Riding across Australia, heading to Karijini, solo motorcycle camping adventure S2 Episode 16

Early start this morning, the sun's just about to come over the horizon. Get on the road, it's going to be a long one. I left before the sun breached over the horizon. This was a different track than the one I'd come in on. I'd come in from the south but the next part of my journey was taking me north. With the track being sand and the sun so low on the horizon it made it pretty tricky as the front wheel was moving around on light in the sand and I couldn't see a thing. The landscape was bare of any trees or plants. Just grass and termite mounds scattered around. Headed back onto the tarmac and headed north. So I've nearly gone two hours. This is the turn off back onto the main highway and then somewhere up there I'll be turning right and heading east again. It's a little fresh this morning but not as bad as down south so won't change anything else. And just gonna have a snack and something to drink and then keep on moving. This is the first sort of big emptiness ride, well besides the Nullarbor. Just yeah there's not a lot out here. The land was flat punctuated by these very long mounds of red sand spaced about a kilometre apart. I can imagine from above that they would look like rips across the landscape. Nearly all the riverbeds I've crossed out here are dry. This one you can camp on its banks. Another Royal Flying Doctors airplane landing strip. I pulled into filler and grabbed some food. I made it to the turn off towards Kirijani and leaving the National Highway 1 for now. It is dry out here even though it has been a higher than usual rainfall this year. So this is what it looks like in a good year. Probably a good allocation of resources as there are not a lot of vehicles out here and if you did come across one at a bridge you would literally be waiting for just the one. I came to a turn off. The map said go straight but I was pretty sure I had to go past the town of Tom Price. So I went with the sign. Well that is the first forklift I've ridden past on this trip. It is a dry rough existence out here. Well with regular fuel not available it looks like the bike would be getting the good stuff. Premium this time. Just filled up with the gas again and asked here about if there's fuel on the other side because I'm going out the other direction north. And apparently there is after a couple of hundred kms. So it shouldn't be as desperate as I thought it was with fuel. Well not desperate just you know range anxiety I think it's called. And you don't actually go into Tom Price to get to the National Park. So better to fill up here and the fact that I only have a few hundred kms afterwards that I can get fuel all's good. Always good to ask a local. I don't do it enough. It was getting late into the afternoon as I was heading off. So I started to look for somewhere to camp on the side of the road. I spotted what could be the track to the spot I might be able to camp at. So I turned around to check it out. It was named the RIP Lookout and I soon worked out where the name came from. Each of the large rocks up here had someone's name on it. So I went back down the hill and had another look. I then found a track that was a little hidden on the other side of the road. This looked more like it with campfires dotted around. Well eventually I found the camp spot. When I went to the RIP Lookout it is literally a memorial to people on each of the rocks. So but yeah over the road I looked on little comments. Someone said yeah I think people are getting confused between the two. So it is over here. There are little campfire spots. If I get time I might put a fire up. I was just trying to get where to put the tent and not get any embers on it. But the ground doesn't look that soft so I might be using rocks as well to hold the tent up. And the wind's just picked up so I might take that in consideration as well. Decisions, decisions. Okay I'll work this out. Decisions made. This campfire is in the wrong spot. The flattest spot's right next to it with the least amount of rocks. So put the tent there and I can make another campfire somewhere else. But firstly we're just gonna put the solar panel out and get a little more power as there is nowhere that's got power for the next few days that I know of. So it's better to keep topping up rather than running out. It's very quick to set up the solar panel and battery. So I moved on to setting up the tent. The ground was not so tentpeak friendly. So as long as the wind doesn't pick up those rocks should hold. It's gonna pick up isn't it. Now that's all set up. Time to see if I can find any firewood. Unless the last campers have taken it all. Let's see. I'll go on a search. I just heard some RVs pull up and they went to the lookout instead of here. And it didn't take them long to leave. The memorial doesn't seem to be attracting too many punters tonight. And then they missed this turn off. So still all to myself. Pretty cool. It's deadly quiet besides the occasional truck coming past. And this mountain range behind me. So yeah all is good. It was a much easier day riding today. Not trying to do 10 other things while riding 600km. So if I didn't mention it earlier. Camping here because I could only get one night in the National Park. It is, I'm sure, it's school holidays. So hopefully it's not packed out. About 60 kilometers short of the National Park. Which means I can get up in the morning. The campsite is available at 10. So no big rush. But I want to see if I can get a few spots in the National Park. It's supposed to be gorgeous. It's one that everybody says to come and see. I mean I have diverted 300 kilometers directly east to come in. But if you look at the map I probably don't lose much. Because once you go up the coast and you basically come east anyway. And there's not a lot out there. Not really. I've passed Exmouth already. So yeah, I think it's worth the risk to have a look. And google image it. You'll understand why. I sat back and enjoyed the absolute silence. And what is it about campfires in the middle of the outback that is so inviting. With little visible life out here. Is it the dancing movement and the crackling sound of the flame that is so alluring. I think that's a wrap for another great day on the bike. Morning. The moon last night was really bright. It's still up. It's not a full moon but it was very bright. Not a far ride this morning to the National Park. So that'll be good. Just cruise. The wind's just got up. It's not a sunrise but the morning light was good. See what the sun does. I packed up camp. Loaded the gear back on the bike. And set off for Kirijini National Park. Knowing most of these remote national parks are take out what you brought in. I headed back up the ROP lookout as I'd spotted a bin when I was up there yesterday. It is a good lookout and the ridges running down that hill look awesome in the low morning light. I came upon some roadworks which seem to be in the middle of nowhere. These guys must have been up early to get out here. With a few vehicles behind me I decided to pull over and let everybody pass. I wasn't in a rush and I didn't want to have to ride amongst other vehicles concentrating on them rather than enjoying the ride by myself. So when they had all passed I gave them a few more minutes gap. Then I trundled off to enjoy the rest of the ride to the National Park. If there's a train line out here it's most likely only carrying one thing. And that's iron ore. I passed a sign and although I'm not great at remembering names of places for some reason this one stuck out so I turned around. It was Hemersley Gorge. It seemed to spark up images of rock pools or something similar. It was still early and I had a couple of hours before the campsite was available so I thought why not check it out now instead of just waiting around. The road soon turned to dirt and had sections of corrugations so it was up on the footpegs to lessen the vibrations on the camera gear on my back. There was a stunning mountain range to my right that I thought I might get a better look at that on my way back. The corrugations weren't everywhere so I could pick up some speed and make some distance quickly. This is really starting to feel like the outback now. I hit a spot of deep corrugations that I thought I'd chip my teeth on if I didn't slow down. There is only one option when a road train passes you on roads like this in the outback. Pull over until the dust settles. I came upon roadworks. Even roads like this need to be maintained. They had two water trucks doing laps trying to keep the dust down otherwise it would be impossible to do their job. This gorge was still within the Kerrigene National Park. It's just you had to access it from the west side and not the main entry from the south. It had taken me 53 kilometers along the dirt road but I'd made it. Now that's what you call a waterhole. Hemersley Gorge is located in the northwest region of the Kerrigene National Park. It is stunning. I can use that word again. It is absolutely stunning. A drop in sea levels cause creeks and rivers to cut down through the rocks creating these deep gorges. It seems it's definitely an afternoon photography spot down the canyon because the sun's right in the way at the moment. But still it's these walls. Most of the rocks are conglomerates, shales and quartzite with thick layers of blue asbestos and iron. And guess what? There's nobody here. Imagine being the first person to stumble across this. Mind-blowing. How gorgeous is this? Look at these walls. These rocks formed from marine sediment deposits about 2.4 to 1.8 billion years ago and over time were eventually uplifted into the formations they are today. So I've worked out the money shot would be from here right down that canyon. The sun's in the wrong position but we'll see what we can do with what we've got. Ah Guns Row. Ah mother nature. Really good. It's worth the dirt road. And the fact it was 40km's on that dirt road probably means there's less people here. So it's worth the effort compared to the other place I just went to where it was touristy. Here not so much. You can see it's so clear the water. And they give you rock pools. Well seeing as I was here by myself I may as well go for a swim.