Riding Brisbane to Darwin in 42 Days on Our First Bikepacking Trip

We Are Explorers acknowledge the Traditional Custodians of the Countries on which these adventures take place who have occupied and cared for these lands, waters, and their inhabitants for thousands of years. We pay our respects to them and recognise that sovereignty was never ceded.

Let’s Go Bikepacking!

Have you ever wanted to try bikepacking? When our friend Robyn asked us if we wanted to cycle from our home in Meanjin/Brisbane to Garramilla/Darwin on the other side of the country, we knew we were in. 

Robyn is best known for two things – her love of birds, and her uncanny ability to organise amazing adventures. 

Being a passionate nature lover, she’s also particularly drawn to adventures with low environmental impact, which makes cycling a great option. 

Read more: Remember to leave no trace

Had we known we were signing up for this much dust, we may not have been so enthusiastic!

For this particular journey, Robyn recruited four friends to come along for the ride which would take us 42 days, riding from one humid capital city to another. 

Keep in mind that only one of the five of us had any real cycling experience, and none of us had any bikepacking or bike-maintenance experience. This is all to say that it was very much a DIY adventure and not something you should be afraid of doing yourself! We all eventually taught ourselves how to take off our own bike tyres – a skill that came in handy more than a few times.

Read more: These Blokes Rode The Simpson Desert Unsupported – On Fat Bikes!

Where did you come from? You’re going where?! 

No matter where we went along our journey, we were always asked the same two questions: ‘Where did you come from?’ and, ‘Where are you going?’.

We began our ride in South East Queensland, where our route went up mountains and through rainforests before hitting the open farmland of Central Queensland.  

Our final route, ta da!

As we rode further north-west, we discovered the red dirt and treeless plains that Australia is so well known for. 

Once we finally reached the Northern Territory, we spent the last weeks riding through the tropical savanna of the Gulf Country.

The Gear We Took

One of the first things we learnt along the way is that bikepacking allows you to take a lot more gear than you can normally take on a hiking trip, and weight isn’t nearly as much of an issue. 

Although, considering how much stuff we use to get by in ordinary life, it’s still pretty incredible just how little you can live with (or live without!).

On the one rainy day we had off, sitting around a pub in Gregory, QLD, we chatted about our gear and what we’d have done differently. We listed the stuff we wish we brought and the stuff we could’ve probably left behind. After lots of chatting, and a few beers, we narrowed our wanted-list down to about 40 items.

A small section of our packing list

The following are what we all agreed are the essentials: 

• Zip ties, super glue, and duct tape (all come in handy!)
• Padded cycling shorts
• Chamois cream
• A multi-tool
• Tubes and patch kit (Even if you ride tubeless, tubes are a must on a remote tour. Just make sure you know how to use them!)

Of course, there are many other things you’ll need but these are the MVP items for any great bikepacking adventure.  

Read more: Essential Gear for Bikepacking Adventures

We Met Some Characters 

Although we chose to take a more remote route, whenever we came across locals, grey nomads, or truckies, we were bound to hear the same thing: ‘Wow, you’re keen!’

A beat up Holden ute came throttling over the corrugations, much faster than it had any right to be going. It gradually slowed down (thankfully!) and herded us to the side of the road – something we initially found slightly alarming.

The door swung open and out stumbled ‘Haggus’. Wasting no time and sensing that we were low on fluids, he handed us each a warm beer, which we all finished in record time. Haggus went on his way, and the remainder of our journey to camp was made all the more merrier.

Haggus was just one of the many friendly faces we met on our journey north. Despite many sections being incredibly isolated, we’d have quite a long list if we were to recount each wonderful and queer interaction we had.

Chasing quirky? Try this: Bikepacking Outback Queensland While Unexpectedly Carrying an Onion

The Challenges We Faced

Our trip wasn’t all fun and games. The challenging terrain, road trains, and dry heat all made for a tough adventure.  

Three days before we hit Darwin, just outside of Katherine, we rode through Buladjung which roughly translated means ‘sickness country’, an area which locals say you shouldn’t spend more time in than necessary. We rode through this country on the Stuart Highway, which was by far the toughest road on our journey so far. 

Tired and weary, we schlepped along the highway, where road trains and caravans sped past us at 130km an hour. The shoulder was a distant memory and the side of the highway was littered with metal and glass discarded long ago.  

Any hope of riding through the night was discarded when we got our final flat tyre as the light slowly faded from the evening sky.

At this point we all collapsed on the ground, questioning our choices and thinking about our friends on the other side of the world, enjoying their European summer.

But There Were Plenty of Highlights

In reality, there was nowhere else we’d have rather been on (most of) our days along this route. 

The thing about this adventure was that after weeks of riding alongside each other, life on the bike became normal. When you wake up each morning, the freedom to get on your bike and get going, especially when you’ve been packed in like sardines all night, is unmatched.

All our gear spread across one of our campsites

On our longest day, a 160km pedal from Winton to Kynuna, we arrived at the pub to a round of applause. 

As we waddled our way in for a drink, many people told us they’d driven past us, expecting never to see us again. 

Along our journey we had roast dinners with old family friends, unintentionally became very economical drinkers, and learnt to cherish every.single.shower! We learnt to love the quiet roads, where we were free to move around each other, to stop when we saw wildlife, and to laugh as we tried (with varying success!) to ride our unstable bikes with no hands.

How it Felt When We Finished

Everything seemed a bit plain and anti-climatic when we eventually stopped. We reckon it was because of all the incredible adventures we’d had along the way. Robert Prisig puts it well in Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance when he says, ‘Sometimes it’s a little better to travel than to arrive’. 

Once we arrived in Garramilla, we spent a few days exploring the city (by bike, of course) before flying home to Meanjin. 

Look! The crocs are sunbathing!

The feeling of flying home in five hours after it took us six weeks to get to our destination will never not be weird. And as we flew over the country that we’d come to know so well, we couldn’t help but feel sad that it was over. 

Over 42 days we got to be part of this country in a way that we’d never experienced before. There’s magic in the feeling of moving through a place while being completely exposed to it. It’s a feeling that’s impossible to experience in a plane or a car.

When you bikepack through Australia, you don’t get to avoid the busy highways or the stretches of nothing.

You get to embrace a feeling of being with, not just being in. Of coming together with the people and country, rather than quickly moving through places. 

And we wouldn’t have missed a single moment of it.

Photos by @challengeandbeauty