Day 40 – Katherine to Pine Creek 92K / 57 Miles

Last evening when I asked Joe if he would cook supper for us, he replied, “Sure, you’re always working too hard.” He was referring to my ritual of journaling our ride, posting the entry to Rideforwater.org and then posting it to another site, Crazyguyonabike.com. As those who read this can probably tell, it is not edited closely. It is done on the fly, images are uploaded from my phone and camera, processed to compress them for faster up-loading, and then posted. Many times the process takes a couple hours each day, and is the last thing I do before I go to bed, usually around 10:30. With our early starts, I have been going to bed earlier and have been writing and filing in the afternoon while we sit out the heat of the day. Today it has come after laundry chores and a well-deserved nap.

 
Even the early 6:40 AM predawn start from Katherine didn’t save us from traffic today. There was no peaceful hour or two of riding before traffic picked up; it was an onslaught from the start. It never eased up. Road conditions deteriorated as well the pavement was showing wear from the large number of road trains. Drivers as well seemed much less concerned about safety as they would “squeeze” past regardless of us, their speed or the oncoming traffic. I didn’t count the many times we dove for cover onto the gravel shoulder. When we go for the shoulder, we never know what we will get, sometimes it is firm and easy to control, other times the gravel is deep, our tires sink in and we just try to maintain control and we skid to a stop. Often from the pavement to whatever should there is can be as much as a six inch drop. I am hoping that tomorrow traffic is less hectic. Pine Creek, our stop for the night is at the turn-off for Kakadu National Park, the major tourist and caravanning destination of the Northern Territory.