Week 7 mileage
Day 43: Alice Springs to Uluru: 451kms
Day 44: Uluru to just passed Alice Springs: 471kms
Day 45: Campsite to Barkly Homestead Wayside Inn: 719kms
Day 46: Barkly Homestead Wayside Inn to Mount Isa: 450kms
Day 47: Mount Isa to Normanton: 499kms
Day 48: Normanton to Mount Garnet: 517kms
Day 49: Mount Garnet to Cairns: 192kms
Week 7 mileage: 3,299kms
Total trip mileage: 13,436kms
Welcome all to the Week 7 Blog post.
Huge week on the road for me, covering over 3,000kms!
This was mainly due to my detour down the Red Centre and wanting to get back on track and reach the east coast by 1 May.
The week began with me heading off to Uluru after having visited the Alice Springs Hospital to make my third personal donation of 5 iPads to the Paediatrics Ward.
The ride down to Uluru was a beauty. It felt like a return to more of the Nullarbor type landscape and boy, when you first spot Uluru as well as the Kata Tjuta rock formations, it is a pretty spectacular sight.
FYI – Uluru stands 348 metres high, with most of its bulk below the ground. Kata Tjuta was similarly (but not quite) as spectacular, and embarrassingly I had never heard of this unique group of rock formations – very beautiful though.
I was keen to witness one of the famous Uluru sunsets, and it did not disappoint. The big rock changes colours multiple times as the sun sets. From various shades of red to a blue/purple hue. While not quite as vibrant as the tourism brochures and websites may have led me to believe, it was a pretty special sight and I managed to snap a photo that I will treasure and made the ride down from Alice Springs very worth it.
Snapped this beauty during sunset.
Not being to camp at the base of Uluru (you are not allowed to climb it anymore either) I set up base just outside of the national park in Yulara.
I met a lovely English girl on a solo trip around Australia. We had a chat about our respective trip plans and she sent a photo of my card with my website details to her Mum, who then donated to my ride! How good.
The next morning it was back on the bike headed back the direction I had came! This was mentally a bit challenging, realising I had 800-900kms of riding back over road I had already covered, as well as knowing that I had a long week ahead if I was to make the east coast on time.
Luckily, I had some new tunes on my Spotify playlist and I have become pretty good at both singing along/rapping into my helmet, and mastering some pretty cool head bops and shoulder rolls. I managed to keep myself amused for a while and made it just past Alice Springs, setting up camp for the night. It had cooled right down, 8-9 degrees in the mornings, so was much easier to sleep in the tent!
I was up very early in the cold to jump start a huge day on the bike. There were a few stop offs to include, such as the eccentric Barrow Creek Roadhouse Pub, and of course, the Devils Marbles which I had only cruised past on my rush down for the Alice Springs Hospital visit.
Again, my ignorance of this beautiful country was corrected. I had assumed there were only the two famous Devils Marbles and a few scattered others, not the thousands that fill the area!
Still had to snap the famous money shot though, these two were definitely the most impressive/imposing.
Devils Marbles. Precariously balanced.
After reaching Three Ways, I finally began heading east! The road conditions up north required a slight detour from Highway 1, and instead I embarked on the Barkly Highway, to cover what is known as one of the most lonely stretches of road in Australia, a roughly 700km stretch of road that links the NT to QLD, with only a few roadhouses to break up the ride.
Reaching the Barkly Homestead Wayside Inn, I decided to set up camp for the night. This Inn is one of those truly isolated places, yet with a remarkably large and well equipped Roadhouse bar. I guess being such a common stop off for people making the centre crossing, they need to be well established.
I met all sorts at the bar. I was even invited to a wedding up in Borroloola by an extremely intoxicated couple if only I would buy them some drinks from the bar as they had been cut off – it made for a very entertaining night.
The next day I set off for Mount Isa. It was today I left the NT and made it to QLD!
Making across another border!
Reaching Mount Isa, I was surprised by how big it was.
I knew Mount Isa as a big mining town, and for that famous gaffe made by the previous mayor years ago, John Molony, who claimed that Mount Isa should be a destination for unattractive women, due to the high male to female ratio. Yes, somehow this fella was mayor for a time.
The hospitality was great though, and I had a chance to post some collected souvenirs home, and give the bike a clean. I was exhausted in general though so after a big feed I had a very early night – crashing pretty much as soon as it got dark!
The next day I set off for Normanton, re-joining the Highway 1 route and crossing the Savannah Way. I had been advised to visit Normanton by my grandfather, a wealth of knowledge about all destinations Australia!
My grandfather (Clack), Dad’s father, and my Nan have visited or driven through almost every place I have been to so far on their various travels. It has been great to be able to jump on the phone to Clack and share our experiences. It has been particularly entertaining to learn about how much has changed in some areas in the 20 or so years since Clack and Nan have visited, and equally entertaining to hear about how little some places have changed – there are many “one pub” towns that have not changed in decades, truly frozen in time!
Normanton is a small town in the Gulf of Carpentaria, famous for one very interesting thing, its gigantic crocs. It is known to have the biggest crocodiles in Australia, with the largest ever (unfortunately shot) croc being displayed as a replica statue in town.
I was amazed at the size of it. Krys the Crocodile was 8.63m long, and weighed over two tonnes! Seeing the replica in person it is truly as big as a bus, and looks like something out of Jurassic Park rather than something you can ever imagine seeing in the flesh.
Krys the Croc replica... 8.63 metres!
I visited the Purple Pub for my obligatory local pub visit (you know, for cultural reasons) and met some fantastic people. I do truly believe that, especially in small towns, the local pub is the place to be if you want to learn what the town is about and meet the local characters.
This was no exception, and Peter, a very vocal fella, promptly approached me at the bar. “You’re dressed up a bit fancy mate.” This was based solely on me still wearing jeans and boots from riding the bike around the town, rather than the stubbies and pluggers every other bloke was wearing in the pub.
After explaining myself because, well I felt like I had to, I had a good chat to Pete about my ride. He promptly, and in his very vocal manner, announced to everyone (there were quite a few in the bar!) what I was up to and asked everyone to get their wallets out and cough up.
Due to the generosity of everyone in the bar, particularly one traveling couple who fished out $100, I collected $185 in donations to the Children’s Cancer Foundation.
The consensus from the patrons as to the donation message resulted in an appropriate “Drive (ride) safe, stay hydrated” well wishes.
A few dollars spent on beers from me, resulting in a donation to the Foundation, happy days!
It was then off to Mount Garnet, and almost to Cairns! Reaching Mount Garnet, Cairns was so close, but I was exhausted again from a long day on the bike and the week catching up to me. Getting a good sleep, I was looking forward to reaching Cairns.
The ride to Cairns was amazing, starting to move from the arid rural landscape to the lush tropical greenery of Northern Queensland. Riding up through Atherton and then down through the rainforests into Cairns was beaut.
Beautiful, winding ride down to Cairns.
To Cairns! I finally reached the east coast, and the most northern point of it that I will visit.
I am spending a few days in Cairns, staying with a good mate of mine, and will begin the trek down the east coast later this week.
I look forward to updating you on my east coast ride next week.
Donation update and call to action
As I write this, $26,774 has been donated to the Children’s Cancer Foundation! With my matching donations directed toward hospitals around Australia, that means that as a team, we have pledged $53,548 in the battle against childhood cancer! Thank you so much to you all.
As always, you can donate by clicking here.
All the best for the week ahead.
James