Adelaide to Darwin MTB - Pine Creek to Darwin

Day: 018
Date: Saturday, 10 September 2005
Start: Pine Creek
Finish: Darwin
Daily Kilometres: 233
Total Kilometres: 3058

Journal:
I got up at 4am and left at 4:40am.  There was no more traffic on the road early than usual.  I had thought that being closer to Darwin it would be busier.  There were still plenty of hills but that helped make the scenery more interesting and the humidity made it feel a bit like Georgia in the US where I had spent time.  The countryside was mostly timbered with rocky outcrops and escarpments and more exotic plants and, of course, ant hills.  I stopped at Hayes Creek and had a nice cooked breakfast sitting on the verandah of the old pub.  I then continued on making reasonable time although the winds were from the NW.  At one point I saw a dingo feeding on roadkill.  It then wandered into the bush and watched me pass by.  I reached Adelaide River late morning and decided to have an early lunch of a pie and pastie sitting in the shade next to the roadhouse.  There's definitely a tropical feel to the place and creeks were flowing and surrounded by lush vegetation.  About 80km south of Darwin I met a german who was mid-way through his first day of a bike trip from Darwin to Uluru.  He was finding the going tough but looked fit.  He was worried about snakes.  After an ice-cream at Acacia Stores in mid-afternoon I set out for the last 65km to Darwin.  My spirits were good, but deteriorated on the divided highway into Darwin where the headwinds were strong and the weather warm.  I struggled on and around 5pm reached a motel near the airport where I checked in (it was a bit of a dive).  I then left my bags there and continued riding into the centre of town where, after a bit of looking around, I found the main Post Office about 6pm and took a certifying photograph.  The moment was a bit anti-climactic because it had been a tough late afternoon, but satisfying nevertheless.  I then rode the 8km back out to the motel, stopping at the Shell roadhouse on the way to pick up some dinner.  All they had were sandwiches so my celebratory dinner was a bit underwhelming.  I ate dinner and watched the cricket and then went to bed about 9:30pm.