Cycle day 21 - Bushcamp to Fitzroy Crossing - Far too much luggage

May 19, 2024

Cycle day 21 - Bushcamp to Fitzroy Crossing

Bushcamp to Fitzroy Crossing = 76km. 1503km cycle toured so far on this trip.

Another warm day at 31 degrees with an overnight low of about 17. Winds are still blowing from the east and for most of the day it was a crosswind and occasionally a crosstail wind.

We are staying at the Fitzroy Lodge which is about 3km before town or just before you cross the new bridge. It is $53 per night for unpowered (I think they have a single person rate). It is a nice enough place but very over priced for unpowered. It has a camp kitchen where 2 out of the 8 power points work and so we've had to ask reception to check out the points as one of the points is hooked up to a microwave type oven and unfortunately we need that for our dinner tonight (good chance they are just going to ignore us over our request!), fridge and freezer, mediocre tables and chairs, damn hot under the verandah at times and the usual 'effin miles away from the unpowered section so needless to say this is an overpriced shite hote really, but we have no other choice but to stay here, we need the break after the 5 day ride from Warmun Roadhouse. I don't think we could have done the 5 days ride to Broome on top of the previous 5 days without a break! Fortunately the unpowered section is a free for all and we are plonked under some trees which will give us shade for the bulk of the day.

So yesterday afternoon while sitting in our Helinox's chatting away we spy a little visitor to our camp. It was a fast little wee thing and we are not sure on what type of lizard or skink it might be - they all look the same to me!

It was small maybe 20cm in length and even then 1/2 of that was its' tail!

And I just remembered before we got in the tent to take a photo of our spot

This is taken with the road to the back of me.

As I said yesterday we were getting up early as the IGA closes at 1pm but also the road to Fitzroy Crossing goes predominantly in the north direction with the first 1/2 (40km) or so going alot north and with the strong Easterly winds this would mean a crosswind for us - although not tough on the legs crosswinds coming from your right can be really hard on the upper body and arms as the winds are strong enough to blow you around a bit and you are left fighting to control the bike plus winds from your right along with traffic travelling in the opposite direction (especially trucks) also have a magnified 'wash' effect and their turbulence just hits you like a wall! So I wanted to do the first half before the wind kicked in.

So on the road just before 5am and while packing up this morning 3 road trains passed our campsite but once on the road there were none until daylight!

There are alot of Aborignal Communities dotted along this highway and some you can just see from the road and some are miles away. And since there is nothing else to do I get to practice trying to pronounce the names of these communities -not sure I end up pronouncing them correctly but they do help pass the time and occupy the mind when nothing else is worth looking at or thinking about!

The first one - not sure if the Nga is like in Maori pronounciation but at the end of the word the 'kdji' pronounciation got me. The rest were ok to pronounce!

By 40km we were over the bulk of the north bound roads and the wind was yet to pick up. However we did have our first puncture - Neils trailer wheel had a tiny wee hole that was a really slow leak, but enough for him to know something wasn't right as he couldn't keep up with me!

From there it is a gentle climb up with pretty strong cross tailwinds and so we had a lunch break 20km out. The traffic was heavy both ways and a mixture of trucks and local traffic and a few travellers chucked in there and there was no shoulder, the roads were wiggly so we had to get off alot and there were a few of those single lane bridges.

Happy to get to this bridge at 10am - nice and early and it is like having an extra rest day. So we booked in for 2 nights (we knew what the price was going to be!) set up camp and unpacked the front panniers and rushed of to the IGA to get some food. We had plenty of time to spare! Here are some photos of this new bridge which is complete but there is still alot of work being done - we think they are replacing the single lane bridge and so prep work needs to be done to divert traffic etc.

This bridge was started about 2 years ago after the original one was washed away with serious flooding

They even have a pedestrian/bike access on the side

This is the river looking northwards with the rock retaining wall running alongside the lodge that we are staying at

this is looking southwards and I think the rock retaining wall was washed away in this years floods! And did some serious erosion into the embankment.

Got dinner and a few supplies and came back and had a looooooong hot shower. Had something to eat and are now back at the tent resting in the shade watching people come in. There are not alot of people stopping over here - maybe the price? I think alot go to Mary Pool RA as that is free!

Here is our spot with our table that I have nicnamed the "Ruth and Freddie" table as it is the size of a kids table and if adults sit down your knees are just under you chin!

We are here until Tuesday (Neils Birthday - and he is feeling every bit of his 65 years!) and will take 5 days to get to Broome - 390km from here.

Today's ride: 76 km (47 miles)
Total: 1,503 km (933 miles)

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