The Journey West continues...

Friday 10/10/08 - Darwin to Edith Falls .
After a great couple of days in Darwin, it was good to hit the road again.
Headed out to Lichfield NP, and stopped at Florence Falls for a swim, beautiful twin falls with a great swimming hole, had thought that we might camp in Lichfield, but it was really hot and still, so decided to move on towards Katherine.
Stopped short of Katherine by about 40 Kms at Edith Falls, it was going on dusk when we arrived there and the jumpers were definitely out.
Saturday 11/10/08 - Edith falls to Timber Creek
Started off early and headed into Katherine for brekky, then off down to the Gorge, where we hired a couple of canoes for a few hours and canoed up the gorges. We were told that there were no Salties around, but it didn't inspire that much confidence, given the number of traps they had around for them !
around lunchtime, we left and headed west to Timber Creek. It was avery hot ride, but the scenery was great, with large red rock escarpments near Victoria river, stopped heaps of times for photos.
arrived at Timber Creek as dusk was falling, not to much of a place, and had a fairly quiet night.
Sunday 12/10/08 - Timber Creek to Warmun (Turkey Creek)
What a day ! Started off early again, what is it about camping and heat ! 200 kms to Kununurra, where I had anticipated spending a couple of days doing trips / flights out over the Kimberleys
Being Sunday in a country town, everything was closed, and after talking through with Geoff, decided to let the flying go and leave it for another type of trip.
Got a great tip from the lady at the backpackers about a restaurant on the edge of town in an old pumphouse. Place was great, run by a French motorcyclist/chef, had Eggs Benedict looking over Lake Kununurra....uummm Yum..after Roadhouse burgers and bacon and egg rolls, not to mention 2 minute noodles, it was really welcome.
Headed off about 12 for the 377kms to Halls Creek. Scenery after we passed the Wyndham turn off was stunning, riding through valleys with rugged red ranges on either side, beautiful colours, reds of the dirt, greens and greys of the bush and grasses, reds of the ranges, set off against this massive blue sky. Took lots of photos before continuing on to Doon Doon Roadhouse. Found out there was no fuel in turkey Creek, so filled right up and put an extra 5 litres on the bike, just in case...Arrived at Turkey Creek about 3.30pm and stopped for a quick break and started to become concerned about the wildlife on the road, there was cattle everywhere.
Headed off to Halls and kept speed down around 100 km/h and kept a look out for any strays.
About 50km out of Turkey Creek, did the 2 minute mirror check, and no Geoff, waited for a further minute before turning back. A couple of k back found Geoff, bike upright on it's stand and Geoff pacing around. "What happened" I said, "I hit a cow" says he, I then turned around to check his bike again, headlight, instrument panel, front mud guard, right handside cover panel, either smashed or badly dented.
Oh no ! all the thoughts of what could go wrong were lashing themselves together and hurrying to the front of my head. Checked Geoff out, he'd wacked both knees hard and one was pretty swollen, tear around his left wrist, but apart from that and obviously highly agitated he seemed fine. We waved a car away as we assessed what was possible and shortly afterwards a 4 wheel drive ute approached heading towards Turkey Creek.Left the bike, as it wouldn't start and packed Geoff and his gear into it for the trip back.
back at the Roadhouse, Geoff spoke to one of the guys working there, Dale, (another motorcyclist) He summed it up pretty quickly and organiesd a trailer and 4 wd in about 10 minutes, basically we were told the bike wouldn't be there in the morning, if we left it that night.
Got back out to the bike on dark and loaded it up and hauled back to the roadhouse.
Chilled out til late, trying to unscramble our heads. Dale was an interesting bloke, a thousand stories, enough to make 10 movies from. Rode around a Australia on a trail bike with his brother when 16, beaten up by police, kidnapped a veitnam vet, crashed the bike into a cow, (empathy with Geoff), rode the rest of the way with one handle bar ! Also later on became a Chaplain in a Kalgoorlie prison !
Last thing Geoff says to me..."it's my 49th Birthday today"