Gibb River Road to the Beach!

It was time for some more dirt riding along the Gibb River Road from Kununara to Derby and Broome,

clear over to some beaches on Australia’s left coast. First a little side trip up to Wyndham for another “big” plus some lunch.



This croc IS just a statue unlike Krys (remember him/her?) in Normanton. We had not planned a very long first day since someone told me about a very nice place to stay only about 60 miles along the road. El Questro is a very isolated cattle station that has a very good bar/restaurant and rooms available. Getting there posed some challenges. This was the “cool” entrance to the station.






We washed down some of the dirt with a few beers and then went for a swim in the Pentecost River.






Crocs, what Crocs?
Up and away early for a long day in the dirt to another cattle station about 210 miles on down the road.
Again, the road gave us many challenges but it did NOT beat us as it did this guy!



Some very smooth gravel, some mud holes, lots of corrugations, and occasionally sheer terror were the order of the day. The terror came in when the smooth red dirt we were riding on at higher speeds turned instantly to a section of “bull dust” (think red talcum powder). If the section was short we usually blasted through quickly enough that no real harm was done. If the section was longer, well, the dirt riding technique book says “move as far back on the seat as possible and whack the throttle wide open” BUT your mind says many DIFFERENT things, NONE of which can be printed here! :=) Corey, who has ridden some very bad Baja Roads said that on a Baja scale of 1 to 5 this was about a 3.5 for difficulty but a 6 for treachery! :=)









We did make it to Mount Elizabeth Station without doing any serious damage to the bikes or ourselves.






Again, had to wash down the dirt with a few beers. They fixed us a very nice dinner and it was off to bed because we had another day of dirt “fun?” ahead of us. More challenges met and overcome! :=)






An overnight stop in Derby allowed us to get a picture of an unusual Boab Prison Tree (read the informational sign in the picture gallery),



and then on to Broome finally. Another place “with the worlds best beach” according to the book put out by the Chamber of commerce! It actually was a VERY nice beach that we were allowed to drive on and we did.






Afterward we washed down some red dirt and beach sand with a HUGE beer! Cooler weather, Beaches, Great restaurants. :=) We will be here for awhile before we head south toward Perth! More later.
Many more pictures here if interested!
http://www.smugmug.com/gallery/4659871_pddif//392026339_nsTeM

Posted by Rick McDermed at October 12, 2008 11:21 AM GMT