27th August Mt Isa 0 kms today 8,638 kms to date

We got up early to give us enough time to walk to the Hard Times Mine for an underground mine tour.  The main mine no longer runs mine tours after a visitor broke a leg and sued the company.  So the Mayor and some retired miners got some funding and created their own mine.  We had Bill as our guide. He had worked underground in the big mine for 30 years and had dug out the Hard Times mine so he had plenty of stories to tell.   If you look closely you can see women’s bras strung together.  This is part of a larger plan to set a Guinness Book of Records record.

A couple of GITMO refugees!

But first we had to dress up like inmates of Guantanamo Bay!  We weren’t allowed to take cameras underground.  Bill took us down in a cage and then we walked through the 1km of underground tunnels that demonstrated the main features of underground mining.  We all had our own miners lamps as it was pitch black.  Bill operated a pneumatic mucking out machine and we all had a go at using a pneumatic drill: all very noisy.  Bill also drove one of the big face shovels that made the ground shake.  We ended up in a Crib room having a cup of tea and examining some big pieces of lead and copper ore.  The lead ore was extraordinarily heavy.

We also had a look round the Riversleigh Fossil display.  Riversleigh is 150 kms north of Mt Isa and contains a huge number of fossils from 15-25 million years ago all buried in limestone.  Once the fossil is revealed – usually by blasting – mild acid is used to dissolve the limestone off the fossil.  Very intricate bone structures of things like bats can be revealed.  We passed a house on the way back to the Irish Club.  Quite a fancy garden for Mt Isa which usually have bare dirt or concrete around the house.  Mt Isa is a bit down at heel overall like it is expecting hard times.  The mine is owned by Glencore a big Swiss resources company. They have brought about many changes and the workforce is half what it used to be and open cut mining is about to expand.

26th August ; Mt. Isa ; 634kms today, 9,272kms to date

Because of the incessant wind we thought we’d start early today and get to Barkly Homestead roadhouse (180kms) for breakfast. We were up at 6am and on our way by 6.45am just as the sun was rising. What we didn’t think about that as we were heading east into the sun. For the first half hour we were riding blind following the white line in the middle of the road. The other risk at this time of day was wildlife especially kangaroos. Luckily they had enough sense to stay tucked up in bed as any sane person should be at sunrise. The wind was quite manageable on the way to Barkly Homestead roadhouse where we had a hearty breakfast and filled up the bikes. My GS is still misfiring slightly and uses a lot of fuel especially riding into the wind. I am only getting around 300kms from the 20 litre tank. I am carrying 10 litres of fuel just in case I get caught short.

Here are Colin and I outside the Barkly Homestead roadhouse before we took off after breakfast. A Belgian woman tourist offered to the photo. She was heading back to Airlie beach (North Queensland) via West MacDonnell ranges (Alice Springs) which is a pretty circuitous route.

Just in case no one believes how windy it was there were warning signs along the road confirming it. The wind got stronger as the day wore on but started to abate in the afternoon. It is hard work riding into or with a cross wind and we had regular stops to recover.

We met the driver of this road train in a lay by and he said we were crazy riding into the wind but not the worst affected. We had passed a couple cycling the same direction as us and battling the headwind. Now that IS hard work. We didn’t stop to chat as I didn’t think they would be particularly receptive.  We had to pass a few of these road trains on the road as they were going our way at the same pace.  Because of the cross wind the back trailer was usually swinging quite a bit making overtaking a challenging experience.

Colin took this photo of the famous chimney stacks of Mt. Isa  where they just appeared out of the scrub.  The taller is the highest in Australia and was erected because the toxic fumes from the smelting sometimes get blown back across the residential area. The smaller chimney wasn’t high enough to protect the townsfolk and they would have had to evacuate.  The higher stack disperses the fumes over the top of the houses.

We are staying at the Irish Club in Mt. Isa. We stayed here in 2010 so we thought we’d try it again. The accommodation is Donga style with all single rooms. It used to cater for mine workers only but now is mainly itinerant clowns like Colin and I. Tomorrow we are going on a simulated mine tour. There are no tours through the working mine so they have created shaft(s) to simulate a working mine. We have to make sure we bring a pair of socks as you have to wear a boiler suit  plus boots.

Mt Isa Irish Club dongas

This is our accommodation at the Irish Club. There is a bar/restaurant across the street where we have enjoyed draught Guinness and some delicious meals very reasonably priced too.

25th August Three Ways RH nr Tennant Creek 60 kms today 8,638 kms todate

We both woke up just before dawn when the temperature dropped and we felt chilly.  We have found this quite common on this trip – the predawn chills.  We rode into Tennant Creek for brekky and found a nice cafe for our traditional bacon and eggs.

First stop after breakfast was the Battery Hill Mine Museum.  They had lost their licence for the underground tours due to safety issues.  We had the social display and the mineral collections to choose from.

The social display was the personal story of Kevin Weabers who’s father set up the Rising Sun gold mine in the 1930’s as one of the first mining families in the Tennant Creek area.  His father was blind but that didn’t stop him being a key player in the local community.  Kevin painted a very happy life with his family.  Then tragedy struck and his  sister Kate was killed in an air crash where Owen was the pilot and then Owen died flying in WWII.



The mineral display was very good with clear descriptions of the different types of minerals and beautiful examples from Australia and the world.  This is a Crocoite crystal of Lead/Chromium oxide.

The Weabers built an ore battery to crush the rock and allow the extraction the gold.  They bought it from Harris Scarfe in Adelaide!



After WWII Peko Wallsend started mining on a large scale and developed the Nobs Hill mine into one of the most productive in Australia.  From 1949 to 1969 Peko extracted 50 million oz of gold and was a financial bonanza for the shareholders.

I couldn’t resist the photo opportunity!

We next went to the Nyinkka Nyunyu cultural centre.  It was an audio visual display of the life and cultural history of the local Warumungu people.  We were given an audio self guided tour player and looked at 2 different aspects in the centre.



The beginning was a series of diorama's of the life of aboriginals after Europeans arrived in  the area.  The local elders started a native title claim in the early 1970’s and were eventually granted their lands back despite the obstruction of the NT government.  The High Court was the one supporter they had and it proved decisive.  Nyinkka Nyunyu is the aboriginal word for the spiky tailed lizard and it is a key totem for the Warumungu people.  The rock formation above is actually the sacred site where the lizard was created in the dreamtime.

Alan decided to clean his air filters to see if that would solve his top gear engine problems.  He washed and re-oiled his primary sock and secondary filter.  A quick test ride showed some improvement.   Tomorrow we are planning to leave at sunrise as we have a long 600 km ride to Mount Isa fighting the wind.

24th August – Three Ways Roadhouse nr Tennant Creek – 326kms today,8,617kms to date.

This Australian Defence Force Tank transporter turned up at the roadhouse as we were having breakfast. It is an M1 Abrahms tank made in the USA. They were taking it to Brisbane.  We saw a snake on the road and a Pelican in the Newcastle Waters flood plain.  That was a big  surprise.

 Quite frequently we see ant hills dressed up like this on the side of the roads. Occasionally they do a bit of modelling on them but mainly they just drape them with old T-shirts etc. Probably done by backpackers playing strip poker??? 

We met this little man soon after we left Dunmarra roadhouse. His name was Nicholas and we think he is French. He seems to be walking round the world. He started in April 2013 and has just done Japan and NZ and is now “doing” Australia. Next he will walk through SE Asia, the Middle East, Europe and finish off walking from Alaska to the tip of South America. Forrest Gump II or just plain nuts!!!!

Nicholas was the second guy we saw walking through Australia

The roads were pretty straight today, but there were some panoramic views off to the East as we crested the few hills on the road.  This area of Australia is so flat that you can see the curvature of the earth on the horizon.  Unfortunately there was a strong side wind which made riding rather difficult. The wind is forecast to continue and we will be heading straight into it when we leave for Mt Isa on Tuesday. Colin has a theory that if we get going early just after first light we can get a few kms under our belt before the wind sets in. We’ll see.

This is the Three Ways Roadhouse where we are spending a couple of nights. It is at the start of the Barkly Highway which heads east to Mt Isa. It is 25kms north of Tennant Creek. There is a local festival called Desert Harmony on in Tennant Creek and we are going to check it out plus other sights tomorrow.

This is a memorial to the Reverend John Flynn of Flying Doctor fame. It is near the Three Ways roadhouse.

23rd August Dunmarra Road House 319 kms today 8,351 kms to date

We had a lie in this morning because sunrise was later than in WA.  We had Chicken Tikka Marsala for breakfast and it was quite good and set off at 9:30 heading south.  After an hour Colin’s backside had had enough and he had to stop.  Perhaps he should have used Jonathan’s services after all.  We stopped at Mataranka the famous hot springs, but only for a break not for a swim.  The Stockman’s Cafe and Art Gallery appealed not the least for the scones and jam on offer.

We settled down to our coffee and scones when this fellow turned up with 6 of his mates.  It is a Blue Eyed Honeyeater.  They were most interested in the jam and would lick the jam off the knife if you let them

We let them have their fill after we had finished.  We have never met such cheeky birds – they would run across the table right in front of us.

I was looking for something of interest on the roadside to take a photo of and found this – ugh!  It reminded me of Sidney Nolan’s paintings of dead animals that he produced after a trip to central Australia.

I bumped into an old work colleague from Hanson called Rhonda.  She was on her way back to Swan Hill after spending 3 months in Darwin with her partner Bob.  Bob will be 70 on the same day as Alan the 4th September.  We had a good chat with them both while Alan tried his analyser again on the BMW and he managed to get the RH injector to respond to the test signal so maybe its fixed the problem.

In the evening we met a couple of off-road riders Craig and Steve who had just done the Buntine and Buchanan Highways from Halls creek. They said they were in pretty good shape and they were able to ride quite fast. They are doing a survey ride for a planned charity ride for next year for the Debra charity.  They are riding KTM's and the orange one has over 40L of fuel capacity.  One is a 950 and one is a 990; both capable of well over 200 kph. They actually have hit these speeds on dirt roads but usually cruise at 120-130 kph.  We can't imagine traveling at that pace.  We mentioned the American Noah and they both knew him but didn’t know he was in Australia.  Steve has been to Mongolia and central Asia where Noah has traveled too.  They left well before us and were heading for Tennant Creek and thence to Alice Springs.  They have a support vehicle and trailer driven by their wives. They intend to trailer the bikes from Alice Springs back to Mackay in North Queensland.  These guys were Hard Core!

22nd August, Katherine NT, 511 kms today 8,032 kms to date

We are in Katherine in the Northern Territory tonight. This destination wasn’t originally planned as part of our trip but because we decided to give the Buntine highway from Halls Creek to Dunmarra Roadhouse on the Stuart highway a miss we are taking the long way round to Tennant Creek (via Kununurra and Katherine). We left Kununurra at 8.15am this morning to another sparkling day. Here is our cabin at The Kimberley Land Caravan Park. It is right on the lake and we enjoyed a beautiful sunset last night.

We met a couple of riders, Dave and Rod, at Timber Creek on the way to Katherine. They were heading for the Gibb river road so we gave them the drum on road conditions. They were both riding Suzuki DR’s One of them was a novice like Colin and had already had a fall on his way to Borroloola and was nursing a sore shoulder.

This is Australia’s answer to the Colorado river except we have greenery covering the banks instead of desert.  The Victoria River is claimed to be Australia’s last “wild” river.

Victoria River

Here we are on the bridge over the Colorado, sorry Victoria river in NT.

We rode our motorbikes along the pedestrian way of the bridge over the Victoria river. I nearly didn’t make as my panniers stuck out so far they touched the railings on both side. Steve was riding with us on a Yamaha Tenere heading for Darwin.  He had been working for years in Port Hedland on a fly in fly out basis from Brisbane, but had packed it in.


We arrived in Katherine NT at 5pm as we had lost one and a half hours coming from Kununurra WA. We decided to have dinner in the restaurant attached to our accommodation, the Knotts Crossing Resort. It was very good and reasonably priced.

21st August Kununurra 365 kms today 7,521 kms to date

We were woken up early by the trucks and utes starting for the work crews to hit the road just after sunrise.  We saw them on the road to Warmun repairing the highway.  Alan stopped at the Shell service station to buy some injector cleaner in the hope it clears up the hesitation in the GS.  We met “Brouggy” who was a Dutch cyclist heading for Fitzroy Crossing.  He was carrying more than we were.

We stopped for a break at Warmun and I looked at my rear tyre.  It is on the way out and I really need to get it replaced at Kununurra.  There is no way I could have ridden the Duncan/Buntine Hwy with this rear tyre.

There were a lot of burnt out areas along the side of the road and the hills were steep-sided with trees growing up the slopes.  Behind the little hill on the other side of the road is the world’s largest diamond mine – Argyle Diamond Mine.  We tried to visit it but it was too hard to organise.

There are huge 4 trailer road trains coming from the mines along the Northern Hwy and this one passed Alan as I was taking some photos.

We had lunch at the Doon Doon Road House, which is my favourite in this area.  It is run by a Dutch couple and we stopped there in 2010 on our ride around Australia.  They were obviously a well organised community and this included dealing with Cane Toads!

There were a few problems at the tyre shop in Kununurra.  The tyre they had set aside was a knobby and unsuitable for riding to Brisbane.  They didn’t have many other tyres in stock because they were cleaned out by the riders coming back from the Off Centre Rally and hadn’t restocked.  But one tyre was found, a Metzler Tourance which was slightly smaller than the Heidenau but will do the job OK.  The problem was that they didn’t have a 17” inner tube.  Luckily, I had had the punctured 17” inner tube patched by Neville back at Over the Range on the GRR and they put that back in.  In the showroom of the dealer there was a 100 Watt Marshall amp for a very reasonable price.  It belonged to the owner but no traveler had room for it me included.

We stocked up on food for dinner, breakfast and lunch plus beer and a bottle of wine.  Our cabin is on the banks of the Ord River and we enjoyed a few beers while watching the sunset reflected on the hills.

Alan worked out that we have 3,000 kms to get to Chinchilla next Sunday so there will be some big riding days ahead.  The DR copes well with highway riding but its not very comfortable and quite tiring to ride.  In contrast the BMW just eats up the miles despite the misfiring.