Back out over the sandy track onto the main 4WD track which was mostly rideable if only two wheel ruts in some places for 10 km until the Reynolds River crossing.

Rangers Helga and Darius had made me promise not to ford these flooded crossings so I waited here until a passing camper trailer threw my bike on top of his trailer and carried me across the 100 m of snaking crossing amongst the reeds and shrubs. Chris O’B had wheeled his bike across this, in the late afternoon while following a backhoe which had been dropping gravel to firm up the crossing. Not for me.

Then it was a straight forward ride for about 20 km to the next crossing of the other branch of the Reynolds River. This crossing was clear and only ankle deep so I rode over it and filled my water bottles.

From here on the track deteriorated and the last 6 of the 8 kilometres to the edge of the NP and the bitumen on the Daley River Road was largely loose sand. It was quicker and easier to walk the bike in the grass on the side of the road than to wheel it through the sand on the ‘road’. Several passing motorists indicated that I was stronger than them but mad.

Several hours of strain while pushing the bike seemed longer than it actually was but then I magically got on to some rideable track and soon after the sign at the entrance to the park.

Whooppeeee!

A few Arnotts Royale cream biscuits and then east on the Daley River Road. Filled the water bottles again at the Adelaide River and onwards, past the thirty kilometres of cleared land that is the Tipperary cattle station and finally camped about 10 km short of the Dorat Road which runs parallel to the Stuart Highway to Batchelor. Turned up a side track to a clear hill top for the last wild camp of the trip.