Day 37 –Daly Waters to Larrimah 92 K / 57 Miles

Meeting complete strangers who share of themselves with us in different ways is one of the things I love about these cycling trips. In Glendambo, a couple in their caravan stopped Joe as we were arriving at the roadhouse and offered him a meat pie, “because he looked hungry,” (of course he was) Joe obliged and they also gave him a chocolate milk to take his dad. Yesterday and Italian couple on a Harley Davidson pulled to the side of the road to flag us down, take our picture and ask about our trip. A couple weeks earlier a Japanese couple in a car did the same thing. 3 days ago, a gray nomad couple in their RV (Australia’s version of snowbirds in the US.) flagged us down to see if we needed anything.   We’ve met hundreds of people in similar circumstances all along our route. Tonight we shared conversation at Larrimah’s “famous” Pink Panther Pub with a canola farmer and his wife from Victoria. The conversation was not that much different than what might be heard in coffee shops in St. Joe, Ogden or Sydney, Illinois.

This section of the Stuart Highway is lined with former aerodrome established during WWII. There was one on the side road out to Daly Waters, and Larrimah served as the railhead for the train line that brought parts and munitions to those airbases. Remnants of the rail yard can still be seen west of the Larrimah pub. In the yard of a small museum across from the pub were the remnants of rotary engines that once powered the aircraft. There are very few to preserve this history. Larimah’s population is 11.

Today we had considered riding all the way to Mataranka, 160 plus kilometers north of Daly Waters. Neither Joe nor I slept well last evening, as there were people up and talking loudly across from the camping area until after 2 AM. Another group decided to fire up their RV next to us and leave at 4 AM. We got a fairly early start, but the winds were almost directly out of the east and provided little help in making time. We agreed we would take stock of the situation during our stop in Larrimah before deciding whether or not to move on.

The heat out in the open compared with the shade and soft drinks at the Pink Panther Pub, as well as conversations with other travelers, convinced us to stop for the day. The recommendation was to roll into Mataranka early, and take time to refresh in the natural mineral springs there.