After two and a half days doing nothing I’m back on the saddle! I still have 3 weeks to go until I fly from Darwin to Bali so I will surely stop in different other places like Mataranka, Katherine, Edith Falls and I don’t know yet. I wish I had more food with me because life is expensive around here. And every road house sell nearly the same stuff like: ice creams, beers, soft drinks, Chips, and spare pieces. How can I get food for my breakfast with that?! Anyway, I’ll make it!
Map.
Elevation.
I wish I would leave before 7am. It’s now close the half past seven and I’m ready to leave. ‘Hope I remember how to pedal ;-)
Firstly, I fixed my tyre (again and again). The stitches during the last few days got worse and the last thing I don’t want to experienced is that this tyre blow up when I’m riding. I will use it as looong as I can!
When I was fising my front wheel, I met Niki who lives around I guess. She cycled around Australia few years ago and naturally came to met another cyclist :-) She told me that there is a backpacker in Katherine called “Coco backpacker” where they apply discount for cyclists. Hmmm, sounds good but I still don’t know the price. I will see. At least I know :-) Thanks Niki!
Let’s start the day! I’ve got about 48km to reach Daly Waters where I will have a long break to avoid the heat. From there, there is nothing between until Mataranka and it’s 180km. I will do some bushcamp tonight. Or maybe there is a rest area somewhere. I’ll see.
37km later, I’m coming to Hi-way Inn.
I need to find some bread, at least, so I will have a look inside to see what they sell.
Nope, they only sold some snack food. I’m now coming to Daly Waters and hope they have a kind of supermarket.
There is not any supermarket around so this pub is my last chance. At least, this place looks cool.
Where that helicopter is coming from?!
Am I in Disneyland?
This place is a bit cheezy but there is lots of space to sit under the shade and they have bread! Well, $6 for one loaf! but That’s what I needed.
And they have the most remote traffic light in Australia, haha. Joke? Real? Who knows…
One of those birds steel a piece of my cake when I left the table for a minute. They make a sound like a cat sometimes. Tricky bloody bird!
The back of the pub is different again. Lots of thongs here :-)
On the background there is a stage and apparently every night there is some music.
Another colorful wall decorated with licence plates.
Lots of space to welcome lots of tourists especially “Grey Nomads”. Steve told me about them, the “Grey Nomads”. This term describe the old guys who travel North each year to avoid the cold weather during winter.
Back to the front of the pub.
I’ve pulled my bike in the shade before it melts :-) The temperature might be close to 38 degrees at the moment so I’m not going back on the road before 4pm.
The sky is cloudless.
Bouginvile.
I’m visiting around to see if there is anything else than this pub and that Elicopter.
That’s good to know ;-)
The Explorer Highway is basically the Stuart Highway which sounds less cool obviously. There is nothing to explore anymore but just tourist traps to be catch by.
I will sleep around Mayfield tonight and will stop at Larrimah tomorrow for lunch. Then I will cycle as much as I can and in two days max I will be in Mataranka where I will certainly stay at least 2 nights. I’ve heard there is hot springs around that place :-)
Daly Waters pub in 1990.
Daly Water pub in 2015. It did not really change apart they added some antenna and the trees moved around.
Continuing walking a bit further. There is few abandoned buildings or at least, they look abandoned to me.
Daly Waters is finally just a pub, a campsite and the accomadation for the staff. I’ve seen a sign showing where was the airport as well. That’s all. This is just a tourist trap where everything is crazy expensive. A loaf of bread $6, 1.25l of soft drink $6, a piece of cake $4, a handful of hot chips 6$ and so on.
More accomodation.
Towards the “Town centre”.
This is too hot outside. I can’t stay more than 10 minutes. This is better here.
More Bouginvilia flowers.
It’s now 4:25pm and I’m leaving Daly Waters. The caravan park is now packed! How can they afford sleeping and eating in this can of place each night. They must be all rich.
After 4km, I’ve reached the Stuart highway again.
About 25km later, I’ve found this truck parking area. I think I will stop here for the night. It’s not as far as I expected to go today but 80km is more than enough.
The sun is getting low as well so that a good time.
Artistic pic ;-)
There is this spot but I wil have a walk aroud to see if I can find another better one further from the road.
Oh yes, this one looks much better :-)
I did not cook during the last lunch as I spent too much money in Daly Waters. Tonight for dinner it’s rice, soy sauce, tuna and a chocolate for dessert. Good night :-)
Nice story about Daly Waters… I remember it there…. If you are lucky you can be there when the tide come through the Daly River (only on King Tides though)
Il y avait plein de tongs Dam’. Tu aurais pu faire une provision pour l’avenir !!
Rice, tuma and soy sauce, Yummy!
Don’t feel so bad about the bread, mine was $8 at Rusty’s Market.
We have been to Daly Water Pub in 1994, I remember it as unique place but not that colorful like in your photos.