An early start this morning for a 570km travel day. Nothing much to report at all. We were on the road by 715, had brekky at Elliot, lunch at Three Ways and have finished the day at the Barkly Homestead. A pleasant evening spent in the pub with a great vibe with all the travellers hanging out. We plan to start again early tomorrow and head out of the Northern Territory. Planned stop tomorrow night is at Mt Isa where…
We headed off separately this morning from Nitmiluk with Bob and I getting brekky in Katherine and picking up some bits and pieces before meeting the Scotts after their sunrise mountain biking expedition. We have travelled around 300km today along roads we have travelled before. Karen and I have made good crossword progress. The call went out by the boys that lunch should include one final dip at the thermal springs at Mataranka, which was an easy one to agree to. We decided…
So last night I forgot to mention that Mark Webber was on the dinner cruise with us and a recording crew from the series ‘What’s Up Downunder’. Stay tuned, we could be stars! This morning we headed out on the more serious MTB tracks. At least on these ones there weren’t man-made obstacles put in to make the ride harder (like yesterday), the obstacles were there themselves! We climbed 100m along gravel, river beds, rocks and sand and there was…
This morning we said goodbye to Karen and Kieran early and then headed out on a hike to the Baruwei Lookout. So many steps to climb up! We came back and cooled off before jumping on the bikes and attacking the easiest of the trails here. I didn’t realise that the trails are actually made with jumps and silly tight turns. It was still more enjoyable than corrugations on a gravel road but not as good as a glass of wine listening to…
We have now been on the road for 100 nights! 71 of those have been powered via our battery system (and generator when the sun won’t shine). We have learned heaps about existing sustainably with limited amp hours, and what we are prepared to use them on 🙂 . Since our solar blanket purchase in Broome, power conservation basically hasn’t been required. This morning we all agreed to be driving out of the free camp by 730 to ensure we…
A big move to the east day today. A 500km jump to the Katherine area so we can visit Edith falls on the way to Katherine Gorge tomorrow. With a 90 minute time zone change heading into the NT it has been a short day. Free camping was the call because of our late decision to drive on. So a late afternoon’s cool off at Katherine springs was called and much appreciated. On a positive note we had sealed roads…
Today was a very full day! Kieran did Park Run while Karen explored the national park and Bob and I rode to the local markets where we picked up fresh bread (yum) and some salad ingredients. We rode back to the van, dropped our purchases off and continued our ride to the diversion dam on the Ord River (see photo above). There are 20 individual gates on this dam to allow wet season flooding through when necessary. Today there were…
This morning Karen and Kieran headed out early to explore on their bikes. We elected to get out and knock off the largish shopping list before the influx of travellers arrived to strip the shelves. After a successful expedition we were free to explore around town from late morning. We headed out to Ivanhoe Crossing and spent some time photographing and droning. A very different crossing to those we have completed on the Gibb, with a much higher flow and…
This morning we left El Questro after a last coffee and croissant at the restaurant and me spending even more money on Boab art at the local art gallery. We savoured our last 16km of dirt road (not!) and stopped to reinflate the tyres for hopefully one of the last times. We headed to Wyndham where we checked out the port, took the obligatory photo at the big croc and headed up to the lookout to see the 5 rivers…
Our last day at El Questro and on the Gibb. We’ve had the last 27 nights along the road and haven’t been connected to 240V power since we were in Broome. Something we’d never have considered before this trip. This morning we were back out by 630 in our car this time for the 30km drive to the Emma Gorge hike (with Karen doing her thing and heading out for a sunrise walk beforehand). Despite our concerns after the El…