Prologue

Almost a year to the day I left Brisbane to ride my BMW R1200GSA to Broome, Western Australia via Melbourne, Adelaide and Perth. I was between contracts and had five weeks to prepare the bike, my gear and get there (see Brisbane to Broome on HU).

I spent ten months in Derby, north of Broome and completed my contract. During the winter months, the dry season, I was fortunate enough to get out and about in the Kimberley along the Gibb River Road, a remote and iconic 4WD destination in Australia that the modern world is slowly catching onto.

The ‘Gibb’ is 600kms long travelling through the heart of the Kimberley, displaying numerous gorges and waterfalls. The first 100kms from Derby is a narrow bitumen strip, but then becomes dirt just before the turnoff to Windjana Gorge and Tunnel Creek. The rest is varying grades of rough, gravelly, corrugated and rocky road, punctuated with river crossings.

I used this place as a bit of a playground for a couple of reasons. I don’t have a lot of experience on dirt, and extremely little on Ziggy, my BMW 1200 GS Adventure so this was the perfect place to try out techniques and skills gained at a two-day BMW offroad course I had squeezed into my time in Brisbane.

Over the last 10mths I’ve tackled a variety of surfaces and ridden regularly between Broome and Derby, eventually clocking up another 10,000kms. I’ve put the big girl – Ziggy – well and truly through her paces and have decided without a doubt this is the right bike for me to take on a trip around the world that I’ve been planning for the last 18mths.

During my time in Derby I have completely redesigned the gear I am taking and have opted for soft luggage, a Giant Loop Great Basin – the older model 50L bag, and a 49L Ortlieb waterproof Rack Pack. I’m still looking for a suitable tankbag but it will probably be around the 15L. So 114L of space to fit everything I need for the next three years through all climates and five continents.

I’ve taken many leaves out of the ultralight cyclist and walking books and have made some spectacular weight reductions without loss of functional items. I looked very critically at what I REALLY needed, giving preference to things that had two or more uses. I reduced the weight from 55kgs to under 20kgs. Once my blog is running I’ll display the comparative lists.

Of course, doing this at the opposite end of your own continent means you have to return the heavy gear back, so I sent some post bags to Brisbane, but I am still carrying the hard panniers and a bunch of other gear, so this is not going to be a lightweight trip.

Some pictures of The Kimberley to whet your appetite.

looks good ill be heading out there next year , what's the price of fuel out that way ? is it easy to get bike repairs done and get supply's out there ?

I was chomping at the bit to leave Broome having spent two days preparing and organising Ziggy and the gear. Despite getting up at 5am I didn’t roll away until 9.30am…see if I can improve on that.


Seeya Broome, as I set along the road to Derby that had become so familiar to me in the last 12 months. Now this was to be the last time so I took special note of the landmarks that had somehow become routine. The Warlu Way turnoff south to Port Hedland, the friendly owner at the Roebuck Plains Roadhouse who had sold me the cheapest 98 octane fuel around for months.

The gnarly old boab trees, the smelly decomposing cow in a ditch on the side of the road, the swooping brown hawks feeding on wallaby carrion, the stillalmost finished new abattoirs half way to Derby, and my favourite, Nillibubbica – the rest stop with the best name in the Kimberley!



It has shelter and bbqs


Great facilities


But I always carry my own just in case.

Crossing the two single lane bridges and passing the Willare Roadhouse, I realised with a hint of sadness that this was like a farewell lap of the area I had come to temporarily call home.

The big intersection with a right turn to Fitzroy Crossing was my new direction, It’s like a gateway to my eastward journey that will continue even after Brisbane.


216kms to Fitzroy Crossing is a typical drive in this part of Australia. If you’re not doing 200kms, the engine isn’t even warmed up! For months I have ridden 220kms to visit my girlfriend for the weekend and thought nothing of it. She thought it was the perfect distance away from a boyfriend!

So on the way I dipped 30kms to the right to have a blue slushie at the tiny township of Camballin


before returning along the dirt to the main highway.



My new slow pace and regular stops finally revealed Fitzroy Crossing at 4.30pm and I stayed with my mate Andy, who I used to work with in Derby.

Always good to catch up with old friends, and even better if I remember to take a photo of them!

Hey Monkey Boy, depends on your bike. For a BMW I had two options. 2000kms to Perth or 2000kms to Darwin. Other bikes there will be services in Broome such as tyres and repairs etc.

Fuel varies, but up around the $1.80 a litre, as you get inland expect up to pay $2.20. Supplies are no problem, plenty of shops in Broome, supermarkets, 4x4 stores, and Derby has the same but smaller.

PN

__________________
When you come to a fork in the road…take it!

BLOG: paulnomad.blogspot.com.au

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Started at 8.30, leaving Andy’s house and heading to the next town – Halls Creek. 280kms on the map so I planned it to arrive around lunchtime and then consider my options and look at going to the Bungle Bungle ranges in a national park 50kms on from Halls Creek.

The weather was beautiful, starting at 32C with blue skies and a cool breeze on my back.


Ziggy and I have already discussed the need to get into ‘cruise mode’ so our days of burning up the Kimberley roads at 120 are over and now I’m settling for a leisurely 100 – 110km/h. She begrudgingly accepted this after putting in a strong argument for cruising at 130.

Over the course of the morning I came across several rest areas. Often I would just pass them by in my life BN (before nomading), but now, just because I can, I stopped at each one.


Amazingly good amenities, but no water; some with views


and some that allowed Ziggy to ‘survey the kingdom’

One stop had a creek crossing, some inquisitive cows and like many others, tables and barbeques. I took the opportunity to brew my first coffee of the journey using the Whisperlite and my new titanium pots. All performed admirably.


As the middle of the day approached and the temperature nudged 38, the landscape changed continually from fields of termite nests,


some telling you which way to go


one with a bit of unusual attention


to denuded cattle plains, to rocky outcrops and fields of stone. A green hue carpeted the landscape with the new seasons’ growth, giving the landscape a freshness and beauty belying the harshness of this top end. Less than a week ago a cyclone had passed right through here.

I passed the infamous Tanami Road, a dirt road running for hundreds of kms through the desert directly to Alice Springs. Not for the light-hearted or the under-prepared.


After much dawdling I finally arrived at Halls Creek at around 2pm. This place is as outback and remote as you can wish for so I found it interesting to find the Chinese owners of the Shell struggling to speak English, not to mention they forgot to order unleaded petrol in time and had run out, AND told me they were the only place in town to buy petrol, much to the dismay of the Toyota dealer where I filled up.

I ate at the Poinciana run by a Chilean couple and then decided to stay at the caravan park run by a Dutch woman and a Chinese man, the shop later personned by an Irish lass; due to being informed by the Indian gentleman at the information booth that the Bungle Bungles were closed due to a recent bushfire.

“When will it be opened again?” I asked.
“Aprrril”.

I don’t think I’ll wait. I might have to re-think my round the world plans though if I can get all this cultural diversity here.

__________________
When you come to a fork in the road…take it!

BLOG: paulnomad.blogspot.com.au

FaceBook: www.facebook.com/PaulNomadRTW

The morning light pried my left eyelid open at 4.45am and I managed to fight the inevitable until 5. I contorted my way out of the hammock that I had strung between two trees way too far apart and during the night the ropes stretched enough to have me lying on the ground. No crocodiles around fortunately. No photo either

The morning routine of breakfast and packing up and I was on my way by 6.30, a new PB! Almost immediately the landscape impacted me. As I wound through some ranges there were spectacular bluffs of impossibly old rocks that still echo the local Aboriginal folk who practice their 60,000 year old culture even today. This ancient landscape has been silent witness.





Thousands of termite mounds laying like giant dinosaur turds are as individual as fingerprints, the occupants building more ‘rooms’ each rainy season.


Their organisation and complexity matches any city; over a kilo of grass seeds spilt from this storage area.


Boabs hundreds of years old are flowering and in leaf as the carpet of green grass continues to soften the landscape after the recent rain.


As each range rose and fell they became ever more spectacular, revealing valleys and peaks like something out of a science fiction novel. This is spectacular country and worthy of being hailed as on of the great road trips in Australia, particularly from Halls Creek to Kununurra. The long sweeping bends and impeccable surface is a dream ride.

Hour after awe-filled hour I rode along, missing a hundred brilliant photos for each one I captured, but this is a place to be experienced and can’t be encapsulated by my iPhone and cheap digi. The temperature was 35C at 8am but it was not too hot at all. I could ride forever if every day was like this.

Don’t ever think that thought.

As I passed Doon Doon Roadhouse where I had my ‘Free coffee for Driver’ the landscape changed again, more wet, more standing water, the appearance of Pandanas Palms and an associated increase in humidity and temperature. Hovering between 38.5 and 39C, I came to a fork in the road and took it.


Travelling towards Wyndham I had been recommended the five rivers lookout, and arriving in the sleepy township at 11.30am it was already 42C. I stopped for some lunch at the only remaining café and after a number of people explained why I was crazy to ride in these temps, I took the steep, switch-backed road to the top of a lookout, or several lookouts.


It’s impossible to see the enormity of this place from one lookout so there are about fifteen of them at the end of various walking tracks. It is simply spectacular, even without the rivers full and flowing. Impacting on the spectacularness were the biting flies and the temperature that was now at 44C. My special order veggie Panini from Wyndham cafe was starting to repeat on me so I marched with my trusty roll to a tiny tin shed in the sun to contemplate the next few minutes of life.


Sweating like a drinking dog’s tongue, I climbed on Ziggy and switched my way back to the bottom and continued to the relative cool 41 degrees of Kununurra.

__________________
When you come to a fork in the road…take it!

BLOG: paulnomad.blogspot.com.au

FaceBook: www.facebook.com/PaulNomadRTW

Retracing back to the fork, I looked forward to the 35kms to fuel up.

I continued on to the much anticipated Lake Argyle. After three days of blue skies I was faced with this,


which soon looked like this


and a quick look down a side road revealed these plumes of smoke.


Fortunately the road veered away from the storm to get to Kununurra.

I fuelled up and Ziggy suddenly turned 40.


I passed up a range of great photo ops along the lake as it was getting late and I had covered almost 600kms today. 35kms out of town and I turned off to Lake Argyle and once again the road was indescribable in its beauty and richness. Even the clouds were spectacular.


Everything was lush green and with each rocky outcrop and bluff, it was like a competition for the wow factor.





Of course the finale was here.


Then it rained. But not for too long…to start with.

__________________
When you come to a fork in the road…take it!

BLOG: paulnomad.blogspot.com.au

FaceBook: www.facebook.com/PaulNomadRTW

You did well to get out of town ASAP from Hall's Creek. I flew in there with my wife in a Yak52 (Russian warbird), and as I shut down the engine, the first sound that I heard was the discordant shrieking of drunks brawling in the bushes. Took me right back! That was the first sound that I heard the first time, thirty years before.
Since then, my wife and I have toured through, me on my Sportster, her on her Yamaha 650, stopped for fuel....
Same sound in the bushes as the last two times!

Rob

Too funny Rob!! Long way to go for a repeat performance lol.

__________________
When you come to a fork in the road…take it!

BLOG: paulnomad.blogspot.com.au

FaceBook: www.facebook.com/PaulNomadRTW