of planning and work went into the prep.  The world needs more people like these two.

After that,  I took the advertised scenic route.  Not scenic at all, just more cattle station country and the only two points of interest, a couple of waterfalls were still closed.  It was also the roughest tar road I have ever been on. 

After that got to Batchelor and headed out towards the national park to find the caravan park.  Had a choice of two,  first one looked Ok and the second one looked not so good so turn around and go back to the first one.

At this point, the Vstrom and me had our first serious falling out.  Not exactly sure what happened but I think it stalled as I did the u-turn but the next thing the Vstrom is on the deck in the middle of one side of the road and I got tossed over it and ended up on the other side of the road. It was at this point I discovered I can pick it up if I have to and the safety gear I wear was worth every cent I paid for it.  Only damage to the bike was a badly gouged hand guard but still perfectly functional and the right pannier now matches the left one.  Only damage to me was a bruise on my left knee from hitting the road but thats it.  All the other padding etc did its job and not skin missing at all.  Bit shaken but will be fine once I get going again in the morning, these things happen.  Kenneth and Wuffy are still not too happy with me at the moment but they should be fine by the morning.

Now to the good bit after that,  booked into this little caravan park. Was shown a huge patch of grass with shade all day and was told to camp wherever I wanted.  When i asked about amentities, I was shown the bathroom, yes I did say bathroom in the camp kitchen for my use as I am the only camper.   Not bad for $10 at night.  They both came down later in the day to check how I was going after the accident, which was nice.  So I staying here for the next three days while I go the Litchfield which is 20 km away and the Darwin is only 100 km away.   No worth moving and the owners have offered to look some of my gear if I want to leave it behind.

Then its is probably south as most of Kakadu is still closed so its probably not worth the km to go there, as I have been there before.

Made a reasonable early start and headed off towards Derby for a look even though most of the travel things I had read said don’t bother unless you are planning on doing the Gibbs River Road which I would like to but have the wrong bike for that trip.

As you get near Derby the Boab trees start appearing.  Something different and then on the way into Derby had a look a the famous boab tree that used as a jail cell years ago.  Apart from that the reviews were pretty right, just a reasonable little town but not alot outside that.  You could see it was geared to support the Gibbs River Road traffic with a few 4wd places and some pretty heavy duty recovery vehicles.  Think they might charge a bit for their services though.

On the way out of Derby, I checked out the scenic flights over the Buccaneer Archipelago that I got a brochure in Broome for that leave from Derby.  Was not that interested but thought I would ask, seeing I was there anyway.  First issue was the price of $685 and then, wait for it, they now fly out of Broome and not Derby.  It was old brochure.  So bye bye Derby.

So off to the next town along the way to Kununurra which was Fitzroy Crossing for a fuel stop.  After an issue at the servo changed my mind about staying there the night, I headed off towards Halls Creek. 

As was getting late, the plan was ride until it starts getting dark and then stop at one of the campgrounds along the way.  The first was a pile of rocks so headed for the next one which was at Mary Pool on the Mary River about 100km short of Halls Creek.  Used a bit of fuel to get there before dark but one of the more pleasant surprises of the trip.  Road in was not very inspiring and you then crossed a long concrete causeway and here was the campground.  Lots of large trees, slashed grass areas and three septic toilets.  There was about 10 caravans and 5 tents spread about the place.  Thought this will do for the night and after pitching the tent, started to make tea when I remembered I had not restocked the food bag for a while so it was the “interesting” combo of Chicken and Corn Soup and a can of Tuna in Springwater for main course.  Desert was some dried apricots and a coffee.  That left me the Fruit Salad, a Muesli Bar and more coffee for breakfast.  Very peaceful campsite as not long after dark everone seemed to turn in for the night until daybreak.

The only catch with this campsite was it had the first “beware of crocodiles” sign for the trip.  Not a real issue at present as the river is virtually dry but still followed the guidelines and did not camp close to the river.  Kenneth was very nervous about the whole crocodile thing and Wuffy did not help when he suggested that he would OK as the crocs being Australian would probably go for the chinese takeaway option for tea.  Kenneth calmed down after a while but he still insisted on sleeping in the top box.

The plan for the morning is to make Kununura by around 2 and see if I can find a cabin for the next three nights and organise some tours of the Lake Argyle and the Bungle Bungles.  Could not organise anything as campground had no phone coverage.