Helga

Helga

Tuesday, May 18, 2010

Day 17: Barrelling up the Barkley

Greetings all,
A quiet and peaceful night at Carmooweal and then up and away again at 7am. Not far west of town we hit the Queensland/NT border and a big sign saying "Welcome to Queensland. Please advance your minds by 15 years and your watches by 30 minutes." A bit unkind I thought.

Just past the border we passed the first 130kph speed limit sign. Well, having never been allowed to ride at 130k and be legal (except at Manfield) who could resist. And do you know what? Riding at 130k is just as boring as riding at 100k when the roads are straight straight straight!





We had a super breakfast at the Barkley Homestead and then carried on into Tennant Creek where we had lunch and met up with a whole lot of other bikers; some doing the long ride to Darwin (for prostate cancer), somer Ulyssians returning home from a rally at the Top End and a group of staunch off-road riders who had come across from NSW to Alice. They had all the gears but goodness me!!!Their bikes were sooooo clean. Thanks for those who want to see a photo of filthy Helga but the problem is that most internet cafes will not allow you to connect up to USB ports. Tennant Creek was rather sad with lots of Aboriginal men, women and children just sitting around not doing much. I'm not sure whther this was typical or whether it was benefit day but it was very depressing.

From Tennant Creek we turned North again and into the rain. It looked very black and threatening to the north so we stopped at Renner Springs for the night. A rather expensive ensuite box but a great meal cooked by a mad kiwi chef and a nice glass of red and all was good. The chef's story was that they imported powdered fish from Tibet (apparently caught in the great lakes of Ooom?), sent to Australia and then mixed with water and put in fish-shaped moulds to set before being served as imported fish to the tourists. Dick was identified and invited to sign the wall which he did, adding the exhortation "Always have a great breakfast!!"

The rain really settled in so so did we.
:-)
Ken

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