karumba to burketown

We were again up early as we knew we had 150km of dirt to cover on the way to burketown and we wanted to get as much done as we could before it got too hot. We had heard varying reviews of the road conditions from good to pretty corragated but apparently there wasn't too much sand. Well, as it turns out, it was very corragated in places and very sandy in places so it was very slow going and very hot.

Along the way we stopped at the sight of burke and wills' camp 119. Although we had only been on the dirt for a short period, i could really appreciate how they must have felt.

Back on the dirt again, and when it was good, it was really good, but when it was rough, it was really rough.

Morning tea was had at the side of the road in the shade of the only tree big enough, it was just good fortune that it was by the side of the road as everything else too small to provide any shade.

morning tea on the road

We had a couple of river crossings, some without water and some with very little. The most impessive was the leichardt river. The first time we crossed it, it was over a low causeway and there was very little flowing water, only small pools but you could see where the water had been. The second time we crossed the leichardt (about 20 seconds after the first time) there was substantially more water. Both causeways were quite wide and you could really get a sense of how impressive it would be in full flood.

crossing the leichardt river

After the leichardt we were onto tarmac again, much to our relief. It was only a short blast to burketown where we decided to stay for the evening and review our plans. We had planned on continuing on to doomagi and from there to hells gate but we heard from various sources that the road was pretty poor.

So we stopped for lunch at a little take away van that the big fella picked, i thought he was crazy, but as it turns out, he was spot-on. Debbie, the woman who owned the van, made a cracking steak sandwich, one of the best we've had, was generally up for a chat, told us which was the best place to stay and turned out to be the only friendly person in town.

She also told us to come back for dinner as she was making garlic prawns which had come in fresh from karumba this morning, unlike us. So we did, but not only was there prawns but there was sweet and sour fish as well. We had both and they were great.

After talking with other travellers in the park, we decided to alter our plans, rather than going to doomagi we were ging to to cloncurry via gregory downs but we were told in no uncertain terms that the road was diabolical, or words to that effect. So our plan now is to to head back the way we came to the leichardt river and then take a minor road which will bring us out on the wills development road (tarmac) for our run to cloncurry and then to mt isa. Our theory is that the minor road will have had less through traffic so it shouldn't be as corragated or as dusty. It's also 50km less dirt.

We'll have to wait and see if our therory holds.

our exact location: http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&geocode=&q=-17.7418,139.5465&ll=-17.7418,139.5465&ie=UTF8&z=12&om=1

mt suprise to karumba

We were up early but having to decamp took at little longer than we planned but even so we said goodbye to bedrock and hit the road.

the camp at mt supriseNot far out of mt suprise we hit upon some truly stunning scenery and fabulous riding through a low range of hills and escartpments that defiies description, but as there was nowhere to stop safely to take photos, i'll have to give it a crack.

The soil was a mixture of reds and ocres with outcrops of large, round boulders, heaped up in piles of random beauty, that ranged from red to jet black. Cover this with a soft haze of muted greens and browns under an outrageously big blue sky and you start to get an idea. Or for those of you with an artistic bent, think somewhere between albert namajira and fred williams.

It was sad to leave that little part of the world as the riding was so good and it was so beautiful to look at and because we were back on the flat, straight roads of the plains.

We stopped for a coffee, and a good one at that, in georgetown and then pressed onto croyden for lunch of a most excellent burger and fuel.

While in croyden we also got the good oil on where to stay in karumba but were told that as it was peak fishing season we may have some trouble. Feeling confident we decided to head there anyway as we had been told that the sunsets over the gulf were something to behold. We passed through normanton stopping just long enough for the big fella to wrestle with a big barra, get eaten by a big croc and to get a photo of the purple pub.

this too has never been done before

The road into karumba is incredibly flat with little in the way of vegetation other than browm grass. As we headed for the sunset caravan park, our recommended destination, we passed several other caravan parks that were chack-a-block with 4wds, vans and boats, who knew fishing was so popular? I was a little concerned about our chances of accommodation but the big fella, in his inimitable style, managed to jag a uint that was completely brilliant. After a quick chat with the locals we had a plan, a bit of a look around town, then on to the sunset tavern to watch the sunset, then across the road to ash's for their world famous barra and chips.

The plan went perfectly. We took in the beaches and everything else that was worth looking at and headed for the tavern for the first cold beer of the day. the sunset taven has a spectacular outlook over the gulf with lots fo shady trees to sit under and drink beer while watching, what turned out to be a truly beautiful sunset. After the sun went down we grabbed a couple take aways and wandered over the ash's for their world famous barra and chips (which was great but i don't think it was as good as the barra at the lions den) and then back to the unit for an early evening.

beers at the sunset tavernsunset at karumba

our exact location:
http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&geocode=&q=-17.461,140.8274&ll=-17.461,140.8274&ie=UTF8&z=12&om=1

cairns to mt suprise

This morning saw wal off to get his tyre and me trying to upload photos onto the blog with limited success. Enter kelly, the girl on reception, who in my mind is in a stand-up knock-down fight with emma from bmw for the title of most helpful person in cairns. She very kindly let me monopolise her computer for about three quarters of an hour, uploading a truck load of images. Thanks kelly.

Other than that we had a bit of a look around the cairns waterfront which is very nice indeed.

Sightseeing and blog maintainence taken care of, it was time to once more pack the bikes and head off. The target was mount suprise via gordonvale, atherton and ravenshoe.

The ride from gordonvale to atherton was incredible, the road winds up through some spectacularly beautiful and amazingly lush countryside, allowing for some glorious riding. The mountains there have the most amazing forms, and the views along this section of road are stunning. Atherton was our lunch stop and the burgers were very good indeed.

on the road to atherton

atherton

From there it was on to ravenshoe where we came across a wind farm atop the aptly name windy hill. It was a interesting scene, giaint turbines standing majesticly in fields of outrageously green grass with herds of cows standing around them.

russ, cows and alternative energy 

After ravenshoe we started to head down onto the western plains and the landscape changed again. Gone were the rolling hills, green grass and lush vegetation, replaced by flat, brown grassland with low scrubby trees and the temperature started to climb steadily.

We stopped for fuel at mt garnett and from there, we were once again in full-on roadtrain territory with roads that wrere only one lane. This meant that if we encountered a roadtrain, or pretty much any other vehicle, we needed to get off the road and out of the way, which has it's own perils as the quality of the edges varies greatly. Fortunately we only encountered one roadtrain so it was reasonably stress free.

While in mt garnett we asked the locals where was good to stay in mt suprise and the unanimously said the bedrock village, so that's where we went. Given that mt suprise is a very small place, essentially in the middle of nowhere, bedrock village was packed and we were in the tents for the first time on the tour. The park was great and the recommendations were well founded, the staff were extremely helpful (not in the same league as emma or kelly but bloody close) and we where situated next to an old guy from darwin who used to race push bikes, a topic close to our hearts, so we had a great chat to him about australian cycling and the tour de france.

Dinner was at the pub across the road and once again the meal was brilliant and once again the steak was massive and once again friendly locals who were interested in where you were from and where you were going.

With acouple of take aways in hand it was back to the tents for reasonably early night as we planned to be up and away by a resonable time.

our exact location: http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&geocode=&q=-18.1425,144.3222&ll=-18.1425,144.3222&ie=UTF8&z=12&om=1

musgrave to cairns

It's funny, musgrave, although nothing more than a roadhouse, is a great place, not a lot of fun to get to on a bike, but a great place none-the-less. We had a great night and an incredidible dinner, i have never seen a streak so big, i mean it was huge. Anyone that knows me, knows that i can put it away, but his beat me, i would swear blind that it was half a cow. And, like everywhere else we have been, the people we have met have been brilliant.

ougtside the donga at musgrave

As we wanted to get to cairns in one go and arrive at a reasonable time, we set off early, knowing full well what lay ahead of us heving ridden it the day before. Although the plus side to today would be that there would be less dirt and we would therefore make better time.

The dirt was just the same as ity had been the day before but somehow knowing what was coming seemed to make it a bit easier, for me anyway.

peninsular development road

We hit tarmac just outside of lakelands where we stopped for lunch of an incredibly good steak sandwich which had to be held together with a skewer. After that and getting fuel it was on to mareeba ands the cairns. About three quarters of a hour outside of mareeba, we went over mount elephant which was an icredible piece of road with several kilometres of beautiful corners and some specrtacular scenery.

view from bob's lookout

In mareeba we met a couple of kiwi guys, one of whom had just ridden from darwion across the savannah way, which was our next route, so he was full of useful information for guys on bikes, as so far every time we had asked about road conditions, people would tell you what it was like in 4wd. Everything he told us was good so that pretty much cemented our plan. When we could get the big fella's bike serviced would determine when we would leave cairns and whether or not we would go to darwin or jus to daly waters.

On our way into cairns we took a little side trip to barron falls which was really interesting. When we got to cairns, we went straight to the hotel we had stayed at previously, as we had left a heap of stuff there, and checked in. As they had been previouisly, they were extremely helpful and accomodating to our demands of a ground floor room that was close to the bikes so we didn't have to carry our stuff very far. They were also happy for us to play it loose and fast when it came to how many nights we would be staying.

barron falls

The next morning the big fella was at the bmw dealers bright and early to see what they could do, and emma, being as helpful as she is, managed to get wal's and my bike fitted in that day. So that only left wal with trying to organise a new front tyre. The bizarre thing about that is that one of the kiwi guys we met in mareeba happened to remember seeing the very tyre wal wanted in a suzuki dealer in cairns, so when he left the bmw dealer he headed there and sure enough they had the tyre and could fit it the next morning. Things were looking good.

lions den to musgrave

Another big day of dirt ahead of us so we were once again up early and on the road by 7.30. We slipped out of the lions den and headed for cooktown for breakfast, fuel and a bit of a look around. On the way we stopped to look at black mountain (kalkajaka) which is an incredible pile of black granite rocks that look like they have been very neatly put there.

the amazing black mountain

From there to cooktown and into the bakery for bacon and egg rolls and coffee, then fuel and up grassy hill to the lookout. after that it was into cooktown proper for a bit of a squizz and a visit to the spot where captain cook beached the endevour to repair the hull.

the view from grassy hill

cooktown harbour

That done we were off again, heading for laura via battle camp road and a section of the lakefield national park.

This section of dirt was very different to the bloomfield, it was very dusty, corrogated and exposed us to our first taste of sand, not a very pleasant experience. It seems that when the bikes hit sand they pretty much go where they want to. Keeping the power on helps to stay upright but direction still seems to be arbitry. As the big fella found out, it is also necessary to turn off the abs and traction control, sadly he found this out the hard way by putting his bike down, fortunately at very low speed so there was very little in the way of damage.

With our new found respect for sand, we cautiously headed off again.

The first creek crossing of the day was at isabella falls, it was a pretty straightforward crossing and a very pretty spot. There were two more crossings after that but they were both small and easy.

isabella falls

the big fella crossing isabella falls

With a quick stop at the old laura homestead we were then on to laura for lunch and a bit of a break as it was warm (26.5˚C) and it was quite hard work on the bikes and a high level of conentration was requried. Laura was like so many of the other little townships we have been through, full of character and colourful locals who are always up for a chat and full of handy advice.

the old laura homestead

laura general store

After lunch it was onto the penninsular development road to musgrave for some real fun and games. People talk about the corragations but they are nothing compared to the sand. It's fine, deep, hard to see and extremely hard to ride through even when you do have the abs and traction control off. The big fella and i had our own little moments, both at about 80km/h and both were remarkably close to ending badly. I ended up in the soft deep stuff at the edge of the road and came within a foot of marrying one of the small white posts. Quite an adrenaline surge and really scary. The big guy caught some deep stuff in the middle and was lucky to come out the other side still upright. So from then on we were very cautious indeed.

By the time we got to musgrave in the late afternoon we were very, very glad to get off the bikes. We organised a room for ourselves, had a shower and headed over to the roadhose for dinner, a well earned beer and to discuss what lay ahead of us.

musgrave roadhouse

Our exact location: http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&geocode=&q=-14.7804,143.5037&ll=-14.7804,143.5037&ie=UTF8&z=12&om=1

We had heard that there had been a variety bash event further up the road and that the road was in very ordinary condition with lots of sand. Given that neither of us had had a great time on the road to musgrave, we decided that if the road was worse further up, the chance of damaging ourselves or the bikes or both was very high. So the decision was made that less is more and a change of plan was required. We decided to head back to cains and go across the savannah way to karumaba then to normanton through to hells gate and on to daly waters.

Decision made it was on to the more serious business of eating dinner which was, without doubt, the largest piece of steak i've ever seen. The roadhouse eating area is in the underneath section of an old queenslander which had a great atmosphere which was made better for us by watching the raiders decimate the broncos 56 zip.