Category Archives: roadtrip

Asia, roadtrip, travel

Ulaanbaatar to Murun

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Bikes mostly assembled and bikepacking bags loaded, we managed to get everything in the back of the loaf of bread for an early departure from Ulaanbaatar. We’d decided that two days of transport to the north of Mongolia was superior to a week of riding just to get to where we wanted to be riding. Thankfully the city wasn’t nearly as hot or congested for our exit west.

Sunday morning quietness. Warming up by now; especially in the basic interior of a bread loaf trundling along at 80 km/hr.

Out into the expanses.

Some sort of factory, which will always catch my eye.

Sportsground in a small town.

We drove alongside a large horse race for miles – quite entertaining with the speed on the surface. Some pretty young children involved as well, racing on the dirt tracks cross country. We had to wait a while on the highway as the race crossed the road.

More expanse. Just as well we didn’t get sick of it, a lot more to come.

The roads were mostly pretty good, and we made steady if not fast progress. But every so often the highway would be barricaded with piles of rocks and gravel for long stretches of construction or maintenance. In those cases, all the traffic was, not so much diverted as, left with no choice to find the best path beside what was supposed to be the road. Some mild chaos and bumpiness, but it all worked.

Pick a path!

Through Erdernet, with its huge copper mine – mining being Mongolia’s largest industry and export. Unfortunately we didn’t stop to take a closer look.

(Not a copper mine.)

We did stop for a short leg stretch at the top of a small pass – where there were a lot of stalls set up. Meat, milk products etc; the fermented mare’s milk was probably the least palatable thing (to me), I tasted in all of Mongolia – ugh.

Near the end of a long day’s driving, a little off-roading took us around the back of a small old volcano – pretty twisty, and up and down, through the trees but easy enough for our capable van. Nice to get out for a longer walk to the top of the hill and around the crater.

Late into the long evening after a even longer day sitting in the van, we had our first experience of Mongolian-camp-wherever-you-want – our driver finding a nice spot a few hundred metres from the road on the edge of a forest. As we would become accustomed to, eventually some locals came over (this time an old couple on a motorbike) to see what we were about. For the last time, we had someone who could speak Mongolia with us to explain our trip.

Thankfully the second day of driving was not as long as the first, we were well over halfway to Murun when we departed from our little campsite. Besides the ever expansive scenery, highlights of the day were seeing the proliferation of car camping all over the place, and seeing a large organised and supported cycle tour – we had to borrow one of their staff as translator when we stopped near them for lunch.

Settling in our guesthouse in Murun (a town of about fifty thousand), one of the young staff offered to show us the way to the biggest shops and find an ATM. She took quite a shine to Rachel, perhaps welcoming the chance to converse in English – with a Belfast accent. It was a pleasant distance to use the legs over, while we mulled over where to ride the next day; by this time, we were dead keen to get on the bikes and get riding after what felt like a long five days of travelling.

Wrestling stadium.

Overgrown colourful playgrounds (educational facilities closed for long summer break) always look vaguely menacing to me.

Creepy.

Aus, family, national park, roadtrip, travel

Top End by campervan

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Into the Northern Territory, where the roads deteriorated markedly but perversely the speed limit went from 110 to 130 km/hr – not that the camper was worth driving at those speeds, 100 was plenty. The landscape of vast flat plains, occasionally interspersed with mesas, covered in low-density, low-height forests and scrub continued. We regularly saw controlled burns keeping the undergrowth in check, only once having the highway completely engulfed in smoke.

Posted observation points were welcome, they helped to break the driving. This one just short of Victoria River had a bonus walk up a hill in the sweltering heat.

Trees and rocks, with a bonus river.

Down to the roadhouse, with attached campground, the only facilities for many miles.

Said roadhouse, without all the vehicles belching diesel. Saw a bunch of big motorsport team trucks rolling through, a change from the preponderance of mining and cattle road trains. Found later the Supercar roadshow was moving from Perth to Darwin.

After not having seen a supermarket all week, a restock in Katherine was needed before heading to Nitmulik National Park for a couple of nights. The Three Gorge boat tour gave us the opportunity to sit, occasionally walk to another boat and learn about the gorge from a local. Towering cliffs and how the volume of water in the wet season has shaped the landscape were impressive.

This may be recognised from some films, but not by me.

Somewhat inexplicably to me, we had an hour to swim at Lily Ponds under a tall thread of a waterfall. About a third of the group got in the water, most else sat in the shade.

I found a marked track that involved plenty of rock-hopping and steep scrambling to the top of the waterfall. Much better view and more interesting up there.

The creek approaching the cliff.

Spot the tour group.

Further up the gorge, past where boats can reach – there are a lot of rocks around these parts.

On the return, the longer walk (not long) between boats and impassable rocks.

First crocodile in the wild for the trip.

Our guide pointed out a viewing platform up high as we neared the end of our boat trip, suggesting it was a good place to see the sunset. As it was the first time I’d seen significant clouds in the sky since our layover in Melbourne, I was hopeful it would be worth the walk and steep staircases. It was.

But first, different rocks! Curious conglomerations.

The start of the Kakadu Highway held the most engaging driving of the trip – especially in a seven metre long, three metre high van. Alas that didn’t last long, but probably good for Mum’s comfort and getting to Jabiru campground before dark. I was a bit under the weather for our two days there, unfortunately coinciding with the hottest weather of the trip – alarmingly close to forty degrees Celsius.

Better than your average water tower.

A little boat tour up the East Alligator River (no gators in Australia, only crocs – the river mistakenly named) was slightly cooler than staying on land. I found the local guide interesting, plenty told of how the local flora and fauna form part of their life. Not a lot of wildlife to be seen in the heat of the afternoon; more time in Kakadu and even getting into the vast, sparsely populated Arnhem Land would be cool.

Spot the fictional characters – Homer, E.T., Robocop…

Although not that far back to Darwin and campervan return, certainly less distance than we had generally been driving, we broke it up choosing to stay in the middle of nowhere. Bark Hut Inn had a great campground, adjoined to a roadhouse, built in an area that once was predominantly buffalo and croc hunting (the old modified Landcruisers with a lot of external steelwork looked plain mad). Disappointed by the lack of wildlife on the trip thus far, we booked one last boat tour on the nearby Corroberee Lagoon – thinking we had enough time to pack, clean the camper and drive to Darwin the following day.

It turned out to go swimmingly (except no-one literally went swimming for obvious reasons). An exceptional tour with a very knowledgeable guide who was only too happy to answer questions, show us what we wanted to see and keep us both amused and informed. Helped that we saw plenty too – here’s a little of it:

On that high, the campervan was returned on time leaving us a day and a bit to have a look around Darwin. With the Supercars in town for the weekend, the excellent night market at Mindil Beach was packed – but the city seemed deserted the following day. Perhaps it’s always like that, but it seemed an odd place. Give me the wilderness instead.

Aus, family, roadtrip, travel

Kimberley by campervan

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Somewhere along the way I said I’d drive Mum on a campervan trip across the NW of Australia. Suddenly it was thirty-odd degrees hotter than is normal at home this time of year and we were checking out Broome – an interesting little town with a history of pearl harvesting by many ethnicities and being bombed in the Second World War; now its biggest asset seems to be a busy fly-in, fly-out airport for WA’s mining industry.

We had some time before picking up the van, so wandered in the heat.

Plenty of the old corrugated buildings survive.

One of the many boab trees (related to the African baobab) we’d see on the trip.

Originally a telegraph station when the subsea cables were the quickest form of comms with the outside world – Timor is really close.

A few of the scores of crabs that were fascinating to watch.
Parking the camper (a very similar van to the ambulances I’m used to driving, just a fair bit longer) first-up in a crowded Cable Beach carpark conquered, we were on time for the camel ride that Mum wanted to do. No racing, all rather sedate – a pleasant hour not having to walk in the heat. Unsure what the camel thought, but I expect it’s better acclimatised than southern New Zealanders.

First night and campground successfully negotiated, the first of many interesting rocks on the trip were visited – with some fun scrambling too.

Finally hitting the highway, it was a few hours north to Derby – even hotter, most notable to me for having up to thirteen metre tides.

Tidal plain, would have liked to see the sea rapidly advance across it.

One of the wider-trunked boabs we saw.

Apparently the largest cattle trough in the world, guess there’s got to be one. From the days of driving stock ultra long distances without trucks.
Continuing east, there were a few small towns every so often (hundred-odd kilometres apart) – maybe because it was a Sunday, but they were grim. Service stations so barricaded I didn’t think they were open, usually they were – just as well.
I much preferred the next campground, Mimbi, to the overly large and full ones on the coast – no power, remote and quiet.

Not at all packed in like sardines.

Also, there were rocks and hills to explore.

Triodia grass – annoyingly pointy.
We’d slowed our journey east a bit so as to catch a tour through the Mimbi Caves, led by the local people. It was wonderfully low-key and gave plenty of opportunity to hang at the back of the large group to try and get some peace to gaze at the intriguing formations.

More rocks – walking to the caves.

Back at the campground, there was enough time to go for a more challenging scramble through the triodia and up the rocks to see what sunset would serve up.

Slightly different rocks. And redder rocks.

Token van photo as Mum was off looking for giant ant hills.
We were really hoping to see the bizarre rock formations of the Bungle Bungles (large, striped beehive shapes), but found at the campground that the permit for this season’s 4WD tours still hadn’t been granted – and we certainly couldn’t take the van on fifty kilometres of rough 4WD track. Disappointing – but the campground, with buffet barbecue, was excellent; I also enjoyed a couple of evening walks lit by the full moon.

Slight detour out to Wyndham and another huge tidal plain.

Boab trees and road trains – pleased to get a photo, while stopped, of some of the constant driving-sights.

I think this was the only Big Thing we saw on the trip, which seems an unusually low tally for an Australian road trip.

But the boabs were far more impressive than Big Things. This one at the campground, carbon dated to about 2000 years old, is apparently still young!
Mirima National Park, small and right on the edge of Kununurra, was billed as a mini-Bungle Bungles – so we had to have a look. Plenty more fascinating rocks, but I’m not sure that billing is at all accurate. Good fun on short walks all the same.

Mum was keen to see some unique local zebra rocks – so we visited a local stoneworker. More cool rocks! Plus some impressively heavy workshop equipment for drilling and cutting all sorts of rock.

Not seeing the Bungle Bungles was playing on my mind, especially with a better than even chance we wouldn’t be back to see them another time. While I’d have much preferred to be able to walk around and inspect them, we were fortunate that there were two seats left on a scenic flight the following day. Apologies for the slightly foggy photos through a small plane window – they’ll have to do their own talking though.

I’m still a bit surprised by just how much vegetation, and how green it was, that we saw on the whole trip – dry season it may have been, but I guess it was close to the start.

We certainly saw plenty during our ten days in WA; onto Northern Territory, all new to me.

bikepacking, bikes, friends, NZ, roadtrip, running, travel

Migration south for summer

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Car loaded with the rest of my possessions that weren’t on a truck somewhere , I had a vague plan of seeing plenty of friends and family on the way south over a few weeks – with hopefully some time outdoors. Apart from that, I just had to make sure I was in Otago for an early family Christmas; not missing too many weekly venesections would be good too.

Mostly successful, I had an enjoyable couple of weeks catching up with many, seeing new places and some memorable meals – even if the weather didn’t always play nice. Patches of sun were few and far between in Wellington, but it was still easy enough to walk around exploring the city when I couldn’t summon the energy to get out riding or running.

Riding around the bays east of the city was a pleasant, if blowy, afternoon.

Some inadvertent hike-a-bike to get here.

Evening run up Mt Vic.

Actually got warm on this big walk – but perhaps because I was dressed for the previous weather, which I don’t have photos of.

I did get a cracking day for a delayed sailing across Cook Strait, and then had a lovely quiet drive down to Hokitika – where I caught up with the rain, three fairly solid days of it. But there was still plenty of biking, walking and jogging in the bush to be done. Only having ridden the West Coast Wilderness Trail way back in 2016 on Tour Aotearoa, and getting thoroughly soaked – I had been hoping to see it on a drier day. Alas, that will have to wait for another time – water being our constant companion for a fun afternoon ride on part of the trail.

Some shelter for a late lunch.

The following day proved even wetter, but out in the rain for a Mahinapua jog proved quite pleasant.

Sunday we managed a couple of hours walking through dense, lush and unsurprisingly green bush before the heavens broke for the last ten minutes or so. Weekend over and the weather did improve – I was pleased to be able to wait it out, as I was able on last year’s West Coast trip. Unusually windy, I was told, it was mercifully dry as we got up on the tops of the Kelly Range.

Towards Otira.

Plenty of Mt Cook lilies out.

Yup, blowing a gale up here.

Down the Taramakau valley to the Tasman.

I enjoyed getting up a bit higher and gaining more of an idea of the lay of some of the land.

Conveniently skipping the first afternoon and the big hike-a-bike section of Nina’s Tour Te Waipounamu training ride, I joined at Blackball for a cruisy and pleasant overnighter. It only rained for the first couple of hours, which was far better than expected on the wet drive north.

Some deserted forestry roads gave few views, save this one.

A strange collection of long-abandoned short lengths of wood.

Across Lake Brunner from Moana – tasty late-lunch stop.

The afternoon’s gravel riding, particularly around Bell Hill, was excellent – as was the easy ride down the valley to lovely Nelson Creek.

With route options aplenty but no firm decisions, I may have (foolishly?) mentioned I like a bit of creek riding – as per Waiuta-Big River. Access through a farm arranged, with handy pointers, we were off for Napoleon Hill.

Through the farm, heading for the beech forest.

A four-wheel drive track provided a suitable, but surmountable, challenge on loaded bikes before it plateaued across the top with plenty of big puddles – thankfully firm bases.

The descent to Nobles Creek got a lot chunkier, I had much fun bouncing down it.

Before long the track was the creek bed and it was excellent – the highlight of the trip for me. I was pleased that it was basically all rideable (the odd dab as rocks proved adept at enforcing sudden changes of direction) and, despite riding down a creek for kilometres, my feet stayed relatively dry until its volume had swollen somewhat when it joined the next creek.

The first of three tunnels – thankfully there was a bypass.

This one far more conducive to riding through.

Finding our way out through more farmland, we were soon whizzing down to the Grey Valley again before lunch in Ikamatua and the last section of seal south towards Blackball. Looking across the valley we could spot the hill we’d just climbed – the bicorne shape obvious. At Atarau we turned north and climbed to Anderson’s Flat – where, after another lovely section through native forest, we were pleased to see Nina’s truck where she’d left it. Much fun on that wee overnighter and it was interesting to take the longer route back to drive through some of the area we’d just ridden and see it from a different perspective.

Thursday and my time on the Coast drew to an end with one last run around the Kaniere Water Race (fascinating following it through the bush) and a tasty Hokitika Sandwich – reputation deserved. With little (/no) tourist traffic around, I’d decided it was a good time to drive down the coast (also first visit since that wet section on TA16) and stay a couple of nights near Wanaka – more people to visit and biking to be done.

I had a few stops on the way down to go for short walks, well worth breaking the drive up.

In Hawea in good time that evening, I was promptly lent a bike and was out exploring some rather hidden, and more technical than I’m currently used to, trails. Over-preparing perhaps for Friday at the relatively new MTB park at Glendhu.

Climbing to the high point over an hour, I enjoyed passing and staying ahead of e-bikes – but was beginning to wonder if the entry fee was worth it for what is still a developing trail network. Admittedly, the views alone were almost worth it.

No sooner had I pointed my bike downhill, I found fast, flowy trails – so, much, fun! I particularly enjoyed one with a few more natural, rock features. After a couple of hours, I headed down to the base for lunch and a nap on a shaded beanbag as the day warmed and the wind increased. Recharged a little, I was able to get back up the hill for more fun. Excellent – can’t wait to get back there with some riding buddies.

Having timed the Glendhu riding well, Saturday was fairly bleak – perfect for many more catch-ups and excessive amounts of food. In the end, it was only two weeks of much visiting and fun outside before I made it down to family. Great to make it and see them after six months filled with all sorts of changes! Thankfully I was able to book a venesection soon after, as the iron overload fatigue seems to be returning – although, who can really say what other factors may be at play?