Dingo day: Gibb River camp to Hann River camp - Crocodile Dreaming - CycleBlaze

June 30, 2013

Dingo day: Gibb River camp to Hann River camp

Today was a pleasant roll from one excellent river campsite to another excellent riverside campsite.

The day was most memorable for a close encounter with a dingo. I'd seen many footprints in the roadside sand in the precious days, an we'd heard howling at night but this was the first sighting.

The 6th day in numbers looked like this:

56 km
4 hrs 25 mins of pedalling
Average 12.7 km/hr
Max. 25 km/hr

And the scenery starting with a delightful sunrise, looked like this:

The first rays of the day poke through the tree canopy and halo the grass ...
seen from camp on the Gibb River
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Early morning: Gibb River camp when long shadows mean it is time to eat muesli, drink coffee, stuff things in panniers and start pedalling.
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Roadside signage at the junction of the Gibb River Road and the Kalumburu Road...confirms that we are plunk in the middle of the Kimberley.I like maps with "You Are Here" arrows!
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Not too far to downtown Derby? I hope barramundi and chips are on a menu somewhere there.
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More of that distinctive Kimberley grassy woodland and its twittering birdlife
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Early morning rides were a pleasure. The one trap was tree shade camouflaging corrugations in the roads. Kept us alert and slightly alarmed.
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Yep...it is sandy! Riding in this stuff becomes tedious after a hundred or so kilometres.The road is an alternating series of slight rises and slight depressions signed as "Floodway"The flood ways were often deposits of deep, coarse sand which is not obvious until the wheels sink.
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A fellow traveller...delivery truck taking supplies into homesteads.
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Another one which didn't make the distance. This road is tough on vehicle axles and suspension.
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The white trunks look like a landscape painting
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And the highlight of the day. This dingo just trotted up toward me through the grass, then crossed the road right in front of me.The dingo breed is thought to be a relatively recent introduction to Australia, having being brought from Asia sometime within the last 10,000 years. Perhaps as recently as 4,000 years. Aboriginal people have been living continuously in the Kimberley for more than 40,000 years. The dingo closely resembles a breed of dog I saw in north Vietnam villages. When travelling there several years ago, I asked our translator what the type of dog was called he said, "I don't know; I just call them 'The Delicious'"
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Well dusted bikes on a Bendigo family caravan stopped on the road with a flat tyre. (At the Hann River crossing where they were doing the repairs.) The driver said he was looking for a nice, deep river crossing to give the bikes a cleansing dip.
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Will gives his bike an oily treat at the Hann River camp.
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Clear, swimmable Hann River water
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Paperbark trees on the Hann River bank
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Another Hann River scene .... with Pandanus trees
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Striking white barked eucalypt near camp at the Hann River.
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Hann river crossing
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Curious bull near our camp at the Hann River
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Today's ride: 56 km (35 miles)
Total: 367 km (228 miles)

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