Day 38 – Mon, 16 Aug to Timber Creek

Today I have posted Days 37 & 38.

The sun and the swimming does wonders for me. I started my new book – Desperado by Joseph O’Conner and Irish writer – only to read to about 7:30 – I was in my tent rather then be attacked by the insect population – and well, I simply was too tired to read on. So lights out and surfaced about 6:15am – wow.

So I broke camp and headed S to Katherine. Objective to get another camera. I pulled into the local Woolworths and found a Country Target where I bought my camera. I also managed to do my civic duty by voting – this is the way all elections should be, be on holidays when they call it, miss all the campaigning and then vote early.

After restocking the pantry, I hit the road. I am now heading W on the Victoria Hwy towards WA. The countryside is similar to that which I have been experiencing, low woodlands. This Hwy is again part of the Savannah Way which I started on, way back in Cairns and will eventually take me all the way to Broome. How amazing is the colour of the soil, especially when it is cut by a road work crew – a deep dark red.

After about 110km W of Katherine the landscape began to change. I was approaching escarpments, which I know have been cut by the mighty Victoria River. But it changed the outlook and the road. The savannah type vegetation continued, but the topography was more striking with the ranges now full on.

I entered the Gregory NP which the Hwy passes through. This park sits at the transitional zone between the tropical and semi arid regions. Not a lot of wildlife, not even birds, maybe it was just too hot – it reached 38C on the road today.

I stopped at the Victoria River Roadhouse for a cold ice tea and pressed onto Timber Creek where I am camped tonight. In all about 380km for the day.

Timber Creek is a small town a little over half way to the WA border. It is near the Victoria River which eventually empties into the sea SW of Darwin. The creek behind the campground has fresh water crocs swimming in it and at 5pm they feed them from a small bridge that crosses the creek.


At present I am sitting having a cuppa in the cool of the evening. Dinner is finished and there are a number of campers and vans around me. It is amazingly calm, and I just can’t believe how much I am enjoying this trip. The camping is wonderful, you meet so many different people, not only grey nomads, but young families and overseas travellers. I guess I enjoy the contact with these latter groups the most.

People say that I am doing it tough on the motorbike, but how wrong they are. It is simply wonderful. The ones who are doing it tough are those on the push bikes. I was talking to a guy, about my age, this afternoon, and he is riding from Mt Garnet – which is just S of Atherton, QLD and is riding his bicycle to Broome, taking about 2 months. He chose this way because he gets the prevailing E winds – now he can have that on his own.