I called the local  ( 350 km away) bike shop and managed to get a wheel sent up,  amasingly it  turned up that nignt and I was able to change all the important bits over that night. the old wheel had done an amasing job, though all that was original was the hub and rim itd done whell. it was sad to see it go.

note the chocolate (packet)


I was back on the road

with trees, and paddocs, then sewn crops, and setelments.

oult of gereldton, in tim winton coountery, following the beach along, its so diferent to further north. I had another discussion with the cops, mutch the same as outhers, one did say ( almost to my amusment, but I wasent in the mood) ' the thing youve got to understand abut WA is we hsvr trucks. He did know that Id just come from the NT, it just seemed comical to get that kind of walning just after the roadtrains started to become little ( and a bit pethietic.)

 

Im clearly becoming a bit slack with this. from broome I gunned it down to port headland, serious headwinds have been slowing be down a bit but, I still made decent time. it was really great to be back on the bike. I made it into port headland on my 19th birthday, celerbrating with an overpriced icecream wile I worked oult where I was staying. 

 ( water, woo hoo) I made decent time from port headland to karagini national park, headwinds in the morning, semi tail winds in the afternoon.

 

 this section of road did however have a shitload of roadtrains, witch are always interesting.

 

 

 

after a great tour in the gorges ( thanks to west Aus active) and thanks to my pairents for sending me on the tour. I headed oult to coral bay, shitty headwinds, painfully touresty but nice beaches and snorkering.

 

 

now Ive made it  about 120km south of carnarvon and managed to crack my back rim, new one's on its way.

 

 

sorry that its been a wile between posts, Ive made it to kununura (spectacular)

, lost my phone. made it to broome, (180km of witch limping on compleatly trashed bearirngs, think cable tires) after a couple of days in broome ( got new phone) on sunday arvo I somhow managed to get a couple of fingers caught between the drive chain and sproket, broke the tips of the bone, not pritty. thankfully a couple of amasing people from broome had given me somwhere to so I left the bike is with them. thankyou. I stayed in perth now with a family freand, and my fingures were operated on about a week ago. yesterday I got back to broome. im now waiting on a new set of front wheels that glow worm cycles kindly donated ( just when I needed a new wheel)

little ' incedent ' with a road tran

every time I get into, or near, or think about Kathrine something seems to break. after no breakages for, 800km or so ( since I left Kathrine.) 10km out a road train comes up behind me ( I was in cruse control doing about 28 down the hill). It was a clear run in front of me and, their was a little white thing. about when I saw it I saw the train pull back in towards me, he'd seen it to.
 glancing to the side I saw a beautifully arranged section of dirt. No worries, I thought.
the trick with road trains is not to look back, but count the trailers, to work out when to think about pulling back in. I guessed this one had 4, a good guess. after trailer 2 or 3 I glanced from the slowly moving truck ( who had slowed down when he saw the car) to the 'good edge in front of me. my good surface had become a sires of canyons to rival the grand canyon, it should be a tourist destination. In slow motion, unwilling to pull into/ under trailer 3 and 4, and not confident of the trikes gliding ability's, I took the only option remaining, flicking out of cruse I swerved ( to fast for comfort) into the unknown of the mown edge of the road. I smashed threw a few of the smaller crevasses and swung around a bit before finally coming to rest on the side of the road, upright, and apparently still rolling. I was so glad to have replaced my suspension in Darwin.
I was expecting multiple f**ed wheels broken spokes, stuff fallen of and perhaps broken welds, just lots of broken s**t.
I was pleasantly surprised to find, only one badly warped wheel, the front right.no other damage, I hadn't even broken any spokes on the back. Amazing. I will be dropping back into the Kathrine tip for a new wheel on the way west tomorrow, but that's it.

irrelevant photo, from before my, incident

darwin to kathrine.

I made it to darwin, and discoverd that dispite glorious markets, and great beaches, darwins hidden gem is, well the tip. or to give it justice the shoal bay waste and recycling fecility. and what a fecility it is. Every peice of shite imagenable, a large commercal kitchen was backed by fashen shop and a bookstore comparible to the melboure libery. Further oult in the estate a arge workshop of metelworking and woodworking tools were supplyed for thoose wanting to work in the caryard, boatyard, bikeshop or tire joint. and then thier was the micelanious section. having trekked several kilometers loocking arond I finally viseted bike world and replaced suspenchon joints forks and  fromt wheels from the bike. a tio noch tip. thanks to ross and sharon for putting me up in darwin and bacholar.
heading down from darwin was a little more senic than the tip, I rediscoverd the fundemental land manegment practice here. if in dout, burn the f**** oult of it.

still the bush dose seem to recover pretty well.

dispite a crappy headwind all the way I finally made it to edith falls. it is a butifull gorge and sieries of pristene waterfalls, but it as well have been a vietnamiase water park. people swalmed everywhere like ants arond a drop of honey.

but the rangers kindly left a map showing a nice secluded gorge between the upper and lower waterholes. a spectacular, easelly acsesable gorge with knoone in it. and no do not proceed sighns arond it. it just (hyperthiticly) takes just a couple of small water jumps, some swimming and a bit of scrambling to get along it. inevetably I had to walk 1km back along the track in a piar of undys, a t shirt  sandals. ( to get my pants) 

 .

 

having finally got the bike running happerly I headed on to lichfield national park, dispite the swalms of turists it was great.

 

 

 

 having viseted lichfield I headed to up to darwin, nothing broke.woo hoo.

 

 great markets, walm weather nice beaches but the standoult is, for me atleast the shoal bay waste manegment fecility. the best tip shop I have ever been to. this place has everything, cars, boats, trailers, heaps of bikes, power tools, books, kichen aplyences, and clothing. well orginised and resnably priced, not super cheep but cheeper than many outher smaller shops. Ive now got new forkes on boath sides ( suspenchon on boath sides now) new bushings and spring for the rear suspenchon, a critical linkage that I have been worryd about since before I left. I still have the old ones, just in case.

 

serial f***ing breakdowns

having finally made it to kathrine ( with the bike) and done a day of mantenence I headed oult only to find 13km up the road that the frame where the rear spring mounts onto the main frame. so I headed back to town and cocos backpackers ( where I was kindly allowd to camp free) where I knew there was a welder.

40km up the road my ( short) chain starts jumping of even though its tight, ( i had stoped and tenchoned it just after leaving Kathrine) f******** under closer inspection I find that the drivin sprocket is bent an...d worn, badly. not worth bending back agean, itd done nearly 4000km so I pulled oult the spare and changed it. having done that I went to put a bit of pressure in one of my tires that seemed to have a gradual leek and f************ the valve was gone. so in with a new tube. and back on the road. but that was 150km or so agoe now.

now heading towards darwin its intresting to watch the vegetation become wetter, there are palms and ferel bamboo in the creks.