Somehow spending a night in a tent always results in getting up early. So this morning I was up very early, like 6:00 am, and with nothing to do at a bush camp was under way by about 7:00am. During the 20km drive into the town of Halls Creek I passed the first significant turnoff of the day, the start of the famous Tanami Track which is a lonely 1000km dirt track that provides a short cut from the Kimberly area to Alice Springs.

Today started with a crossing of the newish bridge over the Fitzroy River. This bridge was rebuilt asfter the floods of 2023 washed away the old one. Recall that I crossed the floodplain of this same river 2 days ago on my way to Wallare Roadhouse. It is a mighty river and foreshadows the Ord River and Lake Argyle over the next few days.

Todays plan was to ride to Fitzroy Crossing a shortish ride of only about 240kms, and to camp at Fitzroy Crossing Resort. Since I did not want to arrive at midday and spend all afternoon sitting in the sun the challenge of the day was to leave late and travel slowly. You see it is cooler riding the bike that being stationary in the sun.

Today marked a noteable event for this short tour of Australia because today I reached Derby on the North West Coast where the Indian Ocean meets the Timor Sea. From this point onwards my travel will have a general South East direction and will be heading home as Derby marked, in some sense, the turnaround point of the trip.

The primary business today was to get a new rear tyre for the bike. This was completed by 9:00am at Kimberly Motorcycle Center. I owe Peter and his team a big thanks as they went out of their way to fit me into their schedule.