The Tour Bus and the "Bungle Bungles" Bungle(30th-31st June)

An early start and a blast up the tarmac to the Bungle Bungles from Halls Creek. We'd been warned about the first creek crossing and sure enough Scott and I both took a swim. Scott's bike ingested a little water and we flattened the battery of the DR trying to dry it out, all I can say is that I'm glad the KTMs have a kick-start as pushing and bump-starting the DR was a pain, made less pleasurable by old smarty pants blokes in Prados lightly mocking us for being outside the comforts of a Toyota. Nevertheless we got it going and as we took off I noticed that my digital speedo wasn't working and had some moisture in it. After riding for a couple of kilometres I decided it was silly to let it run with water in it and wreak it completely so I stopped and pulled it apart to dry it out and clean the dirty river water out. Whilst I did this Sam decided it would be a good time to destroy his knuckles and change his tyre to a new one that he'd been carrying. While Sam swore and cursed I scrubbed the dirty water out of the electronics in my speedo with my toothbrush. Both of us achieved our goals and with a working speedo and a fresh tyre on Sam's bike we packed up ready to head off. Just as we were about to leave another of the very few young people travelling through this area rocked up in a Rodeo camper asking if we were mechanically minded. We said "sort of" and asked them of their problem. A loud knock in the rear of their camper had them concerned, it turned out to be some loose suspension parts and Scott was straight on to it repairing it with his bike's tool kit. Once done Scott was rewarded with a couple of beers from their ice-box which he stowed in my backpack, to be consumed over the next few days, both warm and shaken.
The rest of the ride was excellent and we wandered through the awesome Cathedral Gorge after setting up camp at Walardi.

The next day (1st of July) we headed back the same 60kms back out on the excellent twist dirt road through some spectacular scenery.

At the deaded river crossing we decided to push the bikes through so as to not lose any more time de-drowning bikes. We got one of the bikes through when an off-road tour bus decided to go through. The rock bottom proved no challenge for him as it had for us, but the muddy bank stopped him dead. We pushed the other two bikes through and around him and waited a little to see if he'd get out. At one point an old bloke in a Prado tried to snatch him out, but that was never going to work due to sheer physics! It would have been a great promotion for Toyota had it worked.

By this stage the traffic was backing up in both directions and we didn't see him getting out any time soon, so we packed up and headed off. With no way around for the four-wheel drives it definitely would have changed a few peoples holiday plans. Ahhh! The joys of motorcycling, it was no problem for us!

The rest of the day was spent heading up to Wyndham, riding through the ever changing ranges and plateaus.

We set up camp to a pink sky over the majestic plateaus and dined on barramundi and chips.