^{Date Published: 10 Nov 2010 4:50pm
Author:Steve Moore}

The day started with a breakfast at 3 Ways Roadhouse followed by a 4 hr drive to Daly Waters to their iconic hotel and the commencement of the stage. After doing all the tourist things we hit the road. While the landscape keeps changing the altitude varies only slightly. More Road Trains, assorted caravans and a military convoy or two were the traffic highlights of the day. The surface was rough which made the going a little harder than usual; the Giant bikes handled it easily as they have everything else so far. Hollywood and Louey off the bikes and the Steve's on, the temperature was climbing already and good hydration was going to be a key of the day.>/p>

Around lunchtime we passed a home made pie shop literally in the middle of nowhere, great thought the team here’s lunch. Two problems – one they don’t have hot pies, they heat them up as required and two, a normal pie was $9.00 and a sausage roll $6.00. Time to break out the Quartermaster meals which is not a problem as they are delish.

A few frilled neck lizards were spotted along the way, the landscape along this section has been greener the previous and everywhere there is evidence of fires started by lightning strikes – automatic fuel reduction!

On our 5^th leg of the day the riders, Steve & Steve were joined by Lisa for a cameo 15 k ride into Maturanka and a quick stop at the hot springs. Lisa really enjoyed the ride even to the point of upping the speed a few kph. The dip in the springs was definitely refreshing although it should have been at the end of the day rather than in the middle. Now just 100 k’s out of Katherine 3 more rotations would see us head into town. A couple of cars went ahead and organised tea and met the remainder of the team for a quick changeover then a drive to Darwin. From breakfast at 3 Ways to accommodation in Darwin the team has covered 1000 km including the distance spent on the bikes, a tiring day for all and what has become the nightly trivia and joke sessions on the 2 way radios helped pass the time.

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