How to continue after Broome…? By bike? Or 4WD?….

Steven planned to leave Kimberley Croc Backpackers at 7:30am, get some supplies at Kununurra’s Coles supermarket and then hit the road towards Broome. As it turned out, we eventually left Kununurra at 9am on the 21st of October. With El in the back, Steven behind the wheel and myself in the passenger seat, we drove out of our latest ‘hometown’ and turned right onto Victoria Highway. We passed the airport and the Diversion Dam and were on our way.
Everything went smooth and sound, until (after several hundreds of kilometers) we felt one of the tyres bumping. At first we thought it was the road and its decaying condition, but there were no huge holes that could cause the car to bump like that. It didn’t feel like a flat tyre, either. We stopped and soon found out that the heat had created a huge bump in the tyre, it had de-shaped it. We replaced the tyre and soon were on our way again.
In Broome, 1049 kilometers down the road from Kununurra, we camped out in the information bay about 10k outside the town. The next morning (Saturday), on our way into town, I saw two people on pushbikes (mountain bikes in Australian) with helmets and a lot of luggage.
Now, my journey onwards from Broome was to go along the westcoast. After my car burned down in Kununurra, I had to find a new mean of transportation. The idea of going down to Perth on a pushbike got stuck in my head. I didn’t say anything to Steven or El, for they would condemn the idea straight away, but I felt enthusiastic enough to give the idea some serious thought.
We drove around for about two hours on Saturday morning trying to find a tyreshop that had the correct size for Steven’s car. That proved to be a mission impossible, for the correct sizes weren’t available anywhere. And the guy that had one tyre, didn’t have the rim for it.
Steven and El dropped me off at Broome’s YHA Kimberley Klub and left the town without a spare tyre, risking getting stranded after a blow-out. So be it, for them there was no other option at this point.
I checked in to the hostel, settled down in the noisiest room of the entire hostel (room 1, directly across from the bar) and went roaming the streets of this new destination. I found one bicycle shop which would be open on Monday again and didn’t do that much for the remainder of the Saturday.
Sunday morning, just when I was walking over to the reception to ask for another room that was quiet, I saw Michael standing at the reception. He had stayed in Kununurra for three months and for all I knew he was on his way across the Northern Territory. But now he was here, in Broome, and on his way to Perth where his children live.
We went to Cable Beach (photos are on his camera, I don’t have any yet so can’t post any) and swam in the Indian Ocean, where we surrounded by tens of brown jelly fish. They washed ashore, making a trail across the entire waterline on the beach of brownish creatures that looked like some sort of thick pudding. Michael got stung pretty bad, even though the tentacles seemed to be very short.
I told him, of course, about the idea to go by bike down the coast to Perth. He thought it would be a great achievement and encouraged me to do it.
On Monday I spent a lot of time figuring things out. I calculated that I’d need at least 30 liters of water, food for five days, camping gear, etc. I needed a trailer behind the bike to carry everything. The first part of the trip would be crossing about 500 kilometers of sandy dessert, with temperatures of upto 48 degrees Celcius. Being untrained, that was going to be a real challenge. In the bicycle store, I asked for a trailer and the only thing they had was a kiddy trailer, that could hold a maximum of 35 kilos. As a general rule, one liter of water represents one kilo, I was once told, so with all the water loaded on the trailer, I could only put on another 5 kilos. My load would be a lot heavier. Another obstacle was my desire to visit Karijini National Park, 250 kilometers off the route I wanted to take. And then I pictured myself rumbling a gravel road with my kiddy trailer, which had tyres made for concreted city roads.
I didn’t decide anything yet, as Michael and I went strolling the coast during low tide. We walked over the sea bottom to an island of black rocks, where the remains of a ship were visible. We saw a big, rusty engine, beams of metal… Interesting stuff.
After a failing attempt to do some night fishing, we had two beers in the hostel bar and then said each other goodbye, for Michael was going to hit the road early morning on board a Greyhound bus to Perth.
The next morning I walked to the Broome Visitor Center, having decided that I wouldn’t be doing the bikeride due to the lack of a well-equipped trailer built for the purpose of long off-road rides in combination with road conditions I would be facing. I was glad I’d given the plan the serious thought it needed, that I had investigated everything (from equipment to nutrition to road conditions to blogs of other cyclists). Instead, I was going to book myself a 4WD.
That done, I will pick the car up tomorrow and be in Perth on Wednesday November 9th. So the next two weeks will be my holiday. Karijini National Park, snorkling in Coral Bay and all the other exciting stuff I was given information about.
Can’t wait!

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