Day 115: Wearyan River to Borroloola

June 5, 2021

Start: 8am
Distance: 62kms
Ride time: 4:17hrs
Average: 15km/hr
Max: 33km/hr
Finish: 12:20pm

I was happy to start this morning knowing that I will hit bitumen at Borroloola today.

This was a brief smooth section of road. It got worse.

I store my tripod in the side pocket of my rear pannier. When I retrieved it for this pic I discovered the pocket was full of water.

It must have happened during the Wearyan River crossing yesterday. Fortunately nothing else was wet.

From now on I won't try to float my bike across rivers.

This pretty grevillea was jam packed with nectar.

It tasted like a subtle caramel flavour. It was yummy. I licked 4 of the flowers. I could have stayed there for a long time pretending I was a honey eater bird.

He was about 20cm long and still long enough for me to take the pic before running back into the scrub.

After an excruciating 320km of dirt I hit bitumen.

It was very wide and the river was split in two.

I found out that I had gained 30 minutes from crossing the QLD/NT border.

First lunch was ordinary and carb rich fish and chips.

I checked in to the McArthur River caravan park.

Between lunch and getting to my camp site I had 6 different people talk to me. They had all seen me on the road in the last couple days and were pleased I had survived.

One traveller described the road as 'bloody rough mate.'

It was.

There are a couple small supermarkets in town. I should be able to get some good supplies between the two.

Kangaroo tails with the fur still on is only $1.86/kg. Too big for my trangia stove.

Kangaroo meat is available in Canberra although I've never seen the tails for sale.

The first apple I've seen in about 700kms.

There is a pub here and I was hoping for a steak dinner. Unfortunately the pub has been closed for a while.

There is a grill restaurant and that just happens to be closed this weekend.

I went to a Chinese take away. They are closed tomorrow. So I bought 3 dishes. Salt and pepper prawn for tonight's dinner, black bean beef for tomorrow's dinner (put in the camp kitchen fridge), and honey chicken (frozen for Monday night's dinner).

It all looked and tasted fantastic.

Today's ride: 62 km (39 miles)
Total: 5,457 km (3,389 miles)

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