East Kimberley Riding - Friday 4th - 11th July 2008

Anyone who has ever driven, ridden or walked in the East Kimberley will understand the specialness of the place. Its where the rolling hills begin, dotted by big Boabs, wide open views and long winding roads.

Our cycling resumes at Warmun Community about 435kms East of Fitzroy Crossing. I struggled with our decision to catch the bus... Whilst I was more than happy to catch the bus from Fitz to Halls Creek (272kms), I was torn by our limited time and wanting to get off the bus at Halls Creek... by staying on bus we missed riding the 163km uphill bit and the start of the winding & twisting road....but would have more time around Wyndam.... Of course the never abating headwind was a good reminder as to why we were on the bus... Not to mention, our main reason was to return to the dirt Gibb River Rd..

We arrived at Warmun roadhouse at 8.30am, Friday 4th July 2008 with a curt quip from the driver about letting them know we were bringing bikes. Sure, but Grayhound's online booking system doesn't have this option!! I smiled... I was too tired to comment and besides the world was for now a little sideways as I had managed to bend my glasses on the bus whilst trying to sleep... Luck I spent most of my time in my sunnies....

A cuppa, repacking, lunch, visit to art centre and a nap on the green lawn and we were ready to ride at about 2pm ish. We road down the road 32kms and camped just past the Bow River near the driveway for Argyle Diamond Mine (ADM)... I was tempted to call associated working there, but chickened out. Camp was lovely, with a low fire and a 'pink & grey' sky... I enjoyed rolling into my tent that night.... I know what the road ahead held and was so excited.

5th July, Saturday was a 90km ride. Our biggest day... we could have kept riding the day was just perfect! It was added to, by having fresh food again - Oranges are great. We had made Doon Doon Roadhouse by noon, some 61kms, where we rested for 2 hours and cooked our lunch and sleeping on lawn again. The afternoon ride was even better. We were treated to riding through rolling red ridges, afternoon light filled with Kimberley dryness, flowing maliluca & gravellia trees and the wonderful pandanas, mixed through with tall gums. The hills were not hard they made the road interesting and were added to by the wonderful downhill rolling - lots of photos.

We camped at the 24hour stop on the Durham River. There were a few vans, one with a generator to run their light!! Haven't they heard of LED or Fluro? It was a new moon tonight.

6th July Sunday was a big day 83kms with 24kms on dirt. The start of the Gibb River Rd, on El Questro land, south of Wyndham. I wasn't overly happy with El Questro. We arrived at Emma Gorge Resort at about 1pm. It cost us $15 ea to be on their land and then another $8 to walk 4kms (return) to look at the fall that wasn't flowing (we didn't do the walk)... Plus we were expected to ride a further 40kms to stay at the Homestead... for another $15 each. I decided to ignore the rules. We paid the $15ea to be on the land. A tour operator told us the 4x4 road around the Cockburn Range then along King River was in good condition and doable on our bikes... or at least it was 3 years ago.

So we decided we wanted to do this extra dirt road. We left Emma Gorge around 3pm and found an old track off the main road hidden by a few trees. It was a nice spot. The Cockburn Range was right in front of use, towing over our camp and tempting us to ride around it.

F#$@ing Hard 48kms of Riding - Monday 7th July. The 1st 24kms was fine - it was just the rocky, corrugated & dusty Gibb River Road all the way to the Pentecost River crossing. The wrong turn from here didn't help... I managed to get us to ride down a new fence line where it was overgrown, full of potholes, big and very big washouts with huge rock boulders.. If that wasn't enough it was often uphill and hot! We stayed on this track, because I knew that the fence had to meet the fence we were meant to be on.... It was very exciting for me when I finally saw the gate we needed... Birgit and Owe, I think were a bit worried about what lay aheard... but I convinced them it wouldn't or couldn't be that bad :)

The track we were about to ride has a name called "Old Karunjie Raod" Only 4x4. Its about 67kms long, give or take 5kms. The beginning of the track was hard... very hard.... in fact that was the complete opposite of the problem it was in fact sand and bulldust for about 16kms, with hard bits, washouts and corrugations in between when we were lucky. I had to push the bike a lot... at fatter front tyre would have been nice, but I would still have had to push the bike.... What made up for this was the stunning view of the Cockburn Range on our right and at times the Pentacost river so very close... alas this is Salty country so no swimming... I just loved the landscape.. If you are reading this and from overseas, I suggest you go and see the 'flick' Australia as it was filmed in this land...

El Questro owned this land and everywhere we road we were reminded we couldn't camp, with small signs on the track...At least we know we were on the right track. Not very helpful to cyclist. I just ignored it. We found a nice camp spot at the edge of the flood plain.... We could just make out the clay pan beginning, but that was to be tomorrows adventure. The backdrop of our camping spot was again the majestic Cockburn Range, as we sat under spindly Grevillier trees, with the silhouette of a Brahman towards the coast. We didn't light a fire so as not to attract attention of our camp.. We were cooking dinner, writing in our diary's when the most wonderful event of nature occurred. The sky was filled with bats. From horizon of the tidal mangrove flats to the range, the sky was filled. The only sound the beat of their wings and the frequency of their Sonia... Then they were gone... What a treat. We were all so excited...

The absence of the bats was followed by the wind. Easy at first, then we could hear the wind... It continued all night, getting very strong, blowing my tent almost flat... Great it was to be a headwind again.

Tuesday 8th July 2008.... It was about 60kms to Wyndham... Just not sure what kind of condition the road was going to be in. We got up at 4.30am to miss the heat and hopefully the wind. We started our ride for the day across a dry clay pan, following decade old tyre tracks, both corrugated and sandy (at times). We did this into a full on head wind for easily 10kms. Finally we made it to some low hills, trees and more sandy tracks. Birgit fairs best in the sand, Owe with the trailer and I with my too skinny front tyre suffer. I'm also slower on the dirt than the touring bikes, though I know its more comfortable for me.

We arrived at the Boab Prison tree, just before lunch time. This was great, as we were now on more stable ground of corrugated rock, whilst hard work it wasn't sand. We also had the King River on our left to look at. We were now on the King River Road (apparently). My memory from my sidecar trip through here in about 1992, recalled a fast ride across a claypan to Wyndham... I just didn't know where it was and if I would be able to find it. I was very much over the rock corrugations, when a 4x4 stopped to let us know we were 500mtrs way from the turn off for the clay pan to Wyndham. Stocked! It was a hoot to be rolling along at speed... though I nearly came a cropper, when I hit an unexpected patch of sand at about 25km/hour.... I slowed down after that...

We made it to camp by 4.30pm, after I convinced Birgit and Owe that we should shop before setting up camp as the shop was going to close. We washed, set up camp, relaxed and shared a taxi with a couple to have a cooked dinner of fish & chips at the old pub in old Wyndham. Great night. I slept deeply in Wyndham - so pleased I had we around the Cockburn Range and this time on recumbent.

Wednesday 9th July was a wonderfully relaxing day. We didn't need to get to Kununurra until the weekend and it was only roughly 100kms away along the Parry Creek road. Yep why not finish our bike ride on the last dirt road. We took our time and road out to Old Wyndham for a smoothy at the local cafe, suss out some art and make our way out to the Croc farm for feeding time. Enjoyed the croc farm.. One of the guests is 65years old... I'm glad their was a fence between us as he weighed 5 tonnes and was almost 5mtrs long!!!

Lunch was a pie at the local bakery and then we packed and began our wonderful ride in the arvo. We did 8kms on dirt to parry creek farm camping ground. It was nice dirt... rocky, limited corrugations and no sand :) Camping was in a mango grove... We wrote post cards and decided to bugger cooking and order a meal... Our plan was just 50kms the next day so our meal was accompanied with a beer. Very nice


Bugger Cooking all right...at about 2am, Thursday 10th July I was wide awake and very ill... I eventually vomited at about 4am, having gotten up twice to try... I then curled up in sleeping bag and tired to sleep... Birgit and Owe were up at 7am and worried about me... I said I just needed some more time to relax. They went for a walk and I slowly got up and packed. Birgit, the dear had boiled water for me and added red cordial... I eat dry biscuits for food most of the day.

We managed to ride 40kms today. It was a nice simple ride... not at all taxing... which was good as my tummy was still annoyed at the rich food I had tried to make it cope with. We had lunch on the sandy and lawned banks of the Ord river, Birgit was very convinced she had seen a Salty and neither Owe or I were game to confirm by visiting the spot of observation.

We found a great spot for our last night in the bush. Trees and a dry creek bed. We had a fire and chatted until late ish.. about 8.30pm

Friday 11 July was such a great day... Their were two highlights for me... a winding road and wonderful hills.... I could imagine this being the main road to Kununurra in the not so long ago past. Birgit and Owe were taking photos of each other as they road along... good sign they were enjoying the ride. I got our 1st and only flat tyre at turn-off for Black Pool. It was on the front and it was due to the thorns that were all over the road. All our tyres were full of the thorns. I just changed tyres and tubes. At which point 4x4 we had met the day before turned up to our aid. They had told us yesterday the Ivanhoe crossing was low and not running very fast, but today they changed their mind and had turned around to give a hand to get the bikes across.

Birgit decided she didn't want to try. Owe was game and entered the crossing with all his touring load on the bike. i decided to unload my bike into the 4x4 and try to cross. I made it too the 1st island fine, but it was slippery, fast fast water and over my knees. Owe continued on, we couldn't ride, but had to walk the bikes. I didn't make it... my bike was floating away...adn stopping it turning with the current was just too hard for me. I managed to just hold the bike and turn it around, but I couldn't make it back to the 4x4 behind me waiting in case I needed a hand. The owner noticed I needed a hand, removed the thongs and walked out to help me carry the bike back. We loaded it into the 4x4 and crossed.,.... Owe had made it... He was helped the last 100 metres by about 5 guys....

What a buzz... I was so excited we had tried... I so was glad to be in Kununurra! we had made it.

We had lunch at the crossing and then road the wonderful Ivanhoe Farm Road into to town, along paddocks of Maize...It was strange to me as the paddocks should have had sugar, but with the closure of the sugar mill... many of the paddocks were bare... We stopped at the Ivanhoe Farm Cafe for Coffee and frozen mango. We did our shopping, bough fish for a BBQ and set up camp at Kona Waters holiday Park.. We were given a great spot right on the waters edge... very nice. After dinner we taxi into the show grounds. It was show day in Kununurra - fireworks at 8pm. We had a great night - hoot... and were back at camp at 9pm.

Geikie Gorge day trip

July 3rd started early with checking emails. Once everyone else was awake we checked out what food we needed, planned our shopping day and took-off to town from the Crossing Inn. 1st stop was the local camping store for gas for Uwe stove and boxes for Steve to pack his bike. Yep Steve had told us last night he was returning to Broome/Perth on account of his knee not getting any better in the 5 days he was waiting in Fitzroy Crossing for us. Gas was not to be found in Fitzroy, anywhere! 3 shops latter it was decided we needed to take Steve's fuel stove with us.

Shopping at the best of times is confusing, but having been on the road away from shops for a few days, one is a bit like a rabbit in bright lights when you see all the things you can buy.. Taking a shopping list helps, but we still managed to buy things not on the list.

We managed to find some bubble wrap for Steve who was busy building a bike box for his trailer and bike out of packing tape and small boxes. Uwe, Briget & I road out to Geikie Gorge for a picnic lunch and boat tour. Its interesting in these part of the country our time of day can make a ride wonderful or hard work. the ride out was hard work, it felt way longer than the 21kms from town, uphill (imagined), into a headwind and on a rough sealed road. I was very happy to make the river. We relaxed, drank cups of tea, enjoyed lunch, went for a short walk and waited 2 hours for the boat tour.

Now the tour was wonderful. You walk down to a small boat that carries around 30 folk with a guild and under power moter out on to the river, spotting 'freshies', learning about the plants and the history of the gorge. The boat trip starts at around 3pm in the arvo, the afternoon light falls onto the colourful sandstone gorge walls, highlighting their features of curves, crags, caves and wildlife. Motionless croc's dot the sandy banks or rocks in the river. They look battery operated - plastic in fact. then they move, mostly just opening their jaws... Its about now that you think getting too close is not a great idea.

the boat lazily makes its way back to the boat ramp.. its now 4pm. the afternoon light is lightly filled with dust, the shadows long, the heat and dry of the day has gone along with the headwind, no wind at all, just a gentle warm air. The only downside, when you leave the boat you remember have been tied up to 4 such boats, like cattle along the road, you have been mustered, by the local 'ringer' or guild, down the boat ramp, removed of your $25 and transported along the river with your fellow 125 heads.

I enjoyed the trip.

I enjoyed the ride back to town better. this was one of the best rides I've ever done at 4.30pm. The air at this time of the day is thin, no resistance, the sun low on the horizon, long rays of light stream through the dusty air, paused and disbursed by the boabs and gums. As 3 riders we rolled along, taking our time to enjoy the afternoon, stopping to take photos and just being in outback Fitzroy Crossing.

We arrived back in town around 6pm and camp not much later. Its time for dinner, beer and packing. We have all decided to catch a bus. Steve is taking Greyhound to Broome at 2.10am and Briget, Uwe and I catching the Greyhound to Warmun (Turkey Creek) at 1.40am. Our plan goes well. WE all wake up at midnight ish, pack and walk out to highway to wait for bus. We wait, its cold, very cold, the bus is late, very late. Its around 2.45am before our bus arrives. The driver says "your not planning on taking those with you?" We wait, he thinks, he opens the bus underbelly, he mutters, he gets out his mobile, he calls and says "there are bike and man what do I charge them, where do I put them and you should see them! one looks like a spaceship" I'm guessing that he is referring to my bike. its soon decided that the bikes will cost $60 each to transport and will go into the trailer. By 3am we are all loaded and on the bus heading east. Steve sms me at 3.10am to ask if we have passed his bus... answer is yes.

Bouncing and boggy ride to Fitzroy Crossing

I can't remember but for some reason we decided to get up very early today (1st July Tuesday) Uwe alarm sounded at 4.50am. It was dark when I got out of my tent, but watching darwn arrive was something one can never forget... the stars slowly fading as the horizon lightens from dark black, dark blue, light blue, pink, red yellow sun. At the same time the air changes from cold (4-degrees) to 10, then 20 and finally 20 degrees by noon.

Today after 5kms we found the 1st creek crossing. We stopped and had a bath in what was clear water that soon became very muddy. Riding in the morning wet and cool was wonderful. WE soon became dry and dusty. AT times we had to puch the bikes through the deep sand... not very long bits, but still ard work. Its easier to walk the bike than try to ride... the stop starting is more tiring than just walking the 100metres or so.

We arrived at our second water crossing when a white 4x4 from Fitzroy stopped and out jumped Steve! What a surprise. Better still he came with fresh food. He had managed to convince the local dective to drive him out to meet us. WE all had a cuppa and eat food. Great memory. They told us the road got better, then very good and then the last 10kms is bad. They also told us about a water hole we could swim in aobut 28kms down the road.

We headed out, refreshed from our cuppa to tackle the road. We made it across the water crossing it was deep!. The next best part of the road was what the locals call a savana! What hoot - fast, fast riding, on flat no lumps road! I was having a ball for about 10kms.. the afternoon sun behind us and for a change no wind! Then we arrived in small rolling hills where the road was again rough, corrogations and a little sandy. Again a car stopped and gave us cool water.

We kepted going, keen to get to the waterhole. WE road through rolling hills on a windy road, it was loverly, with boabs lining the road. the last 10kms was hard, we were tired, but soon the turn-off to the old Oscar Hills Mine was there and we road in. A couple of campers told us were the water hole was and also were to see some rock art the next day. WE all parked our bikes, stripped off and walked into the cold, waist deep water. Was a treat. We set up camp above the water hole and lit a wonderful fire. A couple of America campers joined us and gave us each and ice cold beer :)

Great day 50kms all on dirt

2nd July Wednesday
Again we got up early in search of the rock art. We found the cave and enjoyed the view from the high rock outcrop. We only had 10kms to ride, but it was hard, sand stopping us every few 100metres and having to walk the bikes. WE came upon a heli-muster which was exciting. Then a guy in ute offered to drive us to the main road, but we only had 5kms to go and wanted to finish the road.

Getting to the main sealed Fitzroy Crossing road was such a treat! WE had a cuppa, food and tipped our extra water over ourselves. We pumped up the tires and sms Steve we were 43kms out of town. The ride in was hard, hot and into a very strong headwind. WE road in single file, me first, followed by the mountain bikes. At a low point, when I was feeling sorry for myself a 4x4 with government plates stopped and offered us water. It was drien by Trevor from WAHPV! What a hoot! Trevor was working on a research project at Fossil Downs Station and had recogonised my bike. It was great to chat. Briget and Uwe now thinking Australian is really a small place... Trevor gave us more water and help improve my mood to keep riding into the head wind.

Then just as we ere riding up the only hill in days! Stu stopped and gave us cold water... We then rolled into Fitzroy Crossing and kept going, across the 1st bridge on the bike path :) then the 2nd bridge again on a bike path and rolled into the Crossing Inn with Steve waiting for us on the steps. Bundaburg Ginger Beer and hot chips for all!

Steve had a great camping spot under the shade of a few trees. It was Steve's birthday so we had a wonderful dinner