August 6, 2022
Day 19: Gibb River to Hann River
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I went down a side track just back from the river where there is some Aboriginal art on some rocks. It’s not exactly a cave, just some bigger rocks on a rocky plain but the paintings are pretty amazing. They’re figures, maybe women, but quite detailed. There’s no sign but they’ve built a fence around to keep idiots out. Taking photos of art seems to me like taking photos insidea cathedral. Potentially both are fine but I feel uneasy about it.
I rolled back up to the rest stop to use the toilets. They have a sign inside saying “operate lock carefully” so I didn’t operate it at all. That would be my worst nightmare end to the trip, being stuck in the dunny at the Kaulumburu turn off. Luckily that didn’t happen and I could continue on to another suboptimal but expected outcome: many corrugations. It was the same green, shady country as yesterday but it was difficult. Often the road had sunk and was corrugated all the way across and banked on the side. I spent a reasonable amount of time trying to ride a sloping sandy bank with limited success. At least the corrugations meant no one was going quickly so the dust wasn’t bad. Except from the dust from the first cattle train I’ve seen. He wasn’t going quick but the dust was immense. I pulled my bike up the bank and off the road completely.
Eventually the road rose off the floodplain and got a bit better. Alan, the friendly cycle tourist I met in Kununurra had told me there was reception at the Ngallagunda turn off. The community is closed to visitors cause of covid. I had been worried my GPS messages weren’t getting through cause Dad, usually a conscientious correspondent, hadn’t replied to my message from Ellenbrae. I had some visions of him calling around stations asking about me. But when I got into reception, he’d somehow replied to my phone instead and everything is fine. A family in a caravan gave me cold water, so I spent a while at the turn off drinking that and talking to Mum and Dad as they left Jen’s place in Charleville then Jen & Robyn. The signal was even strong enough to video call Robyn and my niece Hannah who was not convinced it was me cause I’ve cut my hair.
It was a fairly easy ride down to Hann River where I decided to stop and have a lazy afternoon. I filtered some water, cleaned my chain again, did some washing and charged my solar battery. There’s a little area for caravans up on the bank but I camped right down in the river, both in sight of the road and next to the creek, neither of which I would do normally. But I’m also in sight of the caravans, and the river is roughly 15cm deep. I had a chat to the family who gave me water who were sitting in the river in deck chairs a bit downstream.
Today's ride: 55 km (34 miles)
Total: 1,232 km (765 miles)
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