Day 25 – Tue, 3 Aug to Gregory Downs

The morning started off a little cool – it must be so because even the locals were complaining. As I was leaving today I wanted to check out as much as possible of Lawn Hill NP, or at least around the camp area.

So at 7:30 I set off for a 2km walk that took me to the Indara falls and then up to a lookout and back to the camp. What can I say it was like an oasis in the surrounding rugged country.

The falls are fed by a spring that feeds the Lawn Hill Creek guaranteeing a year round water supply. In the wet season it floods to quite some metres above the current water level and you can see the debris of palms and trees on the embankments.

The emerald green creek cuts through a sandstone and limestone gorge. The gorge is a haven for masses of pandanus, cluster figs, Leichardt trees, cabbage palms, ferns, mosses and even bulrushes.

On my return to camp I had breakfast, broke camp and then headed for a canoe hire. I paddled up through the same gorge that I had viewed from above. This gave a total different perspective, especially seeing the roots of the figs adhering to the face of sheer cliffs rising more than 20m above the water with trees seemingly growing out of rock.

I returned to camp and had lunch with Russel & Elizabeth from VIC. They had apparently seen me at Karumba and left the morning after I arrived. This was a good couple of hours spent relaxing prior to my ride out.

Today I planned to only ride the 100km of gravel back to Gregory Downs and stay the night. The trip started off well until about 20km out I hit an exceptionally bad section of road (exceptionally thick layers and mounds of stone) just after being passed by a vehicle that had filled the air with a thick cloud of red dust.

Well I managed to ride through it for some 20-30m but eventually the inevitable happened - OP & I hit the dirt (sorry no photos, didn’t have my brain in gear to take one). I was okay, except for my pride but OP suffered a few broken items that will need to be attended to hopefully when I get to Darwin. So my Darwin stint may need to be extended, I’ll hopefully know when I get back into phone service and make some calls.

I suffered a slight gravel rash on the bum and a slightly twisted left knee but all is well. After an hour or so of simply getting my head back together and using cable ties to attach items I was ready to go. A survey crew from the local mine had stopped and they got OP back on the right side of his tyres.

A number of passing drivers stopped to check my status. One such luckily stopped because I had the fortunate honour of telling him he had a flat rear tyre.

After starting out I had to stop and open a cattle gate and at this stage another BMW GS rider caught up to me. We had a discussion and he too had come off that morning. He damaged his R pannier and jarred his back. He too is John, similar age, and is doing a similar trip to me but only taking around 8 weeks. We obviously discussed our misfortunes and determined that we both came off in the same section of road.

So we rode together to give each other company and I guess for moral support. We arrived in Gregory Downs close on 5:30pm and decided to book into the hotel/motel. Camping was not going to do it tonight. There was only one room so we just agreed to share.

So we have just finished a nice meal, and now hitting the sack. What a day of contrasts, such highs and lows. Tomorrow is another day of riding ahead – see you out there.