Leaving Karijini (24/4/14)

I had a fair distance to ride today as I wanted to meet my aunt and uncle at their beach house in Horrocks tomorrow afternoon which is about 1,200 km from here so I wanted to get at least half way on this leg which would take about 7 hours. So I was up a little after the sun rose, which was already warm, and listened to the sound of the morning wildlife. Once out my tent I made a quick dash to the toilet to relieve myself of last nights alcohol and passed by Tim, Dave and Ling's site. Just at the edge of it next to the track stood a lonely, empty bottle of Jack Daniels. Ah yes, there it was, the only evidence of last nights jolly and the reason for my good nights sleep and full bladder. On my way back to my tent the bottle had disappeared and I saw Dave was up and about. I wished him good morning, pointed at the spot where it was and he laughed. I enjoyed my fruit cake breakfast in the sun and started to pack up my bits and loading them on the bike. As I was just about to get my tent down Dave, Tim and Ling invited me over to the BBQ area for a coffee pointing, to their cafetiere, and said it'll be ready in about 5 minutes. So I carried on packing a few bits and then went over to join them. In the BBQ area was, as expected, a couple of BBQ's but also a couple of gas rings on which sat their cafetiere. It was just boiling as I got there and Tim brought it over to share between the three cups and jam jar. They didn't have 4 cups unfortunately so one of them opted for the jam jar as their alternative and gave me a cup. Fortunately I had some sugar which we rationed out as they had forgotten theirs and they didn't have much milk left so the coffee was very strong. But it was probably what I needed to keep me going during the day. I chatted for a while but knew I still had my tent to take down and the final loading to do. Back at my site I quickly took down the tent, rolled it up to put in the bag, got myself covered in red dirt and proceeded to pour some water on my hands to wash it off. This just turned the dust into a red thin paint like coating on my hands and promptly dried. Bugger it. I had to ignore it for now so finished strapping everything to the bike. Atty and Jenny drove past as I was doing this so we waved goodbye to each other and I mouthed thank you but don't know if they saw. I finally got all my biker gear on, sweating from being in the sun, and got on the bike to go at about 8am. As I rode past the BBQ area I stopped to say goodbye to the other three and Tim came over to take my photo. I thanked them again for their drinks and rode off wondering whether I should have got their contact details but thought if they had wanted mine they would have asked so decided against going back. It took a while to ride back to the park entrance and the main road as I was worried about early morning kangaroos but I got there without any incidents. The road to Tom Price out of the National Park gave way to some absolutely brilliant scenery that was as good as, if not better, than the road in yesterday. It passes by some separated rocky ranges on one side of the road with Mt Bruce, which is WA's second highest mountain at 1235m, on the other. It starts off just about visible in the distance at a respectable size but the closer you get the clearer it gets and you soon realise how absolutely massive it is. Mt Bruce stands all alone not far from the road which, for me, is what separates Australia's mountain scenery from other countries. The ranges don't all run on and on for miles, sometimes they're just one massive rock sitting on their own with flat landscape all round them till you reach the next rocky mound. It's so unique. And the early morning sun lit everything up with an orange glow which slowly turned into a crystal clear day. Everything was just so bright, I felt I could just reach out and touch it. I absolutely loved riding along this route. Here I was, in Australia, on a beautiful sunny day, on a Thursday, when everyone at home was at work (sorry to rub it in), and I was absolutely dwarfed by the scenery. I felt privileged to be here and elated at the experience. Right then, at that exact moment, I loved life. I was buzzing, and my grin was huge. This is the terrain I wanted to ride in. I stopped at the side of the road for a while trying to capture the perfect photo and stopped several times more further along the way but gave up without much success. At least I had that image in my head which I don't think I'll ever lose. I rode on to Tom Price looking back every now and then to watch the mountain disappear behind me stopping only once to check out a view point of the road ahead on the way. At the top of the viewpoint the track opened out into a large flat square area. All around the edge were rocks that had been placed there with messages written on them. Messages to loved ones who had died for various reasons, and on the ground were remnants of small fires, and candles that had been lit to remember those who'd died. I took a while to read some of the messages and enjoy the view from the viewpoint and could totally appreciate why people had chosen here as a place to remember. Back on the road I soon got to Tom Price and found a local supermarket to stock up on some essentials like water and bread. I would be rough camping again tonight so wouldn't have any cooking facilities or water supply. With supplies in hand and my tank filled up I started the long arduous journey west to my next stop at Paraburdoo. Paraburdoo is basically a dusty iron ore mining town so for me it was purely a fuel stop and a short break so I was soon back on the road. The road west of Paraburdoo was my longest stretch today so I got my head down, enjoyed the mildly hilly scenery and tried to chew up the kilometres. About half way along this road my arse and my stomach were telling me to stop for a break so I pulled over at a large gravel lay-by to have some lunch. I stopped, took off my helmet, and unzipped the carrier bag on the back of my bike where I had my food. I removed my lock and my maps to get access to the food bag and opened it to find my bread. Out came the bread and with it the tomato and salami that I was going to use to put inside. I started to slice my tomato just as a fly appeared which I wafted away. I opened the salami packet to grab some slices and two more flies appeared. I wafted them away. I ended up making my first sandwich just in time for a swarm of flies to arrive to try and help me eat it. I didn't bother making the second at this point and had to eat the first whilst walking around briskly and constantly moving the sandwich while I chewed to prevent it from getting covered in flies. By the time I started making my second sandwich the word had spread and the battle with the flies doubled. This sandwich required a slight jog to stay ahead of the flies and some very intense chewing and sandwich wafting. It didn't help that I'd bought extra hot salami which brought a slight tear to my eye. For anyone watching it would have been hilarious, for those involved it wasn't. I finally finished my second sandwich and called it quits on my break. I threw the maps back in my bag, zipped it up, got my helmet back on and rode. Luckily none had got stuck inside the helmet. After another long ride with a little bit of nice scenery I arrived at Nanutarra roadhouse which is back on the North West Coastal Highway. I stopped to fill up with fuel and stretch my legs briefly but as it was now late afternoon I wanted to push on to my destination today which was Minilya Roadhouse, another 230km and over 2 hours from here. I got back on the road and made full use of my rubber band cruise control overtaking some of the vehicles on the way. The road was busier this time as lots of people who'd travelled up north for the long weekend were returning back to Perth so the caravans became my main obstacles. I eventually pulled into the free campsite on the opposite side of the road to the roadhouse after deciding to fill up with fuel in the morning and set up my tent. That's when I realised I'd lost something. In my hurry to get everything back in my bag after lunch I'd forgotten to grab the lock which I'd put on the top of my rucksack. Piss it. I hate losing things. I even toyed with the idea of riding back to get it but the fuel would be more than the lock was worth. I would have to forget about it. This wasn't a good start. Once I'd got my bits into my tent I took the time to take in my surroundings. The campsite is just a big oval shaped car park really with dry, dusty dirt as the ground. They're not designed for long stays and you just pull up anywhere there is space. There weren't many people here. A couple of caravans, a couple of tents, someone in a car and me. There were two chemical toilets, and a bench that I'd parked next to but no other facilities whatsoever. I chilled on the bench for a while and enjoyed the pink sunset overhead but the light soon started to fade so I thought I'd better do something about dinner. I grabbed my last packet of quick cook noodles and went on the scrounge again for some hot water. I managed to ponce some from one of the two caravans and stayed for a while to chat with them while their billy boiled (there was no billabong). Once the water had boiled though I went back to my tent to eat dinner. It was dark by the time I finished but still early so I took the opportunity to relax in my tent and watch a couple of movies on my tablet. By the time I went to bed more people had arrived, their headlights lighting up my tent, and it had started raining. Inside the tent was absolutely boiling though so I had a bit of trouble getting to sleep but eventually managed it.