Day 40 130 days to go. Distance: today 148km total 3012km. It’s 8.10pm Wednesday 15/8/12 The Bark Hut Inn and Campground, Annabunna. We’re about 120km out of Darwin and that’s us for tomorrow’s ride. We should get in mid afternoon and have a few options for where to stay so I’ll see how the day unfolds. Tonight we’ve had a chance to do some logistics stuff organizing gear etc and I want to do my washing and a few have-tos so to have the next 3 days as free as possible. I’ll look out tomorrow for a bike shop for my girl so she can get her bits and bobs checked and pampered. We’re both in need of a bit of pampering so a few days R&R sound pretty dam perfect. Darwin sounds cool and we’ve timed it for the Sat markets which is great and on the to-do list. Otherwise I hope to check out Litchfield NP, Edith Falls and Katherine Gorge awesome!!!! Today we said goodbye and thankyou to Kakadu. No guessing how cool I think this area is and have some insight now as to why it’s one of the countries treasures and Heritage Listed. The most spectacular spot was Ubirr but each of the days had it’s own highlights and amazing memories. The photo gallery is awesome and I’ll get that uploaded most likely when I’m back in Katherine as it all takes time that I don’t want to spend during ourbreak. I’ll be back in kakadu given the chance to explore some of the more backcountry spots. It must be such a playground for the locals much like our NPs are back home. I certainly never tire of the Glasshouse Mountains and there’s so many corners in the North and South Coast Hinterland and in each of the States that still need hiking. That’s one of the cool things about NPs for nature lovers, there’s always something to do differently or new to discover regardless if your thing is hiking, running, Mt biking etc. There’s so many beautiful places on Earth and Australia is chock a block with it’s unique wod of them. I be thinking we’re pretty dam lucky indeedy. During the cycle today I was thinking over the days and places and cultural information. I missed a couple of things in this early morning’s post. One in particular was that during the wet season the escarpment at Ubirr draws some wicked storms across the floodplains and it’s not unusual for over 20 000 lightning strikes to hit in one storm because of the huge iron content in the rock. It’s suppose to be one amazing spectacular and there’s post cards capturing the dramatic purple hues and light show over the Nadab floodplain and lookout. Mother Nature at her wickedly wild best. Another thing that the ranger fella shared was the significance of the Rainbow Serpent in originating the basic laws for the people. There’s only handful but what has kept the ancient social structure regenerative and healthy for 40 000 years. For example one law is ‘skin’ meaning there are certain clans that can only marry to ensure the bloodlines stay healthy. This was particularly important as there were only a handful of clans and small in numbers so keeping healthy bloodlines was critical. All very interesting stuff and a micro cellular shaving on the volume of information that must be held by the elders and kept alive through story. It would be such an interesting and special thing to know more about.
We spotted another croc today crossing the South Alligator Region and River. The river system was huge and it was a great spot to stop and check out. It was a classic looking river for the area with silted water and river banks and I was telling Rube how much it looked like croc country when yayayaya big squeal and photo perfect.
The ride was hard work after the late finish last night and a bit short of sleep. I was also hoping for a tail wind that didn’t happen so we had to earn the kms covered. Certainly no winge factor quite the contrary and it was cool to ride out in the company of the black cockatoos for the most part of the day. It seems the red and yellow tails may be male and female as there were heaps paired up today. There’s also another scruffy looking bread who’s not as impressive as those with colored underwings but they seem cheekier and full of mischief hanging out in gangs and always having something to say loud and proud. I never miss telling them how handsome they are and every bit so true to form. We were both pretty happy to see ‘The Bark Inn’ appear this arv and scored a freebie campsite yay. There was enough daylight hours to sort through the gear which is great and it’s nice to be squeeky clean and posting you fine folk. I got an email from Rob the fella I met at WW2 Rest Area who donated his coffee money. He’s in Darwin and keen to catch up tomorrow if it works which will be really nice and he seemed a good guy and full of fun. I’ll text him when we get in and see if he’s about. We had two different couples stop while driving past today and donate $5 and $10. Thanks Mr and Mrs Marcell and Cade xxx. Cash donations on our last leg into Darwin are now $1064.35. I’ll pull up stumps there as it’s time for dinner and beddy bye. talk soon x
shecyclesolo 