Day 118, Saturday, 25 July 2009

Distance travelled – 79.8 km
Avg speed – 21.5 kph
Max speed – 33.0 kph

Renner Springs to Dunmarra Wayside Inn

We left early with the aim of riding to Daly Waters but as the morning wore on we both realised we were quite tired so decided to stop at the Dunmarra Wayside Inn.

As you ride north from Newcastle Waters and cross the Newcastle Creek the country changes from the open plains, we have been travelling through since leaving Queensland, to very thick savannah woodland. We read somewhere that Newcastle Creek is where the Top End tropics begin and Red Centre desert landscape ends.

We found the ride to Dunmarra rather uninteresting with the woodland blocking any view with km after km being very much the same. It was perhaps made worse by the fact that each side of the Stuart Highway had been burnt, forming a 60km fire break from Newcastle Creek to just south of Dunmarra.

We arrived just after 2.00pm and met another cyclist, Steve, who was just leaving. He had ridden from Cairns via Normanton and Burketown to Borroloola before joining the Stuart Highway at Daly Waters. He commented that the dirt road was very rough with lots of corrugations that damaged his bike. His rear pannier rack had cracked in eight places and he had stuck it back together with sticks and duct tape. His rear rim cracked around the spokes and by the time he arrived in Darwin for repairs some of the spokes were no longer attached to the rim. We wondered how Greg and Kathy who we left in Normanton had got on along these roads. (Steve if you read this please get in touch).

[Greg would later write to us – “The top road from Normanton to Borroloola was very tough indeed. Sand, gravel, loam, hard packed clay and yes corrugations made the ride not only physically challenging but mentally as well. Having said that the scenery was fantastic and the traffic very light. Now we're back in road train and caravan territory, which we've not missed at all. I've not been over the trusty steed's in any great detail but I think we've arrived relatively unscathed.”

Zoom into the map and use the 'Satellite' layer to see our new location.

Last night we hung our shower from this sign. It was only in the morning that we read what it said. We hope we are clean and tidy enough after our shower to leave the rest area.

Folding up the tent

Denise's bike with burnt bush in the background.

Lunch

Steve, who we met at the Dunmarra Wayside Inn. All the cyclists we have met have some form of luxury not essential to the trip, we have cameras, others take a toilet seat. Steve carried a 12kg Parasail in the blue bag. His helmet on the top of the bag had the biggest visor we have ever seen on a cycling helmet. Continuing the ingenuity of his bicycle repairs, the visor was made from the plastic base out of a green shopping bag. (Steve if you read this please get in touch).

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