Demanding Derby

We started our bike tour by taking an all day tour in 4x4 to Cape Leveque. Worth every cent. Stu our tour guide was good value and came in handy over the next few days during the bike ride.

After and extra day in Broome and a minor panic that Steve wouldn't beable to join the ride on the account of his air susspension unit failing. This was fixed and we were all ready for an early morning depart Wednesday 23rd june. For the 1st two days of the ride each rider would need to carry 7-litre's of water/day. This was because I didn't know how much water everyone was going to drink or what would be needed for dinner (cooking). This meant my bike had 14-litres of water, along with tent (3kg), sleeping bag, mat, clothes, electrical stuff, tools (1kg) and yes the laptop & spare battery...

It was a long slow ride, but we were all in good spirits. Jill & Denice were heading to Derby in the 4x4 that same day and had arranged to take extra food for us to town. We were to collect if from a government office in town.

We managed to ride 85kms this 1st day and camped at a place called Taylors lagoon.. Not so nice due to the cattle using it as a watering hole. I enjoyed the light, cooking dinner on our camp fire and being in my tent for he 1st time in many months.

The next day started well, but at lunch time Uwe was sick (vomited), I think from the coffee and Steve was experiencing knee pain. Briget and I were fine. We road on and on and on to Willare around 83kms against a very strong and warm head wind. Uwe hadn't eaten all day and was not at all well. We camped on the banks of Fitzroy River. Here we met Billy & her husband. They were wonderful, Billy is a nurse from Esperence and she arranged for us all to have a shower and gave Uwe boiled water to drink.

Next day we road the 3kms to the roadhouse for breaky, Uwe still not able to eat. We continued on to Derby. At the turn-off for Fitzroy Crossing, Steve said he couldn't ride any further, his knee was very sore, so he decided to hitch to Fitzroy Crossing and we were to continue on to Derby, Gibb River Rd, Windjana, Tunnel Creek and re meet up at Fitzroy in 3-4 days.

Uwe, Briget & I made it to Derby by 2.30pm and took Uwe to the hospitable for medication to settle his tummy. It cost $140! ouch. Steve called to say he had managed to get a lift to Fitzroy by the Derby coppa. We ran into Stu again, picked up our extra food from Jill friends and set up camp at what was to be the noiseist camping ground ever! Cup day in Derby and a rock band playing until 3am - badly

It was great to have a shower, cook dinner in a camp kitchen and relax in the arvo. Uwe and Briget did the food shopping for the next stage of our trip. This was going to be the hard bit... dirt riding along the Gibb River road