Road to Hermannsburg

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I don’t know why we thought we could get here in a day. It has ended up taking us three, averaging less than 10 km per hour the whole way. It’s been sheer hell, though the absolutely gorgeous nights, not a light anywhere, wild horses by our tent in the morning and unspoiled scenery the whole way has made it almost worth while. But it has been enough to convince us both we will not be doing the Gibb River Road through the Kimberlies west of Darwin next month (There is a paved alternative route west toward Perth). To any car driver, the dirt road we just took doesn’t look that bad; some corrugations, a bit of sand, that’s all. We thought the “Mereenie Loop” as it’s called, would save us several hundred kilometres backtracking from Kings Canyon to the main highway before heading north to Alice Springs. Although it meant going through Aboriginal land, the permit to enter was easy to get. We actually thought the road might even be paved as the Motorcycle Touring Atlas of Australia we’ve been using suggested it was in the process of being paved when the atlas went to press 2 years ago (though those we talked to couldn’t substantiate this); and the first ten kilometres were newly paved.. . But then came a horrendous patch of sand that should have put us off, but that was followed by another stretch of pavement up an escarpment and even when that ended the next section was recently graded, taking out much of the corrugations (but hiding the sandy areas at the same time). Have you ever tried to ride a pushbike in sand? We kept trying to remember Graham’s words, sit back, let the front wheel follow its own path. High revs, low centre of gravity, let out some air in your tires . . . But to us novices, nothing made it even remotely easy. The first day we managed to go 100 kms, mainly because we knew we had to get through the permit area before dark. But in the end we just couldn’t. Eventually, we simply pulled off into some bushes before darkness fell and set up camp. Thankfully we had freeze-dried food, water (and extra petrol) with us never thinking we’d need it. The second day was worse. We only managed to go 60 kms (both of us dropping the bikes in the sand several times as we struggled through it), and the third day was the worst of the lot. Helen nearly kissed the ground when we finally reached pavement just outside the small community of Hermannsburg only 130 kms (of pavement) west of Alice Springs. Our bikes went brilliantly though. Never a hint of a problem and after three days in first and second gear we still had plenty of petrol left in the tank. Never touched our spare fuel.

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