Day 16 - Tom Price to Exmouth

A day of travel to get back to the coast.

Quick Stats

• 7 hours on bike
• 585 km
• 6970 km total

Up early again for a fresh start, it's a brisk 15°C outside this morning. I'm leaving Tom Price to head for the North West Cape and specifically the Exmouth Gulf.

The first sign of civilization (and amazingly the only) on the way will be Nunuturra in 270 km, so I pop in to town for a coffee.

Its a mining town, so apparently that means nothing's open on Saturday? 'Karajini Cafe' will do. It looks like a Chinese Takeaway, and the coffee tastes like it is too.

Ah well, I jump on the bike and wave farewell to Mt Nameless and head off down the Nameless Valley to continue through the Hamersley Range.

I question why the navigation is saying four hours for the 270 kilometres, but I don't have to wonder for long as I take a left turn from the bottom of the valley.

There's some roadworks signs and I try to convince myself its just a short section. Three kilometres in, the roadworks are ended and its still heavily corrugated red dirt.

I pull up to examine the Street View and try and figure out if its like this the whole 270 km back to the highway. Before I do though, a helpful mine truck pulls up and tells me its unsealed another fifty kilometres to the junction with Paraburdoo Road, but he assures me the road smooths out after ten k's at the last mine turnoff.

Alright fine, let some air out the tyres, turn off the traction control, get prepared to be standing the next 45 minutes and crank some Neutral Milk Hotel for a little singalong to keep the body relaxed.

True to his word, after around 8 km, the corrugations ease, then the red dirt gives way to decent gravel and its mostly smooth sailing. Some interesting backdrops too.

Another thirty minutes and I haven't seen a single other vehicle since that mine truck, but I'm getting closer.

Have a mentioned the Tracer is a Sport Tourer? Basically Yamaha took a sports bike and added some panniers and a windshield. Its not that it's particularly challenging riding, but I'm solo with no phone coverage and a decent rock through the sidewall is really going to ruin my morning.

I need an excuse to stop for a bit, so I decide to get all vlogger for a minute.

.. and then get covered in a cloud of dust as half a dozen trucks fly passed. Okay enough faffing, it shouldn't be long now.

Out the other side. I power off toward Nunuturra to rejoin the main highway. And just a short two hours later... I'm there.

Not much to see here, other than large swarms of elderly unloading from three tour busses. I grab fuel and a snack and then head on for Exmouth.

Despite getting closer to the coast and further south, we're back into the barren nothingness of Day 13 and 14. Nothing but Spinifex as far as the eye can see.

Three more hours and I'm finally seeing a bit of ocean in the distance. Ten minutes later, I'm in Exmouth.

Exmouth was setup as a town to support a nearby US Naval Communications Station in the 1960s for transmitting at very low frequency (VLF). VLF requires some monumental antenna setup, so the station was built with 13 towers, each over 300 metres tall, and all connected via wires. Tower 0 was the tallest man made structure in the Southern Hemisphere for many years, not that anyone was allowed to see it. Its still operating nearly fifty years later.

Before the town though, the area was setup as a forward base for US submarines during WW2, as both Broome and Darwin were too exposed to air assaults. The secret base was codenamed "Potshot", which explains my accomodation for the next two nights "Potshot Hotel Resort".

Anyway the town seems to have re-invented itself for tourist around the nearby reefs and the whale shark population that migrates nearby. Day off the bike tomorrow to go see what that's all about.

Going to go for a walk down the beach. No sunset today, this is an east facing beach...

Bonus out-take, watch me cook the launch: