The Cascades and Tolmer falls.

Last night I could hear a bird flapping from tree to tree above my tent. It would take off, fly to another tree and then there would be panicked chirping. I think it was attacking other birds. After a few minutes it would do it again. This national park is super noisy at sunrise and sunset. It is mostly birds.

This morning I went down to the Cascades. They are about 10km back the way I came. It was a 1.5km walk along a creek and up over some rocks. I saw a little Goanna on the trail which wasn't that exciting. It was light black (so grey) with no markings which differentiates it from all the other goanna I've seen.

The cascades were pretty and the water was nice but not as enjoyable to swim at as Wangi Falls. They are what the name suggests, a series of small waterfalls. I only went to the bottom ones. The ones up the top were accessible by a different 2km path and I figured they'd look pretty similar to the bottom ones.

After that I went around to Tolmer Falls. I was hoping I could swim there but the creek is tiny and the waterfall drops down into a massive gorge that you can't get down to. I went on a loop walk that nobody else was on and managed to lose the trail. I went down where I thought it went and ended up standing at the top of the waterfall, which was really cool.

There is a cool natural bridge across the gorge. The water was a trickle to my right. 

I wandered back and found the path again. Not far along was a sign saying walking where I'd been was prohibited. There were a couple of losers who had really ignored the sign and climbed up this rocky hill to get sexy lady selfies for instagram.

In fairness I started to go up there too but when I saw them coming down I realised it was a bit of a climb and I was carrying a bunch of stuff.

After that I came back to Wangi Falls for a swim and finished my book.

Tomorrow I'm going to go to Buley's Rockhole. Apparently it is a series of swimming holes and I've been told it is fantastic. It is about 30km away. I'm half thinking of riding to Batchelor and setting up camp, then riding back for the day. I'm really low on (nice) food and the water has to be boiled before drinking. Batchelor is the nearest town, about 50km past Buley's.

While the uploads seem to be working, here is a photo of Wangi Falls.

It doesn't look that great, but for a sense of scale, there are at least 15 people in this photo. 

Wagait to Wangi Falls.

I'm having a shocker. I left my bowl and fork at Katherine. My $350 noise cancelling earbuds stopped working, and I think I left my headlamp at Wagait beach. At least without the headlamp I won't be able to see the spiders everywhere.

I left for Litchfield National Park today. I went the "back way" which goes along a dirt road from the Cox Peninsula.

I'd heard that this camp ground gets full really early (by 10:30am) but when I arrived after midday there were a bunch of spots. They're all designed for caravans. So I'm camped off the back of the spot in the bush. A family came up this afternoon to see if they could share with me so they're in the actual caravan spot.

The falls are great. There is a big lagoon sort of bit at the bottom that you can swim in. I went down and swam over and sat under the waterfall. I probably ruined hundreds of photos in that time.

All around the lagoon there are trees with strange long black fruit hanging from them. I found it strange because the trees weren't the same species. I stared for a while and realised they were hundreds of bat's. They all flew over about half an hour ago.

This afternoon I found a shady clearing to read my book and while I was reading I could hear a noise. I looked up and two kites were having a full blown dust up. They'd dived down into the clearing and were fighting all around me. It was nuts! By the time I got the camera they'd flown up above me but were still having little goes at each other.

I'll probably stay here another day and maybe head out on a little tour of some of the other places tomorrow.

Unfortunately it appears my internet is too crap to upload photos to the blog.

Well, I went fishing last night. It's the first time I constructed the rod and wound up the reel. The rod is in 4 parts in a tube tied to the bike. The reel is the reel with the handle unwound. I undid one of my 2 lures and put it all together.

Remember the spiders that glow in my headlamp. Back at Burketown? Well, spiders here also shine like little LEDs. On the walk to the beach there were at least 400 spiders in the grass. That isn't an exaggeration. They were everywhere and it was awful. This headlamp shows every spider in front of me and it is the worst superpower ever. I went up to some of the shiny little dots and they were MASSIVE spiders. I tried to reproduce this shiny spider effect with my phone and torch and it seems to only work with my headlamp.

Anyway I went to the water and realised I was pretty much croc bait. It was so nice there but I was painfully aware that I may be eaten at any moment. Seriously. It was better than the horror spider show.

I cast out for my first time in maybe 30 years and got snagged straight away. I tried to break the line and got it loose. I reeled in so hard that the lure hit me in the face. I cast twice more and realised fishing is shit. Instead I sat and admired the view.

Yep, that is the view. 

 I wandered back through the spiders.

This morning I attempted more fishing. It still sucked and this time I really lost the lure. I'd expected this (part of the reason for the high tide fishing) and this afternoon I went down at low tide to find my lost lure.

I wanted it back as it is one of two that I have and I don't want to pay more money for a hobby that I feel is pretty much pokemon go for men that want to avoid their wives. I don't have a wife and am not that interested in collecting pokemon or fish species. I'm only in it for the food.

I searched for ages amongst the rocks right where I lost it and realised many many things in the sea look like a lure. I think I am the only creature to have ever chased that lure. But I didn't find it. I did find a lure shaped rock which is now my lucky lure/rock.

God I hate fishing.

Tonight I went to the club and more people convinced me that this is the place to work in the future. Not one mentioned fishing as a positive.

I'm getting back on the bike tomorrow and heading off. I went for a little ride today and it felt great.

That's all really.

Tl;Dr fishing sucks and I see spiders everywhere.

Nothing to see here

Not much to report today. I took the bike back to Matt up the road. We couldn't work out what the hoses were actually for that are leaking. They run to the carb, which surely doesn't need cooling. After some googling I found out that it is to heat the carb so it doesn't ice over. It is the middle of winter with overnight lows of 21 degrees so that isn't a concern. Bizarrely, it seems only the Australian model has this carb heating line, while the North American model that might actually need it, does not. So it is now blocked off. Hopefully that's it fixed.

The only other thing I did was clean my chain and go for a swim in this in ground rainwater tank they have here. With a heater and some jets it'd make a pretty nifty spa.

I'm going to go for a longer test ride tomorrow to make sure everything is alright then pack up so I can get away early Friday. From what I can see the national park camps in Litchfield fill up really early, like 11am early.

Tonight I think I'm going to finally test out this fishing rod, so I'll probably be eaten by a crocodile.

Wagait Beach to Darwin and back.

Today I went across on the ferry to Darwin. It's a 20 minute trip. To drive is about 120km.

While I was waiting for the ferry I was chatting to a nice old Aboriginal bloke. He was heading over to get his heart looked at. Some grey nomads came along and the lady mentioned how the ferry wharf has many multiple levels. I'd noticed that but thought it must be for different sized boats. When she mentioned they don't get big tides where she's from it clicked with me that's what it is for and I said "Oh of course".

She looked at me and went "ah derrrrr" in a deep dumb voice. I was a bit taken aback and then she did an even bigger one "ahhhh derrrrrrrrrrr". I didn't know this woman. She was in her late 60s (not 8). I was so confused that I just walked off. In hindsight I wish I had drowned her husband and made her watch.

I got off at the other end and while waiting for a bus, I heard a man say "Is that your natural hair colour?" I thought he probably wasn't talking to me so I ignored him. Seconds later an older lady with red hair came over to me in a huff asking if I knew the police number because she shouldn't have to put up with that. I told her the police number is 000. She didn't want that one, she wanted the station number so she could get them to take this guy away, she shouldn't have to put up with that blah blah blah. I googled it for her (even though she had her phone in her hand) and then she asked me for a pen and paper to write the number down, which I didn't have. She clearly had no intention of calling them because you'd type it straight into the phone. It was all a show for this highly offensive bloke, who I'll point out could not care less.

I missed my bus while this was going on. She wrote down the number on her phone case then rushed off to get the transit police, shouting back to me that I'm her witness. I agreed. If the transit police came down I was going to tell them that a man asked her if it was her natural hair colour and she decided to annoy me for 20 minutes because of it. She came back and said they were at lunch (seriously?)

She started going on about visiting America and her daughter and eventually I looked at her and said "so is it your natural hair colour?" in the hoped she'd rush off to call the police on me, but SHE ANSWERED. It isn't. Like I care. Thank God the bus came after 30 torturous minutes.

I went down to get a better mattress. I think that is why my kidneys have been hurting. It is already a huge improvement.

Afterwards I went to the Northern Territory  museum or something. It was really good. The highlight was this little dark room that was playing the audio from cyclone Tracey. Of the sound of the wind itself. It was actually terrifying. There was also a recorded interview with some of the people who lived through it. One lady said "I wasn't panicked or scared or anything, I just though we'd probably die". It hadn't occurred to me that all those houses that were destroyed had people in them.

I'll just post a bunch of pictures from there.

A monster sponge. Not that interesting, I just liked the name. 

Skeleton of a marsupial rhino and a giant goose, I think it was called. The giant goose is likely the biggest bird to have lived at 4m tall and 500kg.

Wedge tail eagle. Essentially Australia's version of the bald eagle. It looks badass unlike its pansy US counterpart. 

Blue winged kookaburra. I have seen many of these up here and previously didn't know they existed. 

Display of different smoking devices that I updated for them

Anyway, after the museum I came back over on the ferry. 

Some of the houses next to the ferry terminal. 

Darwin seems like a cool city. The CBD was like any other capital city CBD. Bustling and compact with also sorts of nooks and crannies to explore, but outside the CBD it was way more relaxed. Not much traffic and chaos. Nice parks. A bit like a Port Macquarie or a Coffs Harbour. For those that don't know those two towns they are lovely little coastal cities in NSW that happen to be occupied by the biggest bunch of figjam tossers on this earth, totally ruining both towns. I'm not implying that Darwinites are like that in any way. But Coffs, Port and Darwin and undeniably pretty and Darwin just might have nice people too. 

When I got back from the ferry I discovered my bike had leaked a lot of coolant again. So I'll have to try to get it fixed again tomorrow. Pretty frustrating but if it is leaking from where I think it should be an easy fix.

I've paid up for 2 more nights here. I don't think Darwin has much to offer a solo traveller so I probably won't go there again. Litchfield NP is looking like my next destination. 

Bumming around

Yesterday I got the bike fixed by a bloke a few doors up the road. He is an aircraft mechanic that fixes up bikes on the side. He discovered that the small water leak I had was the least of the troubles. A hose on the other side had a hole burned through and was gushing coolant. Most of it was gone. I reckon that it might've only gotten bad recently seeing as I've ridden a couple of thousand km with a leak. He fixed that up with a double layer of hose.

The other problem was the Petcock. The screen filter inside the tank was clear. The Petcock works on a vacuum from the carb. When the engine is going the vacuum opens a valve and fuel flows. He thinks it was probably a hole in the diaphragm that the vacuum sucks on. The internet said something similar, but I thought that would affect my main fuel intake as well as reserve. But I guess the different fuel lines have their own diaphragm, which makes sense.

Anyway, he had a gravity fed petcock there. It is essentially a tap. The main pick-up is much shorter than the old pick-up length, while the reserve stem is the same length. What that actually means is I should get significantly more km while the tap is switched to main, but the reserve will be way smaller (the reserve is actually the same tank, it just picks the fuel up from lower).

The gravity petcock means that if I leave it on when the bike isn't running the fuel will continue flowing to the carb until the float bowl is full. If the little stopper thing in the carb leaks it will keep filling until it flow out the overflow onto the ground. If the overflow fails the carb will fill up and fuel will leak into the engine and cause bike killing problems. All very unlikely but the point is I should try to remember to turn the tap off when I finish riding.

I didn't bother getting the speedo fixed...

He charged me $100. That's cheap.

I also need to get the bike serviced or at least change the oil and clean my air filter myself. Plus the chain needs cleaning and oiling. I haven't cleaned it since I left. That I'll definitely do myself today. I'm thinking I'll see if I can get to Broome on these tyres. By Broome I'll be past all the major dirt (which hasn't been much really) and can get more street oriented tyres.


After the bike was fixed I went down to the club. There was a band playing and they were very good.

The locals chewed my ear off for ages. One of the old boys asked if I know anyone with the last name Sprat around Kempsey. Apparently his grandfather (or great grandfather) came to Australia in 1880 with his 2 brothers. One of the brothers went to Fremantle, one to Kempsey and one to Bathurst. He is descended from the Fremantle one.

I mentioned that I quite like Wagait Beach (even though I haven't actually been down to the beach yet). I shouldn't have said that because one of them jumped on the phone and got me a job at the local school, another one tried to sell me a house and a third has organised for me to go on a charity ride in September. If I'm here next weekend I'm also going fishing on another blokes boat and for a ride with Jenny's husband! Jenny also works for the teacher registration board.

I can honestly say, my plan to work in Western NSW next year is dead. I will absolutely work up here before I go out there.

When the club shut we came back here. The band was staying here and Jenny's husband (I really should remember his name) invited me up to the house to have dinner with them, which was nice of him.

This morning I shifted my tent to the front yard so they could fit another van in. It will be full here when that van arrives. While it was empty I'd been sleeping in this granny flat that acts as the amenities and kitchen. Now the place is full I'll return to my tent.

I'm paid up here until tomorrow. I just need to decide where to next. I could easily stay here longer. I haven't been in to Darwin yet. Holidays are over so it's probably safe to venture back down to the national parks. I'd also like to go to Arnhem Land.

Wagait Beach

I did nothing yesterday and not much more today.

I did go and have a look at the wreckage of a B24 bomber named Milady. It is just up the road and out in the bush.

That's the tail. 

That's the wing. 

Dunno what that bit is. I think the internal cooling or something. 

They were out on a bombing practice run when it crashed. Nobody know why they crashed but the sign reckons they either dropped the bombs too low and it damaged the wing and they crashed trying to return to Darwin. The other theory is that they were buzzing the coast on the way back and stuffed it up massively. Six blokes died.

I forgot to mention that right through the Northern Territory I have been going past signs for WW2 historical sites. Heaps of them. Way down in the centre of Australia. One sign even said "The Territory's front line in WW2" and was about 1000km south of Darwin (which actually got bombed, but I guess must've been behind enemy lines?). Who knew that while Europe was being ripped to shreds and Japan was tearing through East Asia and the Pacific that the real hotbed of action was actually in central Australia. No disrespect to the soldiers who lived, worked and trained out there but I didn't stop.

I also went for a look at the jetty. You can see Darwin across the water. I didn't take my good camera so you might have to imagine a city in the distance.

Not much else going on. I've washed clothes, am charging batteries and have been trying to get hold of the mechanic. Was going to do my tax but the website is down again.

Here is the local pooch living his best life.

Katherine to Wagait Beach

I'm at Wagait Beach. Rode up today. The road was loaded with vans heading too and fro. I came up the Stuart hwy alongside burning forests. I think they were out but still a lot of smoke.

I turned off to come here and after the final turn to Berry Springs I was the only person on the road. I finally found oil. I didn't include it in my previous post but all these outback roadhouses only had weird oil in 1 litre quantities. Two stroke oil and diesel oil. In case someone wants to mow the desert or needs a litre of oil for their road train.

The bike burns oil massively if I hold it above 5000rpm, which equates to 110km/h in top gear. I told you, it ain't a fast bike. So I had to stick to 110 along those long stretches to conserve oil. Pretty crazy to be riding to oil requirements, but also standard for every vehicle I've owned. I once had a Corolla that I put oil in every time I filled up.

I got to Wagait Beach and the camping area is someone's yard. I rolled in and this dude came out called Phil. He told me it'd be cool to stay, but he's only a guest too. I rang the lady who runs the place but she was at work and didn't answer. Phil and I sat and drank for a while and he has told me about Arnhem Land, where he has just returned from. It's was out of range for me but I'd like to find a way to visit.

As a kid I loved the Bushtucker man, Les Hiddins, and he was always cruising around Arnhem land. Phil said it was like Australia 20,000 years ago. I've got time to think about it but I'd like for this trip to be about more than chickening out of stuff and Arnhem Land sounds amazing. It's about 750km down a dirt road with a petrol station halfway there. I'd also need a permit to go. Hopefully there is a way. I'd probably need a bigger Jerry can. 

Tonight we went to the local club. This place is tiny, and everything matches that. The club is all outdoors for the patrons. The bar is a small window in a building. The locals were super friendly. One of them offered me a spare petcock. That's the fuel tap on my bike, not a friendly greeting (I hope).

A big load of people came over from Darwin on the Ferry for dinner. Apparently that's something they're trying to get going to keep the club running (this place is really small and shouldn't really even have a club). The kitchen couldn't handle the influx. I know this because the cook was drinking with us and told us! He was really struggling, between puffs of his cigarette.

I really like this place. I told Jenny I'd stay 4 nights and gave her $50. It's $10 a night so I guess I'm staying five nights because she didn't offer any change. They're really friendly and relaxed. I'll take some photos tomorrow.

This is the sunset immediately after the last blog post. I could see the light changing as I wrote. Old people came past to tell me it was a nice sunset because I was facing the wrong way. 

Back in civilisation (well, Katherine)

Back in civilisation, if that is what you can call Katherine.

I wrote blog posts each day but couldn't upload, so I might just summarise the last few days.

It was really windy. Blowing road signs out of the ground windy. In the mornings that wind was freezing.

After Barkley Homestead the camps all looked dusty and crap, so I went and found my own dusty patch of dirt that I didn't have to pay for. It was at a place called Lake Woods. I don't know if that means it was a forest named Lake or a Lake named Woods. I suspect it was probably a forest although it shows up blue on the map.


At one point I hit a bird:

When I left Renner Springs I had my first bird strike. Thankfully it wasn't an eagle and it hit the bike, not me. These birds were about to get cleaned up by an oncoming campervan, one turned back straight into me. It hit behind the front wheel somewhere and exploded. Feathers shot up from beneath the handlebars into my face. A lot of feathers. I instinctively tried to blow them away from my face but of course I had a helmet on. It must've been hilarious for the people in the vans that saw it.

It continued being windy.

I went to Larrimah. There is a podcast about it:

I stopped at Larrimah. I saw the Pink Panther Pub and the Devonshire Tea House. The podcast is about a bloke called Paddy who mysteriously disappeared from Larrimah one day. Everyone suspects murder. The town is so small that it is a bit like a game of Cluedo. I think there are only a dozen or so permanent residents and they all have their suspicions. Also, they are all weirdos. It is well worth a listen, but I must warn you, they don't uncover who did it.

Then I went to Mataranka. There are thermal springs there:

Apparently all the places I've been riding since Lawn Hill sit on limestone. Around here it becomes basalt and the aquifer fills up in the limestone and bubbles up here when it can't get through the basalt.

The water was about body temperature and crystal clear with a tinge of blue. So I guess not crystal clear. It was really nice. You get in the water floating on a pool noodle and a gentle current takes you a couple of hundred metres downstream through the bush. It takes maybe 20 minutes to float down. Then you get out and walk back. Getting out is cold which makes it hard not to get back in for one more lap. I did three laps this morning and 7 this afternoon. The spot where everyone gets out is great if you find humour in the struggles of the larger person or want to practise holding in laughter (can someone tell me if that is the correct practice/practise).

Today I came to Katherine. I have 10 litres of sniffable petrol with me so I expect by tomorrow I'll either be killed or rich. It is packed with tourists here so tomorrow I'm heading up to a quiet little beach across the bay from Darwin to hide out until the holidays are over.

Mango on his Harley back in Normanton. 

Ant hills on the road from Normanton to Burketown. 

Panorama out in the middle of nowhere. 

The creek where I camped near Burketown. 

My photo of the moon I took at that camp. 

Where I ran out of petrol. The town is in the distance. 

Pano from up a hill at the fossil site Riverslea. 

My new wallaby friend that came up to me last night. 

Alright, I'm going to call that all caught up. When I left Cooktown I wasn't really expecting to head straight into the outback. That was this long ago!

I'm pretty knackered actually.

Camooweal to Barkley Homestead

Well I made it to the Northern Territory. The ride today wasn't much fun. About 270km in a shocking crosswind. It was really hard work. Even the road trains were going slow. The speed limit is 130 but I didn't really go above 95 except for a short section where I had a tailwind.

I ran out of petrol again. This time 2km from Barkley Homestead. I assume there is an actual homestead here somewhere. It appears to be a big giant petrol station.

A kiwi bloke came up to me when I arrived to get a photo of the bike. His brother has an '88 Klr650. He was amazed at how little it has changed in 30 years.

I haven't had anymore water leaks so hopefully all is well.

I'll try to upload some photos while I have (shitty) wifi.

Lawn Hill Gorge

The Grove 

I've got a few more to post but the wifi seems to have shat itself. Tomorrow I should get to the Stuart Hwy. 

First things first, why is this shit taking so long to load? I used to watch netflix on 3g but now it's become third world.

Today I got up at 5:30 to pack up early. After the ride in yesterday I needed to prepare. A lovely neighbour came past that early and invited me to breakfast. I should mention that at that time it was very very dark. I know this because I walked down to the water, 50 metres away, and on the way back I got lost. Badly. I honestly could've been wandering the place for hours. I happen to turn around and my bike reflected so well that I found my way back from 100s of metres away. The Grove is huge!

I went to lawn Hill gorge and it was exactly as nice as you'd think. I paddled through and thought it was the actual Australia. The one we sell to the world. It just looked so good. No dickheads around. Just real and very unique beauty.

Then something hit the water hard. I paddled to the other side of the river and a couple of rocks landed a few feet around. As I got to the other side I could see a man above, at the top of the gorge throwing rocks at me. He was probably in his 50s and he waved vigorously when I got to a point where I could see him. I hope he dies soon.

I

Anyway I went back to Adels for petrol and met the Dutch girls from Cooktown. They let me in front to get some fuel and I set off on what I thought would be the worst 6 hours of my. It turns out it was only 5 hours. It was 1 1/2 to Rivers Leigh on a road that was way, way, way better Ryan yesterday. At rivers Leigh there were fossils from ancient mammals. The coolest thing was that they were right there in the rock where they died. Not a museum. Giant weird crocodiles and massive cassowaries. 300kg things.

After the fossils, the dirt was good. I fanged it hard on that good dirt. Proper hard too like a person who knows what they're doing. It was still ages of dirt. I ran out of petrol 700 metres away. I had to get the jerry can off the back, which means untying everything. I opened the tank and there were litres in there but my. Tank was out. I need to fix that. If I'm 8n real trouble I'll know that I have petrol  to drink at least.

I'm going to bed now. Sorry about no photos,

Normanton to Burketown to Gregory to Lawn hill

After a great night with the Victorian sheep farmers we all packed up and left today. I have added a 10 litre jerry can to my load. Slowly running out of space for me. Packing took longer while I figured out where to put it.

I left down the road to Burkeville. It was a fairly good road. About 120km of it was dirt but not many rough sections. I didn't even air down my tyres. The back has 36psi and the front 32. I sat on about 70km/h along the dirt.

A huntsman spider came out of the bike at some point and crawled along the inside of the windshield. I had flashbacks to Thailand years ago when I was set upon by a spider while riding a scooter. I pulled over to surrender the bike to the huntsman but he disappeared. A car behind me pulled up to see if everything was OK. I told them everything was fine because I was embarrassed.

A bit further along I came across a cyclist. He was heading for Normanton, about 70km out. My odo still doesn't work, so he told me that. I offered him some water but someone had already topped him up.

I couldn't find the falls at Leichardt Falls. The river was very low so they might not exist, or they may have been down one of the sandy tracks. The crossing required riding down through a cutting in the bank, through some wet sand and onto a concrete bridge that basically sits on the river bed. I pulled off onto the river bed and was going to have a chat to a man sitting by the channel of the river that still had water. As I approached he started aggressively talking to himself so I figured he had all the company he needed and left.

After the falls the road was bitumen. Riding through the Savannah was really cool. It was very flat and open with dry grass on either side. Some sections had been burnt, which I made a mental note of if I ever camp in it.

I arrived at Burketown and there was a hot spring on the left. It was bubbling out of the ground and was genuinely very hot. Scalding hot I'd guess.

I went to get fuel and asked the lady at the servo about camping. She talked to me like I'm an idiot, like people for the past week have done. She told me after what happened at Adel's Grove last night everywhere was full. I asked what happened at Adel's Grove and she slowly said "It... Burnt... Down?". Like I was stupid for not knowing.

I continued being polite to the dumpy little toothless hag and she told me they've been told not to send people to Adels Grove. I'm going there tomorrow so I'll tell them a witch-like lady that runs the servo in Burketown is sending everyone down here as a mild form of revenge for her rudeness. Like she has the power to send anyone anywhere. Witches don't have a potion for that.

I went to the information centre in the hope of finding someone with some teeth but I guess they didn't have any, because it was shut. So I continued towards Adel's Grove about 30km and am camped in the bushes next to a creek. So far nobody else is here and I think it will stay that way. It is really nice and peaceful. I don't think there are crocodiles.

I've just cooked dinner, which is actually the first thing I had today. My head hurts now so I'll probably go drink a lot of water.

...

So after drinking lots of water last night I lit a fire and enjoyed the serenity. Nobody else came so I had the place to myself. I took a cracking photo of the moon but my internet is really bad so I can't upload photos. I'm amazed I have internet at all.

While pottering around getting wood last night I noticed a couple of weird little lights. Something was reflecting my headlamp. Tiny little dots of light in the grass. It reminded me of the glowing eyes in the bushes around a camp fire from cartoons, except these were on the ground and small.

I went to investigate and discovered they were spiders. They were about the size of a bottle cap and lived in little holes in the ground. The little front part of their body/heads reflected. I guess where their eyes are, although I have been led to believe they have 8 eyes and it was only one glowing dot for each spider.

I did a 360 on my dirt patch and counted 19 spiders in the grass. Some of them would flicker as they popped in and out of their holes. I spent the rest of the night monitoring their location.

This morning I rode down to Gregory. It was more flat savannah but today it was blowing a gale. Made for a crap ride.

There was a lot of road kill with a heap of birds eating it. At one point I came across a cow in the middle of the road. It didn't have any birds around it so I didn't blast my horn like I usually do to scare the birds away. As I got right up next to it an eagle launched up from the other side of the cow where I couldn't see it. I ducked behind my windshield, sure I was going to hit it, but it somehow did a t-1000 manoeuvre (terminator reference, mum. Google) and suddenly was flying the other direction. That was probably my closest call yet.

I got to Gregory. It's another dusty outback shit hole with relatively unfriendly locals. I got some fuel and left for Adels Grove. The road was atrocious. The first 60km or so had at some point been tarred but was totally destroyed. There were a few sections where it still had a smattering of broken tar that made the surface even worse. The corrugations were horrendous. I had to slow to walking speed for some of them. How the bike didn't break I don't know.

There was a drain on either side of the road so I rode in that as much as I could, but it turned to deep sand and it was pretty hairy getting out of it a couple of times.

After the turn off to the mine, the last 20km of road improved but not by much. The drain improved a lot so I stuck with that for a good long section. The fuel can rattled off. Luckily I looped the rope through the handle. I put it back on twice but ended up just riding with it hanging off the side of the bike.

I stopped for a break and discovered a new water leak on the bike. It was dried, and there wasn't much water. It appears to be coming from the engine case. It looks cracked, to be frank, which means the bike might not be long for this world. I'm hoping that the leak has just dried crusty (the bit I can touch was crusty) and the crack is actually a crack in the crust. The good news is my sikaflex held on the other leak.

Anyway I got to Adels Grove and it did indeed burn down. I felt a bit bad riding in with a fuel can hanging off the side of the bike. Pretty much all the buildings are now smouldering rubble heaps with a load of police sitting around. It is all a crime scene. Luckily the grove itself didn't burn down. That's where I'm camped now.

Apparently they had 500 people staying here and nobody was hurt. The buildings that burned back onto the grove so it's really lucky it didn't catch fire. The petrol bowsers are right next to it too.

The grove is really nice. The trees make a thick canopy so it is nice and shady. There is a deep creek flowing through it where I swam this afternoon. Caravans and tents are dotted amongst the trees. It is the nicest place I've camped this trip I think.

Unfortunately there is no food or drinking water here. I assumed if they had reopened for camping they'd at least have water. I only really have enough food for tonight and tomorrow so I'm going to see the gorge tomorrow morning and then I'll have to go down that bloody road again. I've spent tonight boiling the water they do have. It did not look good.

Anyway, because the bike I probably going to break I'm not heading back north. The road is too remote if I break down. I don't know whether to loop back around on the tar to Mount Isa and then back West, or take a 100+km dirt road straight down from Gregory. I'm leaning toward the dirt as it cuts off so much distance, but Mt Isa will have a bike shop. Tomorrow I'll probably camp in Gregory.

If I go to Mt Isa I'll have internet, otherwise I won't for quite some time.

I'm staying here another day and then heading to Burketown on the dirt. Technically the dirt is actually still hwy 1. I will take it slow so it is possible that I'll take 2 days to get there, even though it isn't that far. I may stay at Leichardt Falls.

Then I'm going to head from Burketown down to Adels Grove/Lawn Hill. That road was described to me as the worst these people had ever been on. Then I'll probably have to go down to Mount Isa and across the border from there. If I can get a fuel container I might be able to go back up to Burketown and over to Booroloola. It is much shorter but takes about as long as the Mt Isa way and is a distance at the edge of my rang without fuel.

My purpose for writing all this was because I was likely to be off the internet for ages. So I drew on a map and realise that there is internet at Lawn Hill. So I guess I'll do an update from there.

Red is through Mount Isa, Blue is the top way. There is a big internetless gap after either lawn Hill or Mount Isa. 

Normanton

Not much going on today. Went and got some groceries and stayed around camp. There is a nice group of sheep farmers from Swan Hill camped across from us that I've been hanging out with. Mango took a ride in the helicopter today. This caravan park has a helicopter. A little 3 seater. It goes 220 knots!

We were just sitting over with the Swan Hill gang and Mango was telling us how he sometimes works as a lyric doctor for Faith Hill and Garth Brooks. Basically if they get stuck on a song lyric Mango is tasked with providing every possible lyric that could go in that song. He said usually all that does is eliminate possibilities and the artist usually uses their own, but he gets paid well for the service.

After he'd finished that story, one of these rugged sheep farmers desperately wanted to tell a story which sounded like it was related. He started telling us about how his son is now his daughter. The son was a big, tall sheep shearer and after this bloke's wife died the son sent a letter saying he couldn't be part of the family anymore because he was actually a lady.

The dad said he read it and reread it trying to figure out what the joke was and realised it was for real. He decided to ring his son/daughter to sort it out. He read up about it all and he accepted his daughter for who she was and eventually paid for gender reassignment surgery.

Everyone was totally absorbed in what he was saying. It was a very raw and moving admission. Something he clearly felt he needed to share and that we were worthy of sharing with.

I listened along but the entire time I couldn't help thinking "What does this have to do with being a lyric doctor for Faith Hill?"

Turns out, nothing.

Lava tube, Mt Surprise, Normanton

Again, I was without internet. So the tenses are going to be a it all over the place. 

First some pictures. 

Dinner at the rest area back near Ravenshoe. 

The bit that broke off my speedo cable. 

A leaf with eyes. 

Well, the Undara lava tubes were amazing. I did not expect that. I thought it was a family exploiting some glorified caves they found on their property. Turns out they kept the tubes secret for years and when word got out about them and people started illegally visiting, they developed the site in order to protect it and sold over half their property to fund it. Which I'd say has probably worked out well for them financially.

The tubes were formed when Undara volcano erupted. It spewed out 1000 cubic metres of lava per second. That's a blob 10 metres wide, long and high every second (sorry to mansplain but I do think some of you are stupid). Some of the lava created a regular above ground lava flow until it hit the Esley River, where it continued along the river bed for 100km. That means it flowed for 167km, making it the longest known lava flow from a single eruption.

This is an aerial view. You can see a bunch of craters. There is a green broken line from the Undara cave to Stephenson cave. That is a single lava tube. The green bits are where it has collapsed. 

Some of the lava found its way into an underground river and followed it.The lava on the outside touching the earth solidified quickly while the rest continued to flow through leaving behind these amazing rock tubes. The entire thing is underground, but the roof has caved in at around 300 different spots. Where these collapses occur is where you can access some of the tubes. Most of the collapses completely cover the tube entrances but there have been 69 found. 

These collapses create something almost as incredible. Inside the gorges these collapses create, rainforests spring up. Technically they are vine thickets, but they looked like rainforest to me. Little patches about 100 metres across for as far as the collapse goes, in amongst dry Eucalypt savannah. Little wallabies thrive in these forests and at night they sneak out and eat the grass on the edge, creating a natural fire break.

Wtf is this tree doing here? 

When we arrived at the archway, which is a section where both ends had collapsed, my eyes had trouble focusing. The rock is mottled brown, red, white and pink. The brown is just rock, the white is calcium, the pink is magnesium and the red is iron oxide. It creates the effect of shadows so at first I couldn't really make out what I was seeing.

The archway

We went through down into a lava tube until we got to the end, where a calcium deposit had formed on the wall that looked like the Bundy bear. Although the tube hit a dead end, the lava had actually flowed off a waterfall in this underground river! The tube continued down but has filled up with soil.

Looking back to the entrance. 

Can you see the Bundy bear face (a polar bear for the non-Australians/non-alcoholics) 

We went back to the other end of the collapse to visit the largest (in diameter) tube that has been found. It was found by the stations drunk helicopter pilot who was flying over and saw a dark patch so he landed his helicopter and went searching with a cigarette lighter as his source of light. It was named after him (Tully's Lava Tube) but then the station had a new manager who renamed it after himself. So it is Stephenson's Lava Tube now.

At the end eucalyptus roots had penetrated the roof of the cave and were hanging down. Eventually they will fracture the rock and cause another collapse, and another rainforest will grow.

Roots hanging from the roof. 

The entire place was amazing. David Attenborough visited and said it should be the 8th wonder. I think he's dished out about a dozen 8th wonders (fairly sure the Daintree was another one). I expected so little from it but it is the best natural site I've seen.

After the tour wrapped up I went to the crater nearby. It wasn't the volcano that created the tubes. I walked to the top and it kind of just looked like I'd walked up a hill. There were a lot of trees so I could just make out the other side. I flew the drone up (despite a warning saying I'm too close to an airport...) and it looked far more crater like from the sky.

Now I'm at Mt Surprise. I think the surprise is that there is no mountain. It is flat as. There were about 30 eagles/hawks/falcons/kites drifting around the camp. I watched some smaller birds fly up to attack them. The big birds weren't even bovvered.

The camp here is surprisingly nice. There is a big possibility that I'll stay tomorrow night as well

Yep, I'm staying tonight. I met some nice older campers when I went to scab some electricity off them last night. I sat with them for a while.

Today I did very little. Mapped out petrol stations on maps.me. If it is accurate i will only need petrol at a couple of places. The problem is some of the petrol stations only sell diesel.

Well, NOW I'm at Normanton. I rode across today. 400km. Not much of interest happened, except I saw these massive brolgas. They're like a metre tall at least. 

I'm camped in Normanton and a bloke from Newcastle named Mango arrived and has camped with me. He's a fairly interesting character. A musician and a writer amongst other things. He's riding a Harley. He is supposed to be writing an article for a British magazine about 3 poms in their 70s riding around Australia. Except they all pulled out so he is doing the trip himself with no subject to write about! 

The problem for him is the accomodation had been booked, so he has had to honour that. It cost him $200 a night for 4 rooms across the Nullarbor, and there was only one of him. I would've slept a quarter of the night in each room. I think that is the only section he had to cover. 

He also showed me a little mini doco the abc made about him and his music. He has done pretty well with it. Really interesting bloke. 

Now I'm laying here listening to a couple have a prolonged swearing match. 

I think I'll go from here to Burketown. It is 130km of dirt. When I pulled up today I noticed water on my boot. I had previously noticed it in Cooktown. Apparently when my bike gets hot, a little squirt of water comes from this tube between the radiator and the engine. It's like a pinhole develops. Not much water. The weird thing is, when it cools down it isn't leaking. What I'm saying is, I have a water leak. I think I'll see if I can sikoflex it closed and continue on. It has come from at least Cooktown to here with that leak. That's 1000km or so. She'll be right. 

Undara

Well, I'm quite a distance from the tip of Australia!

Yesterday I headed for Lakeland about 100km out of Cooktown, where the turn off to the peninsula development road to the tip is. I was still undecided on whether I wanted to go. I decided that if I find a tyre place at Lakeland that has spare tubes I will go.

It was like how they (strangers on facebook) say that if you can't make a decision you toss a coin and whatever you're hoping for while the coin is in the air is your decision. I found myself hoping there was no tyre place and just like that I realised I don't really want to ride all the way to the tip. So I haven't. 

Lakeland was only small but it did have a cluster of mechanics and auto spares shops, but I don't know if they'd have motorbike tubes. I met a man at the servo who had just come back and he said in the last 3 days the road has been destroyed and it is super busy (school holidays) and he had a horrible time getting back. The dust on his van was about 2mm thick. That validated my decision a bit. 

I spent last night at Archer Creek Rest Area, which is a free camp. There were a lot of vans there. Probably 30 or 40. There used to be a bottom section further away from the road but a sign informed me it is closed off for environmental reasons. There were teenagers down there last night having a party. Kind of strange to head to a rest area for a party. I guess that's what you do when there are no beaches nearby. This morning they had destroyed the toilets. My neighbour suggested their arses must be on the back of their necks. 

Just before I camped yesterday my speedo/odometer stopped working. That is a real bugger as my odometer doubles as my fuel gauge. This morning I stopped in at a diesel mechanic and he quickly had a look. The cable had snapped at the hub on the wheel. It shouldn't be hard to fix when I get to a decent sized town, which I'm thinking might be Katherine. 

On the ride this morning I saw a sign to Undara lava tubes so I came here and am camped. They've built up a kind of bush resort here. There is a big huge open shelter with old train carriages around it that house the bar, bistro and some tables. I feel like I should've tapped my oyster card to get in. The vibe is very train stationish. 

They have glamping tents, cabins, powered caravan sites, unpowered van sites, powered tent sites and the lowest of the low - unpowered tent sites. And they are horrid. Rock hard, no grass (which is fair enough, it's pretty dry here), dusty. Probably the worst spot I've pitched my tent so far, and at Bingil Bay I was camped in a driveway, so that's saying something. 

I am doing a tour tomorrow morning. It costs $60. Ain't nothing free in this country. There is also a crater here. It's free. I'll probably pack up, do the tour, go to the crater then head somewhere else tomorrow. It really is spectacular landscape and I think I could spend longer here but I'm getting keen to hit the NT. 

WiFi here is terrible so I can't upload any photos. Mobile coverage is sketchy for the next 700km or so too. 

Cooktown caravan park

I spent today researching the road to the tip and charging batteries. I didn't find much out and my batteries didn't charge quickly. I think they have dodgy electricity here. I went and bought an epirb, which was more expensive than I thought - $350. It might save my life but without that $350 would it be worth living? I also bought hooks and lures and sinkers and bait. All decked out for waterside bush standing.

When I got back the lady from across the road next to the dangerous bushes was leaving. She pulled out onto the road and forgot her thongs so she got out and went to grab them. The guy camped next to me, whose name is "retired police officer", which is how he introduced himself (without saying his name), jumped in his penis extender to leave but it was blocked by the lady, who was attempting to get back into her car.

Instead of waiting this idiot tried to go around. The lady was forced against the car and he ran right over my corner peg on my tent. He stopped for about a second to ask if he got my tent. I told him he just hit the peg. He said he'd get me another peg and I called him an impatient dickhead and he sped off. Yesterday he hit the tree across the road trying to reverse his van in at warp speed. Useless prick. He didn't get me a new peg either.

From tomorrow I will be off line for a week or 2, unless I go to Weipa. Rest assured I have my $350 lifeline so if you dont hear from me for more than a few weeks don't send out the search parties. I can do that myself and if I haven't I'm probably inside a crocodile.

Here's some gifs of my first river crossing.