Princess Charlotte Bay to Coen

The ride back out to the main track toward Lakefield National Park was a  challenging but pretty relaxed for the most part.

Huge spreading palms

A nice  spot but heck the mosquitos were hungry and boy there were lots of them

Old dead truck

A lagoon by the road in Lakefield National Park caught my eye.

White lily lagoon

White lily lagoon

Mawson at White Lily Lagoon

One of the crossing in Lakefild Nation Park

Termite fields

Raman spotted a sign to Sweetwater lake so we headed down there for lunch.

Sweetwater lake

I was hot and wanted to wet my hot and sweaty riding gear. Hmmm, croc territory.  Looking closer at the water and….”whats that gentle disturbance?  Bugger that, I am not going near that water. In fact I think I’ll move back a bit and eat lunch behind my bike”.

On the way back Raman copped the first puncture of the trip and boy was it a serious puncture!

Flat #1

Flat #1 close up

Raman did well to change the tube in about half an hour, patching the inside of the tyre with some rubber from the old tube to help stop further material coming in through the damaged tyre casing.

This last leg has been quiet as we had only seen five or so vehicles since Hope Vale. Soaking up the vast expanses by ourselves has been a real treat.

Getting into Musgrave was a reminder that the Peninsula Development Road (PDR) is a dirt highway for the swarms of grey nomads.  Back on this tourist route we must share these remote places with others. There wasn’t too much traffic heading up the PDR to Coen,   perhaps 15-20 per hour which is nice. The PDR,  is in very good condition with minimal corrugations and sand drifts.

We are camped at Coen. I am continuing to have challenges with dust. My air filters are needing to be replaced twice a day. I have changed exactly 10 filters in the time since Cobbold Gorge and Raman has done his just now. So I am ingesting about 10x the amount of dust. I do wonder what Kawasaki were thinking when they put the air intake over the back wheel?!  For Australia’s dusty roads I have to warn of this serious down side to the KLR.