ANZAC day

We were in Halls Creek and had asked around about a dawn service and checked on the web sites. It seemed that they only had a service very few years and nothing was organised. As we had a long day to get to Kununurra (Lake Argyle) we would get up as if were going to an early service and get on the road. The evening before six bikes had rocked in, four Harleys, one lookalike Harley and a trike. We were awake the morning of ANZAC and heard them ride out just before sun up. We got up and went about our business of packing up when I noticed the bikes were parked out the front of the caravan park, which seemed odd.

We drove out at 6.30 am and as we did we saw the six riders, all in blue shirts walking back from the main road, as we crossed onto the main road, we could see the remains of a service, with a few people and chairs still there. Buggar, we missed it, obviously we had asked the wrong people.

Our first two hours along the way we only covered one hundred and twenty kilometres as we were behind a convoy (not sure how many vehicles are required before its classed as a convoy), there was a tail end charlie with a massive truck with a bull dozer on it and a forward scout. Every bridge we came to, as they were narrowl, had to be closed and then the truck inched its way across, often we had to stop while this happened. Finally the road did get a little wider and as we had the CB on and had been listening to their comments re road etc, Warren requested to get past and they pulled us through. Soon after that the bikes came through as well and then passed us. We seemed to leap frog them the rest of the way finally all ending up at the same fuel station in Kununurra around lunch time.

The five bikes kept together with the trike being quite a way back, often the bikes would stop for her to catch up. The trike was really like a small car and she had trouble getting past the truck as the roads was very narrow when it was time for her to pass, she had to wait until the road widen.

Having the CB on the truckie channel we could hear all the chat going back and forth re the road surface and width. Can learn a lot, sometimes learn or hear something that you dont want to also.

Actually the truckie with the bull dozer was talking about gold, coming from one of the property that we were passing, and being used in the Quilty cup. It is an endurance ride of approx 100 hundred hours for talented stockman and their horses. He said that there was more gold in the Quilty cup than the Melbourne Cup. Not sure if it is still being run, I must look it up.