Day 124, Friday, 31 July 2009

Distance travelled – 118.5 km
Avg speed – 24.0 kph
Max speed – 39.3 kph

Mataranka to Katherine

Peter and Barbara left Mataranka at 7.30am with plans to do their first 100km day. We left later at 9.00am. We have discovered it does not matter what form of transport we are using – bicycle, bushwalking or camper trailer - we always seem to need between 2.5 to 3 hours to get away. Thank goodness we are not travelling with Peter and Barbara as we would need to get up at 4.30 and getting up in the dark at 6.00 is difficult enough for us.

Having given them a 90 minute head start and having a good tail wind we then thought about trying to catch them up. We would later discover Peter was also trying to make sure we didn’t. This foolishness on our behalf was to result in our first ever 50km in under 2 hours and yes we did eventually catch them at 57km at a rest area after they stopped for their ritual morning coffee. However, we are most likely not to try that again very quickly. At Renner Springs a truck driver had quipped if we took our bikes over the weighbridge in Katherine we would be “pinged for overloading” and we certainly felt the load towards the end of the 57km.

At the rest area there was another cyclist, Tony, talking to Peter and Barbara and a caravan owner who as it turned out lived only a few kilometres from Peter and Barbara. Peter, fully expecting us to arrive shortly, had primed the caravan owner to instantly ask the standard grey nomad questions as we pulled in. It took us two questions before we realised we were being set up.

We set off from the rest area shortly after Peter and Barbara. As we caught them up we discussed when we would stop for lunch. We suggested 1pm and they suggested 1.30. As it happened we came across the turnoff to Cutta Cutta Caves at about 1pm. The information centre and car park were 1km in from the highway. Whilst Mark waited for Peter and Barbara, Denise cycled in to see if it would be a suitable place to stop for lunch. It was, there were many shady picnic areas. From Cutta Cutta Caves we only had a further 25km to go to reach Katherine.

We decided it would be easiest for us to stop at the supermarket to buy provisions for dinner before arriving at the caravan park, which was 4km from town. We arrived at Woolworths shortly after 3pm. Mark stayed outside minding the bikes and as is usual in these circumstances he was in deep conversation with the locals when I returned.

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

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