Letter 3 from Huw Kingston on his way to Darwin
Read Letter 1: Perth to Carnarvon
Read Letter 2: Carnarvon to Broome
Read Letter 4: Farewell to Western Australia
Update From Drysdale River Homestead, 30th June
Hello All,
Geez the legs are aching back on the bike after a month sitting in the kayak following what has to be one of the most special stretches of coast in the world. Only a few minutes on this computer (a rarity round here) at Drysdale River Station, in from Mitchell Falls so I'll keep it shortish.
A month since Broome and Wayne and I are still talking. Plenty to talk about too, but running out of superlatives. We handled the road to Cape Leveque OK despite everyone in Broome telling us it was 'the worst road in Oz' (far from it).
Then onto the water. We had enough to worry about without starting the paddle into a 30knot headwind with tides heading towards springs. Then the next day moving at 18kmh hardly paddling (as a guide your average paddling speed might be 6kmh) gave some idea of the strength of the tidal streams to deal with. Then storm and rain gave us a baptism of KImberley fire. Then things settled down and we got a handle on it all and spent a month in sea kayaking paradise - which island shall we have tonight? how much fish do we want (mmm I jest - we were truobled by the fishing!), what unbelievable rock scenery do we want today? Apart from a couple of pearl farms and 3 or 4 boats we saw no-one else for the month. No point trying to say much here other than it will certainly rank as one of the highlights of over 20000km of City2City travel so far.
So today is Day 80 - '80 days around WA' - 3/4 of the way to Darwin, should be there end July/early August. Another 10 days on the bike then into the Bungle Bungles to walk just about to the Northern Territory border.
Alright Wayne, I'm on my way mate; Gotta go, the corrugations are calling!!
Have Fun
Cheers,
Huw