Australia - Darwin

I have arrived in Australia.  This will mark my sixth and final continent of the trip.  Western supermarkets, police that police traffic, people who don't jay-walk, and no traffic or scooters, I have definitely left Asia behind me.  The good news is that the motorcycle has also arrived (actually a couple of hours before I did), the bad news is the motorcycle was put into quarantine for seven days, a small fact that the shipper failed to inform me would happen.  As such, I have been sitting in this small town for almost a week now waiting for the container containing my bike to be released from customs jail and moved to the shippers yard.  Once released, I will take her to BMW and have the bike checked out before I head into the outback.  

Ant Hill

My first trek through the outback with be on The Gibb River Road, an unimproved road with multiple unimproved off-shoots leading to magnificent gorges.  I guess this is the true bush.  During my past few days of research, I have come to the conclusion that the biggest issue in this part of Australia will be fuel, or more importantly, a lack thereof.  There are stretches of off-road that will go on for over 400 km with no unleaded fuel to be had (oddly enough, diesel is more readily available), go into the gorges, and that distance can quickly grow.  So, I had to purchase a real certified Jerrycan - although acceptable in countries that end in "stan," used water bottles apparently are not permitted to haul fuel here in Australia - to extend my range by an additional 150 km.  Even more surprisingly. there is not allot of information about fuel, food, water or even roads on Google, Google Maps, iOverlander or Maps.Me, so after almost 70,000 km, I had to break down and purchase a paper map (yes, until now I have been using a cheap Chinese smart phone and free apps to navigate).  Fortunately, the map is very well put together and has tons of information about services offered along the trails.  Should be a good trip.  

Leg Distance: 0 mi (0 km)

Total Distance Traveled by Motorcycle: 42,801 mi (69,034 km)

Countries/Territories Visited: USA, Mexico, Belize, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Panama, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia, Argentina, Uruguay, Canada, Portugal, Spain, Morocco, Gibraltar, France, Monaco, Italy, Vatican City, San Marino, Slovenia, Austria, Slovakia, Hungary, Czech Republic, Poland, Ukraine, Transnistria, Moldova, Romania, Bulgaria, Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Montenegro, Albania, Kosovo, Macedonia, Greece, Turkey, Georgia, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, China (for 20 seconds), India, Nepal, Burma, Thailand, Cambodia, Laos, Vietnam, Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, Timor-Leste