Outback
Outback
I suppose what I’m riding through now can be considered outback country. There are fewer settlements and the gaps between them is getting larger too. Traffic is getting sparser too and most of what does go past is heading the other way. The route I took from Cairns is through the Savannah so in the wet season it gets lots of rain which means there is lots plant life. No flat almost lifeless nothingness yet.
Road Train
The road I’ve been on the last few days – the Gulf Developmental highway – is mostly a single strip of bitumen with lots of dirt to either side to get out of the way of the road trains. As soon as I got to Mount Garnet where the road trains can start one pulled up behind me, they are pretty big, but almost always give me lots of space so no problems so far. Some brave souls try to play chicken with the road trains and stay on the black stuff. You can guess who moves first, the trucks don’t slow down and don’t change direction. There is an unwritten law that the road trains have priority and everything else gives way. Not a bad idea if you ask me, when they get on the gravel stones fly everywhere, I’ve had a few stones to the face already.
I tried to go to see a place called Cobbold Gorge near Georgetown. It was down a 90km gravel track which was badly corrugated. I gave it a shot but after only 5km I’d had most of my teeth shaken loose and a pinch flat so I gave up on the idea of riding down there. Unfortunately I couldn’t get a lift from anyone heading in that direction either. It’s the end of the tourist season and there is little traffic that way now.
Dai had already continued onward, not too keen on the idea of the dirt road so we’d said goodbye. After trying the caravan parks, service stations, the pub and anyone I could see I to try and get a lift to the gorge I followed him out of town a few hours later. I could probably have got a lift if I waited a day or two but I wasn’t that keen. It was a nice tailwind all day so by the time it was dark and I arrived in Croydon I’d covered nearly 240km despite my futile hours of searching for a lift. It’s probably better this way apart from the first day in Sydney I’ve covered every inch by bike. I’m going to have to go back to Colo at the end to cover those few again on bike I think!