Letter 2 from Huw Kingston on his way to Darwin
Read Letter 1: Perth to Carnarvon
Read Letter 3: Update from Drysdale River Homestead
Read Letter 4: Farewell to Western Australia
PERTH2DARWIN UPDATE 23 May - Broome Broome!
PERTH2DARWIN UPDATE 23 May - Broome Broome!
Hello All
And greetings from Broome, the old pearling town and now tourism pearl on the far NW coast of Western Australia. I arrived here, in the rain (first on the bike since Perth!) a few daya ago. There's much to see but the days have passed in a blur of supermarket aisles, list making, Guiness/Iced Coffee and general organization. Wayne has now joined me and as this is the last town we see before Darwin in 2 months time we've had to organize all the food stashes between here and there.
So I'm 6 weeks and 3000km from Perth and 2000km since my last update from Carnarvon. In that time I've traversed the spectacular country of the Pilbara - ridges and mountains rising from vast riverbeds. I spent a few days following the deep gorges of the Karajini National Park in the Hammersley Ranges. This involved sections of swimming down narrow gorges and some surprising water jumps. I'd tried to get information on the area but it was hard to come by. Throwing your pack over a 5 metre waterfall you couldn't see the bottom of then following it yourself knowing there was no way to reverse the route had the heart jumping! Luckily there and on the next one, the water was deep enough to cushion the fall.
It was good to be out on lonely dirt tracks with the bike, sometimes seeing no other cars of a day, sometimes one or two. I was welcomed into occasional homesteads to sepnd the night and collect water. Water has not been too much of a problem once you find out where the bores are and for the most part the bore water has been pretty good. I was keen to reach Broome on time and
realised I'd left myself a bit short of days. So many days were 9 hours or so in the saddle and most days over 100km on the dirt. For the few out on the vast Pilbara properties, time was less of an issue. One guy I stayed with had recently driven the 250km to his 'local' pub to enjoy the Sunday session, only to discover it was Thursday when he got there! Of course there's the exception to the rule - I planned to arrive at one homestead that had set up as a bit of a campground/small store, so I could resupply. 16km away I came to a sign advertising the fact and informing me it was open Sunday to Friday, Closed Saturday without exception. What day did I arrive?
Saturday of course! They were Seventh Day Adventists!The sounds and smells of the vast open spaces - dingo's howling thru the night, spinifex giving off an aroma of cannabis of all things early in the morning and some other plant smelling like freshly ironed clothing (honestly!)
As you know I'm using this journey to raise funds for 4Wheels4Sean. I have to tell you of one particular donation. Eric, the 7 yearold son of the owner of the Gascoyne Junction Hotel, bounded out when I arrived to check out my bike and to find out where I was going and what I was doing it for. After a while he disappeared and came back some time later and handed me a $5 note. I assumed this was from his parents. But no, he told me that it was his birthday the following day and he's been given the $5 as a present from a relative and wanted me to use to help disabled cyclists. What a gorgeous kid!
From Broome starts some pretty wild parts of the journey. Firstly into the Kimberley and starting this weekend a month long paddle along some of the most interesting and isolated coast. Wayne and I are approaching this with excitement and trepidation in equal measure, knowing it will take time to come to terms with the massive tidal flows that affect where and when we can paddle and also hoping the large lizards will leave us alone! Apart from the odd boat and a couple of pearl farms we'll be out of touch for a month or
so. No idea where or when I'll get access to a computer again after that.Hope you're all doing well.
Cheers
Huw