The Longest Friday

I would title this into the red hot center,..but its been pouring for days.  That’s POURING not raining.  The dry river bed (and transient camp for aboriginals) is currently suitable for white water rafting.  Its not the rainy season,..just weird weather.

The locals are loving it,..aside from discovering leaks in their roofs(and not caring cus its not going to rain like this for another 80 years),..the rain has cooled down the air temperature and graced the usual parched red land with greenery.

Good grazing land stretches out along the creeks in pastures and sprawls beneath extraterrestrial looking pines and gum trees.

Alice was a sort of hallmark for my Australia tour,..I’d heard about it since I was kid and it felt great to have finally arrived to see if first hand.  My first impressions were perfect.  By chance I’d wandered into the outback styled bar of Bojangles.  A historic pub decked with memorabilia of a wild and turbulent past….loads of guns, swords,..gator skins,..tributes to Ned Kelly(Aussie Outlaw)…line the walls and hang precariously from the ceiling. They even had a skeleton sitting atop an ancient motorcycle with a live python twisting through the rusty rig.  The skeleton is wearing a metal chastity belt. I didn’t think there actually was such a thing,..and I didn’t expect to see one displayed by a grinning skeleton on a motorcycle providing habitat for a live python in an Alice outback pub.  Not unlike some Alaskan towns,..there’s a feeling of frontier permeating the atmosphere.  Lots of strange folks, with even stranger stories.  I spent a few hours in the pub having a yarn with some truckers over various cold but mediocre beers and a whopping Kangaroo steak.  After I probed with a few questions, I was resting assured that none of the truckers were hauling bulldozers,..so I didn’t have to rip one of the swords off the wall.

Another key point for me in Alice was linking up with Randy.  He’s another overlander working his way around the globe on a bike..but with a very cool twist. He’s your modern day Maverick,.. playing poker in each town with enough success to put gas in his tank and keep himself on the road.  Definitely the only guy I know doing that.  Back in Panama we’d met up and gone in on a Sail boat to get our selves and our bikes around the Darian.  Over several stomach wrenching days of rough seas to Colombia,..we’d gotten to know each other.  We never actually toured together, cus I was a biker with a paragliding and mountaineering problem…and was not making very good time as I rolled south.

Randy at the 24 hour laundromat,..thats open 24hrs……. except when its raining.

So it was with some degree of wonder that we both ended up in the same town on the other side of the world…in the desert during an epic rainstorm.   We agreed to team up for an attempt on the Gunbarrel track.  General consenses on the route was not favorable from those we’ve talked with,..so we are approaching with enough fuel to back off at any point.

Although an outstanding urban rider,… The Maverick’s poker life style has kept him out of the bush and in the casinos.  So we are breaking him in gently on bush camping, as we’ll be riding wilderness on the Gunbarrel.  He’s picked up a good tent, bed roll, extra fuel containers, ect and he’s squaring away his bush kit as we get closer to the route.  I’m hoping he swaps out those bungees for some rachet straps…we’ll see.

Alice was a spot to gear up,..although prices were astronomical…the gear was there.  My BestRest Pump had recently failed as well as all my attempts to repair it(warranties aren’t much help when you  consider shipping costs overseas).  So its back to the ghetto slime pump,..which works just as well anyway.  My nice primaloft sleeping matt is blown out as well.  20 minutes in a river trying to find the holes and squeezing out a full tube of seam seal didn’t solve the problem…so its back to the 15$ blue foam….some times its good to be forced back to basics.  Since I’m rigged for it, and comfortable hauling a big load with that solid 1150 motor,..I’m the mothership for this trip,..carrying the majority of food, fuel, water, cooking equipment, spares, ect.

We are working our way towards the Gunbarrel via Kings Canyon and Ayers Rock.  The next few days will give us time to asses our kit and our capability on these dirt roads in regards to heavy rains.  Our first 100k of dirt was fanstastic.  The KTM dealer in Alice told us to stay clear(best intentions for tourists,..I’d say the same thing), but we went anyways and it was a blast.   The rain helped keep the dust down and the mud was a breeze compared to that nasty stuff seeping out of the South American Jungles.  However, this was just one dirt road, and we can’t fully judge whats ahead by a mere 100k.

The bush camping was top notch.  The flys were horrid as usual,..but we’ve got a system in place to deal with them.

Anytime you stop for more than a few minutes during the day…the head net goes on.   At dusk the solar charged flies back off and we can remove the head nets, cook up some feed, and enjoy the sunset.

Massive down pours arrived a little after midnight, slamming against my tent with such force I had to resort to earplugs to get back to sleep.  Its times like this when your glad you’ve got a high quality shelter over your head.  (Thanks Ian for helping pick out the Aussie made bombshelter of a tent)

We pitched our tents this evening at Kings Canyon Resort.  It’s an impressive lodging and camping resort just outside Kings Canyon.    Nothing beats bushcamping for a scenic campsite,..but I’d be lying if I said I didn’t enjoy the pool  and hot shower,… and Randy treated me to a 7 dollar glass of beer….prices are up out here.