Report No 30 - Broome - Dated 3 February 2008

I've made it to Broome on the Indian Ocean. It's about half way between Darwin and Perth. Broome is an upmarket town with one of the best beaches in Australia but not suitable for swimming at this time of the year because of the stingers. I'm glad I've seen part of the Kimberley area of Australia. The scenery is spectacular but it's tough on a bike in the wet season with the high humidity. I read the outside temperature at Halls Creek is up to 52C. The rain is not a problem as it comes at nights, usually with spectacular lightening and thunder. But camping is almost unbearable; I'm losing so much sweat in the tent at nights I'm sleeping in a pool of water. One day I was cycling along & the body started to go into 'shut down' mode, pretty scary stuff. But I remained compos mentis enough to know I had to brake and get off. After a rest I was fine. That was a while back and there's been no problem since but I'm being careful. I won't be like the cyclist I was told about. He went off the main road thinking it was a short cut. They found him alive but he'd gone completely bonkers. I'm carrying about 15 litres of water and four litres of coke. In addition, almost every day I'm being given water, sometimes cold. Even the police have given me cold water. Special thanks is due to the Polish couple in a camper van who gave me about a week's supply of groceries, water and four cans of cold beer. Some locals have told me they've seen me several times and one guy said he was stopped by the police for a breath check and they asked him if he had seen me yet. I'm the only cyclist out there so it's something for the locals to talk about.

On my first night out of Katherine I'd put the tent up and was resigned to the fact that it would be a beer free night, my first for weeks. Then two station guys stopped their ute and got out the cold beer which they shared with me. When I eventually went to bed the tree frogs had a competition with the cane toads to see which could make the most noise. It sounded like there were millions of them. I met one of the station guys in the pub 100 kilometers further on the next night so I was able to return the hospitality,

One night I was at a rest area and decided to sleep on one of the tables rather than in the hot tent. They have a roof over them but no sides. Later on I was completely surrounded by a 360 degree lightening & thunder storm but it was fine where I was. Then a gale force wind got up. When the wind kept on changing direction I knew I was in the middle of something. The rain eventually started so I donned the wet weather gear and went to sleep on the table with the rain driving in. I actually had a good sleep, better than in the hot tent.
Another night I just had to open the tent flaps it was so hot and I was bitten by every bug known to mankind. Rather than hang corks from the helmet I bought a head net so that helps with the flies. The flies tend to stick with you on the bike so travel long distances. I haven't seen any snakes or crocs. I've been on a croc hunt stopping at every bridge to look over to see if I could see them. I camped by a river and there was a sign to say there were crocs there. One guy did say I could go with him to feed 'Old Grumpy' a 12 foot freshie but I didn't bother. You've got to be careful with unfenced swimming pools as the crocs go walkabout in the wet season and like to get into people's pools. I was told one crocodile went to the airport and had to be moved so the planes could land. The most dangerous animals for cyclists are the bulls and I got chased by a huge hump backed one. The cattle stampede when they see me but tend to run with me not away. When this bull took a particular interest I took off at about 35 kilometers an hour.

Then 110 kilometers’ from the nearest town all my tubes failed except the one on the front but including the two spares. The valves came away from the tubes so they can't be repaired. There's quite a bit about this on the net I've discovered since. So I got a lift into Halls Creek and had to spend five nights there waiting for new tubes to arrive from Darwin. Then I cycled the 110 k back to where it happened, spent the night there and cycled back to Halls Creek to stay for the 6th night.
At Timber Creek a large drunk Aboriginal woman insisted she could hitch a ride with me to Kununurra 230 k down the road. She wanted to sit astride the orange bag and said nobody else would take her and I was the last resort. However, she lost interest when she realised I didn't have a supply of cigarettes for the trip.
It is now time to go back to the hotel for a swim.