8 days in the Aussie outback...

Well, Melissa and I got back this afternoon from our ride through the North Queensland outback to Boodjamulla (Lawn Hill) National Park. Now begins the onerous task of sorting through the photos, unpacking the bikes, and putting together a ride report for all of you. Can’t promise I will get it done very quickly, but will post a day by day account as I find time to throw some words together. So if you can bear with me I’ll share the yarn with you – it was a pretty epic adventure! To throw a few teasers: 2424km, 2 bikes, 44 degree heat, 8 days, and me drinking so much wine that I needed a visit from the flying doctor to stop the constant vomiting! Sound like your cup of tea?....

…..read on……

Day 1: Townsville to Georgetown – 540km

Up early, bikes packed, and headed west out of town along Herveys Range Road. As you would have heard me whine about he Bruce Highway whenever we go riding, this trip we managed to stay off it the whole time. So we headed out this back road up towards the gulf savanna, and within 20 minutes of leaving the house we were standing on top of the range, adjusting the luggage and looking back down into Townsville, excited about the adventure ahead.

Looking back down Herveys Range towards the coast and Townsville.


The bikes at the lookout ready to go. We had decided not to camp, so that I could carry everything required on the BMW and Melissa would not need to take anything on the KLE besides herself.


Once we got to the top of the range, the scenery changed from the dry coastal scrub, into a cooler and altogether more lush high country feel.


We rode along the gently sweeping road through the high country which was becoming progressively more scenic, and invigorating. Although we were not even 100km from town, up here is like a whole different world to the coast, and totally empty as there are no towns, and no people. Most prefer to stick to the coast.

We cruised along until I spied a brown marker sign indicating a historical site or point of interest. I’m nuts for a bit of brown sign action and if there is a sign then I have to stop and check it out. And man I wasn’t disappointed. Picture this – 110km from the nearest town, middle of nowhere, and someone built an arty monument to…….bitumen!! The road was only recently tarred, so they thought it worthy of a probably fairly expensive and deeply bizarre display. Check it out!


Also a great opportunity to take some snaps of ourselves. Melissa and the KLE


And myself and the BMW. Big thanks here to Wino, I got the wilddog buffs and they are probably the best riding accessory I have ever received! – but more on them later!


And of course a snapshot of the very excellent bitumen work at Herveys Range Road


We hopped back on the bikes and pressed on for another 15 minutes or so until we joined up with the Greenvale Road. On the edge of the region known as “Gulf Savanna”, the countryside was already starting to look a lot dryer and a lot redder.


We pressed on for another hour or so to the north and reached the very small village of Greenvale. Once a prosperous mining town, now really nothing, but a pleasant place none the less, and good spot to sit under a shady tree and reflect on how much the countryside was different than 200km ago at our house. Only 2 hours riding and we already felt worlds away.


The road leaving Greenvale to the north, along the top of the Great Dividing Range.


We pressed on deeper into the Gulf Savanna, and it became hotter, and drier, but mostly HOTTER! The road surface varied from dirt to crappy single lane bitumen. Was always good for a challenge though…




This area near Undara lava tubes was quite green following a recent fire and some rains. As you can see the difference on the road between cloud shadow and sun on the road was quite marked, and riding out of the cloud was like riding into an oven.


And in typical outback style we shared this pretty narrow and twisty road with some big trucks. Little did we know this truck situation was going to get a LOT more hardcore…


We stopped at Mt Surprise at about 1500, for a fuel up for mel and a cool drink for each of us. The heat was insane at the time, but looking back, it was probably pretty mild for what was to come. Stopped at an old café with the classic Australian “angry old guy” sign out the front.


We hopped back on the bikes to do the final 90km west to Georgetown, our planned destination for the night. And it just kept getting hotter, and hotter, and drier, and drier. At a little range about halfway to Georgetown we surveyed the landscape. Stunning scenery, it was almost like I had come to “Australia” for the first time!






Pulling into Georgetown the heat was insane at 1600. As we hauled our bedraggled arses into the caravan park we were staying, the lady who worked there gleefully told us it was 42 degrees and 1% humidity. That’s pretty hot to be riding around. We were shown to our delightful little (cheap) cabin where we set about unpacking all our crap and sitting in front of the air conditioner.




Fortunately the park had a very pleasant pool, so we ducked in there for a quick swim…


Before heading down to the local pub on the main street..




We walked in the door and were the only people in the bar at 1700! I tell you what the beer there was the coldest, best beer I think we ever had – just the ticket on a hot day.


We smashed down a quick brew, grabbed a six pack, then headed back up the caravan park where I ate the biggest hamburger I think I ever had. From there it was off to bed for an early night and a massive 10 hours sleep, filled with strange hamburger induced hallucinations……

That’s all for today, will write up the other 7 days as I find the energy and remember what happened!

Leon

Day 2: Georgetown to Burke and Wills Roadhouse – 507km

After a very light breakfast following a very refreshing nights sleep, we pushed off from Georgetown at about 0745 with a view to head a fair bit further west, to the Gulf of Carpentaria, then a bit south, the Burke and Wills Roadhouse. Already at that time of morning the weather was hot, but fine as we rode west out of town with the rising sun at our backs.


After about 5km I spotted one of them brown “historical monument” signs again, and turned off down a little dirt road, to find a mystery chimney. No sign of why it was there or who built it, but man it was historical!


Onwards we went through the ever changing outback scenery. This place just amazed me. Every 50km or so the scenery and vegetation would totally change, and in the 150km from Georgetown to Croydon, the scenery went from flat grassy plains with few trees..


…to rolling hills covered in green colourful vegetation.


We pulled in at Croydon very quickly, not much happening there on a Sunday morning as you can see from the main street.


We kept pressing on west after stopping briefly for fuel, moving towards Normanton, in the gulf. On the way another brown sign caught my eye, for a place called “Blackbull Siding”. We pulled over there, and from what I could determine it was some kind of railway siding for the Gulflander railway of yesteryear, established in 1890. Now it was some sort of weird run down derilect thing. Possibly a shop, possibly a museum, possibly even a caravan park. I can’t put my finger on it but it was very freaky put out an immensely bad vibe. For those of you who are familiar with the british comedy series “The League of Gentlemen”, this place WAS the local shop for local people…a bizarre undefined establishment truly in the middle of nowhere.







What was even more concerning was that it was already well over 40 degrees by 10am, and Melissa was becoming very fatigued very quickly. The heat and dull roads were really taking it out of her, so much that while I was cautiously looking around the siding, hoping not to get shot with a crossbow by some unforeseen assassin, she had actually fallen asleep by her bike under a tree!


We got back on the bikes and headed to the town of Normanton, which is probably the biggest town in the area (which is to say very small), and the last town we would see for a week or so. We arrived pretty early in the day due to setting a good time, and opted for an early lunch at one of the crappiest shops in Queensland, which I will show here, just have a look at how enthusiastic Mel is!



Normanton is also home to the infamous purple pub, which is apparently the most violent pub in Queensland – hurrah!


But not feeling like getting my head punched in by some deranged local we headed south to finish the 200km to Burke and Wills Roadhouse. This was a boring road in the extreme. 200km of no nothing, no houses, no towns. Just a rest area about halfway along. And we were so excited even to be there that we pulled over and took a few photos, ate a muesli bar and drank some water to celebrate. If you do this road, believe me you will know the rest area at Bang Bang is a big deal – it even has a dunny!









Back on the bikes and switch brains to autopilot for the last 100km or so to the roadhouse. Due to a good average speed for the day (103km/h), we ended up getting there at about 1400. We thought about pushing on, but decided the best option was to stop there as it was hot, and from here out we would be venturing into the true unknown for us, on to Gregory Downs then out to the park. We fuelled up, they offered us a spot to park our bikes in the shed, and we set up camp in the very basic but comfortable accommodation.







After having showers, we opted for a very early dinner and a couple of beers out the front of the homestead, looking up the road at where we had tomorrow, into the unknown and onto our destination.

I went off to bed feeling a bit funny about the day as it was pretty short, and seemed kind of easy, and felt like we hadn’t really gotten anywhere. But in the end I was so tired I was asleep by 2000 anyway, and we would definitely need the rest for a challenging day 3 that I had severely underestimated the difficulty of….

Leon

Never been to that part of the country Leon, but I have been to places that were similar. Had the same feelings at places in the Simpson. Thanks for showing it. You make it very real

:watch:

Leon said:

So if you can bear with me I’ll share the yarn with you – it was a pretty epic adventure! Leon

Click to expand...

We can bear it . . .

Looking real good, keep it coming Leon.

Swoit........

Thanks for the yarn, nice "filler" on a wet sundee arvo 8)

Day 3, Part 1: Burke and Wills Roadhouse to Lawn Hill Gorge – 246km

The plan for day 3 was easy enough. Get up, ride the 140km or so of bitumen to Gregory Downs, have a hearty breakfast, then ride what I suspected would be a good solid fast dirt road like all others around here, out to Lawn Hill in time for an early lunch and a relax. As we were preparing the bikes and packing up I was yarning to a few truckies and asking them about the route. They pretty much all informed me the route was in very poor condition, as frigging huge road trains cart bulk fuel out to the mine, which is about 50km west of Gregory Downs, along the road we had to travel. I was told the road was severely chopped up, and where it wasn’t chopped, it was covered in very thick gravel, similar to decorative garden gravel. They all hastily added “but you should be right on bikes!”, but I could tell that was just to make me feel better. As we left the roadhouse and headed to Gregory, we spied some of the trucks in question, and they were huge.





As we rode along the flat boring and already hot strip to Gregory, I was becoming deeply worried.

By the time we arrived at Gregory Downs to fuel up at the pub and have some light breakfast, the temperature was already 40 degrees at 0915 in the morning.


Out here, the temp doesn’t really steadily climb through the day and just touch the maximum, it gets as hot as it will be by about 1000, then stays that heat until after 1700. So we would be riding through the toughest part at well and truly the hottest part of the day. Speaking to the pub guy, he concurred with what everyone else had told me about the road being a piece of shit. By now I was starting to freak out slightly, and so was Melissa. Still, she gave a cautious thumbs up…


And we headed out of Gregory to finish the final 100km of dirt to our destination.


As soon as we turned the corner we saw one of the road trains just coming off the dirt. The dust was phenomenal while with was moving. This photo was taken about 20 seconds after it stopped, so we knew the dust was going to be a mission, and this was going to be a hell ride.


And I wasn’t wrong. For the first 50km up to the mine turnoff, the road was severely damaged by trucks. The corrugations were so severe that the bike was never in a straight line, and you had to do about 70km/h to even be slightly smooth. Problem then was huge patches of very deep gravel everywhere, which would cause massive headshake and fishtailing, so you’d gas it more and end up going even quicker. It was really hard and I was really struggling to keep my cool, partly as I knew I was a long way from help, partly as I was worried about some huge truck flying along and causing grief, and partly as I was worried about Mel on the 500, as she had done very little dirt work before, especially not this difficult in a remote area on a day over 40 degrees. Still I boxed on, having a big moment every minute or so and becoming quite hot and stressed. I looked in the mirror, no sign of Mel. Shit. I backed off the gas (and in doing so nearly stacked it in deep gravel), and looked back over my shoulder, no sign. Fuck. Then as I turned back around, off to my left side, Melissa and the 500 came flying past me in the drain!!! The road was so shit she had obviously had a gutful and went up in the drain to ride along almost in the grass. So many emotions for me at that point – I was relieved she hadn’t binned it, I was felling stupid as I hadn’t thought to do that, but mostly I was deeply impressed that she was riding perfectly and managed to do that! I dropped off the roadway and joined her in the drain, which was like a dream! Everything was looking up…


We progressed on for a while like this, going from road to drain, around creeks and so on. It was still hard, and quite sandy in places in the drain, but still a lot easier and quicker than the road. After about 40km we came to a tarred causeway, and stopped there briefly for some photos and a little break.








As we started putting our helmets back on, one of the huge fuel tankers came thundering down the hill in the dirt and across the tar bridge. The dust was phenomenal, and the speed would have been over 100km/h. We looked at each other and couldn’t believe our luck that we ad been stopped when it went by. Had we been on the road it would have been a ride off into the bush to avoid it mission. We jumped on the bikes and cruised as quick as we could for another 5km, until we reached the mine turn off, and possibly the best most welcome sign I can ever remember seeing…


And instantly at that sign the whole tone of the day changed. The panic and stress melted away, the scenery became absolutely stunning and very central Australian (we were only about 80km now from the Northern Territory border here), and the road became very rocky, but predictable and easy and enjoyable to ride on. The heat did not subside, which was of concern, but now we knew it was relatively plain sailing to our destination.

The road took us initially across rolling red hills…






Through flat grassy and very windy plains…


Through dried out sandy cattle properties…


Until eventually we crossed some hilly country and ran south along the Constance Range, which runs parallel to the eastern side of the gorge.






By now Melissa was getting very tired, you could see it on the bike and she was totally out of energy. Which was not surprising as the ride had taken it out of me, and she had been riding like a Dakar superstar. We turned a corner around the southern end of the range, into the gorge, and into the park! We had arrived! At last, it had been a mission and we had so many moments on the road that in our minds we stacked it 50 times each, but never actually hit the dirt at all. Plus we were in new country. Very tired, very hot and with our heads spinning, we stopped of celebratory sign photos.






We hopped back on and rode the 4km up to the camping area, through a gate into the restricted area, then stopped finally at our friends AC and Kush’s house, the people we had come here to see. We parked our bikes at their house in the gorge under a red cliff face, jumped off the bikes and raced inside to the air conditioning. By now it was about 44 degrees, and we just needed badly to cool off.


As we sat around in the aircon, we looked at the clock, it was only about 1200. Still another half a day to explore this new place we were at. To be honest I felt really kind of negative at this point. We’d been trying to get here for days, and it was hard, and now we were here, it kind of felt strange. Felt a bit like we were nowhere in the middle of the dry country, probably as I had heard so much about this park but had not yet looked around. I headed off for a shower, and Mel headed off for a sleep, and we prepared for part 2 of day 3, which when I look back on it was a pretty diverse day.

Stay tuned for what we got up to on the afternoon of day 3 soon…

Leon

Day 3: The afternoon

Following a shower and some light lunch and a catch up with AC and Kush and their fantastic 2 boys Liam and Daniel, Melissa headed off for a sleep and I decided to go for a bit of a look around.

I won’t get too much into information about the park itself, that can be found our work (QPWS) website here: http://www.epa.qld.gov.au/parks_and...lla_lawn_hill_national_park__lawn_hill_gorge/

But anyway everyone had told me it was like an oasis in the desert, and it truly, truly was. Here’s some snaps of what I saw as I wandered around – it’s such a contrast to the dry, dry country all around…

Lawn Hill Creek, about 30m from AC’s house!




The pandanus and palm trees down by the creek. About 15 degrees cooler here than 20m away from the creek bank.


The house was situated right at the beginning of the steep and beautiful red gorge.


AC and Kush house was a basic colonial style QPWS house. Very practical, great verandah, fully air conditioned and modern inside, and only 30m from the creek. A great spot to spend a few days and catch up with friends.


I got back to the house, AC got home from work, we had a cup of tea, jumped in the canoe and headed off up stream, through the very dramatic cliffs of the gorge and up to a place called indari falls.


Melissa and Kush and Daniel walked up to the falls, while we took Liam and some beers and snacks with us. Melissa walked past some impressive cliffs on her way to the falls, about 1km from the house.


Upon arrival at the falls, we swan around and goofed off in the cool water until the sun went down. Nothing quite like a cold beer in a cool stream at the end of a very hot and huge day.








Once the sun had almost set Mel and I set off in the canoe back down to the house, for a delicious meal of lasagna and salad, prepared by AC and Kush. We were told that the best option for exploring this area was to get up very early and walk to avoid the heat, then go out again in the afternoon, and stay indoors or sleep during the heat of the day. We decided that was very sound advice, and headed off to bed. I think I was asleep before my head even hit the pillow! It seemed like a year ago we were heading off from Burke and Wills, but it was only 14 hours ago – it was a big, big day, with more excitement to come as we explored this remote and beautiful place.

Leon

Day 4: Exploring in the morning

Tuesday morning we got up bright and early and headed straight up the cliffs to above the gorge and falls we had canoed the previous afternoon. Now I must warn you – at this point this point gets very self indulgent and has nothing to do with riding…

Everywhere we looked, we saw an awesome landscape. Classic Australian red country, with amazing cliffs, views, gorges and trees. I have tried and tried to cull the photos I took on this day, but there is still a large amount. Won’t do much commentary, will just present a lot of photos to try and convey the feeling of the place.

First up, climbing the cliff behind the house in the early sunlight.


Nearly at the top.


Looking back down the gorge into the QPWS village. AC’s house is the one closest to the camera in the foreground.


On top of the gorge.






Gorge we canoed through the day before.




Sun starting to come out over the top of the higher hills


Looking back down the gorge.




Vegetation on the rock stacks on top of the gorge.




The falls from the day before. Looks odd as there is a little dam wall naturally formed of a limestoney stuff called “tufa”, which has caused what looks like a little lock. These are the falls we were under yesterday, so the wall is about 2m high. The photo’s don’t really do it justice, it looks quite bizarre, and I’ve never seen anything like it before




Heading further up the hill


Aboriginal midden site high above the falls. White stuff is mussel shells eaten many, many thousands of years ago at this site.


From there we headed back down to the base of the gorge, and looked back up at the cliff face in the rising sun.


From there we wandered downstream to a place called “island stack”, which is basically a big stack of rocks on an island in the gorge. To get there involves crossing the creek downstream, and so we didn’t have to get wet, AC had rigged up a little pontoon and rope to pull ourselves over. Felt very much like something out of “The Goonies” for anyone who remembers that film…


Creek shots from the pontoon




Heading up the steep cliffs to the top of the stack.




View back up the gorge. The red cliff on the left hand side is where we just walked from.


Looking north.


Looking south at the road we came in on yesterday through the valley


From there we walked back down the cliff and back across the pontoon. By this time it was heating up, and we had already walked about 5km, on no breakfast. We decided to walk back through the QPWS camping area. This camping area is a great little spot, right by the creek, with showers, drinking water, toilets, and some of our iconic marsupial fanua hopping around. The camp site was dead empty. Apparently it is chock full of oldies with caravans in the winter, and becomes very hectic. We were glad that despite the heat, we had come when we did, as we literally had the whole park to ourselves – if you can hack the heat I recommend it to anyone.







We headed back to the house, had some breakfast, showered, then off for a sleep through the hottest part of the day, with a view to link up with AC at about 1630 and check out some other parts of the park. I must say I was coming around to the midday nap idea!

Leon

Day 4: Exploring in the afternoon

We got up from our sleep at 1600 to discover it was still 44 degrees. Nonetheless we headed off to the ranger base, caught up with AC and we headed off to a place called “Wild Dog Dreaming”, which is an aboriginal art site. The local traditional owners ask that photos are not taken at the site, so I respected that wish, and have some photos on the way in and out of there. The site itself is truly awe inspiring and amazing. A must see for anyone who goes to the gorge. The towering cliffs looked quite haunting in the setting sun, it is little wonder that aborigine and European people feel a connection to this amazing place.

Walking across a spot where the creek only flows in the wet season.


Cliff face walking in


Pandanus on the lower gorge


Bowerbird nest made with trinkets collected from the road and campsite


Cliffs in the sunset






Once back at the house, we ate another great dinner, and planned for the following day. Day 5 was when it all became a little bit unglued for me…..

We headed off for another early night in preparation for a big day tomorrow.

Leon

Day 5: Riversleigh and beyond

Day 5 say us up bright and early again, in the car with Kush and the kids, and off to a place called “Riversleigh D site”





About 70km south of the gorge, this place has one of the richest mammal fossil deposits in the world, and it was amazing. There is a small area of the site that is signposted and tourists can walk around. It was quite awesome as just about every rock you looked in contained a fossil. For a wildlife nerd like me, I was in heaven at this place.

D site


Mock rock interp centre in the middle of nowhere


Life size replicas of the giant birds and freshwater crocs that lived here in yesteryear.


Femur of giant emu bird type thingy


This place used to be by a giant inland lake, and covered in rainforest and very cool. Standing on top of the hill looking out, it was actually quite easy to imagine it back then, but so different now.






The place left me with really mixed emotions. On the one hand it was great that people can go and see and touch and do what they like here, on the other hand it was upsetting that people could do that and steal and wreck stuff. As I wandered around and for the rest of the day I felt very conflicted and strange about it. Fortunately my job involves the protection of wildlife in Queensland, and I left there with a sense of resolve knowing that I may be able to do something to help these long dead animals of the past.

Like I said, almost everywhere you look a rock with a fossil in it.










This one is the fossilised cross section of a turtle carapace.


Stopped for a quick photo in front of some fossils – my moustache is coming along a lot slower than I had hoped incidentally…


Heading back in the hilux, saw a couple of emu’s by the road. Stopped for the obligatory photo.


From there we headed to Adel’s grove for an ice cream and a look around. A small camping, resorty, shop type place about 10km from the gorge and park, but on Lawn Hill Creek. A very pleasant little spot, with a restaurant, hot showers, and a very nice cool shaded camping area.

The rapids at Adel’s.




The shady camping area by a waterhole. If you crave a more luxurious experience than the basic QPWS camping area, I highly recommend this place.








We left Adel’s and of course it was already very hot. Back at the base AC had already knocked off work. We ate a light lunch. Mel and Kush went off for a sleep. AC and I went for a swim. Somehow we decided that instead of having a sleep when we got back we should sit on the deck in 44 degree heat and drink 3L of shitty cheap cask wine. Bad move.

That’s all from me today, will post the wine fiasco and the adventure home in the next few days.

Leon