Day 58: Denham - Hamelin - Billabong - Katherine to Perth 2022

September 14, 2022

Day 58: Denham - Hamelin - Billabong

We packed up our lovely Denham apartment and headed off into a southerly wind, albeit less ferocious than yesterday’s northerly. I was glad to have gotten a lift to Denham. I’m not entirely sure it would’ve been worth the cycle. We passed Tessa and Phoebe on their way back into town from their presumably pretty windy camp at Eagle Bluff but didn’t see any mallee fowls.

We got back to Hamelin about 9, retrieved all our stuff from the room and then set about changing my tyre. It was not too difficult, although only cause I put both edges of the tyre in the dip of the rim and pumped the tube up to push them out. I remain unconvinced it’s seated properly enough to hold air as tubeless but it’s riding okay with a tube. The other tyre wasn’t quite as dire as I feared, but I’d like my standards to be higher than not actually having holes in the tyre. Mum and Dad took it to bin it.

It was 10am by the time I set off. It was pretty gusty side winds heading back to Overlander. Mum and Dad went for a little walk but still overtook me only about 5k from Hamelin. I made it to Overlander and nearly got blown back up the road when I turned south.

I departed from tradition and got a chia pot from the roadhouse. I can’t keep eating so many chips. I wouldn’t like to guess how long the chia pot had been there. No food poisoning yet though. I also finally finished the last of a packet of vita wheats from Kununurra. Lucky I bought a replacement packet in Broome.

Doggy drivers at Overlander. Just after I took this they started barking at a German Shepherd that stuck its head out a little doggy flap on the back of the tray of a ute

The wind seemed to have eased a little bit, and was sometimes also blowing in sideways. Predominantly from the west but sometimes felt like the east. I don’t know what was going on. I thought it was 37k to Billabong roadhouse but it’s 47. I don’t like to push fast into a headwind cause it frustrates me so I went pretty slow. There were also some low rolling hills. It was a bit of a rough reintroduction after three rest days.

It’s 156 ks down this track to Murchison, where no one lives. Most surprisingly, I saw two cars go down here

I got passed by lots of cattle trucks, which are smelly. I’m not sure if they were all coming from one station, or there’ll just be more from here on down. There were some nice grevilleas flowering on the side of the road, providing some taller flowers.

It took me 3 hours and 40 minutes to get to Billabong. I’m hoping to do 120k tomorrow so will want to get a higher average speed than that.

There is free camping behind the first roadhouse. There’s a second roadhouse with a bar and a paid campground. I hope it’s nicer, but I stayed in the free one and spent my camping money on food. They had rice paper rolls with no meat, so that was afternoon tea! There’s some toilet/shower cubicles around the other side of the roadhouse that say “overnight facilities” so I took that to mean me and had a nice hot shower. After dinner, I thought about going to the bar for a beer to write this but couldn’t be bothered so lay in my tent instead.

I’m camped at the back of the area, as far away from the road and generator as I can get

Today's ride: 75 km (47 miles)
Total: 3,985 km (2,475 miles)

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