Day 28 - 6th May 2013 – Katherine
to Victoria River
Cycling Stats: 193 km
Cycling Speed: 32 km per hour
As this was a relatively long ride for
Walter he set off as soon as it was light. Dianna & I packed up the van,
made coffee & had a brisk walk along the Victoria Highway which was, at
that hour, very quiet. A quick fuel stop to top up the tank and then we were on
our way.
The topography quickly changed to become a
lot more hilly and the highway cut through the red rocky innards of the hills
so we drove through short red tunnels. We passed through a lot of grassy
terrain featuring broad expansive flat-topped green hills.
Walter tells me that at the beginning of
the ride he experienced a little head wind and then as the morning wore on this
changed to a slight tail wind.
All in all a good day’s riding. Arrived at
Victoria River Roadhouse at around 2pm. Around 4pm Di & I were keen to see
a bit more of the famous Victoria River and Walter told us there was a track at
the rear of the van park so we set off to explore. We now know how some of the
early explorers may have felt for when the track disappeared and we decided to
take some very narrow almost non-existent paths we actually became a bit
disoriented and ended up in some near impenetrable scrub – very dense bushy
terrain. Not altogether sure of
how to get back to the caravan park we decided to do what all intrepid
explorers do - head back towards the river and follow it to the dominant
landmark - the Victoria Bridges (old & new). It was a bit tricky as the
banks were steep and we weren’t going to go too close to the water for fear of
crocodiles. A bit scratched and dirty we found our way back and we were very
pleased when Walter suggested a late afternoon drink at the Victoria River
Roadhouse.
Later Willemsee another Dutch cyclist (wow
– 3 now including Walter) popped by our campsite to say hello. His journey was
from Cairns to Adelaide and he is 62, a year younger than Walter and he also is
travelling with his wife as support crew in their small camper trailer. Walter
had a great chat with him that evening and they shared stories about the day’s
ride as Walter had actually met him that morning early on the road heading out
of Katherine. Why do all Dutchmen have this yearning to cycle around Australia
– cycling must definitely be in their blood !
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| he certainly did !! found this sign by the roadside - it literally fell off the back (or front) of a road train |
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| on the road |
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| the grasses |
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| another view of the road we travelled |
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| Brandy Bottle Creek - reflections |
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