No Retreat No Surrender

Wednesday the 17^th of November 2010

After many moments off faffing (Alan term for wasting time) we headed off but as we rounded the first corner not even 5 minutes into the days ride we could see the impending disaster that was about to unfold. It came in the form of the perfect thunder storm, given it was the middle of the day and it was unbelievably dark in the direction we were heading (south to Katherine) we knew this was going to end baldly, it was just a matter of time. We had made it onto the Stuart Highway when the strong hot gusty winds hit, at that point we knew we were in trouble as we didn’t have our wet weather gear on and that takes Alan about 5 minutes and me about 10. There was nowhere to pull off the road as the road side shoulders are gravel so we searched for shelter of some description with absolutely no luck. As the rain started to fall we just had to bite the bullet and pulled over as far as we could, trucks and cars flew passed us at a rate of knots (probably 110klm’s, as that is the speed limit) in the pouring rain we struggled to get the wet weather gear on quickly so we got soaked even before we had a chance. Once we started moving again it got even worse, I couldn’t do more than 70-80klm’s an hour because of extremely poor visibility. At best I could see 20 -30 metres in front of me, cars and the triples (trucks that are 53.5metres long) continued to fly passed us, the shoulder of the road had become raging torrents of water gushing passed us (we were going that slow) to say that we got wet would be an understatement to say that we got very, very wet would also be an understatement. The rain was truly torrential, but as visibility was the real problem, blind people don’t ride motorbikes for a reason!!! We eventually found a roadhouse to seek shelter in.

At the roadhouse Alan turned to me and said we have two options, keep going forward into the eye of the perfect thunder storm or he could ring Tanya and beg for one more night's accommodation. I could see the desperate look on Alan’s face and I could tell he wanted to go back, but as much as staying with Tanya, Mark and the kids was great I wanted to press on. No Retreat, no Surrender…

 As it turns out Alan and I had the same experience with our buff’s (the thin material that covers bikers faces, typically they are black) it rained so hard and we were so wet that when we went to breathe out through the buff it just ballooned out like a wet sail, which if that wasn’t bad enough when we breathed in we got nothing but water. I’d imagine it to be like being water boarded by the Americans. After you get a mouth full of water you have no choice but to spit it out (through your buff). So now I hear you say why don’t you just take your buff off? Well that’s because the rain drops like everything out here are bigger!!! Which means they hurt more when you get hit in the face by them. Normal raindrops feel like razor blades cutting you, these raindrops feel like twenty Samurai’s are turning you into Sushi with their swords.

The irony of all this was I was listening to Bob Marley V’s Funkstar’s grooving song “Sun is Shining” with some of the lyrics being

Sun is shining, weather is sweet yeah,

Make you want to groove, dancing sweet

Just let me say this is complete irony, whilst the song itself makes me want to groove the weather was not sweet, we’ve ridden through some serious rain and hail storms but nothing like this. Without doubt this was the worst storm I’ve ever encountered.

Having said that it did clear before we hit Katherine and because of the cloud cover it then turned out to be a great days riding. As we rode through Katherine for the second time, id suggest it’s not a place I would choose to go to unless you were really bored but you really needed to get fuel or some shopping done. It truly is a place that you would just pass through on your way to somewhere else. Having said that we didn’t do the Gorges because we were on the Harley’s. Everyone tells me that if you are in a 4wheel drive then it’s a must do, so I guess I’ll have to come back with a 4wheel drive.

The best part was undoubtedly as you turn into the Victoria River Region. The rock formations and scenery are spectacular and of course the Victoria River is as impressive as the surrounding landscape.

The downside to the Victoria River is apparently there is a bunch of crocodiles which inhabit these waters, I don’t mind so much as I wasn’t planning on swimming because it is too cold for me) however Alan was a tad disappointed.

The Victoria River Roadhouse also has all these old black and white photos on the wall at the roadhouse which are really cool, aerial photo’s of what the place used to look like, the floods and of course the hard men of the outback… one series of photos is of a guy cattle mustering with the 70”s beard. I must admit he does look manly as he wrestles the cow to the ground. In another series of photo’s they are flying a helicopter under the old Victoria Bridge, which is very impressive given it isn’t very big, probably the funniest one is the bloke using his boat to transport cartons and cartons of VB across the flooded river… you know where Australian priorities are, don’t worry about the food just make sure we have enough beer.

Cheers

a