Day: |
019 |
Date: |
Tuesday, 7 August 2007
|
Accommodation |
Motel room at Victoria River Roadhouse
|
Summary |
Riding from Mataranka to Victoria River Roadhouse and visiting
Casuarina Street Primary School in Katherine.
|
Start Time: |
3:50am
|
Finish Time: |
7:10pm
|
Daily
Map Kms: |
300
|
Total
Map Kms: |
5,151
|
Map Kms To Go: |
9,261
|
Map Kms ahead (+)/ behind (-) schedule: |
0
|
Daily Odometer Kms: |
306.0
|
Daily Average Speed: |
24.50kph
|
Weather: |
Cold early. Very warm and sunny later. SW winds.
|
Nutrition: |
Big Brekky for breakfast. Snacks during day.
Schnitzel Parmigiana for dinner.
|
Encounters: |
Visiting the students of Rod Gregg’s class at Casuarina Street
Primary School to talk about my trip and answer their questions.
They were interested and well-behaved children and I very much
enjoyed the visit. This was followed by a photo session in
front of the school. Rod plans to write an article for the
Katherine newspaper and will e-mail the report and photographs to me
later.
|
Highlights: |
Despite fatigue, the last hour riding through the valleys of
Gregory National Park surrounded by high craggy bluffs at sunset.
|
Lowlights: |
The last 100km was very hard work on a hot afternoon against a
moderate headwind.
|
Daily Pictures: |
Here |
Daily Podcasts: |
|
Journal: |
I rose at 3:00am and left at 3:50am to ride into Katherine and my
appointment with Rod Gregg’s class. I miscalculated how long
it would take me for the 100km trip, compounded by residual fatigue
meant that I ran behind time and called Rod to say that I wouldn’t
get there until about 8:15am when school was due to start. He
didn’t seem to mind and the visit was a lot of fun. I left
the school and rode into downtown Katherine where I decided that I
needed to have a good breakfast given there were no other towns
between Katherine and Victoria River my goal for the day. I
ate at a roadhouse, then did a bit of shopping before leaving town
about 10:30am heading southwest towards Western Australia.
The day had become very warm and I heard it reached 29C in Katherine
later in the day. Compounding the heat was a slight headwind
and some gradual hills, which meant that progress was hard work and
a little slow. The countryside was predominantly
lightly-timbered cattle grazing country with lots of Brahmin cattle
around a good covering of brown grass. As I grew more
fatigued I increased my break frequency to every 30km and found I
was drinking lots. The tedium of the afternoon was broken by
seeing a cattle drive of a several hundred cattle and eight or ten
drovers parallel with the road. A little while later I got a
wave from a small helicopter whizzing along about 50 metres above
the road. The last part of the ride was through Gregory
National Park was scenically spectacular with the sun setting over
craggy mesas and dappling the valleys. I finally reached my
destination of the Victoria River Roadhouse which looked like it
might be an attractive place, but I won’t see it in daylight.
I tried booking a room at Kununurra for tomorrow night while having
breakfast in Katherine but had no luck. Therefore I will aim
to reach Kununurra (316km) around dusk tomorrow and if there’s
nowhere obvious to stay will continue on towards Hall’s Creek
grabbing a nap somewhere along the way. One downer today was
discovering that the two podcasts I had recorded had not worked.
I messed around with the Voice Recorder for a while and seem to have
managed to reset it. Hopefully it will work tomorrow.
|
|
ADVENTURE LIST
Round Ireland
(2016)
Hume & Hovell Walking Track
(2013)
Via Alpina
(2012)
Australian Alps Walking
Track (2011)
Land's End to John O'Groats
(2010)
Round Oz Bike Record Attempt
(2009)
Round Oz Bike Record Attempt
(2008)
Round Oz Bike Record Attempt
(2007)
Australia Tip to Top MTB
(2006)
Adelaide to Darwin MTB
(2005)
Sydney to Melbourne MTB
(2004)
Three Peaks Race
(2004)
Appalachian Trail
(1986)
Alpine Track
(1983)
|