Day 281: Into the outback…
May 10th, 2006 by Nuts On Bents
… and the southeast wind blowing straight in our faces! As soon as we left Katherine the seasonal wind began to pick up. We had some tough cycling days, covering up to 120km per day. The terrain was flat, the roads were somewhat rough but OK, and the traffic going south was fairly light – BUT the wind… At times it would knock our speed off by a third, so a 6 hour cycling day would become 8 hours. Sedef sobbed by the roadside a few times after struggling to keep a speed of 15kph (an acceptable touring speed being at least 20kph) – until she learned to stop fighting it and enjoy the sloooow ride!
During the next 450km we encountered a long string of caravans migrating north – we later learned that they are the “Grey army” – southern retirees fleeing the cold winter to warmer climes! The day after Katherine we arrived at Mataranka – a town with a large aboriginal population. The aboriginal people unfortunately have a rather poor reputation here – brought on mainly by the outcasts of the tribes who hang around the white towns, addicted to alcohol and petrol-sniffing, and cause a huge amount of disturbance to other residents at night (as we witnessed ourselves). In fact in some towns this is such a big problem that establishments have introduced “dry thursdays’” – when no take-out alcohol is sold, thursdays being chosen because that’s the day the aboriginals get their weekly welfare cheque.
We have now seen our first kangaroos, and also kites and the odd huge wedge-tail eagle, circling the highway for roadkill. We stopped at a string of roadhouses – one with a big Pink Panther (Australians love all things BIG) and the tallest bar we have ever seen, in fact it was so tall Sedef couldn’t look over the top of it! At another historic (!) roadhouse -established 1930s- we were entertained by local singers doing favourite Australian country-western numbers about cattle drovers coming home early and finding their wives in bed with another man. At Dunmarra, a few days’ ride from Katherine, we met Janette and Lynn, two Yorkshire lasses who have been cycling all around Australia for 9 months!