Cape Range NP

I headed back south from Onslow. My mp3 player decided to pack in in the day after I got my replacement headphones. I'm shocked at how much stuff is breaking.

I stopped at a petrol station to plug my phone in instead and of course the first highway patrol car I've seen in WA was there. I'm not sure if the rules about phones are as strict here. I think I'm just not allowed to touch it while riding, but can still listen to music. Anyway, the police were having lunch so I just did it.

That's the most interesting thing that happened today. I actually almost fell asleep while riding, which I didn't think was possible.

I'm staying at a sheep station on the way to Exmouth. It's very peaceful and quiet. I should get to Exmouth tomorrow and I reckon I'll stay there for a while.

In nz this is called a brothel... 

...

I'm at Yardi homestead. It is a caravan park. Not even a hint of a homestead here. It's very nice and relatively cheap. The west coast is super expensive. Even the national park camps are $11, not that you can ever stay in them thanks to the stupid booking system. I'm camped on grass here.

The ride here was windy. The bike seems to handle the cross winds better without the windshield. This place is about 40km outside Exmouth. I came here and set up, then rode back to Exmouth for supplies. Exmouth seems pretty nice. A decent sized town on the coast. Still dusty as. On the way in I passed some new canal estates. I can't help but think they're going to end up as mud estates.

The clouds are currently building. I think it's going to rain! That'll be the first rain since the Daintree. And just now a man has yelled at his toddler son for touching my motorbike.
"NEVER TOUCH ANOTHER PERSON'S MOTORBIKE"
I didn't even know (or care). What a top dad!
...

Today I rode down to Turquoise Bay. I believe this might be the WA coast people talk about so fondly. It is beautiful. The beach is anyway. Off the beach it isn't so pleasant.

I lazed around on the beach and went snorkelling. The coral reef begins a few metres from the beach and extends out a couple of hundred metres. The coral wasn't particularly colourful but it wasn't dead. The fish were plentiful, varied and pretty. I tried swimming out towards the outside edge of the reef. I was hoping to find a reef shark.

Instead I found a sea snake more than a metre long swimming straight for me. It was banded black and yellow and it swam like a normal snakes crawls. It was a lot of movement coming for me. I near shit myself. I swam away pretty bloody quickly and kept looking back to see if it was following me. That concluded the days snorkelling.

Tomorrow I'll try a different beach.

See the ultralight? 

...

Just in Exmouth getting supplies. Went snorkeling again today. Going to stay here a few more days.

Onslow

Onslow isn't that bad a little town. Pretty quiet. Yesterday I got up for the sunrise. It rises over the sea here which is a novelty for the west coast. A short walk from the caravan park is the Anzac memorial. They built a big rising sun so you can go take this photo.

Such a cool memorial. 

I decided to stay here another day even though it is by far the most expensive place I've stayed. I'm really tired. I fell asleep in my lounge in the middle of the day yesterday. I'm heading out today though.

I collected my replacement headphones from the post office and sent my windscreen home. The wind really picked up last night so it'll be a test of how it goes without a windscreen.

I'm about to pack up and I'll make my way towards Exmouth. It is really difficult finding cheap camps in the next section of coast. The national parks are always booked out and the caravan parks are super expensive. Stations seem to be the best option. I'm going to slow right down and stay places for a few days in the hope that summer catches up. I can feel a slight winter chill in the air.

Karijini

Another massive one unfortunately. Turns out the shit internet on the east coast is the best Australia can hope for.
...

I got away today. It was still pretty windy when I packed up but it died down around midday.

It was more straight boring road. Most of Australia is really, really flat and boring.

The only thing of interest was Port Hedland. I don't know if I went into Port Hedland. It's hard to tell. There were loaders and conveyor belts everywhere. Some close, some way off in the distance. There was also the occasional spattering of shops. Sort of industrial shops like truck hire and Ken's roofing. In between all that there was miles of flat red dirt.

I heard ages ago that giraffes were thought of for years as solitary animals, but they studied them and discovered that because they are so tall, they can see each other from miles away, so they are actually in these herds that are just massively spread out. If that is true, then it was definitely a giraffe that designed Port Hedland. It is spread out but still somehow connected.

However, I don't know if I actually went into the town. I certainly didn't see any houses or giraffes.

I'm now at Indee station. It is an actual real station. They are mustering the cattle at the moment. I came in on a well maintained but sandy track and nearly came off a couple of times. When I got here I realised I didn't have any cash. I only needed $12.50 so have spent the last half hour pulling everything out of my bags and going through every pocket for loose change. I have managed to pull together $13.60. I didn't realise this was a real eftposless station. I thought it was like El Questro Station, which has more eftpos machines than cows.
...

Had a dull night last night. Went to happy hour and watched this poor little girl be harassed by one of the station staff. The station lady desperately wanted this little girl to go look at the camel. Kudos to this little girl for not giving in. Kudos to her for distracting the station lady as well.

Until that family arrived I was getting the most detailed description of where the camp kitchen was. I was having muesli bars for dinner so really didn't need to know where it was in relation to every other thing on earth.

Today felt long but I only came 277km. It was windy again and there were a huge amount of road trains. Apparently they have to maintain a 3km gap so there was one every 3km. The oncoming ones are fine but overtaking them when it is windy is scary. When you get in front of them the wind kicks back in.

I got out to Karijini. It's pretty spectacular landscape. Both camp grounds here are full. It is online booking only which is useful when the nearest internet is 400km away. Optus reckons the park has full coverage. There is wifi at the visitors centre so I went there and thought I may as well go in and see if they can squeeze me into one of these full campsites. The lady said yes straight away. She hates the online booking too and reckons she'll probably get in trouble for going around the online booking system. I'm in the overflow camp ground and I'd say it is about 1/5 full. Absolutely ridiculous.

Really rammed in at the camp ground. 

Nice road through the canyon. 

May have parked where the trucks park. 

I'm here for two nights then off towards Tom Price.
...

This morning I got up reasonably early and went over to Dale's Gorge. The main camp ground over there was virtually empty too. I walked down to Fortescue Falls. It is a waterfall like the others. I then walked up along the stream at the top of the Falls and found the fern pool. It apparently has spiritual significance to the traditional custodians of this land. Rio Tinto being the current custodians.

Looking down Dale's bloody big gorge. 

Fortescue Falls

Fern Pool

The information centre tells me that when walking to the fern pool the elders would go first and sing to the water. Then upon arriving at the pool they would greet the water by taking a mouthful and spraying into the air. Essentially it is the whale joke.

I went for a swim and the water wasn't too bad. The waterfall above was a few degrees warmer so it was like having a shower. I think. I barely remember what a shower is like.

I then walked through the gorge to the other end. At that end was the circular pool. It is a pool that is in the shape of a circle. To be fair most of them have been circles.

This is actually a 360 degree photo that for some reason my phone cropped about 300 degrees off. 

A heap of people were sitting around egging each other on to get in, but nobody was swimming because it was too cold. I figured they are wusses as I'd already been in up the other end and it wasn't bad. So I jumped in and I can confirm it was really bloody cold. It was definitely worth the cold though. As I got out my nipples scraped two lines into a rock I brushed up against.


The walk to the top of the gorge at that end was a steep goat trail. It was a real scramble and I was totally stuffed at the top. The family from Indee station was there, minus the little girl who wouldn't pat the camel. I assume she was murdered by that lady at the station, but at least she died without patting that camel.

By the time I'd done all that it was only just after 11. I went to the info centre and asked how the dirt track to the other sections are. The ranger said it was a bit rough but not too bad so I rode out to Kalinga Gorge (or something like that).

 That gorge was nicer except the water was a bit shallow for swimming. The bottom of the gorge is flat rock which makes it seem a bit like a giant natural storm water drain, which it pretty much is. I got as far as I could without walking in the water and headed back to this dusty camp.

On my way my windscreen fell off. I guess a few too many bolts had rattled loose. I pulled up and collected it. I don't think I'll put it back on. I did a test on the bitumen and the clean air hitting me is better than the air off the windscreen was. I'll see if that holds up at 110km/h. The bike does look odd without it.

When I pulled up I also discovered my right rear blinker was hanging by the wires. So I've got some work to do I guess. The work being to find the duct tape I've misplaced.

...

I am buggered. I got up bright and early because that is something I do now. Last night I borrowed the best roll of duct tape ever and taped my blinker back up. I also covered the gaping hole behind the instrument panel that used to be covered by the windshield.

Setting off the lack of windshield took some getting used to. I can feel the wind pushing on my chest and up around 110 the wind noise gets about as bad as with a windshield. No buffeting is fantastic though so I'm leaning towards leaving it off.

I went around to Weano gorge. It isn't that far in a straight line from where I was camped but was about 80km on the bitumen and then 13km of really rough dirt.

The gorge was less impressive than all the others except for one short section. There was essentially a crack in the end of the gorge about a metre wide that continued in and then opened up into a glorious pool. It was quite surreal. Hard to believe it was naturally occurring. It was like it belonged at a fun park.

The pool was called the handrail pool because there was a handrail to climb down. When I got there I was the only person there. I went for a swim over to the crack at the other end and the gorge continues on. That is the part where you spider walk above the water with one foot on each wall of the gorge. It didn't look to go too far so I didn't bother, especially in bare feet.

There was another walk I would've liked to do but I'd run out of water and didn't want to die so I left.

Half the bitumen stained with red dirt over a km from where the red dirt ended. 

A big hill. 

I got to Tom Price which looks like a nice modern town. The info centre was shut (when are they ever open?), the caravan park wanted $40 per night for an unpowered site (nope), and I drove around for 30 minutes looking for a tap. I only succeeded in looking like a paedophile. Taps are usually at sports fields, which today were full of kids. I ended up going into the shopping centre and filling up from a bubbler, making a huge mess in the process. What town doesn't have taps?

With no other options to stay in town I headed out of town to a free camp. It was fairly nice by a dried up river. The ride in was rough and fun. Proper dirt, not corrugated gravel. Unfortunately I couldn't find a single spot that wasn't rock hard.

I decided to keep going to this station stay I'm at. I continued on and the road turned to dirt, which was unexpected. I thought it was going to be dirt for the next 270km as the sign suggested. After 40km or so  it turned back to bitumen at a turn off for Tom Price. Turns out I'd gone 40km on dirt when there is an actual bitumen road I could've been on.

The dirt road to the left and the bitumen I could've been on leading off to the right. 

I'm at this station stay now and am camped on grass! Underneath the grass... Is soil! The last time I camped on grass was Katherine.

The station has another camp 45 minutes away next to some gorges. I'm tossing up whether to stay there tomorrow. Would be good to fly the drone and I just charged it up. But I'm keen to get to the coast and out of the dust.
...

I headed for Onslow today. It was long and boring.

My expectation of Onslow was a beautiful beachside village with luminescent waters, white sands and lush green grass. My first impression can be summarised with a picture:

Note that weird coloured ocean and the red soil. In reality it is somewhere in between. Walking around there is quite a lot of green. For instance I walked past a green shipping container and the slippery dip at the park was green too. There is patchy grass growing and the town is pleasant. The beach isn't great and the ocean looks a bit ordinary.

I'm mostly here to pick up a package at the post office. I think I'll go to Coral Bay tomorrow if I can.

All these old farts have been telling me about how great the West Coast is. Like with most things, they are wrong. Mainly, I assume, through a combination of early onset dementia, senility and stupidity. From my experience of it so far the Dutch were right for disregarding it. Although, it turns out to be a fantastic spot to dig holes. I'm hoping that heading south it will become nicer. So far I feel like quite a lot of pretending is required to compliment it.

I'm struck with the horrifying thought that the best bit of coast in Australia lies between Port Macquarie and Coffs Harbour. The regional capital of Kinchela might be the greatest city in the country. Faaaaaark.

Tent day

Had a tent day today. I woke up and it was extremely windy. No way I was going to ride in that so I went back to sleep. Then I watched season 2 of Mindhunter.

Wind should be better but still bad tomorrow, but I'll head off regardless. Supposed to die down the day after tomorrow.

Broome to Sandfire

It's a horrible, windy day today. I battled my way 300km along from Broome and now I'm at Sandfire Roadhouse.

I did not enjoy the place I stayed in Broome. First impressions were that all the people were super friendly and chilled out, but it was all a facade. They were all really cliquey. They have a stupid system where you hire one of many mini fridges, but there weren't any free, so I couldn't refrigerate stuff. I put my motorbike where the manager said and was asked to move it. This happened 4 times. Everytime I put something on charge I'd return to find someone had unplugged it and was using my charger to charge their stuff. The whole hippy vibe was just bullshit. It is the most uncomfortable I've felt on this trip. People wouldn't say hello. Often they'd stare right at me and ignore me.

On Saturday they were all dancing around to shit music like they were on drugs. I'm not convinced they were. I think they probably dance like morons as part of an unspoken competition to see who can seem the most alternative. They all seemed to phony. I ended up googling pubs near me and went to the Irish bar then to the rsl. Much better.

At the rsl I mentioned to a bloke that I was travelling on a motorcycle. He took me out the front and showed me this...

It is an old school moped that has been converted to electric. The petrol tank is actually the battery. He switched it on and practically demanded I take it for a spin. I took it down the street and back. It goes about 60km/h.

The next day I went back to the rsl. They were having a memorial for the Battle of Long Tan. Lunch was provided... 

Today was probably the worst day of riding I've had. It was the trifecta. Boring flat scenery (so flat it was almost interesting), boring straight roads and horrible 60km/h crosswinds. I ran out of fuel 1.5km from the petrol station and had to stuff around with the jerry can. 

I stopped here and found out it's bat country. 

Also, here is my staircase to the moon photo. 

Catch up photos

I'm currently sitting waiting for the famous (is it though?) staircase to the moon in Broome. I just tried to do a practice shot and my camera is too flat. So this could be a pointless exercise. Except of course for the experience and memories, but an experience doesn't get insta likes.

While I'm waiting I'll upload some photos.

The sign. 

Met with the clockwise people at Victoria River. 

Bit dusty. The camp after Victoria River. 

Hawk catcher... 

How it works. I think I saw that bloke in Katherine. 

Mammoth sandstone mountain in Keep River National Park. 

The other side of it. 

Mini bungles. 

State number 4.

It was impressive in real life. 

Looking straight at me. 

Lake Argyle. 

$180 for a sunset cruise. Pass. 

Sexy bike shot. 404 sexy bike not found. 

El Questro gorge. 

Getting narrower. 

Vertical panorama of the end of the gorge. The top of the pic is pointing directly above me and the bottom directly ahead. 

Zebedee Springs

The El Questro sign

Boab tree where I camped two nights ago. 

Boab prison tree outside Derby. It was empty. They need about 50 of these in Hell's Creek so the White Dogs can have a rest. 

Cable Beach today. Sublime. You can see why I was keen to get out of the outback. 

OK. I better go before I run this battery flat too.

To Broome

It was a long day today. I got up reasonably early and got through those water crossings. No dramas this time. The long one was a bit hairy but the little one I stuffed up last time was easy second time around. I turned off to Emma Gorge but came to another water crossing. By this stage I was done with water crossings so I turned around.

I had another luggage malfunction. One of the red bags strapped to my pannier half fell off. I must be getting a bit lazy with my packing.

Not much of note on the ride, except I saw a tornado. I kept hitting willy willies. I hit two that I couldn't see and avoided one that I could see because it had sucked up a heap of leaves. The wind was coming from the left and when I hit them it was suddenly coming from the right for a split second then the left again. It happens so quick that I don't even have time to panic. The first one today threw me towards the other lane and I had to hang a leg out to avoid an oncoming campervan.

I was thinking that if I'd encountered three willy willies on the road there must heaps of them all around. So I started looking for them. Sure enough off in the distance I could see a column of dust rising maybe 100 metres. It was really faint. It looked like a small fire about a kilometre away, but the smoke was really narrow and rising at an angle. The road actually swung around towards it and by the time I got there it had dissipated and left a little cloud of dust swirling up in the sky.

I also encountered a couple of kangaroos standing right in the middle of the road. The idiots just stared at me until I got right up to them and shouted at them to get off the effing road.

I came out of El Questro and have made it to Hall's Creek. It felt like I came a long way but it isn't even 400km. The main street of Hall's Creek looks kinda cool. There were groups of people sitting in the median strip doing very little and there is an awful lot of barbed wire atop all the fences. I was going to stay the other side of town but a sign on the way in said the town has free WiFi. It doesn't.

I'm at the caravan park. It's pretty dusty and there are cats eyes every where. They are these burr things with 4 spikes positioned so one is always pointing up. I don't even know what plant produces them, but it is definitely an arsehole. I didn't realise this when setting up my tent so I didn't lay down the tarp. I've had to put the tarp inside the tent so the burrs don't pierce through the bottom and puncture my mattress.
...

So when the sun goes down Hall's Creek becomes a hellish warzone. I was warned to lock up all my stuff. I have no way to do that so instead I have put everything in my tent and pushed my bike so it is just in front of the tent flap.

Outside the confines of what I now call the green zone (the caravan park) dogs are barking in every direction, people are screaming and sirens are blaring. Incursions into the green zone are expected throughout the night. Apparently the police placed infra-red cameras throughout the green zone but special operators attached to the insurgency stole them all. No doubt they will turn these back on the police. Probably as projectiles.

I realise now that the cats eyes that litter the park were probably placed here intentionally. The great unwashed hordes at the gates don't wear shoes. A simple defense that I hope is effective. If they do penetrate through the cats eye field I have my tomahawk and my breaker bar. My only worry is that the nightstalkers' powers of thievery are strong enough to telekinetically remove my weapons and levitate them to their getaway bmx.

Like most wars, this one is politically motivated. A segment of the Hell's Creek community are avid communists. They believe in a style of communism where redistribution of wealth is informally carried out at the discretion of the beneficiaries. They enforce this ideology on the rest of the populace against their will.

I must go now and resume my watch.

The night is dark and full of terrors.
...

I have awoken this morning and am pleasantly surprised to find that I am not dead.

The screaming and sirens continued right through to morning, accompanied by loud bangs. I believe this was the sound of infra red cameras impacting with police cars. The communist party here has a direct returns policy.

Each time I was woken, guttural screaming was the cause. There was a lot of noise but consistently two words drilled through rest. "White dog, white dog, white dog!"

Judging by the barking there was more than one white dog out there. I don't know what breed they could be. Whenever I think of a white dog I think of Jon Snows direwolf, Ghost. If he was out there it would explain the screaming and I expect the roads to be littered with body parts. But direwolves don't bark.

Whatever the breed, these white dogs occupied so much of the communists' time that we here in the green zone remained relatively safe. The White Dogs are the Heroes of Hell's Creek. The police should look into enlisting some white dogs.

Today I'm going to slowly pack up and make my way to Fitzroy Crossing. I suspect it is also under the influence of the communist infection so I'll try to camp somewhere free of both oppression and camping fees.

But first I have to escape through Hell's Creek.

May White Dogs watch over me.
...

I escaped from Hell's Creek successfully and made for Fitzroy Crossing. The ride was long and boring. I saw heaps more little tornadoes. Went through another 2 willy willies. Ran out of fuel and filled up from the jerry can. Got about the same range as when my reserve wasn't working. But it was a head wind all day.

Fitzroy Crossing looked way worse than Hell's Creek. There was indeed a crossing. A couple of single lane bridges over an almost dried river. The place looks run down and horrible. I stopped for fuel, bought some lamb chops and got out of there. I ended up going another 140km or so and am stopped at a rest area with an enormous boab tree.

Some backpackers pulled up and one of them invited me over to play cards. They are a mix of various Europeans. One French, two Swiss, a Brit, and a Dutchie. They're heading to Broome then some are splitting off while others are continuing down to Perth, so I'll probably see them along the way, although they seem to be doing more km a day than me.

Should be back in the net tomorrow.
...

I'm in Broome. Halfway mark I reckon. Everywhere in Broome is super expensive. Except this place. It is a backpacker camp. It looks as though it is on an abandoned industrial block, but it has showers and a kitchen and everything. There is hardly any shade so all the tents are clustered around the few trees. I'm jammed in with another 5 or 6 tents in the space a caravan would take up.

It is basically a hostel but in tents. Back in the good old days we created Camp Chaos at Point Plomer. This place is approaching that level of chaos. Camp Chaos had a gazebo that the wind had flipped upside down onto the roof of another gazebo, and quite frankly that is hard to beat.

True to form, however, I heard a big kerfuffle at the entrance earlier and saw that one of the campers was arguing with the police. I later found out that the police were accusing him of stealing a crocodile from the wildlife park. I'm so disappointed if he is innocent. I hope he busts out a crocodile later. I don't know why you would steal one, there are shit loads of them out there for the taking.

Zebedee Springs and El Questro gorge

Yesterday I ran into the group from Kakadu that I met. They are camped right near me. While I was eating my big bowl of mush (packet mash mixed with canned pepper steak) one of them came over and invited me to dinner. My mush is very filling but I went over and had a bit of fish.
One of the couples asked what they should do tomorrow and I suggested they go to Zebedee Springs and El Questro and take me too. They agreed.

We went down to Zebedee early. Being on NT time helps as it is an hour and a half earlier here. The springs are surrounded by palm trees at the base of an enormous, orange, concave cliff that looms above. There are black marks on the cliffs where the water tumbles over in the wet season. It must be quite a sight.

The spring comes out toward the base of the cliffs and flows down through a series of rock holes into a creek. The biggest rock hole could fit maybe 5 people and there are only half a dozen or so. We spent some time in the rockhole at the bottom and the water was lovely. Like a bath. After a while we saw some people coming down from the higher holes and went up. The water up their was even warmer as it was right where it comes out from then rock. It was really nice, amongst the palms in this crystal clear 32 degree water. I didn't even wee in it as it was already warm enough.

Getting out was cold. I could've wee'd myself  then. We left as quite a few people were arriving so it was a good thing we were early.

Next we went to the gorge. There is a long water crossing on the way. Most of it would probably be doable on the bike but there is a deep hole at one end that would bring me down. Let's face it, the whole lot could bring me down.

The walk through the gorge is grade 4 to the middle pool and grade 5 to the end. It was 4.8km return. The old boy I was with (Jack, I think) stayed behind but his wife is a bit more sprightly so we went along to the middle pool. The walk was along the rocks that make up the bottom of the creek in the wet season. It wasnt too hard but the middle pool was a bit disappointing.

Sue insisted I carry on. They didn't mind waiting for me. To get to the next part of the track I had to scale a big boulder by wedging myself in a crack with my legs on the boulder and my back against the wall of the gorge and shuffling up. It was out in the water so my boots were around my neck.

It actually wasn't that hard to do. The next part of the walk was pure rock hopping and was a bit longer than the first part. It was really good fun. I felt like a tomb raider. I had to climb across ledges, slide down rocks, leap across the creek, hang from trees. Near the end I had to climb up a little waterfall.

Right at the last tricky bit I stuffed up. There was a deep pool with a shear wall on the left and a bit of a climbable wall on the right. I climbed along the right wall but couldn't go any further. There was a submerged rock in the pool and it seemed to be the only way to go. So I jumped to it and my boots got soaked. When I got across I saw that the top of the wall on the left was actually a ledge and I was supposed to climb it way back before the pool.

After that there was a waterfall. The gorge actually continues beyond but the waterfall blocks any further progress. The pool at the bottom was super deep. I reckon 10 metres. I didn't really think it was that special except that at this point the gorge is really narrow. I took a vertical panorama but can't share it because of the shite internet here.

I started the walk back and realised, when I got to the little waterfall that I'd climbed up, that climbing down was going to be tricky. Shortly after that it occurred to me that gravity was on my side. That wall that waterfall went down wasn't actually vertical, so I got on my bum and slid down. Amazingly it worked. So I slid down as much stuff as I could on the walk back. When I got to the big boulder down to the middle pool I wedged myself back in the crack and slid my back down while walking my legs down. My shoes were already wet so I didn't bother taking them off.

All in all it was an enjoyable day.

Tomorrow I'm out of here. Going to tackle those water crossings again. On the way out this morning there was a group of maybe 15 people riding Africa Twins. They are nice adventure bikes. They were all identical so I think they must be on a guided tour.

We got to the water crossing when there were two bikes left to cross. The first one made a bit of a meal of it and stalled in the middle. To be riding an Africa Twin means they have their full licence so I feel a bit better. I would've been stoked if he dropped it or got stuck like I did. The fact that he went down the middle and not right on the edge like a moron (me) meant he could get his feet down and it wasn't a big deal. So I'll go down the middle tomorrow too. I also let my tyres down and ate a bunch of weight which I have been evacuating from myself today.

I'm going to take the bitumen over to Derby. It is a long way and I can't see any spots where I'll have internet. Furthermore, Wolfe Creek Crater, the Bungle Bungles the King Leopold Ranges are accessible but make for significant detours. If I decide to go to all of them it could be a couple of weeks before I'm back on the internet. Having said that, I don't know that I'll do any of them.

Keep River and El Questro

I'm at El Questro but the internet really doesn't work well. I'll see if I can post what I wrote from the past 3 days. I've got a tonne of photos but can't upload them.
...

The sun just went down and I jumped in my tent. The ground beneath the tent is radiating heat up. It is the temperature of a warm bath. I'm camped on bare dirt with little shade at a rest area around 70km before the WA border.

Last night Matt and co didn't make it to Victoria River. We met up this morning instead. They've convinced me it isn't worth going along the Gibb, but instead just travelling down a little ways on each side. Suits me.

I didn't leave until well after 11. The landscape I was riding through until Timber Creek was spectacular. Enormous mesas and escarpments tower over each side of the road. It became flat and boring for a bit but then turned back into this really beautiful terrain. As I tend to do when I see amazing terrain my first thought was that the graphics are great and it must be running at 4k.

I pulled off at this rest stop to take a photo but got chatting to some other people and decided to camp here. I kinda wish there were no trees so I could take better photos. It really is incredible. 
...

It was so windy this morning. Pretty big willy willys were ripping through where I was camped. Occasionally they'd kick dust right at the tent and it ended up full of red dirt. I packed up in that crap and it was miserable.

I left and am now at Keep River. The landscapes of yesterday are nothing on today. I'm camped next to a giant sandstone rock 4 or 5 metres high. A few hundred metres away there is an enormous sandstone mountain. I went for a walk through there this afternoon. There is a series of escarpments and ravines with rock formations sprouting out of them.

But it is hot as hell. I'm out of water and there is none here. I'm going to have to get up early and pack before the sun comes up and ride out to get water. Water is only 20 km back but the road is pretty shocking. I went through my first real, deep, dry sand patch today. It was a dried river bed. I got through fine. Just went slow and gunned it. I thought maybe I'd get bogged but I didn't.

The other thing I forgot to mention was that I saw this..
(at this point I was going to put a photo of this small rock construction with sticks on top forming a roof)

...

This morning I actually did get up early. I left at 7:30 and went to Lake Argyle. I crossed into WA with no dramas. There are a lot of stories floating about that they make you pull everything out so they can check for fruit. It was a proper checkpoint and she had a very convincing look at my bags but waved me through.

Lake Argyle was stunning but I couldn't really see a reason to stay there. I had a look around before getting petrol and leaving. The guy at the petrol station was named Geoff Bowen and is from Crescent Head, if anyone knows him.

I headed into Kununurra for breakfast then out to El Questro on the Gibb river road. The road was quite good but I did manage to have my bag fall off the back of the bike. I tied it back on then got to the first water crossing. I made a real mess of it.

I had a car up my arse so I let him go first so I could see how deep it was. The left side wasn't deep at all. Maybe 20cm of water. So I went left. The thing is, that car was outside the main track. So the rocks weren't compacted down. I rockhopped along almost dropping the bike the entire way. For some reason the front tyre kept trying to go left, up into the  bigger, looser rocks, while the rear tyre would slip down. I got most of the way across when the bike stalled and would start. I sat for a while to let it cool down. A few other cars went through while I was stuck. None stopped. I got the bike started but the back wheel was in a hole. I tried rocking it out and almost made it but it kept falling back in the hole.

There was one big rock stopping me. I couldn't get off the bike. I didn't have clearance for the kickstand. I had to reach down and grab the rock. It was too slippery and wedged in. Eventually I figured out I could grip it better without gloves and finally got it out. Then I revved the guts out of the bike and got it over the remaining rocks.

A few km along there was a longer water crossing. This time I went along the tracks. It was a bit hairy but I made it. By the end I had my right foot on the peg and my left leg horizontal in front of me next to the windshield. But hey, it worked.

I'm now at El Questro Station. To get to El Questro Gorge there is another really long water crossing. I don't know if I've got the nerves to tackle that one.

When I got here to check in I was still a bit jumpy. I was smoking in the carpark when this 'Deirdre from next door' lookalike walked straight towards me and gave me the filthiest look. Later when I was lining up at reception she barged past me. I don't know what her problem is. If I see her again I'm going to make it my mission to ruin her stay here.

Victoria River

Just a quick update.

Left Katherine at 12:30. Packing took the longest yet because of the mess I'd made. The amount of food I have has made the bike really heavy.

Rode to Victoria River. Stopped and could smell rubber. My new tyres have been rubbing on the exhaust. I don't care anymore. I'll just accept that my tyres rub on the exhaust.

Just got a call from Matt and Mel. They are at Kununurra and were going to head to Keep River but now are coming here instead. Should be here tonight.

So not only was I too slow to travel up the coast with them in WA, I was too slow to even get to WA before they left.

Katherine Gorge and the hot springs

I got up before sunrise to go to the gorge. The start of the ride was nice as the sun came up, but once it came up it was less nice. The sun was directly in front of me. I needn't worry about seeing kangaroos, I couldn't see anything.

The first part of the tour was actually like a tour. We boarded a boat and cruised through the first gorge. Then it was a short walk to the next gorge and we were given a life jacket, a paddle and a canoe and let loose.

The gorge really is amazing. There are 13 altogether. I paddled the 2nd and 3rd gorge. The 2nd gorge was the nicer one.

Not long after setting off I stopped to take the above photo. As I floated in silence I could hear squeaking coming from the rocks. I looked over and could see a whole heap of decent sized fish up against the cliff. When I paddled over, there was a small crack in the rock and it was crammed with bats. The fish were eating their poo.

I kept paddling and it was lovely but not that interesting as an anecdote, then got to the end where there are rocks to traverse. I asked the people in front if they needed a hand with their canoe, then the people behind. I was only asking so they'd return the offer. They didn't need any help nor offer any. That's how I discovered canoes can be carried by one person.

Not far into the next gorge I went for a swim.

See? 

Then kept paddling to the end of that gorge. There was a shallow swimming hole in amongst the rocks and I went for another swim. It wasn't nearly as nice as swimming in the proper gorge.

See? 

Then I paddled back. At the return crossing of the rocks I again asked people if they wanted help in the hope that they'd offer to help me. The two ladies in front said they were fine so I carried mine across while they struggled and eventually resorted to dragging it across the rocks. Idiots.

On the cruise back through the 1st gorge we were a bit early so the boat went down looking for crocs. We found a couple on some logs.

See? Look closely, there are two. 

Katherine Gorge is really the Jewell in the crown of the NT that I've seen. It was really spectacular but all my photos are shit. 

After that I went to McDonald's to use their wifi and had a bunch of emails regarding sending my headphones back for replacement and rego. So I spent the afternoon riding around collecting the headphones, printing return labels, going to the post office and ringing the rms. It was 34 degrees today and riding around a town doesn't have the cooling effect that 110 down the highway does. So I stopped into the hot springs for a swim. Thankfully they aren't very hot. They are a series of nice little pools that flow around in a horseshoe shape (I think). It's a pretty awesome thing to have in a town. 

When I left the pools an adventure tour bus pulled up in the carpark. I've always thought those adventure tours are probably pretty lame, but everyone got off the bus and marched over to form a queue at the public toilets. That's a pretty modern take on adventure and to be honest using a public toilet in Katherine is a bit extreme for me. 

The strange groups of people that I'm now convinced are part of a protest called #occupykatherine were out in force all day. The heat seemed to slow them down though. The nothing they do was far less animated. 

When I left the post office a group of about 20 people of all ages and genders (probably, I didn't ask them their preferred pronoun but I reckon I can guess their preferred pronoun for me) had parked themselves on the little median strip of the main street and shouted unintelligible things at me as I rode off. In my mind they were asking me to join them and as I also hate working I was tempted, but alas I prefer to travel (and shower) while I don't work. 

Tomorrow I will keep heading west. Will probably be offline for a day or two. Maybe more, apparently there is some cool stuff to see before the WA border. And I can't take fresh fruit and veges across the border either so I'll have to eat it all. 

Hahahahahahhahahahhaha like I have fresh fruit and veges.