Distance: 358km
Dep: 9:00am
Arr: 2:00pm
Temperature: 21°C - 36°C
Total distance to date: 9457km
Caption: Getting ready to leave our cozy suite within a gated motel in Halls Creek WA.
We took our sweet time getting ready today. We purposely slept in to take advantage of the shorter ride day, and embrace the cool air that has yet to escape Halls Creek. The only patrons that were left were contractors who were busy on the phone, about to make their way over to their work sites. The holidaymakers were long gone; there was a sense that Halls Creek was not a place they wanted to linger around in if they didn't have to.
Our daily ritual of repacking the bikes was nearly complete when a kind woman in her 60's drove up and parked beside us.
"You're an adventurous woman! Where are you coming from?"
"Ah yes it's been really fun so far. Melbourne!"
"Now that's a long trip." (sees Steph come out) "TWO adventurous women!"
She then told us of how she used to own a very old 125cc motorbike back in the day. Her biggest adventure was riding it from Sydney to Canberra - as it turns out, everyone in the parking lot this morning was some sort of adventurer.
Captions: Photos will never, ever do the landscape justice. Mountain ranges such as this appeared on both sides of the road.
The ride from Halls Creek was beautiful in every way. We were immediately presented with rolling hills with easy passing opportunities to get ahead of the sprinkling of work vehicles that were also heading eastbound. Straight lengths of road made way for fast, smooth bends with perfect cambar and perfectly engineered apexes. It was Nena's match made in heaven - and most importantly, there was no fear of a radar gun at any given time.
Caption: So many kilometres of burnt soil. While it may be difficult to see in this photo, the ground was jet black under the surviving bush.
Controlled fires were already alight and clouds of white smoke billowed up into the atmosphere, visible from many kilometres away. Burnt, smoking, charred remains of wood covered the land on each side, still hot with glowing embers. The mountain ranges looked like the backdrop of a fantasy movie. Some parts looked quite 'Lord of the Rings' while others looked more 'Jurassic Park'. Ancient-looking plant life appeared sporadically. Every shade of green could be found on the side of the open and jagged cliff faces on either side of us. Quite the welcome change from several weeks of riding across terrain that barely rose above sea level.
Caption: It didn't matter which direction we turned our heads, beauty was found in every direction.
These were the largest mountain ranges that we've seen since our last trip to the Victorian Alpine Region. After living in the ever flat Melbourne for the last 10 years, my West Coast Canadian soul was revitalised by being hugged by these towering beauties all afternoon. Every time we rounded another corner, it would surprise us with yet another jaw dropping sight.
Caption: Today was such a short ride that we had time to pull over more often to enjoy the epic scenery.
Warmun is a quiet little camping hub with the most expensive fuel we've seen to date at $2.70/litre. It beat out other more remote places we've come across, but they also made up for it with cheap $10 pasta meals and $0.99 bottles of water. Unheard of in today's economy, but especially in Outback WA!
Caption: Some of the last remaining hills before entering Kununurra.
Once on the other side of the mountains, the landscape seemed to flattened out just as abruptly as when the mountains began poking out of the horizon. Kununurra came up surprisingly quick, and before we knew it, we found ourselves in the last Western Australian town of our trip.
To date, every meal has exceeded expectations, until we decided to visit an independently owned fried chicken shop. I tempted fate with a chicken burger and it did not pay off - it's now the worst meal we've had this whole trip. We redeemed ourselves with an excellent pub meal at the only place open in town. Excited to enter NT for the first time tomorrow!
