Tuesday 1st July

We departed a very windy and dusty Elliott, beside the Stuart Highway. There was not much more to the town after we left the Caravan Park except a couple of Fuel Stations and a Pub. By the sound of the passing population last night, they had been at the Pub for a while. Barking dogs were heard most of the night.

In the park there were people from all over the world including England and Korea, I think. The latter was with a partner and they were on bikes. Even a hitchhiker with a tent and all his gear.

There seem to be numerous cyclists riding towards Darwin. It is not a track I will be contemplating on any of my bikes. There are too many kilometres between coffee stops! Even these vary greatly from quite good to very poor. Each place we stop has a captive clientele, as I have mentioned before. Most have fuel supplies and today we refuelled with diesel, at the Hiway Roadhouse near Daly Waters, which was slightly cheaper than Three Ways Roadhouse at $2.13 per litre and the cappuccino still at the $4.50 mark and poor quality.

We went into the unique Daly Waters Pub. It has to be seen to be believed. Various bits of underclothing and caps adorn the interior of the Pub along with other paraphernalia. Then there is Chicken George who is known for having a chicken on his home made hat while playing. He makes up various humorous signs such as “Didyoubringadrinkalong”. You could only find this humour out here. Most of the Pubs seem to be characters of their own.

We had our lunch in the Larrimah village park, under the shade of a tree. Then we moved on to Mataranka to the Bitter Springs which are beautiful thermal springs. I rode my bike down and had a lovely wallow and chatted to a couple from Melbourne while there. I lasted about 45 minutes then rode back to the Karavan.

Prue informed me that the manageress would like a massage at 1630. So I did that and she appreciated my work with a larger payment than I asked for. She has at least one for me to do tomorrow.

A nice BBQ steak and vegetables for dinner washed down with a nice red wine. Even though we travelled about 321 kms, it was a good day and tomorrow should see us ride around and into Mataranka for a look around. It is just 3 kms into the town on a sealed road.