The joys of the unexpected-Expedition Dust day 99

Today was dads first Radix breakfast. I made him the mixed berry flavour and he loved every mouthful. We packed away the camp pretty fast and headed out to investigate what the noise on the road was from. Sure enough it was what I had thought, two big yellow graders making the road smooth for us! The guy driving the machine stopped next to us and got out. He couldn’t believe it when i told him about my crossing. I said "I’m just doing what I love mate" and his reply was "I hope the new flat road helps make it easier" and it sure did. It was like being on smooth concrete the day just disappeared.

Everything for most of the day was flat, as we got to our lunchtime stop a small rock appeared on the horizon. After eating our dates and Peanut butter we got back on the bikes and rode off into the heat of the day. An hour later the small rock was now a huge rock cone, i marveled at its size and wondered how old it was. Dad was getting very sore. I gave him some Aussie butt cream to help stop the chafing and he said it definitely helped. Towards the end of the day we passed a council camp with all the vehicles from the roadworks team. Outside the camp the road had also be rolled. And the great road got greater, we were crushing the kilometers! There was a small pond just off the south side of the road I pull up stripped down and wet all my clothes. It was absolutely necessary as It was 42 degrees at this point in the day and the heat from the sun was radiating off the new road making it even hotter. This pond also marked my 4000th kilometer. Ahead I could see some signs and as I got closer i realized it was the end of the gravel. Sealed road all the way to Byron bay from here if I want! I don’t have to get off the bitumen if I choose not to. But by now you know that I’m definitely not staying on this for too long.

As we turned off the Birdsville developmental road and onto the Diamantina Developmental road A big red 200 series land cruiser passed yelling out the window. I put my had up and made the rock on symbol. I was overwhelmed with a sad but proud feeling, I had just pretty much crossed all of Australia’s deserts. And in about one weeks time I will be back in the land of human development. We had actually already hit the kilometers for the day but I withheld that information from dad so I could get ten more kilometers out of him. The Bitumen road was very narrow only just big enough for a truck. We could ride so fast along it. I told dad that this is what I have been dreaming about for nearly the last 100 days, it was so speedy.

In the distance I spotted a 3 trailer road train headed towards us. I got well off the road and waved as he passed. I looked back to dad who was right on the edge of the road (he had no idea what was about to happen) as the truck went past wind it just about blew dad right off the bike. I stood there shaking my head and chuckling to myself! When he caught up he wasn’t impressed by the situation and wanted to stop as soon as possible. I pointed into the distance at a bunch of trees and said "we’re camping there". 25 minutes later we pulled off the road and started weaving our way around the track. The red land cruiser was parked up behind some trees about 100m of the road. I rode up and introduced myself. I met Trevor, Alyce and their boy Jack. I told them about what I was doing and they invited us to camp alongside them and share the fire! I agreed and went off to set up the tent.

All set for camping I took my pot over to the fire. Trevor said "don’t worry about cooking mate. I’m going to make a bush roast!"  Then pulled a pre seasoned rolled beef roast out of the fridge in his truck, set up a spit over the fire and then turned it on! It slowly rotated over the fire over the next hour and a half as we shared story’s and Trevor showed his his cool truck! It was such a delicious dinner and totally unexpected! After dinner Alyce and I disappeared into the darkness with our cameras to take photos of the stars. I set up a time lapse and helped Alyce with her settings so she was able to get a banger of a shot. Before we went to bed I had some whiskey with Trevor and dad and told him about the time i was in Canada and how I charged a grizzly bear! As I lay in bed I felt very fortunate that we had met this lovely family and happy because I’m getting closer to my one and only love!