Day 28 – Fri, 6 Aug to Threeways

This morning I said bye to a few people that I had met at the backpackers. One guy, a Swiss had shipped his motorbike to Darwin and is riding across N Australia to Cairns and then back to Darwin via the Savannah Way (the 4WD track).

I left the Isa and quickly caught up with a number of Harley rider groups. This would be the case for most of the day as their meeting apparently had finished yesterday and the 400 odd riders were all heading their various ways.

Two HD riders from Wagga Wagga were heading the long way home over the next couple of weeks. They were going via Darwin, Broome, Perth and then the Nullarbor. Good luck to them – I hope they have a support vehicle…lol.

I had decided to ride the shortest and quickest way to Mataranka so that I could spend a couple of days soaking my knee in the warm thermal pools – looking forward to that. My family only spent one wonderful afternoon at Mataranka about 16 odd years ago (something we all remember well), so I have been looking forward to spending a bit more time there.

So I headed W towards Camooweal (the last QLD town before crossing the border) then to the Barkly Roadhouse and onto the Threeways where the Barkly Hwy meets the Stuart Hwy, 25km N of Tennant Creek.

As soon as I crossed into the NT the landscape changed to flat grass country – no trees – to the horizon in all directions. This remained the case for at least the next 100km and then changed to low treed areas (2-3m) then eventually to really scrubby land, which is the case where I am tonight.

The day was just, no not just, a great riding day covering 620km and I am now in a budget room (basically means I share the showers and toilets with the caravaners). Tomorrow I head due N and I hope to be soaking my legs, nah my body in those warm thermal waters by this time tomorrow.