Around Oz in 2010

Day 1 to 86 – Wrap Up

2010-10-24T11:31:00.000+11:00

What more can I say about this trip than I have already said. It has been a fabulous adventure around Australia taking 86 days covering 21,565km, consuming almost 1,300 litres of fuel, crossing all the mainland states.

Additionally I had 10 wonderful days with Robyn around Cairns (covering 1,145km) and another 18 days in a campervan (2,450km) around the SW of WA. That time helped me to complete this journey.

People often ask was I lonely? And the truthful answer is no, because I met some wonderful people along the way, riders and others, travellers and locals. So I wasn’t lonely, but I missed the friends in my life, and the intimacy that only a family can provide.

Would I do it again? The simple answer is Yes in a heartbeat. But I can’t see me doing such a long journey again. Robyn was kept busy whilst I was away, and the time shared on the trip was wonderful, but it doesn’t compare to the time we spend together at home and with family.

What would I change? Not a lot, if anything. Oh, other then not coming off the bike again, that was definitely a downer and I’ll be seeing what needs to be done with my knee over the next couple of weeks.

How was the bike? What can I say about Optimus Prime. He was fantastic, no better bike around and that is said with all honesty and sincerity. The fabulous riding position, the wonderful suspension and engine made long distances a breeze. Simply a fabulous all round ride. I could go on, but hey if you have ridden one you will know what I am talking about, and if you haven’t then you are simply missing out. Sorry.

Consumption (the bike not me)? The large fuel tank was invaluable. Although most fuel stops were within 200-250km in the more isolated areas, there were a few times where it was necessary to travel further. The large fuel tank, given the weight I was carrying, gave me a 500+km range, so fuel was never an issue. This range could fluctuate based on the conditions, road and weather, and on the riding style (twist of the throttle). Although given I sat on or about the speed limit this was always pretty predictable. As for oil I did not use one drop in all the kms travelled. I did an oil change in Darwin and a service (including oils) in Perth, but there was no need for me ever to top up the oil on the whole trip. As I said a simply fabulous bike.

GPS Equipment? Josie was invaluable. Firstly for navigation, although in the outback a map generally will do, it is nice to get confirmation of your direction, but more importantly finding your way around towns and cities. Secondly, the information that it gave me, such as distance and time to destination, and intermediate points, location of fuel stops and other information. And lastly, my source of music and stories that made the longer riding sections that much easier.

UHF Two Way Equipment? Not an absolute necessity but it did provide me with contact to other road users, especially the truck drivers ahead. I would let them know I was overtaking and thank them on completion. More often then not they would acknowledge me and wish me a safe ride. As I said not a necessity but nice to know that the bigger road users knew you were around.

Spot Messenger? An absolutely great piece of equipment I carried, and would use again. If nothing else it gave Robyn piece of mind that I was still riding and at the end of each day, I was safe and finished, especially in areas where mobile phone service was non-existent. It also logged my position and mapped that on Google Maps for my family & friends to see where I had been and where I was each day.

So in all, the pre-trip planning and equipment selection proved to be invaluable to making this adventure successful, comfortable and allowing me to end each day with a smile on my face. This is a wonderful country, the scenery, animals and the people. Not only were the other travellers terrific, but the locals I met and spoke with were always friendly and accommodating. If you haven’t seen it please do yourself a favour and see it, and then you will understand why all those overseas visitors and travellers just love our country and us as a people.

I would like to thank all of you who have followed me on this blog and shared my adventure. I hope that you have enjoyed reading about this trip almost as much as I have in doing and writing about it.

I want to thank all my family and friends for their emails and comments made on the blog. These were read and enjoyed and reminded me that there were people back home interested in what was happening. I especially want to thank my adult children for there comments and emails, with Kelly and Katie often giving me a smile or laugh, I always looked forward to reading your comments.

Finally, I want to thank my loving wife Robyn for her patience and willingness to allow me to indulge my passion for riding and my desire to see this wonderful country. Without her love and support I would not have been able to complete this trip.

So thank you all for allowing me to share this adventure with you. I know that we all have dreams, so just know that there is nothing like setting out to challenge yourself and to live your dream. If you have one to fulfil, what is stopping you, just do it. See yah!

Day 86 – Sat, 23 Oct to Home – Last Day

2010-10-23T16:02:00.000+11:00

Today is my last day on the trip. I spent the morning with Glenn and co before doing the last section home. I couldn’t leave until I saw Oscar (6 yo) ride his scooter at the skate park ramps. He was a little put off by all the big kids (well teenagers) riding their bikes and scooters, cresting the slopes and doing flips. I think a little intimidated, but he summoned the courage and he was away. A couple more times at the park and I am sure he will be one of the daredevils.

The ride home would be uneventful up the Princess Hwy to Heathcote Rd, then through to the M5 and M7 to my daughter’s home. It would be lunch with Katie & David. I didn’t mention this the other day, for which I had a comment, but I had planned to have lunch with these guys (given they were going to be home).

Robyn escorted me this last stage through to Katie’s home at Marayong. Again it was wonderful to catch up with them. Katie, along with my other daughter Kelly were avid commentators on my blog throughout the trip and kept me in touch with home, as well as my use of terms like dongas. Dave is also a bike rider so the conversation did stray a few times on riding.

So after lunch it was to be my last stage, riding to home. I had such wonderful weather on this trip I knew it couldn’t last. This last part was ridden in rain. Along the way at the traffic lights another BMW F800GS rider pulled up beside me and he had just arrived from Perth (in a clockwise direction). Should I keep going?

No, home was waiting and Robyn was there (having left a few minutes earlier) with Kelly & Andrew and their kids Kimmy, Nessy, Sammy and my newest grandson, whom I had not seen, Ben (born in August).

The girls had not known I was arriving and my arrival was a shock. At first not believing their eyes, but then I had little girls all over me. I had left on the 2 Jul with them seeing me off and here I was home with all of them welcoming me home. It is really lovely to be home.

Day 85 – Fri, 22 Oct to Stanwell Tops

2010-10-22T16:02:00.000+11:00

I hung with my grandchildren, drove them to school and had coffee with Wade before heading off mid morning from Canberra. After yesterday’s adventure I was taking it easy, straight up the Federal and Hume Hwy, onto Picton Road and then N up the F6 to Helensburgh turnoff for Stanwell Tops.

My eldest son Glenn and Pip and there lot of Trea, Maisie & Oscar were expecting me. Robyn was also driving down to spend the night. It was going to be a celebration, not only my return but also Glenn completing his last exam for his part time degree today. Study for the year is over and you could see it on his face.

As I left the Hume turning onto Picton Road it was in the low 30C but I could see rain ahead. I road through some heavy rain towards the end of Picton Rd and on the F6, but it cleared. However, as I pulled into Glenn’s driveway and carport the heavens opened and it hailed. What timing.

Robyn & Glenn were there to greet me and the kids arrived home shortly after from school. With Pip arriving it was time to celebrate, which we did with gusto. As I said, terrific to be with family again.

Day 84 – Thu, 21 Oct to Canberra

2010-10-21T16:02:00.000+11:00

This morning started off like most others on this trip. Early rise, breakfast, pack and onto OP for a ride. I was heading to Canberra today and I would have all day to get there. No problems.

I headed N towards Wodonga then turned E onto the Murray Valley Hwy towards Corryong in NE VIC. This turned into another great ride through the countryside and along the S shores of Lake Hume. This is the first time I have seen the Lake full, well as good as anyway. The drought has obviously been broken and the Hume Dam is doing its job. The Murray River was also flowing as I rode along the S side towards Corryong.

Here I refuelled spoke to another biker heading home from Phillip Island, the long way. I had plenty of time, still before lunch, which I’ll have in Tumut later today.

I decided to cross into NSW, then travel towards Tumbarumba then onto Tumut, Gundagai, Yass then Canberra. Well that was the plan. I headed out crossing into NSW at Towong and yep I’m in NSW, potholes and rough roads. Welcome back.

A little further on the sealed road to Tooma had a road closed signed so I took the detour. At the next intersection I took the road to Tooma (no closure signs this way) but gravel ahead. I travelled about 15km on gravel, climbing hills, wonderful views and back down into the valley. I reached the bitumen and found the road blocked – road closed. Bugger!

So I took the sealed road back to the start and checked what other way I could go. I decided to head towards Jingellic and then to Holbrook. I wanted to catch up on some time and I thought the best way would be not to cross the mountains again. So I was about to head out and a couple of bikers arrived and informed me that the bridge across the Murray at Jingellic was washed out. Great!

So it would be up over the mountain via Cabramurra. So I got to the turn off near Khancoban, about 20km from Corryong where I had refuelled. I looked at the odometer and it said that I had travelled 110km in all of this mucking around and I had lost 2 hours.

Up the mountain towards Cabramurra, about 60km in I was stopped by a Stop/Go man. It would be a 20-30 minute delay he said, they were clearing trees from the roadside. Well he could tell I was not impressed and I told him what I had been doing for the past 3 hours – getting no where quick.

After that it was a straight ride down to the Snowy Mountains Hwy into Cooma and then up the Monaro Hwy to Canberra. I arrived at my son’s home just before 6pm, it was 580km day, not my longest, but the longest riding day I had done.

It was wonderful to see Wade & Rowena and their gang of kids, Maddie, Charlie, Jamie, Hannah, Rita and the little one Alex. They were all hanging out for my arrival and I said to Robyn later that there appeared to be so many that I thought they had brought in some outsiders. Wonderful to be with family again.

Day 83 – Wed, 20 Oct to Harrietville (near Bright)

2010-10-20T17:57:00.001+11:00

A wonderful day for riding; great weather, great roads and feeling on top of the world.

I had breakfast with Bob the publican at Lang Lang, the Palace Hotel if anyone is travelling this way. We chatted and had coffee. The hotel has been in his family for many a year, his grandfather built it and the family still own it.

On leaving I headed in a NE direction letting Josie have her way again. We criss crossed the country NE of Moe through Toongabbie, Heyfield (where I had morning tea at the Bakery), Maffra and finished up hitting the main highway north of Sale.

I passed through grazing country of the Gippsland, through the brown coal belt with power stations to my S, arriving at Bairnsdale around midday. It was decision time. Do I head further E across S Victoria and then N towards NSW at Cann River or Bega, or do I head up over the mountains towards Omeo and Mt Hotham.

I had looked at the weather for the day in all these areas so I decided to head towards Omeo. What a great choice as the riding through the mountains was fabulous (almost had to learn how to ride around bends again after all those straight roads of the past months). The temperature only dropped from around 23C at Bairnsdale to 16C at the top of Mt Hotham.

This took me up through the ski lodges and there were still remnants of the snow around the village and on the slopes from the winter just past. Well not actually snow now but compacted ice, which will not be around for much longer if this weather continues. Although, there was a small fall of snow late last week as that cold front passed through, so who knows how long it will continue.

After Mt Hotham I headed back down the mountain on the N side of the range, dropping from around 1,850m down to 450m at Harrietville where I decided to stay for the night. I was originally heading for Bright (about 20km further N) but this was such a pretty little town that I couldn’t resist staying.

I just got back from a walk to the School Bridge where I spoke to a local and his 11 year old granddaughter. The local school only has about 35 students, so this gives you an idea of its size. Obviously a jumping off spot for the snowfields, but also what looks like a lovely village for the summer.

So I am almost home, with plans to see my son and his family in Canberra tomorrow night, then my other son and his family N of Wollongong on Friday night, and most likely home on Saturday. We’ll see how things progress. Maybe if this fantastic weather and riding keeps up I may just do a U-turn and head back around the country again, the other way. On second thoughts, maybe Robyn would have something to say about that, so I better keep heading in my NE direction.

Day 82 – Tue, 19 Oct to Lang Lang

2010-10-19T20:35:00.001+11:00

Where is Lang Lang you may ask, well it is a little N of Phillip Island on the mainland, SE of Melbourne. I am here at the Lang Lang Hotel, with Bob the publican, we are the only occupants tonight but it has been full over the weekend. He just filled me with a mixed grill that you could not jump over, literally. Thank you Bob.

Well what a day. I left Peterborough at 8am and I feel like I have been on the road all day, well I have, but what a day. I rode the GOR (Great Ocean Road) which was a huge amount of fun. I checked out all the sights along the way, but hey that is what it is all about, see the sights, but ride the fabulous road.

I got to Bells Beach and missed the car parks and was heading back out again. I got about 2km down the road to the next turn and I thought, will I go back. I almost didn’t but hey I might as well as I am already here (you see I had been here before). So I did a U-turn and headed back to the car park.

I parked the bike and dismounted. I was taking my gloves off when a bike rider arrived on the other side of me. I acknowledged him and knew that another bike pulled in literally behind me (behind my back). I hadn’t turned and the guy revved his bike a couple of times. I thought what the hell is he up to.

I turned and it was Rod, yep Rod Vile, who I last saw up in Cairns all those months ago. He had been to the MotoGP, and he and the other guy, Steve were riding the GOR in an W direction. How bl..dy incredible is that. They only took the turn off to Bells Beach as a last thought. There is definitely someone out there organising all these “coincidental” meetings. Wow.

Rod, Steve & I talked for a little while and they continued W before heading home. I headed onward E, to Queenscliff (W side of Port Phillip Bay) where I caught the car ferry to Sorrento (E side). A great trip I literally paid the fare and rode straight onto the ferry, no waiting, great timing.

On the ferry I met Steve & Janet from England who had rented a bike and were doing a few days riding. He had just finished the Postie Challenge, Brisbane to Darwin. He had done a lot of riding previously and he said it was the toughest thing he had ever done. He went over the handle bars at one stage and cracked a few ribs. This didn’t stop him but hey would he do it again, and his answer was “NO”!

So I headed NE from Sorrento and ended up at this great little pub, SW of Melbourne. Not far now only a few days from home, so I’ll drop into my sons’ places on the way through. See you all soon. How was that, meeting Rod after all these months, bl..dy incredible!

Day 81 – Mon, 18 Oct to Peterborough

2010-10-18T18:17:00.001+11:00

A wonderful riding day allowing Josie to take control and lead the way. Who you may be asking, is Josie. I’ll get to that in a moment.

Today I went from the Limestone Coast with white sand, all the shades of blue water, rugged coastlines, to wonderful farming land, with lush green undulating hills passing through cattle and sheet country and plantation forests.

I continued S along the coast from Robe through to Millicent. I then headed NE to the town, that has been very much in the news, especially last night, of Penola. Yes Saint Mary’s country town. I had morning tea here and it was interesting that this same weekend they were also celebrating the Coonawarra Shiraz Festival.

At this point I set Josie to take over the route. Josie is my female companion that has done the whole trip with me. She is very patient as I don’t always follow her directions and she simply recalculates and comes up with a new route. She is of course my GPS. I set the destination as Peterborough on the Great Ocean Road about 50km E of Warrnambool.

Her route took me through SW VIC, some wonderful farming country, along B & C classified roads. There was no traffic (almost no vehicles) and the riding was fantastic. I would never have found my way through, I would have simply stuck to the more major roads.

Overall a 420km ride today, I hope the weather clears for tomorrow. It has continued to fluctuate from sunshine, cloud, pouring rain and almost fog. Please clear as tomorrow I head E along the GOR, something I have been looking forward to for sometime.

Day 80 – Sun, 17 Oct to Robe

2010-10-17T17:30:00.001+11:00

Today was only a short 320km ride through the country to the S of Murray Bridge. I first checked out the river here at MB and it is obviously up high. The river bank grass is underwater and it is lush to the water edge.

I stayed on the S side of the river through to Wellington. This took me through some old dairy country. Some dairies were still operating on the small properties but many had obviously closed. I wonder whether this was an industry adjustment or the effects of a lack of water for the past years in the river.

Wellington is further S than Tailem Bend and required me to cross the River by ferry. Speaking to the ferryman he said that the river is now back to normal, some 2m above what it was only a month or so ago. The lakes only a little further S are now full and he said that water was still proceeding down stream and they are now worried about damage being caused through flooding.

I guess this may be inevitable given the flooding in the Murrumbidgee over the weekend and the rain that has been falling through the west of NSW and southern QLD.

After crossing the river I rode further S and then a little W taking me around Lake Alexandria and Lake Albert, the lakes that the Murray River empties into, when it is flowing, which eventually empties into Southern Ocean, just down the road. Both lakes looked wonderful being full of water, I remember well the TV reports showing them as dry sand beds for as far as the eye could see. (Sorry about the photo quality but it was raining at the time.)

I rejoined the main S highway at Meningie and followed this road further S along the Younghusband Peninsula (how about that for a name) through Kingston SE finishing at Robe. A really beautiful riding day through farming country, with dairy properties, actually dairy stations, with lots of pasture being cultivated for lucerne hay.

I finished early enough to check into the pub for the night so that I could watch the MotoGP race. I wanted to see whether Casey Stoner could make it 4 wins in a row. Well by now you would know that he blew the field away, beating Lorenzo, the new world champion, by an incredible 8.6 seconds.

Robe looks like a wonderful place with the rough coast, white beaches and a real village atmosphere. A walk around town justified this place as a great destination

Day 79 – Sat, 16 Oct to Murray Bridge

2010-10-16T18:42:00.001+11:00

I awoke to a still morning but rain threatened. The wind had settled overnight as expected and I was heading further SW, a good decision to stay an extra night at Port Augusta.

By the time I was ready to depart the rain had started and it was only 10C. I followed the Spencer Gulf in a SW direction until I reached Port Pirie where I took an inner route towards Clare and then Gawler.

I passed through a town with a wonderful name, Crystal Brook. A little further I entered the top of the Clare Valley, a renowned wine growing area, with the town of Clare being at its heart. A scenic town set amongst the hills and throughout this region there are some wonderful old public buildings and homes. Wines have been produced here since before the 1840’s, so Clare has a real history in the wine industry. Lots of Rieslings come from this area.

After doing a little sightseeing in the town I was going to stop and make myself some lunch and coffee, but it started to rain – well the heavens opened – and the temperature was down to 8C. So I decided to keep riding as the weather had been fluctuating between rain, cloud and sun most of the morning.

I had lunch a little further S and then climbed up to Mt Pleasant passing through forests and treed areas. I was actually on a nice country road with nice curves and scenery. Wow, curves and trees, the first for many weeks.

I nearly stopped at Mt Pleasant for the night but time was on my side so I continued onto Murray Bridge where I am based for the night. Dropping down from the ridge onto the Murray River plain gave fantastic vistas across the farming land to the S.

So today I had showers, rain, cold and sun, but little wind. Some parts were a bit windy but generally a really good day for riding. I hope that the wind will continue E faster then I travel in that same direction.

Day 78 – Fri, 15 Oct at Port Augusta

2010-10-15T20:25:00.001+11:00

I made a decision to stay another night here and not move on, not because of the town, but due to the weather. The forecast for rain, but move importantly strong gusting winds were the reason. There is no hurry and I could see no advantage in moving on.

The decision was well founded when I road to the local laundromat and the wind was terrible. Like the rest of the E of Australia the wind was strong and the temperature cold.

I also went to the local tourist info centre and it had a fabulous permanent exhibition on the history of the region. Lots of physical and multimedia displays, exceptional good value and a most enjoyable few hours.

The weather is moving further E tomorrow so I will head out towards the Clare Valley and then E of Adelaide towards the S coast.

Day 77 – Thu, 14 Oct to Port Augusta

2010-10-14T18:59:00.001+11:00

A fine day but expecting rain towards the end. So I left Port Lincoln riding NE up the Eyre Peninsula running along the coast of the Spencer Gulf.

Initially the countryside was familiar, riding through wheat and sheep country. To my left fields running off into the undulating hills, and to my right were the fields running off to the water of the Gulf. I guess you would know from my previous posts that I really enjoy this environment, or is it just the riding, I’ll have to think about that – oh, lets just agree it is both..

The towns along the coast are basically service centres for the local community, fishing and holiday ports. Towns such as Tumby Bay, Port Neill, Arno Bay, Cowell, all are fairly similar with their wheat silos and their jetty running out into the bay of the Gulf.

Once I headed N of Cowell the road ran inland more and the countryside was more in keeping to what I had following Ceduna – scrub countryside, with low bush, small and medium sized scrub and red earth. Still sheep country but as I approached Whyalla there was a mountain of earth which was obviously the result of mining.

The approach to Whyalla was wonderful, coming down from the top of a hill the plain opened out in front of me with the town some 20km in the distance, but visible for its industry and ships in the Gulf. Quite unexpected.

Whyalla is obviously a steel town, with the steel works on the coast, and everything coated with a red stain. I trust that that their dust control is better these days, which appeared so as the air felt quite clean.

The final 80km to Port Augusta saw the completion of the day’s riding. The Port refers to itself as the crossroads of the country, seeing the roads heading N to Alice Springs & Darwin, E to Sydney, S to Adelaide and W to Perth. It is also the crossing point for the N-S Ghan Train and the E-W Indian Pacific. Real crossroads.

The town is comfortable sitting at the top of the Spencer Gulf, and I decided to stay here tonight with rain expected. I’ll decide on which way to go from here.

I hadn’t realised that the Flinders Range came all the way down here – those are the ranges in the LHS photo above. They form a beautiful backdrop to the town and almost would be the backbone of the country.

Day 76 – Wed, 13 Oct to Port Lincoln

2010-10-13T21:38:00.001+11:00

An easy day today, rose late and decided to do a short days riding. I had an interesting chat to the young publican where I was staying at Elliston. Apparently there are plans for one of the largest wind farms in Australia for the region. He is hopeful as this will bring people and money to the town.

Elliston is a small fishing/holiday village a little far from the main population base in Adelaide. Lovely beaches and bay, and allegedly abundant fish.

On leaving Elliston I took an easy ride S. I crawled my way, well that is what it felt like doing 80kph in a 110 zone. I simply didn’t feel in any hurry today. The country side was beautiful sheep grazing landscape. A lovely ride in the countryside as they say.

I called in to Coffin Bay, another fishing village but this time the centre for oysters in this part of the world. On leaving I headed for my final destination for the day at Port Lincoln, at the S tip of the Eyre Peninsula. I was here a little after lunch, had a look around and switched off for the day.

Port Lincoln is the tuna fishing capital of Australia, made a little famous by Dean Lukin who came from here winning the Gold medal in the heavy weight lifting class at the LA Olympics, in 1984 I think. Anyway this has one of the largest commercial fishing fleets in Oz, and the marina sure shows signs of this fact.

As I said a lazy day today, and worthwhile after the hectic ride across the Nullarbor – boy, is that part really finished already?

Day 75 – Tue, 12 Oct to Elliston

2010-10-12T21:13:00.001+11:00

The last two days I was either riding ahead or slightly behind the rain. Today I was in it most of the day. Not to worry, with the right gear, a straight road and plenty of time I really enjoyed the ride. Totally different, with temperatures between 15-18C it turned into a great day to ride.

From last night’s stopover at the Nullarbor I continued E and stopped at Nundroo Roadhouse for a cup of coffee and had a really interesting chat with a truckie and his wife. They were heading W in a cattle road train; she now travels with him after telling their 18 yr old son, some 4 yrs ago, “I’m off”.

I continued and found that the Nullarbor Plain was almost at an end, the vegetation became heavier, and as I approached Penong the wheat fields appeared and light industry was evident. Penong had a large number of older styled windmills, never did find out why, but they were pumping water. There was also a massive gypsum mine nearby at Lake McDonald(?), something like 87 square kms and 48m deep – enormous.

I headed onto Ceduna, the largest town since Norseman, refuelled, had lunch and continued on. Ceduna is a fishing town and I had just missed the Oysterfest. The weather was not conducive to sightseeing but great for riding. So I chose the latter activity.

I road further SW down the Eyre Peninsula through towns such as Smoky Bay, Streaky Bay and Port Kenny onto Elliston for the night. These towns are basically fishing holiday villages, keen on tourism, with grazing properties surrounding them up the peninsula.

Today I had my first animal strike. This black bird, around the size of a seagull, took off, flew parallel to me for a while then turned straight into the screen bounced over my head and hit the ground behind me. You simply have to look long and right straight, and I did, still not what I would like to happen again.

So in all around 570km today, still feeling as though I could continue at the end, but that was enough, no need to push the envelope. The weather is still likely to be wet tomorrow so I’ll make a decision of where to and for how long when I rise. I had a 2 and 1/2 hour shift in the clock yesterday so a lot closer to Sydney time – I must be get closer.

Day 74 – Mon, 11 Oct to Nullarbor Roadhouse

2010-10-11T20:13:00.001+11:00

What a simply unbelievable place the Nullarbor region is, I just didn’t expect what I am seeing. Although the roads are straight and not very challenging, the riding is wonderful, even with the weather.

It rained overnight, and I was thankful for being in a room rather than the tent – when I saw the hard dirt ground I opted for a room last night and the weather was also threatening. I got the first rain for the trip last night since I left Rod in Cairns.

The wind had changed direction and strengthened. I road with the wind coming in from the S-SE all day and it was gusting. This made passing the numerous road-trains that much more blustery but that was all okay. The majority of the vehicles are either trucks (well road trains 37m long) or 4WD pulling caravans.

On leaving Cocklebiddy I had about a 90km ride to Madura where I went down the Madura Pass. Totally unexpected as one moment I was on a plain and then I dropped possibly 100 odd metres onto another plain that spread out below. I travelled along this plain for about 160km with the Hampton Range to my left and the ocean (not visible) way off to my right. At Eucla I ascended again to the plateau. The plateau is the Nullarbor.

It definitely has the correct name (Nullarbor – treeless plain) but I was surprised by the amount of grass. The locals tell me that they have had a lot of rain this year and it is one of the best for many years.

Most of the stops have been simply roadhouses with fuel and some basic accommodation. Eucla was bigger even boasting their own police station and nurse. Wow! Another 12km W I hit the WA/SA border. It is supposed to have a Border Village, but don’t blink as it is only another fuel stop.

I continued on a further 180km and finished my day at the Nullarbor Hotel/Motel – yep another roadhouse with basic accommodation and gravel all round. The wind is howling outside my donga for the night, but there is at least mobile service.

This latter section of the trip saw the Great Australian Bight within less than 100m of the road at times. I stopped at most of the lookouts through this section. It is here that the Nullarbor simply drops off a cliff into the ocean. Quite spectacular, but I didn’t trust myself to get to close, the last thing I would want to do is to trip and stumble off the edge of Australia. I think my children would understand this precaution that I have taken and agree with my decision.

So in all, just another enjoyable ride across the southern part of this fabulous land. I am really enjoying this riding, far more than I had anticipated and doing it a lot easier as well.

Day 73 – Sun, 10 Oct to Cocklebiddy

2010-10-11T20:05:00.001+11:00

Today was special – not only did I start the long trek across the bottom of Australia, but the date being the 10/10/10 it was Robyn and my 40th Wedding Anniversary – we had celebrated it whilst we were together last week, but today we simply spoke on the telephone. Happy anniversary darling.

I left Kalgoorlie and headed E towards Perth for 38km to the town of Goolgardie, being the original gold town, once boasting 23 pubs, with a rich history of the gold rush. Being early Sunday morning the small town was ‘closed’, so after looking at a few of the old buildings I headed out.

This would see me retrace my track of a couple of days ago, back to Norseman where I had morning tea, refuelled and then turned E onto the Eyre Hwy which would take me home. The sky was grey and I found out later that Perth had had some showers, and this cloud bank was heading E.

So I headed E and I would eventually ride out of the cloud but it would follow me across the country. I could see the dark clouds to the S, N & W with clear sky and scattered puffs of cloud to the E. So I rolled the throttle to the speed limit and sat there for the rest of the day. Oh I had a lunch stop at Balladonia, but then I simply sat on the speed limit heading homeward.

The vegetation went from low tree plain to mallee scrub and bluebush. The road had a few kinks, no twists and just past Balladonia through to Caiguna I hit the longest straight section of road in Australia, some 147km in length, or what is referred to as the 90 Mile Straight.

I reached Cocklebiddy where I had had enough for the day – around 630km – and I simply didn’t feel like doing more km’s. The cloud has caught me and there have been a few spots of rain, but nothing worthwhile, so fingers are crossed for tomorrow. The ride was fabulous until about 100km from the end where the wind came up and blew in from the NE, making it a little uncomfortable, but hey I can’t complain with the excellent weather that I have had on this whole trip. Tomorrow will see a few more km’s pass below the fabulous OP’s tyres.

Day 72 – Sat, 9 Oct at Kalgoorlie-Boulder

2010-10-09T21:28:00.001+11:00

As I arrived late yesterday I didn’t have a chance to look around town, so I decided to stay another night. This morning I did some washing and trip planning for the next few days. Then I headed out for the day. First up was some grocery shopping to restock the pantry and then the day was free.

I headed over to the lookout for the Super Pit. This is the name given to the open cut gold mining pit just outside of town. That is actually not quite correct for the pit runs from basically the top of main street S to Boulder. The pit eventually will be 3.8km by 1.5km by 500m deep – massive. The impressive Golden Mile.

The pit was actually a result of Alan Bond’s endeavours in the 1980’s trying to buy up all the individual mining licenses to consolidate them all and thus use modern equipment to open cut mine. Prior to that there was a lot of smaller licences using underground mining techniques. He didn’t succeed in this endeavour but it did eventuate and the mining is now performed by KCGM (Kalgoorlie Consolidated Gold Mining) for the partners that now have the mine.

The pit is massive, and as expected work continues on weekends and there is blasting most days. The trucks crawl their way up from the bottom to the surface like snails following the leader. (Double click on this picture and in the background are the trucks just reaching the pit top.)

Next up, to the water reservoir to get a look over the towns and a little history on this endeavour. I hadn’t realised that the Golden Pipeline was an engineering feat, ranking internationally along with the Snowy Mountain Scheme and the Sydney Harbour Bridge. The water pipeline was built in 1903 and carries water from the hills near Perth all the way to the goldfields of Kalgoorlie.

To end the day I headed to the WA Museum in town and this was again extremely interesting. This is the 3rd or 4th museum that I have visited run by the WA Museum and all have been fantastic. Its theme obviously was gold, the history, people, culture and mining. They have gold in a vault down stairs, a rig out front that you can take a lift up to get panoramic views over the town.

I didn’t make it to the Mining Hall of Fame which was an actual underground mine, now a museum, where you don the gear and climb down ladders to the second underground level, crawl through spaces, see some mining and then catch the jerry lifts back to the surface. I was tempted, but with some long riding ahead I just didn’t want to stress the knees and possibly make for some uncomfortable travelling.

The town has a lot of historical buildings and places. From the old court house and post office, the original pubs and bars with skimpily clad bar girls to the old places for the ladies of the night (take a tour by day and still operating by night, only just down the road form Woolworths & Coles). Quaint!

It was a hot day reaching 34C and I hope the warm weather continues. All in all a productive and interesting day.

Day 71 – Fri, 8 Oct to Kalgoorlie

2010-10-08T23:00:00.001+11:00

Cape Le Grand NP just 50km E of Esperance is magnificent. It has so much natural beauty with the coastal heath of the NP and the granite peaks and headlands flowing into dark blue ocean and turquoise waves breaking onto pure white sand. Simply amazing.

I spent about 3 hours here this morning checking out each of the locations from Cape Le Grand Beach – Hellfire Bay – Lucky Bay and Frenchman Peak. Just stunning, each a little different but the scenery spectacular. Have I impressed you yet, it was magnifico!

You can camp within the NP right next to the beach, walk from location to location if that is what you want, or just walk the beaches and coves. You could easily spend any number of days here in the NP camp grounds, or just take the 1/2 hour drive from Esperance. Robyn would have loved it, but sadly we just didn’t have the time to do the extra 500 plus km (one way) to see it together.

Sorry the photos just don’t quite capture the grandeur, but take my word for this one.

At the beach I stopped for coffee and a couple road in on a Yamaha cruiser, their trailer was back at Esperance and they were on a sightseeing day trip. They hailed from Adelaide and we simply talked for over an hour. So this left my departure a little later than expected.

So I hit the road and simply rode through to Kalgoorlie, stopping at Norseman for a light lunch. I arrived in town around 4:30pm (after doing 550km today) where it was still 31C, so a warm riding day. I am staying at the YHA again tonight. These work out very well because of their location and pricing. I always get a single room and they have all the facilities necessary for a self catered stay.

However, I still haven’t done that shop that should have been done since I restarted the trip. So I headed around to the local pub for a beer and what turned out to be a mountainous and excellent cottage pie and vegetables. The quirky thing at the pub was that when you order a beer, the bar girl tosses a coin, you choose head/tail, and if you win the beer is free. The first beer I paid for, but the second tasted that much better being free. Only in Kal!

Day 70 – Thu, 7 Oct to Esperance

2010-10-07T22:56:00.001+11:00

What can I say, simply a fantastic riding day, continuing through the wheat belt of WA heading SW out of Hyden, through Lake King, then Ravensthorpe where I turned E onto Esperance.

The landscape was predominantly farm land with natural vegetation on the road side verges and interspersed through the landscape. Unlike the E states where the wheat belt is predominantly flat, out here it is far more undulating with hills covered also in the natural vegetation. The wild flowers continue to bloom, with trees of yellow, and lower plants of blues and mauve, and taller bushes of orange.

These are not dense, but it is interesting looking for them amongst the local scrub and seeing the patches of colour. This is also contrasted by the lakes – well not actually filled with water as Lake King is a township near the large salt lake. These are scattered throughout this area and the picture does justice to the “lake” but not to the surrounding countryside.

To the E of Lake King is the well known Rabbit Proof Fence, although I looked but saw no signs of it, especially as I road E from Ravensthorpe to Esperance. Oh well I’ll just have to watch the movie again.

On arriving in Esperance I headed for the bay side, well actually the port where farm produce and minerals are still exported. But this is a tourist centre - besides interstate visitors it is the local beachside for Kalgoorlie which is around 400km N.

I headed to the local lookout to get a perspective of the area, and this was a Rotary funded lookout, built as a raised platform on the hill. The platform is surrounded by low bushes blocking a view from the car park. But as you climb the short flight of stairs up onto the platform the vista simply opens around you.

Inland on one side, the town below and the fabulous coast running off to the S, E & W. I took a ride along the ocean road passing the many beaches and inlets.

All had the clear turquoise water over the pure white sand surrounded by the darker blue ocean. Unlike at most other beaches, especially in the E, which have sharp and craggy headlands, these have the smooth granite like rock sloping down into the water. The waves wash over them as if polishing them to an even smoother finish. Simply a fabulously beautiful place.

Esperance sits in the splendour of this Bay of Isles, with the tens of islands off shore creating a wonderful backdrop to the whole area. What a way to finish the day.

Day 69 – Wed, 6 Oct Perth to Hyden

2010-10-06T20:52:00.001+11:00

We are back on the road. OP has had a rest and refresh (service) and he seems to be performing better – maybe its just me after driving around in a truck for the last 2 odd weeks.

I had a great dinner with Jon Barnes last night and caught up with some things that were happening back E. He was a tired fella by the time we left the restaurant, after a hard days work (flying in from Sydney and working all day) but still operating on EDST and operating with all of us in Perth, now 3 hrs behind Sydney time.

I left Perth early this morning, did a few things around town – trying to pick up a part for my camp cooker. Then headed out of town in a SE direction. Travelled through the wheat & sheep country crossing over the path that Robyn and I had taken at Brookton, where I had morning tea then headed on eventually to Wave Rock, just outside of Hyden where I am staying for the night.

I covered just under 400km for my first day back on the bike and as it was around 3:30pm. I didn’t feel like travelling another 130km to the next town. So here I am at Hyden.

It was nice to get on the bike again and I really enjoyed the ride. The wind was against me all day and the weather only reached the mid 20C’s. Hopefully the wind will swing round behind me, and it would be perfect. Although finishing early, I felt that was enough to work myself back into covering the km’s ahead. Ease back into the longer days.

I hope everyone is well back home as I am now in the home straight – a bl..dy long straight though. See you out there.

3 – 5 Oct, Albany to Perth

2010-10-04T19:33:00.001+11:00

We left Albany and headed in a NE direction then eventually turning NW. We had definitely left the forests and coast of the SW. We now headed through the Sterling Ranges, well through the Chester Pass and once N we were in the wheat-sheep belt of the Great Southern farmlands.

This whole area has been hard hit by drought. Wheat that should be knee high is only just 150mm high. Locals say they have had little useful rain over the winter and the prospects for a reasonable wheat and other crops is remote.

The first night stay, some 220km NW of Albany was a small town called Wagin. We stayed in the local council campground and the next morning did a tour of the town and a few sites.

First up was the Big Marino Ram – largest in the S hemisphere (I don’t know about that maybe they haven’t been to Goulburn). Well what else would they have in a town in the heart of the sheep industry, a town that has a regional population of 1,840 but swells to 30,000 in March when they hold the Woolarama.

The amazing place however was their historical village. This simply transported you back to the early regional life of the town, with some 25 buildings and a huge range of farm machinery and equipment, photographs and some amazing stuff. This is all run by volunteers and reflects the civic pride that the town seems to exude.

We then headed out heading further N through the rural countryside and beautiful towns of York and then overnight in Northam, some 90km E and a little N of Perth.

Leaving Northam we continued our NW direction to the little town of Gingin where I had stopped on my journey down to Perth a couple of weeks ago. Robyn and I walked the park, the lovely walk along the brook, walked the church cemetery and then had morning coffee at a beautiful cafe in the park. We then decided to head S to Perth through the Swan River Valley wineries where we viewed the local offerings and also paid a visit to the wonderful chocolate factory.

Today is the last day for Robyn here in WA. Tomorrow morning (Tue 5th) I will be dropping her at the airport where she catches a morning flight home to Sydney. I will then return the camper and pick up OP from the BMW dealer.

OP has had a well deserved rest, a clean and fluids changed and will be just as ready as I am to hit he road again. Tomorrow night I’ll be staying at the Perth YHA and hopefully, everything going to plan, having dinner with Jon Barnes who arrives in Perth tomorrow on business. It will be good to catch up with him.

I’ll be leaving Perth on Wednesday and commencing the last stage of my journey, across S Australia back home to Sydney. Until I am back on the road, keep safe and speak soon.

30 Sep – 2 Oct, Albany

2010-10-02T20:12:00.000+10:00

We decided to stay three nights in Albany as it was such a big centre with lots to see and do. And I wanted a bit of a break from driving.

Albany is such an unexpected town, or I maybe should say city. Its harbour being the Prince Royal Sound with the far larger King George III Sound on which lies Middleton Beach where we were staying. The historical precinct sits on the granite hills on the harbour foreshores.

We visited the Anzac Memorial and old Fort sitting high on Mt. Clarence overlooking the city and the Sound. We walked the Beach, watched whales in King George Sound, viewed museums, became immersed in the first colonial arrival on the Brig Amity and just enjoyed the town.

The City is very proud of its Anzac connection where the Anzac ship convoy formed for its trip to Gallipoli, the last place many of the Anzacs saw of Australia. There is many places of interest and it was the place of the first Anzac Day remembrance in 1916.

We took a drive to the Wind Farm (supplying over 50% of the city’s electricity needs), had a coffee in the local distillery (award winning for its spirits, too early to taste test, well it was for me) and stood on what was once connected to Antarctica overlooking the Southern Ocean through the Natural Bridge and their Gap (25m sheer drop into the Ocean).

All in all a really enjoyable few days before we start to head back to Perth. Not long now before Robyn heads home and I follow her on the bike.

24 – 30 Sep, Augusta to Albany

2010-09-30T18:58:00.001+10:00

Another week of absolutely fabulous touring has been had since my last post. We have travelled through beautiful forests, scene some amazing coastline, enjoyed a number of historic and interesting places, walked amongst ancients and giants, and enjoyed each others company. Let me explain further.

Augusta – Nannup – Balingup – Bridgetown

This took us in a NE direction through beautiful forest roads, with farmlands covered in lush pastures backed by mountains of trees. I didn’t expect the range of geography in this part of the world. Townships built on sides of hills, rivers cutting through the towns and surrounded by farms and trees.

All of these towns on route were involved in the logging of the past. Primarily logging the Karri and Jarrah trees for export and for sleepers that were used in the building of the transcontinental railway.

We took a walk around Nannup, across one of the old railway bridges that criss-cross this part of the country – the old logging routes. Simply a day of driving and walking covering some magnificent country roads. The road from Nannup to Balingup would be a great bike ride, and this was later confirmed by a rider I spoke to in Bridgetown.

The surprising thing is that most of the tourist information centres in each town have a particular exhibit that is just worth visiting in itself. Bridgetown had a wonderful jigsaw museum – yeah jigsaws. A room full of all types, the largest being a 9,000 piece jigsaw with lots in the 4-5,000 piece range. Could you just imagine sitting there doing those jigsaws.

Bridgeport saw us also walk town taking in the old gaol (great exhibition on the depression years), antique store and morning tea in a fabulous old pub (they were expecting big patronage for the AFL Grand Final telecast).

Bridgeport – Manjimup – Pemberton

The road S ran through the forests changing from primarily Jarrah to Karri trees, with an interesting canola farm. Karri trees are the third tallest in the world (up to 90m) and the largest flowering tree in the world. They were of interest to the early loggers as they initially grow straight up reaching their height in about 100 yrs and then would add to their girth. The branching would be exceptionally high thus giving straight timber for 10’s of metres before branches occurred.

Manjimup was the centre of a major timber mill and had an excellent museum and park dedicated to the industry. We walked amongst the trees, were informed of the history and culture of the area, viewed old steam mill equipment and travelled on.

I thought Pemberton would be a bigger town to stay at but in fact it was smaller than Manjimup. It is on the main W-E highway but was a lovely hamlet (well 900 odd permanent residents) set in a river valley but with a terrific structure for tourists.

On the trip we visited the Diamond and Gloucester Trees. Well I thought they would be special types of trees, but in fact they were forest lookout trees. Instead of building fire watching towers, they used the tall trees as forest lookout points, driving pegs into the trucks to create a ladder and mounting tower cabins in the trees’ crown at the very top. These trees’ could still be climbed for the not so faint hearted (this didn’t include me) rising some 50-60m above the ground.

From Pemberton we visited a trout farm for morning tea, you could fish for trout if your heart was thus inclined.

We also took a 4WD tour out to the D’Entrecasteaux NP where we travelled on the largest land locked sand dunes (they are slowly moving inland at 4m pa consuming the forest), through old growth karri forests and down to the beach at the mouth of the Warren River. This 4WD trip was quite arduous and at one stage our driver gave way to oncoming traffic and being too courteous nearly had us overturn in the dune – Robyn’s expletives are not repeatable in this family oriented blog, but hell it did raise the adrenaline levels.

Pemberton – Point D’Entrecasteaux – Northcliffe – Walpole

On leaving Pemberton we headed further S to the southern coast. This took us down through Northcliffe (where we returned later for lunch) to Windy Harbour (a small holiday fishing settlement) and up to the magnificent Point D’Entrecasteaux, overlooking wonderful cliffs and the expansive Southern Ocean.

From there back to Northcliffe for lunch and a chat with the local antique dealer (who is selling his lovely shop if anyone is interested). He says that he feels they are about 10yrs too early for the location, if they were in Margaret River he would be making a killing. From there we travelled onto Walpole where we would spend the night. Not a great many km’s today but enough to see quite diverse landscapes.

Walpole – Denmark

A very short journey today but one that would see forest art, and a walk amongst the ancients and the giants.

Amazingly, just N of Walpole was the Walpole Wilderness Discovery Swarbrick, which was a walking art loop in the forest dedicated to the theme of the forests and the 10 year struggle to save this wonderful area from logging, culminating in the wilderness declaration in the late 1990’s.

A fabulous part of this was the Forest Reflections, a massive piece of polished metal that reflected you and the forest around you. This had the history of the struggle to save this part of WA for future generations.

On leaving Swarbrick we followed a drive through the farming hinterland to the Valley of the Giants.

Here we would walk on a suspended walkway from ground level up to 40m into the tree tops of the giant Karri and Tingle trees. The bridges would move and the experience was exhilerating – well I can say that as my family will know about my love of heights.

This was then followed by walk amongst the ancient Tingle trees (redwood eucalypts 400-500yrs old) that have the largest buttresses of any of the eucalypts. These buttresses are subject to attack by fungi and fire giving rise to caverns at ground level which has seen cars park in some, but now you can only walk or stand within.

On leaving the giants we headed out to the coast for what can only be described as magnificent vistas. Green’s Pool and Elephant Rock just N of Denmark was simply stunning. Robyn just kept saying oh, oh, oh as she took in one of the most stunning views we had seen. Clear protected pools with round basalt rock, deep blue ocean. The photos just can’t capture this stunner.

Denmark – Albany

Again a short driving day but taking in the sites and meeting the locals. First up was a visit to the visitor centre where once again I was blown away. This time a purpose built centre to house the worlds largest water barometer. Yeah a barometer.

A couple from the Netherlands ran a barometer museum in an 18th Century chateau in the Netherlands for many years receiving world recognition. In the mid 1990’s they emigrated to Australia settling in Denmark. He could not leave his treasure behind so he brought it with him and donated it to the community. In 2006 a visitor centre was built to house the 12m tall barometer and the thing actually works.

After this we took in a Bush Tucker Factory and Cafe where we had morning tea with the Swiss immigrant owner. We spoke with her for a wonderful 40 minutes and then headed into Albany where we are now based. I will not cover Albany in this post as we are here for a few days. So until next time keep safe.

16 – 23 Sep, Perth to Augusta

2010-09-23T21:44:00.000+10:00

Hi there, everything is simply great out here in the west. Robyn arrived on time and we have had a simply fabulous holiday so far together.

First up we spent the Thu & Fri in and around Perth. Walked the city, visited Kings Park (the wild flowers were in bloom in the Botanical Gardens) took a ferry down the Swan River to Fremantle. Then a a free bus around Freo, had lunch at the jetty and visited the WA Shipwreck Museum. Then a stroll around Freo and the train back into Perth for a night of rest.

Robyn says it took her a couple of days to recover from the jet lag. Yeah, yeah some jet lag a massive 2 hour difference. I think it was more the excitement of being with me again, yeah, yeah I here you say.

We collected the campervan on the Saturday morning, went through all the familiarisation, did some shopping in Rockingham (a little south of Perth) then headed into Bunbury for the next two days. The van is great, although a little older then expected and I have been sent to Siberia for the nights. You see I am in the bunk above the drivers cabin, Robyn is in the bed that is made from the seating and table area. As the beds are only 1.2m wide and we normally sleep in king size bed, I am in Siberia.

Sunday we took a walk around pleasant Bunbury, had coffee on the foreshore, then took a 100 odd km drive in the hinterland, out to Donnybrook and Collie before retiring back at Bunbury. The next morning a cruise ship had docked and it was visible from our van, quite unexpected.

We headed out again continuing our trip S down to Busselton where we visited a heritage homestead (national trust) and a bird hide over a natural wetlands. Then to the campground where we had a walk on the beach and out to the old Jetty.

The Jetty is the longest in the S hemisphere, but is undergoing major reconstruction work so we could only take in the interpretive centre – in other words, the history of the jetty and the surrounding town.

Tuesday saw us head to Cape Naturaliste and the lighthouse.We took a lengthy walk around the lighthouse through the ocean heath land, sighted a couple of whales on their S migration and totally enjoyed the environs.

Following this exercise we headed down to Surfers Point where we had lunch on the headland watching board riders catch breaks 100’s m off shore in around 3m waves.

The coastline in this whole Margaret River region is just spectacular, but the region itself is so different to the rest of WA that I have experienced. I keep repeating to Robyn that this is nothing like the rest of WA. It is quite lovely with forests, grasslands, wineries (lots of wineries) and small villages.

Margaret River is the largest town, but it is the whole region from Bunbury/Busselton in the N down to Augusta in the S and then across to Albany (not actually in the MR region).

Margaret River has done a lot to promote itself, but it is the region as a whole that is fascinating. Nothing is too far away if you have wheels. So the last two nights we based ourselves in a campground about 15 minutes N of MR and headed out from there for sightseeing, wineries, chocolate factories, olive oil soaps & vinaigrettes, etc, etc, etc.

Today, 7 days since Robyn arrived we are in Augusta for the night. We spent time walking through Mammoth Caves (fabulous limestone caves, one of many sights on this limestone coast), had lunch by the Hamelin Bay (very windy so we ate in the van), walked around Cape Leeuwin Lighthouse (the tallest in Aust) and the SW most point of mainland Australia, where the Indian and Southern Oceans meet.

The weather has been superb spring conditions, the days in the mid-20’sC and the nights around 9C. We have had sunshine all the way, just a continuation of the fabulous weather that I have experienced on the whole trip. Everywhere is lush and green, but the locals say come summer this will all burn off and become quite dry. They have missed a lot of the usual rains over the winter months and are concerned about the water shortages.

Robyn has said that she is unexpectedly enjoying the surrounding. She had not thought that the landscape would be as beautiful as it has been. She says that she has a feel for just how vast this land is, and I can only agree especially when you contrast this to the N of the state.

So for now, I hope you have a sense of this last week, the natural beauty of this region, and the joy that I feel having Robyn with me to experience just a small part of this great land.

Day 68 – Wed, 15 Sep at Perth

2010-09-15T19:45:00.001+10:00

Today was really a nothing day. I woke late had breakfast and then headed out on the bike to do a few errands.

First up was to locate the airport and the campervan place. Robyn has hired a Britz camper so I dropped in to check that all was okay for Saturday and to see what we have hired. All was okay including the van and I can drop off a couple of my storage bags tomorrow so that we don’t have to worry about getting them from the city to the van on Saturday.

I then headed over to Perth BMW to see about the bike. I spoke to Jonas the motorcycle manager and he was more than helpful. They are going to keep my bike whilst I am away with Robyn and do an annual service for me whilst they have it. This service will include all fluids including the engine, gear box and final drive oils, and generally check the bike out for me before I head across the Nullarbor. This will give me some peace of mind that I am at least heading off with confidence in the bike (not that I had any worries, just reassured I guess).

I then headed back to the YHA for some domestic duties, lunch and then off to the shops for a couple of items and a lovely coffee sitting in the sun and watching the crowd go by.

Tomorrow, I’ll drop off my bags at the hotel that Robyn and I are staying at, items for storage at Britz, my bike off and then head to the airport to meet Robyn. So today will be the last regular post until I hit the road again on the bike in early October. I may do some updates as Robyn and I travel, but probably not on a daily basis.

So I hope you will wish us well and look forward to the last phase of the my adventure, heading home across the Nullarbor. See you then and to all you riders, keep the tyres the right way up.

Day 67 – Tue, 14 Sep to Perth

2010-09-14T20:40:00.001+10:00

I am in Perth the capital of the W and the city that is further from any other city in the world – well I think that is their claim. I have always liked Perth from the couple of times that I have been here on business many years ago, and initial impressions is that it is far bigger but still has that good feel.

To get here I headed out of Jurien Bay E then S down the Brand Hwy. I set the address of the Perth YHA into the GPS, right in the heart of the City and it navigated me right to the front doorstep – as it should.

Grass trees started showing up along the side of the road and the further I headed S the more often they could be seen. I also passed by a wind farm that ranged along about 6km of road. They actually fitted into the environment and this was the biggest wind farm I had seen on the trip, although a number of towns had them as a full or partial supply to their area.

On the way down I took a detour for morning tea to a little town called Gingin, about 80km N of Perth. It was a total surprise and a real delightful place to stop. Just a real nice ambience for a stop and a short walk through the park.

Heading further S the grass trees continued and I then entered the Swan River Valley passing through the wine growing region as I headed into Perth. As expected traffic increased the closer I got to Perth.

About 8km out of Perth the funniest thing happened. I was riding in the middle lane of the road, and a Falcon had pulled up at the lights in the outside lane. The driver was winding down the passenger window and waving at me. At the next set of lights he stopped again and this time I pulled up beside him and we were both laughing our heads off. I asked him, Steve are you stalking me, and he was laughing saying, its a small world.

You see I met Steve for possibly 1/2 hour in Derby, he was riding a KTM N for about a month and lives in Perth. He had even offered his shed to store my bike if I needed somewhere. Talk about coincidences! I’m going to call him tonight just to have a chat.

So here I am in Perth awaiting the arrival of (as Rumpole would say) “she who must be obeyed”. Robyn arrives on Thursday and we have a couple of nights in Perth before we take delivery of a hired Britz motorhome. We then head out for a tour of the SW, Margaret River, etc. More on that later.

I am staying in the Perth YHA for two nights and what a terrific place. My own room with en-suite, right in the heart of the city, with all the facilities you could ever want. I joined the YHA, should have done this weeks ago, to reduce the nightly cost, and I just had a great steak with mustard cream sauce, veggies, chips and a beer all for $15. What more could you ask for, the steak was great, the first for many weeks.

So for now enjoy the day and make the very most of it, and if you get a chance enjoy this fabulous country that we live in. It is simply magnificent!

Day 66 – Mon, 13 Sep to Jurien Bay

2010-09-13T21:36:00.001+10:00

In essence today was a transit day, well a short one with lots of sightseeing thrown in. I had an easier morning in Geraldton, the pantry was empty so I headed over to Hungry Jacks for a muffin and coffee. A first for the trip, and well as expected not as nourishing as my usual home made one.

I did a shop and then headed out. Today I passed 15,200km for the trip so the heavy work is behind me, lots of smiles back there with some tough roads ahead. But as I have said to friends, I simply set a target for the day and achieve that and don’t worry about the total distance ahead. Much easier travelling that way and succeed in achieving a result each day.

So I continued S through Dorgara/Port Denison (about 75km), a far larger town than expected. Lots of new development in all these towns now, especially as I get closer to Perth. Not long after that I turned off the North West Coastal Hwy which headed inland and I stayed on the road S talking the supposedly more scenic route along the coast.

Well there was beautiful ocean views, with rugged cliffs, but the majority of the time I was riding through sand hills covered in tea trees. The sand was pure white, I guess from the breakdown of limestone that is prevalent along this coast.

There were the occasional fishing huts, made from corrugated iron, and the towns were few and far between. Towns with the names of Green Head, Jurien Bay and Cervantes. Basically fishing and holiday areas, but surprisingly with what appears to be reasonable sized permanent resident populations. Jurien Bay was the largest where I am based for the night. Sea lions reside on some of the islands off the coast, but I will not be paying them a visit.

After about 240km today I am now only a little over 200km from Perth where I am heading tomorrow. Robyn arrives later in the week for a holiday together, which we are both looking forward to very much.

The thing that has surprised me is the amount of reef offshore down this coast. I had no idea that it was so extensive. No wonder those Dutch merchants of the East Indies Company had so many ships wrecked up the coast. The reefs are sometimes close, but then hundreds of metres off shore, usually with the odd wave breaking over them. So unexpected, it is good to be surprised in your travels.

Day 65 – Sun, 12 Sep to Geraldton

2010-09-12T20:40:00.001+10:00

Well what a thoroughly enjoyable day – a mix of riding, sightseeing, museums and unexpected accommodation.

I headed S out of Kalbarri and stopped into a number of the lookouts down the coast, all part of the Kalbarri NP – the coastal fringe. This is truly a rugged coastline and the NP gives you access to the headlands, beaches and what look to be great walking paths. You can basically walk from Kalbarri down over the coastal heath to the various lookouts for tens of km.

After leaving the NP the road continued S to the town of Port Gregory. The town looks like a little holiday fishing village but there is sand and garnet mining to the E. The town sits out on the Indian Ocean coast and the wind was blowing like a gale. Behind the town are pink coloured lakes – yep pink. I haven’t yet determined what causes the colour, I guess the mineral content of the sand, a lot of garnet is in this area so maybe that is the reason.

On leaving Port Gregory I ran into light showers and really gusting wind. This made for tough riding conditions but the road headed slightly inland and the terrain was wonderful. There was more farming land, some sheep, some crops – not sure could be barley or even possibly wheat and another very low course crop, all very young and difficult to determine. I was really focussed on staying on the road.

The undulating hills with a mix of sown & natural pastures, with wild flowers lining the verges of the road made for beautiful scenery. I just couldn’t risk stopping for photographs, there were no real stopping points and with the wind and showers it wasn’t a priority in my thinking.

This continued through to the town of Northampton. I am about 3 weeks too early for the Hanging of the Quilts, where the town hang quilts out their windows – quaint. This town had a lot of historical buildings & houses, an old convent and would be an interesting place to investigate a little more.

At Northampton I picked up the main North West Coastal Hwy again for the run S to Geraldton. I arrived around noon, and I spent about an hour just driving around getting a feel for the place. I decided to stay for the night to see whether the showers and wind pass. I had some lunch then headed for the WA Museum.

This was simply fabulous, with exhibits on the general area, the people, the town, and surrounding region. It also had a fabulous exhibit on the Batavia and other wrecks primarily from the East India Company, the Dutch traders from the 17th century that were wrecked off the coast.

The Museum also had a really good exhibit on the HMAS Sydney (II) that was sunk by the German raider, the Kormorant off the coast with all lives lost. The Sydney was only found in 2008 about 124 nautical miles W of Point Steep (the W most part of mainland Australia) in about 2500m of water.

A really enjoyable time, followed by a visit to the HMAS Sydney Memorial and a quick visit to the local Catholic Cathedral. The day ended with me staying in the Batavia Backpackers. I am in a dorm room, but there is only 5 of us in a room large enough for 20, This will do for a single night, better than camping in the rain.

The interesting thing is that the building is heritage listed and has been restored magnificently. It was originally a hospital build in the 1870’s and operated through to 1964. At that time it fell into a little disrepair until the prison authorities ran it as a low risk prison. The majority of the prisoners stayed as the accommodation was good, the food was excellent and there was no fencing (other than a 1.2m brick wall),

So, in all what I thought was going to be a basic transit day, finished with some testing riding (because of the conditions) and then wonderful and informative locations. The only thing about Geraldton is that on Sunday it is closed. Some waterfront cafes were open, but the rest of town, with a population of around 25,000, surprising was closed.

Day 64 – Sat, 11 Sep at Kalbarri

2010-09-11T18:01:00.001+10:00

What a thoroughly enjoyable way to spend a morning canoeing down the Murchison River. More on that in a moment.

Last night the crowd opposite were in a down mood, Fremantle were humiliated by Geelong. So my presence gave them an opportunity to forget the game and talk. The game was too distressing for them. No really it was a pleasant night spent talking and sharing experiences.

This morning I had booked onto a river canoeing safari, well more cruising then safari-ing (not sure but did I just make up an “ing” word). I was picked up from the campground at 8:30 and delivered back around 2:30.

In between was a pleasant ride out to Murchison Station, learning about the station, the river and the surroundings.

The guide was a “down to earth” sort of guy, a chef by trade but now just does whatever so he can enjoy surfing and running canoe trips, gets him away from bosses and kitchens and into nature.

There were 4 of us plus Mick the guide. There was Bob a plumber from Darwin, Jo a lawyer from Perth, her friend Zee from Toronto and myself. We paired off and we headed out into the river. I was with Zee and she was very nervous as she had never been in a canoe before.

I set her at ease, and the fact that at this time of year you can pretty much stand in most parts of the river, she relaxed and we all really enjoyed ourselves. It was an easy paddle down river about 4-5km where Mick then fired up the BBQ (already built on the station side of the river) and cooked us sausages, bacon, beans and duck eggs, with plenty of tea and bread rolls. Well there is lunch and dinner all rolled into one.

We then headed back up river, had a swim part way along and headed home. Zee was just rapped in the trip and I suggested to her that she could now go paddling on the lake at Toronto...lol.. It was really a wonderful way to spend a morning and well, a real change of pace.

So this afternoon has been a little housekeeping (well some washing) and a thorough check over the bike, making sure all bolts are tight, tyres are okay for pressure and wear, and that everything is ready for my run to Perth over the next few days. Another relaxing day but looking forward to some sightseeing tomorrow as I head further S down the coast.

Day 63 - Fri, 10 Sep at Kalbarri

2010-09-10T21:25:00.001+10:00

This morning was the first, I guess more from here on; you see the tent had moisture on it and this is the first for many moons. I rose and had an easy morning having breakfast next to my tent overlooking the Murchison River.

I headed into town (about 500m) to check out the waterfront, get some information on activities and see whether a camera was available. And guess what, the video and photo store had what I wanted at, well a “reasonable” cost. So I am back with a camera and hanging onto it (well at the moment anyway) – not dropped yet!

At the river headland, it empties into the sea and the passage for the boats is channel marked, but there is some rough action, entering and leaving the tranquillity of the estuary. It is a pretty place with swimming, surfing, sandsurfing (riding a wake board down a sand dune), fishing and canoeing all available in close proximity to the town.

Yesterday I passed a couple of lookouts in the NP but I didn’t want to stop as it was getting late. So today I thought I would check them out. The NP is quite different from the flatness of the coastal plain that resides behind it.

The Murchison River runs for some 700km through the arid rangeland and then cuts its way through the sandstone and empties into the ocean at Kalbarri. The gorges are part of the Kalbarri NP and accessible by 4WD with the upper reaches having little flow presently, awaiting the rains yet to come. The river can reach 1/2 way up the gorge sides in the above photo.

This afternoon I had coffee and a fabulous blueberry & white chocolate muffin at the local Gorges Cafe (right next to the caravan park) whilst I wrote some emails and did some internet surfing. Such decadence.

On returning to the tent, the neighbours opposite (WA locals) invited me to watch the AFL tonight – Fremantle vs Geelong – everyone is very excited about the match, except for the West Coast Eagles supporters (the competition wooden spooners). If you know me you know that AFL is not really my cuppa tea, but then again, after dinner I’ll head over and either give congratulations or commiserations.

I’ve decided to stay another day, heading out for a canoe trip in the morning and then probably do some housekeeping and bike check in the afternoon. Until then, see yah!

Day 62 – Thu, 9 Sep to Kalbarri

2010-09-09T19:47:00.001+10:00

The morning started cool and a little windy. I broke camp and headed back to Denham for the morning. It was a lovely ride, the wind had eased and I took it slow because I had been told by a rider who worked at Monkey Mia that the kangaroos were bad along this stretch of road.

On arrival I went to the visitor centre which is actually a fantastic place as it is the Shark Bay Discovery Centre. Here was information, with audio visual displays on everything associated with the Shark Bay World Heritage area. It had the history, geography, marine and land animals and flora. The area is home of a significant area of sea grass, the largest area in the world and home to many inhabitants including about 10,000 dugongs.

The audio visuals covered a whole range of topics including the history, marine scientists and locals who have lived here. I could have spent even more time here, but after about 1 & 1/2 hours I thought I should hit the road.

I had given up on a 4WD tour of François Peron NP which from all the photographs I had seen is spectacular. But I decided not to venture in there on the bike as there were km of gravel and even worst, heavy sand – I am afraid not for me on this trip.

The run back to the North West Coastal Hwy took me over the territory that I had travelled 2 days ago. I found the trip far more enjoyable this time around then that day. It was obviously the mood that I was in for even the run down the Hwy to Kalbarri was more enjoyable even though the terrain was little different then those 2 days ago.

I stopped at a roadhouse for morning tea and met a Perth couple riding R1200GS and G650GS. We had a chat and discussed things to do and along comes two guys on postie bikes. They had plastic boxes from Bunnings attached to wooden cross bars as panniers and they were wearing WWII German style army helmets. They did get a lot of attention and I asked how they were going. They were Irish and the only comment was slow and sore – you can bet on that. Anyway they were heading N and I continued S.

The road was straight on this ever going coastal plain. The tea trees went out to the horizon in all directions. Closer to the S end of my trip the wild flowers started appearing in greater numbers and I believe that this will continue all the way S. Not too many photos as I still have not replaced the camera and I had exhausted the battery charge on the phone. It was being charged as I rode, off the bike’s accessory plug.

I arrived in Kalbarri late for me (around 4pm) and I have set up camp and now sitting at the picnic table overlooking the river across the road. A really wonderful campground from all appearances and I’ll head back into town tomorrow to check things out and walk along the beach. They have a weekly BBQ tonight, that takes care of dinner.

So all in all a really enjoyable day’s riding, about 380km over the day. Until tomorrow, stay safe and well, bye from me sitting here watching the sun set over the park and river…lol…

Day 61 – Wed, 8 Sep at Monkey Mia

2010-09-08T21:08:00.001+10:00

Today was just a look around Monkey Mia as I was staying a 2nd night in the campsite. We had a little rain overnight, well you couldn’t actually call it rain as it only lasted about 30 seconds at 4am. But then again it was the first I had been in since leaving the E coast near Cairns. I think I have been very lucky in that respect.

So this morning I headed down to the beach to take in the dolphins and their interaction with us land mammals. Access to the dolphins is not what you expect. I guess I have seen on TV the free access and the dolphins being handled and touched. Well it is a lot more controlled with handling and touching restricted.

WA DEC (Department of Environment & Conservation) control the access and it is really limited in an attempt to protect the animals (both human & dolphins) from each other. The dolphins can become stressed and ill from human contact (even get the common cold). Humans can be injured from impact and also from bites. DEC is trying to make it as natural as possible for the animals, on the animals terms, but still giving us the opportunity to have this rather unique experience.

So access is firstly standing in the water, up to about knee deep, and watching them swim by very close whilst the DEC people give a spiel about all things related to the group. They then feed only about 5 of the females (if they arrive). They only feed the same five and only about 1.5kg of fish each across the 3 morning feeds. This is so the dolphins do not become dependent. At this time a person is selected from the crowd and gets the chance to hold a fish whilst the dolphin takes it from them. Pretty cool.

At the first feeding there was only one female and her calf. There was quite a crowd at this feeding and the female received 3 fish. The crowd thinned out somewhat for the second feeding and more dolphins turned up. About 10 in all but only three females who DEC staff feed. The rest were calves of the females. The 3rd feeding was similar.

So this interaction was really nice, just a little more controlled and restricted then what I had thought. However this is understandable given the number of people present at the first feeding, and hearing some of the stories of less controlled practices of the past.

The remainder of the day was just hanging out and taking a few walks. I endeavoured to get onto a 4WD tour into the Cape Peron NP for tomorrow without any success. I’ll have to think of alternatives and see what eventuates.

Overall, an interesting day. The weather has been fairly variable throughout the day, not warm enough to encourage me into the water, but then again nice to have a cooler switched off day. I guess back to some riding again tomorrow.

Day 60 - Tue, 7 Sep to Monkey Mia

2010-09-07T20:39:00.001+10:00

Well I have a couple of corrections to make to previous posts. Firstly, Denham not Exmouth is the farthest W town on the WA coast. And second, I have done the anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) not the posterior as stated last night. I understand that this is a little better, marginal I guess.

I hung around Carnarvon this morning for an hour whilst Gavin the physio tried to get me a knee brace without success. Oh well, I have been this far without one so I decided to continue. This is when he confirmed it was the ACL.

I headed out of town heading further S on the North West Coastal Hwy and this would continue until I reached the road NW to Denham. The coastal plain was boring, or maybe it was just me. One of those moods today, missing Robyn and the road was just unchanging.

Negotiated a few emus and goats today.. Spoke to a couple of truckies on the 2-way and listened in on their conversations. I checked my GPS at the end of the day and the only hill I went up and down was 82m and this was to a lookout. Yep, confirmed my opinion of the day, a bit tiresome, with just scrub to the horizon.

The road through the Shark Bay Wilderness Area into Denham was interesting travelling close to the coast with its coloured sands and the deep blue of the water far out and the turquoise water inshore. This lifted my spirits but as I said just a bit of a grind today. Tomorrow will be different.

Called into the telegraph station that is now a camp ground and the shell brick pit. It operated in the late 1800’s as part of the overland telegraph line between Albany in the S to Wyndham in the N. I think this is the last station building standing on the line.

I am in the only resort at Monkey Mia, offering a range of accommodation options. I selected the basic, an unpowered camp site – being on grass, fabulous. I have sighted a couple of dolphins cruising off the beach but hope to see more tomorrow during the morning feeding off the beach. There is a potential for rain as off the coast it is a bit gloomy.

Until then keep well and safe, and I’ll try to be in a better mood tomorrow. See yah!

Day 59 – Mon, 6 Sep to Carnarvon

2010-09-06T22:04:00.001+10:00

Today was going to be a short transit day. After a long and terrific night sleep, recovering from yesterday’s snorkelling, I hit the road around 8:30am

It was a quick ride back to the North West Coastal Hwy, although some cattle, emus and a terrified sheep added some interest to the trip. I was only 100m (if not less) out of Coral Bay and I was back on the coastal plain. There was no wind today, a rarity apparently for this part of the coast, so the ride was a really enjoyable time.

After reaching the Hwy it was a simple run S towards Carnarvon. I recrossed the Tropic of Capricorn, I last crossed it in NE QLD all those weeks ago. I took a slight 100km round trip detour out to the coast to see the local blowholes. On arrival a couple approached and wanted to talk. They just happened to be from Wyoming (on the Central Coast N of Sydney). I had coffee with them and another couple and later in the day I ran into them again in Woolworths in Carnarvon. I apparently stand out – I wonder why.

The entry to the blowhole road is interesting with the sign pictured greeting you. A number of people fishing from the rocks (madmen) have been killed in the area. After morning tea I headed into Carnarvon for the night. Only about 340km today – a short one.

Carnarvon is the fruit and vegetable bowl for the WA, supplying over 70% of the state’s supply. It is also the site for the old NASA tracking station that was eventually decommissioned in 1987 (or there about). There is also fishing, and a canal housing development – surprising..lol..

With Robyn’s recommendation I found a physiotherapist who could see me. He checked my left knee and it appears I have destroyed the posterior cruciate ligament which he feels I’ll eventually need a knee reconstruction. At least I know what the likely problem is, but he says an MRI will confirm the diagnosis, but he doesn’t feel there is much, if anything left of the ligament – too much backward and forward movement. We both laughed at the problem as he couldn’t work out how I managed to travel with it on the bike those initial days after the accident.

Oh well, will continue on and get it attended to on my return, at least I now know the likely problem, the reason for the continued swelling and restricted movement, and definitely no sideway movement or twisting in the knee will be tolerated – I will finish on the ground again. That’s life, accidents happen but the adventure continues.

Day 58 – Sun, 5 Sep at Coral Bay

2010-09-05T19:51:00.001+10:00

I woke this morning and received a number of calls from my family wishing me a happy Fathers Day. I suggested to Katie that as a present all the kids could chip in and pay for my holiday. She said that she would get back to me on that in a couple of weeks. I don't think I should hold my breath - well that was relevant given what I was doing today.

In addition to that the day was a WOW, WOW, WOW, WOW day. I booked myself onto the Ningaloo Reef Dive boat for a snorkelling trip. At Coral Bay there are a number of snorkelling tours, but I was glad that I joined this group, because they were a terrific bunch of guys, friendly, helpful, and very professional. I guess you need to be if you are taking people out diving. There were 5 crew and 8 customers (4 diving, 4 snorkelling) on a boat designed for 30 people.

The first dive site was a snorkel over the reef from about 2-3m of water across the outer reef into water 10-12m. At this site there was a shark cleaning site. We saw about 6 reef sharks (WOW) getting a “clean”. You see the current is such that the sharks can stop swimming and they won’t drown, they open their jaws and small fish swim in and out and clean their teeth – cool.

We snorkelled around the reef for about 1 & 1/2 hours. One of the crew took us initially to see the sharks and left us to do our own thing. Prior to entering the water they gave us all the necessary hand signals for emergencies, etc as well as recommended snorkelling areas. The reef here as you would expect was far better then closer to shore. As it would be at both sites for the day. There were 100’s of different types of coral, with far more colour evident then inshore. Also 100’s of types of marine life. Just magical.

The reef is a fringing reef, which I understand is a reef that is connected to shore, unlike out east which is a barrier reef. The wind dropped through the day and the water was calm and clear. Fabulous.

We moved sites and next up was hopefully a swim with a giant manta ray. They have a spotter plane so they were given directions to a sighting. The instructions were that the dive master would enter the water first, ensure that it was a manta, then we would enter the water quietly, and then hopefully keep up. The manta can swim exceptionally fast.

The manta ray is part of the shark family, with muscle and cartilage the same as a shark, with a dorsal fin but in the shape of a ray. It has a tail like a ray but no barb, and feed on plankton. Wonderful for swimming with if you can keep up.

So we all hit the water and the first sighting is just amazing. It was only a smaller one, about 2m wing span. I has trailing off its right wing when it turned towards me in an upward direction. We had been told to just hang in the water and let it do its thing. Well it passed in front and under me within about 2m (2nd WOW) and then the chase was on.

I thought after about 6-7 minutes of this that I would soon need to have some R&R (rescue & resuscitation), swimming flat out, trying to keep the dive master in sight and where the bloody hell was that manta. Then we were following another one, about 3.5m wing span and she (yep we knew how to determine the sex, and besides I was told later that is was a she) was just feeding and enjoying herself.

We followed her for about 20 minutes as she would head in one direction and then turn 180 and head back again, time and time again – strip feeding. After a while the dive master told us we could dive down to her one at a time, And WOW (3rd) when I did this I was only about a metre from her and over the course of a couple of dives I was able to look her in the eye, well one of them the other was about a half a metre away on the other side of her flat head.

The dive master called it a dive, and we were picked up and the smiles were on everyone’s dial. Just a tremendous dive with such massive, but gentle creatures. The skipper said that he had sighted a couple of whales whilst we were having our fun so he headed after them for a little lunch time enjoyment.

We sat having lunch on the upper deck whilst two hump backs slowly cruised around us breaching and giving tail flicks. At times we were less than 50m from them as they would change direction and swim towards us and then away. An unexpected pleasure.

After lunch we headed for our final dive site, about 1/2 hour travel S of our current position. On arrival we went through the same briefing session and into the water. We swam along a wall, well cliff of coral possibly 10m tall then around and back through trenches into 2-3m of water. On the snorkel we had our 4th WOW, swimming with 3 green turtles. One just let us swim along with it as it was just cruising. The other two led us on a chase through the coral.

So I am sitting here now writing this post early as I know it is going to be an early to bed night – I am exhausted. But what a day, a Father’s Day I’ll never forget.

PS. Only a couple of photos made it tonight, no underwater camera and the one I have has finally packed it in.

Day 57 – Sat, 4 Sep at Coral Bay

2010-09-04T21:55:00.001+10:00

What can I say, bloody marvellous. This place is a holiday location, nothing more nothing less. There is basically one road that leads down to the beach. It has a few shops, a great bakery, expensive supermarkets (well not actually supermarket, more a basic essentials, but expensive) a few tourist shops, cafe and a couple of restaurants, a pub, and a couple of excellent campgrounds offering a number of accommodation options and a backpackers. Sounds like a tourist write-up, doesn’t it.

Interesting there are 3 wind turbines that provide around 30-50% of the power. But more interesting is that the water supply is from an artesian bore, hundreds of metres deep. The water arrives at a temperature of 63C so they have to cool it for use, there are no hot water systems in town. Drinking water is from a reverse osmosis plant, basically like a desalination plant but using bore water rather than sea water.

Enough of all of that lets get down to the real reason everyone is here. It is the beach, the bay and the reef. Did I say this was bloody marvellous. The beach is a simple short walk from anywhere in town – no more than a couple hundred metres at most. This gives access to a wonderful bay with white sand, shallow water for the toddlers, with the water progressively getting deeper.

I had hired snorkelling equipment for the day, so left my clothes and bag on the beach at the bay and walked a few hundred metres further around the point. Here the water fell into the deeper turquoise water and only metres beyond was the reef. Here I snorkelled twice during the day for an hour or so each time, slowly drifting and swimming over the reef returning back into the bay. Oh what a pity I didn’t have an underwater camera. In fact, oh what a pity I didn’t have a camera that I could see what I was photographing.

You are just going to have to take my word for this. It was beautiful. Coral of all shapes, types and sizes. The reef may not be as extensive as out east, but far more accessible once you are here. Coral the size of boulders some metres in diameter. Coral like opening flowers massive in size – just imagine flowers as large as 2 metres across and you now think of it as coral and you may understand what I am trying to say. Star shaped coral, ribbon, clams, just amazing.

This is a sanctuary so fish just ignore you. Small colourful ones, bright blues and purples. Larger yellow ones, larger still multicoloured ones. Some with black & white stripes – zebra fish maybe. As you can tell I don’t know my fish types but hey, that doesn’t stop you enjoying them.

I think what are called emperor fish, about 40cm long would swim beside you, and I know they are looking at you. You can see it in their eyes. Did I say bloody marvellous, oh yeah I think I have said that before.

Just a wonderful restful day, enjoying the sun, the sand, the water and of course the marine life. Bloody marvellous!!

Day 56 – Fri, 3 Sep to Coral Bay

2010-09-03T23:11:00.001+10:00

What a fantastic night sleep I had. After I wrote last night’s post I cooked dinner – steaks, onions, tomatoes & eggs on toast, well I had vegetables with my steak the night before. I then had a cold ale whilst I did some reading in the pub, watched a little TV and then hit the sack.

A not so early rise, well 7am is not so early lately, packed up and hit the road. It would only be a short ride today, 155km S to Coral Bay. I headed out of Exmouth and travelled at around 90kph as there was a strong, gusting wind from the E. Later this would keep blowing over the front left quarter even though I headed SW and then W. So the wind must have kept changing every time I changed my direction.

Along the way 3 emus crossed my path, so I slowed to around 50km giving them a wide berth. As I was almost upon them one of them took exception to me and turned and walked with head held high right towards me. I gave the bike a little squirt to get past him and in my mirrors I could see that he stood in the middle of the road looking at me as I rode away; talk about attitude.

I arrived in Coral Bay, basically a holiday location, around 10:30 and checked into the campground that I had pre-booked from Exmouth. I am camped on sand, a little different to my last camp night on the red dirt of the Pilbara. I am now in the Gascoyne region of WA. The temperatures for the past few days have only hovered around 26C so it is getting cooler as I progress S.

I took a run around to the boat launching ramp and found this fabulous environment of white sand, turquoise water and the reef – sound familiar. Well it should as Coral Bay gives access to the Ningaloo Reef right at the door step.

After lunch I took a walk down to the beach (about 150m) and decided to book onto a Quad Bike Sunset Tour. What a fantastic time we had; there were 8 bikes plus the right leader, and we headed S into the sand hills for 2 hours of quad biking. First time I have done this and as riders know, riding a four wheel bike is more like driving a car then riding a motorbike. Yeah, that’s me climbing the dune.

We travelled on sand roads, well almost paths, with cross slopes – some approaching 30-40 degrees - up & down steep dunes and then watched the sun set into the Indian Ocean. There were about 5 kids on the trip all riding as pillions – I know they had fun because of the smiles – well I certainly had one as well – just a big kid at heart. We travelled back at dusk under lights. What a fabulous way to end the day, bring on tomorrow.

Oh, the photos were taken by the broken camera, their is no view finder and the screen is what has broken. I can only see an image about 5mm wide at the top right, down to 1mm wide at the bottom right. Maybe I should take photos like this all the time as I was quite surprised. Also one of the other riders took photos of me – they thought it was a challenge as well – just point in the general direction and shoot. Take enough and a few will hopefully turn out okay.

Day 55 – Thu, 2 Sep to Cape Range NP & Back

2010-09-02T20:10:00.001+10:00

I am staying at the Potshot Hotel backpackers again tonight. This was a good decision as the camping in the Cape Range NP was full. Also the wind was blowing and camping in rough-it style campsites on sand in the wind would not have been pleasant.

So I decided to do a little sightseeing. First I headed back into town and out to the port where there is a new canal style housing development. Novotel has a new complex and there are lots of sold vacant (small) blocks with some new housing being built.

The peninsula basically runs N-S with Exmouth about 35km from the tip on the E side, on the Exmouth Gulf. To the W is the Indian Ocean, but along the W coast is the Ningaloo Reef. The Reef runs for hundreds of km from the S up the W coast. It is a protected area and is home to a host of marine animals.

Running up almost like a backbone (more to the W) is the Cape Range which has the Cape Range NP. So I rode N out of Exmouth, then headed around the tip and rode S down the W side of the Cape Range.

Oh, yeah, I managed to get around the Naval Communications Station; a road runs around it and then up the W side. Therefore, I was able to get right to the tip of the peninsula where the SS Mildura wreck is located right on the reef at the tip. This 1390 tonne wreck ran aground in 1907 with no loss of life, but 400 bullocks perished.

After that I headed S down the W side of the peninsula, up to the Vlamingh Head Lighthouse for spectacular views N to the tip, S across the NP and out over the Reef and Indian Ocean.

I proceeded further S for about another 80km driving along the bitumen running down the coastal plain covered in spinifex and termite mounds (spinifex termites). To the left was the Cape Range (rising generally to around 200-300m as a guess) and to the right the sand dunes and beyond that the Reef and Ocean. Just magnificent. The coastal plain varied from 800-900m wide, to only 200+m wide.

I stopped at the odd beach and the visitor centre. I spotted a couple of Osprey nests, a real thrill. There were pure white and grass covered dunes, with a backdrop of turquoise coloured water inside the reef, with the deeper blues of the ocean beyond the waves breaking on the reef.

I had lunch overlooking Turquoise Bay, where I endeavoured to take a time delayed picture of myself, but the wind blew the camera off the bench and yep another damaged camera. I’ll have to buy another one; bugger.

At Turquoise Bay the reef was about 150-200m off shore with a lagoon of you guessed it turquoise coloured water. A small point extended out from shore, so you could enter to the S of the point and whilst snorkelling just drift with the current around the point and finish to the N in the Bay in front of where I was sitting.

I decided that I would not snorkel up here just because it was a sightseeing day. I’ll be going a little further S over the next few days and I’ll base myself closer to the beach and the Reef where it will be more convenient to snorkel rather than travelling in the bike gear.

I finished the trip S at the end of the road at Yardie Creek, where a deep blue creek cuts E through the Range creating a gorge. At this point I turned and headed back to Exmouth.

Today I passed quite a few emus, but on the way home I had to stop for an echidna to cross. I spotted him ahead and as I slowed he curled on the road with all spikes pointing out. On passing he continued his saunter across the road where I was just able to get a photo before he headed into the grass.

Overall, quite magnificent scenery, it would have been a pleasure to have swam and camped, but this will have to wait. The day achieved what I set out to do, to get a good feel for the landscape, the coast and the reef. Glorious!

PS. This is the start of my 3rd month on the road. To date I have travelled through QLD, NT and now about half way down the W coast. I guess you could say I am about half way and I have travelled about 13,250km.

Day 54 – Wed, 1 Sep to Exmouth

2010-09-01T21:57:00.001+10:00

As well as today’s post I have also posted day’s 52 & 53 so check those out first.

This morning was a little cooler to the past days, well actually weeks. The past few days reached 37C and as I had not showered for 2 days, last night’s shower was wonderful. Today I headed out and it was only 20C and it would only reach the mid-20C’s, so exceptionally comfortable riding weather.

The night in the donga, the pain relief tablets and the rest (not having to crawl in and out of a tent) all did wonders for my knee. It is still a little stiff but feeling really good again, back to almost where it was before my back flop of a couple of nights ago in the wilds on the Pilbara.

I headed out from the Roadhouse and continued S. What a wonderful day’s riding. I usually don’t put music on so early (if at all), but this morning I just felt like something light and easy. I have a range of genre on the GPS MP3 player and I selected some old Seekers music. Yeah I know not to the taste of you young ones, well I guess anyone post date my generation, but hey I enjoy it.

Well the second song up was “I am Australian,” well how appropriate was this song. The music, its theme and references to this great country that is Australia, well I got all emotional. Yeah I know us “macho bikers” shouldn’t get all emotional, but that is how I felt. Especially when it referred to the “rock, the sky and the rivers when they run” all so to the point given my experiences over the past 2 months – yep 2 months tomorrow since I left home.

As I road I started to see some of the wild flowers that the West is renowned for, I hope that I see more as I head further S, especially as Spring is now upon us. I headed S, then W and eventually N to Exmouth. In all 300+km today and reached the most W town of Australia (well I think it is, it sure looks that way on the map). I rode as far N as I could up the peninsula, where I hit the restricted area of the Naval Comms Base at the tip of the Exmouth Gulf.

On the way up the Exmouth Rd it runs parallel to the Exmouth Gulf and I stopped at one memorial spot – I just happened to see it on a small sign about 30km S of Exmouth. It was a memorial to the Z-Force (a special operations force) of WWII. The Memorial was to the men who set off in the MV Krait from that exact point to sneak into Singapore Harbour and destroy some 37,000 tonnes of Japanese shipping. What made it all the more significant was that today was the eve of the actual date they departed on their successful mission – 2 Sep 1943.

I saw my first sheep for the whole trip (well for I don’t know how long) grazing on the sides of the road heading towards Exmouth. The old Wool Pathway that you can follow from as far S as Geraldton to Exmouth in the N is clearly signed, but this travels on some of the current roads but also through some wilderness areas to the S.

I am staying in the Potshot Hotel Resort that also includes a backpackers section – that will do me. Fantastic facilities, my own room with en-suite and the bike at the door. All within walking distance to the shops that supplied me with a great steak, fresh vegetables and dessert for dinner which I prepared in the communal kitchen. What more could you ask – well I am writing tonight’s post in the beer garden with a cold ale. Stay safe out there.

Oh, I also saw a few emus, and in fact Exmouth still have wild emus grazing down the main road into town – sorry in town - saw one today to my total amazement.

Day 53 – Tue, 31 Aug to Nanutarra Roadhouse

2010-09-01T21:54:00.001+10:00

My left knee has improved dramatically from the accident 4 weeks ago, but it still has a weakness. It is okay in a walking plane, but any twist or jolt and it is suspect. Well last night I gave it one such jolt. I have been dismounting from the bike on the RHS (the higher side) to favour the left knee.

Well last night I dismounted on the LHS and as there is so much gear on the bike I needed to hop sideways. Well the knee gave way and I finished flat on my back on the ground. As a result it has been uncomfortable all last night and today. I am back on pain killers for a few days, and more massaging. It will settle, but I guess I’ll need to get it looked at when I get home.

As a consequence I didn’t do much walking this morning so I looked at the Dales Gorge and Fortescue Falls and headed out. I also paid a visit to the Karajini Visitor Centre – this alone was worth the detour to the NP. An exceptionally designed building, made completely from steel moulded to fit the landscape and symbolise the past, present and future. The steel is natural so it has turned a rust colour, which perfectly matches the surrounding Pilbara landscape. The Centre had a fantastic display of local materials and information. I think I spent over an hour just reading and looking at the display.

So although I couldn’t walk comfortably, I could ride. This was appropriate as I felt like putting some km under the belt and head further W. The Hamersley Range is just stunning and I crossed and ran through this most of the day. The environment was consistent with yesterday, predominantly mulga scrub, very little Spinifex and lots of stone.

I arrived mid morning at the mining town of Tom Price. Water is not in short supply here because the place is green – the homes, and public space are covered in grass and it was such a stark contrast to what I had been travelling through. The Rio Tinto iron ore mine is just outside town which really had a nice feel to the place.

About 85km further SW was the town of Paraburdoo, where I filled the tank and had lunch. Again a mining town but not as large as Tom Price. I had heard of these two towns with such wonderful names and now I have seen them – even if it was only in passing.

In both these towns were what could only be described as outdoor cinemas, like a drive-in cinema but rather than space for cars, there were plastic chairs arranged to view the screen.

So I carried on for 470km today and on hitting the North West Coastal Hwy (Hwy 1) I turned S for only 5 km where I am now residing for the night in a donga. I thought that I would have a proper bed for the night and see whether the rest and recovery helps my knee.

Oh, by the way the knee will not stop my forward progress of this motorbike adventure, around this absolutely fabulous country of ours – it is so massive and inspiring, if you have seen it then you will understand, if not just get out in it at some stage in your life and feel the experience.

Day 52 – Mon, 30 Aug to Dales Gorge, Karajini NP

2010-09-01T21:46:00.001+10:00

I broke camp early so that I could get down to the local Woollies before heading over to the bike shop to have my new tyres fitted. I only hope they are delivered.

I arrived at the Pilbara Boat & Bike just after 9am as planned and as I was walking in the front door the Toll Ipec truck pulled into the drive and delivered my tyres – what timing. The fitting took about an hour and I almost fell over when I got the bill – they charge by the hour and with old tyre disposal the fitting alone came to $172; that’s what you get in places like Port Hedland – no competition with high rents and wages. Everything is expensive.

So I paid the bill and headed out. The Great Northern Hwy continued SW for about 35km before turning S towards Newman. Newman is the town built at the large open cut iron ore mine that supplies Port Hedland, but I would not be going all the way there. The other North West Coastal Hwy followed the coast towards Karratha and Dampier, which I will be bypassing as I want to see the Karajini NP.

My riding involved continual slaloms in an attempt to rough of the polished surfaces of the new tyres. I got into a real groove doing this but I doubt whether I will need the tyre edges as the roads are almost straight with the odd kink – not bends – but the tyres are ready should any bend come my way.

The Hwy S was just amazing. First it was similar country to that I had been travelling down the coast – flat grass, mostly various Spinifex, and mulga scrub, giving way to treeless plains. The soil was a sandy red.

The further I went the drier it became and I crossed a number of small ranges. The soil became much redder, loosing the sandy red colour of earlier. The trees and shrubs sometimes gave way to Spinifex only and then it would change, with no grass and just scattered mulga scrub. The soil – well rocks actually - was bright red and the escarpments were a similar colour.

At one stage I was crossing a rocky plain devoid of all grass and shrubs – just rocks to the horizon cut by the black and grey bitumen line.

This landscape continued until I reached the Hamersley Range which rose out of the plain with high escarpments. The road cut through one gorge up onto the plateau and then back down and continued S. I then took the W turn towards Tom Price and continued until I reached the entrance to the Karajini NP.

I found the Dales Campground near Dales Gorge. There was a tent where you check in with the camping host. The first site allocated to me was so hard that I couldn’t drive a steel tent peg more then 10mm into the ground.

I was allocated another site where I am now camped – a newer site not yet compacted. The red dirt is everywhere – no grass, no water and long drop toilets.

By the time I had done all this it was too late to check out the Gorge – will do that tomorrow. So only travelled a little over 330km today, not so bad given the late start from the bike shop. I don’t like travelling after 4pm – I want to avoid the wild life.

I sat having dinner with the setting sun to my back, the colours of the blue sky and clouds (the first clouds I have seen since, well I can’t remember, maybe Atherton, QLD) were such a delight and I had a real peaceful evening – it is so quiet and still now that I am lying in my tent writing this post. I feel as though I am totally alone in the wilds of the Pilbara.

Day 51 – Sun, 29 Aug at Port Hedland

2010-08-29T21:45:00.001+10:00

Today was a nothing day – made myself some bacon and eggs, did some reading, had a walk and watched a little TV. Yep a real veg out day. I didn’t even take a photo, but I did have a couple of phone calls with Robyn.

I am ready to get back on the road, real itchy feet. So tomorrow I hope to get the new tyres fitted and be back on the road. So I trust you all had a lazy day as well, remember Sunday was the day of rest. See you out there.

Day 50 – Sat, 28 Aug at Port Hedland

2010-08-28T21:11:00.001+10:00

Today was another day spent in PH. I had breakfast with Martin a 31 year old Swiss guy travelling around Australia, mainly using Greyhound buses. He was heading out today so he had time to kill until 2pm when his bus left.

He is into sport and had never seen a cricket match so I invited him to join me at the local 20/20 charity match being held down the road. I explained the basics of the game, as you do and then we headed out.

We caught the local bus service to the game (actually it was only about 3km down the road towards town) – he did have his backpacks and all. So he became an honorary Aussie for the morning sitting on the grass and watching the national game of cricket. The match was organised by the local police, as a charity match – I understand Brad Hogg (for those who don’t know him, he is an Ex Australian cricketer) was present but without commentary who was who was difficult to determine.

We spoke about many things about Australia and Switzerland, we even solved the world’s problems – as one does at the cricket. The match was just like any friendly social match around the country and we both had a thoroughly enjoyable morning. I think he also agreed with Robyn, as she has been trying to understand the game for the past 40 years and still cannot get it.

We said our goodbyes and I decided to walk back via the shoreline, covering closer to 4km – well I guess I should say stroll back in the sun. Watched another ship come in from the off shore stack (there is generally around 20 odd ships waiting at anchor offshore for their turn to dock). Made it back to camp for a light lunch a cuppa and time to get some reading in.

All in all an unexpected pleasant day at the cricket – bring on the Aussies in January when I go to see them humiliate the Poms (I hope).

Day 49 – Fri, 27 Aug at Port Hedland

2010-08-27T21:23:00.001+10:00

Today was an easy day in Port Hedland as planned. However it started off a little frustrating. You see I checked my tyres and there was damage to the rear one that had to be dealt with.

So early morning I headed into town and found a bike place, a Yamaha dealer, who had a range of tyres but not my bike’s size. So they can order them in (from Perth) but that will take 24 hrs to arrive. By that time they will be closed for the weekend and so I have to wait until Monday to get them fitted. I decided to replace both tyres, so I am here for the weekend.

Frustrating as had this been in Broome I could have spent the weekend on Cable Beach, but no I have to be in PH. Well it could have been worse I could be in the middle of nowhere waiting for Road Side Assist. I count my blessings and have a weekend to kill.

This morning I was booked on a tour of BHP Billiton Iron Ore complex here at Port Hedland. It finished up being only a bus tour inside the plant, but we were able to see the handling of the ore from time of arrival by train, through the stock piles and loading to the ship.

Lots of facts and figures to impress and big expansion plans for the place. They currently export around 100 odd million tonnes and this is planned to go to 400+ million tonnes by 2015. The township is only about 18,000 people with projections to 40,000 odd. All I can say they had better address the housing issue and soon.

Other companies export products through the port including manganese, salt, copper and cattle. Iron ore is definitely the major resource, primarily exported, but today there were two local Australian ships in port (highly unusual).

After the tour I went down to the harbour to watch 4 tugs bring a huge 300,000 tonne bulk carrier into port – very impressive positioning. Some of the caravan drivers could take note of the precision, because I have seen some woeful attempts in that department.

This afternoon I stripped the armour from my riding gear and gave them another tub. Spoke to a number of other campers and caught up with a few that I met a week or so back, All in all a restful day, now for tomorrow.

Day 48 – Thu, 26 Aug to Port Hedland

2010-08-26T23:03:00.001+10:00

I posted Day 47 earlier today.

I went to bed early last night and the wind was blowing a little, with the rustle of the trees and the sounds of the night I had a great night sleep. I woke early and watched the sun rise as I had breakfast. That was the end of the pleasant morning at Pardoo Station.

Pardoo Station is around 500,000 acres and runs about 6,000 Santa Gertrudis cattle. I believe the camp also house local mining staff or contractors in the donga type accommodation.

The grounds were devoid of grass, except the communal areas, and the wind strengthened and the dust blew and I decided I would hit the road. I was going to take a trip down to the beach (at least another 5km ride) then a walk. The dust was up so I thought, nope lets get back on the road.

So basically I missed the coast from Broome down to Port Hedland – I did cross the De Grey River which was one of the original stations in the area, originally including Pardoo Station.

Pardoo Station had been recommended and I was let down – I guess actuality didn't meet expectations. I should have stopped in at 80 Mile Beach, but I was speaking with a women at Port Hedland camp site and she said the wind had been bad there as well.

So a bit disappointing, so I’ll have to come back another time – maybe even get Robyn up here to see the things that I haven’t seen – what a great idea John..lol..

I found the Cooke Point Camp Ground a little expensive, but I have since learnt that all accommodation in PH is expensive. Even a backpacker type accommodation is over $100 a night so my $32 for a camp site is cheap even though it is the dearest on the trip so far. I understand that miners are paying somewhere in the vicinity of $1,000-$2,000 a week for housing.

I had a look around town and the port. For those who don’t know about PH, it is the major port for the export of iron ore for BHP Billiton and salt for Rio Tinto. The mines are predominantly around Newman to the SE and trains up to 3.5km long bring the ore into the port for export – around 100 million tonnes a year. BHP is planning to expand the port to double the number of ships it can load – currently 4 at a time in excess of 330,000 tonnes each.

The hwy runs to the N with the rail and industry to the E and the housing to the W (closer to the coast). The camp ground is located in the newer part of the residential housing area, where I understand fairly modern, metal clad housing is priced over the $1.5m mark – so much land, so high prices!

Tonight I headed down to the beach to watch the Stairway to the Moon phenomenon. At low tide and on the rise of the full moon, it creates an appearance over the low water pools of a stairway to, you guessed it, the moon. Really lovely to watch, a pity the camera wasn’t good enough to really capture it and a tripod would have helped.

I’ll be staying for another night, so until then stay warm there in old Sydney town.

Day 47 – Wed, 25 Aug to Pardoo Station

2010-08-26T15:15:00.001+10:00

Today was another transit day. In the end I travelled a little over 500km from Broome towards Port Hedland arriving at Pardoo Station a little after 4pm.

The morning started as usual, but I had an early wake up call from Gary. He had tried a number of times over the period I have been away and today he made sure he was successful. No, I was awake, well almost when the call came in at 6am. It is good to here from people back home as it keeps you in touch with the real world and not this one of constant holiday – oh blow it bring on more holidays, who am I trying to kid.

I headed down to Cable Beach for a last look and then headed off. It is about 35km E back up the Broome Road to meet the intersection of the Savannah Way and the Great Northern Hwy.

This is the last time I’ll see the Savannah Way the route that has brought me most of the way from Cairns to Broome. I left it in parts, you know those nasty 4WD sections that include lots of gravel and creek crossings.

I am now well and truly heading S. The landscape quickly became open grasslands, alternating to low trees and then scrub. To my E is the Great Sandy Desert which I have been driving down all day.

I have now left the Kimberley region (sorry about that Kimmy) and have entered the Pilbara. It was a long day of riding with a slightly gusting wind coming at me from the SE making it a little tricky throughout the day. I had morning tea and then lunch and at all times there is always someone who approaches me to talk about the bike and the trip. I guess it is a little different for them as well.

At the last stop, Pardoo Roadhouse I met Lizzy, from Cronulla who is riding around Australia (clockwise) fulfilling her dream to do this before she is 50. She said there has been 3 other bikers that she has met doing the same thing and now she has met me, another fulfilling his dream but before 60.

Lizzy is riding a F650GS and she came off crossing the Nullarbor, literally being blown off the road by a road train. The benefits of the larger & heavier R1200GSA which I am riding. To date I have had no problems passing road trains going in either direction.

So tonight I am some 13km on a gravel road in from the Hwy at a cattle station, that also operates a caravan and camping area. I’ll check this out tomorrow. Until then take care.

What a contrast to the beginning of the day and the sunsets of the past couple of days.

Day 46 – Tue, 24 Aug at Broome

2010-08-24T22:13:00.001+10:00

I stayed another day to see the town, so it was a sleep in and I even had a bit of a read before rising – one of those decadent moments.

I caught the bus into the town centre – they run every 1/2 hour in season and every hour at other times between Cable Beach and the Town Centre. A good service actually with a fixed fare and various discount methods, where you can buy multi fares if you were here for a longer stay.

I saw a bit more of the surrounding area – the newer areas – and there is quite a lot of development. I was told that there was something like 60,000 beds and about 7 caravan parks available, and in season this is still not enough. I understand things are starting to slow, as the temperatures rise the southerners start to head S.

It would appear that the town centre has been maintained in the low rise, corrugated metal structures to maintain a feel for the place. I had a hair cut, walked around, had a coffee and fantastic apple pie & ice cream (the day’s special) at one of the many cafes – no Zantac required.

Broome was and is the hub of the pearling industry, so there are lots of quality pearl dealers, nice prices too. I checked out an interesting display of the old pearl luggers (there were once 100’s operating) that plied the area from the 1890’s through to the mid- 20th century. Displays of the old diving equipment, the round copper bell helmet and rubber suits – the Japanese were key divers in the area.

Dampier Creek is behind the display on the edge of China Town. The Roebuck Bay Hotel is across the road and this is shown in the story board at the lugger display – water can still come through the mangroves to the doorstep of the display at high tide. The hotel, locally know as the Roey is still operating just across the road from the luggers.

The coast is just behind those mangroves and I am standing on the lugger display on the edge of China Town.

Cyclones would occasionally destroy the fleet, in the worst case something like 40 odd luggers were lost along with 140 odd men, as I recall this was in the 1930’s and it was not an isolated case.

Another fabulous feature was the original Sun Cinema. This is an open air “picture show” and still operates with deck chairs, half in the open and the remainder in the shed. There is also the usual cinema complex in town. but this historic landmark is open during the day for visitors to see, and runs a number of features on selected nights - some marvellous memorabilia.

So all in all it was a relaxing and gastronomically pleasing time. I then headed back to the beach where I read underneath a palm tree in the shade on the grass. Spoke to Robyn and my daughter Katie, nice to catch up with Kate as she phoned on her way home from work.

I headed back to camp, got the bike out and headed into town to fuel up and restock the pantry – oh the pressures of all these housekeeping duties. I find it a bit disconcerting putting on all my bike gear and protective clothing, as I must be a real pussy..lol..

You see up here (as is probably the case in a lot of holiday areas around the country) there are those that obviously have far tougher skin and bones than I. They are riding around on these hire scooters with the standard safety equipment – which usually comprise board shorts, t-shirt (or singlet) and thongs. Oh they do have their helmets on but I sometimes wonder why given the other safety equipment that they are wearing – a baseball cap would be more in keeping with the overall attire.

Day 45 – Mon, 23 Aug to Broome

2010-08-23T23:39:00.001+10:00

Yesterday I had a couple of unusual caravans arrive and park next to my tent – talk about one extreme to another. The two couples had just returned from sailing the King Sound for the past 3 months – they were from Fremantle and not sure where they will head next, maybe Bali. You meet all types out here.

I headed out and 5km from Derby is the Prison Boab Tree – note the change of spelling. Here in the W they use the spelling Boab which is different from NT where they use the South African term, Baobab. Anyway, this tree was used for holding prisoners prior to the construction of the Derby Gaol. Like a lot of older Boab trees they can finish hollow inside – they soak up the rain, can even expand in the wet and hold the water in their fibrous flesh. They can withstand fire, with the outer skin simply peeling away. Because they don’t have growth rings then they are difficult to age, but many are considered to be over 1,000 years old. The Prison Boab Tree is a fabulous example.

At the same location was the long cattle trough that was supplied water from a bore, for watering the cattle and bullocks after a long drive before heading into Derby to be exported. The concrete trough was build around 1910 and could accommodate over 500 head at a single time.

The trip now took me S and then further W to Broome. It was only a short 250km ride today, but along the way I crossed a bridge with an amazing lagoon beneath. The place was full of white cockatoos and the water had at least 5 fresh water crocs that I could see.

I headed into Broome and this place is totally different to anything I had imagined. Either side of the road there is scrubby land, and the odd building or enterprise is hidden in behind. The deep red soil is everywhere and the airport separates the Town Centre from Cable Beach which is to the NW.

As I said the scrub comes right into the town, and there are golf courses and resorts in behind. The marsh land is behind the town and the town centre comprises basically single story corrugated steel buildings – as I said totally unexpected.

The newer developments are using more conventional building materials, and the resorts around Cable Beach are the usual style. I am camped at a caravan park about 1km walk to Cable Beach.

After a ride around town to get the lay of the land, I walked down to the beach for my first Indian Ocean swim – well near enough anyway. The turquoise water with the white sand and a backdrop of red earth is beautiful. I waited for sunset – watched the sun disappear into the ocean had some dinner and now I’m in the tent.

The temperature has again been in the mid 30C but the humidity here is considerably higher, making it a little uncomfortable. The past 4-5 nights I have slept only in the mesh tent without a fly, so I have been able to watch the night sky. But with the increased humidity, the nights can become a little moist so I am back to having the fly on the tent – a pity really.

Day 44 – Sun, 22 Aug at Derby

2010-08-22T22:54:00.001+10:00

I was awoken by an early telephone call – Robyn thought that she would ring me before she got out of bed this morning - which was lovely as it was 7:30 in Sydney, but she forgot that it was only 5:30 in Derby. We both laughed as I was awake, but she had totally forgotten about the time differences. Not much later Jon rings from the BMW riders group for a chat – it was really nice to hear from everyone, as it is not often that I have mobile coverage.

As I wasn’t moving on today I thought I would take it easy over breakfast and then do a short ride to look around Derby. So before the day got too hot, I donned the riding gear and took a tour.

First up was out onto the jetty which sits in the muddy water of the bay. The tide was on its way in with a high of 9 odd metres due at lunch time. They can get tides exceeding 11m here, some of the biggest in the world. The town is surrounded on two sides by mud flats that can obviously be covered with water in the truly high tides – not so today.

After that a short ride around town and I finished at the Old Derby Gaol. What a depressing place this turned out to be and a real blight on our history. To see a place that was used to hold the aborigines, sometimes for a couple of days and at other times for months, was utterly abhorrent.

You see, this Gaol commenced operations in 1906 but didn’t close until 1975 – I was 25 years old at that time and Australia was supposed to be an inclusive society long before that, I guess we only had gotten rid of the White Australian Policy a number of years before hand.

Initially the police were used to deal with the “problem blacks” in the early pastoral days. But then they were used to deal with Australia’s aboriginal solution – the lost generation as it is now known. The Gaol was no more then a concrete floor, with corrugated iron roofing and rear wall, and bars around the rest. No sanitation, prisoners with collar shackles chained to the floor.

So this was a shock but the story boards told the history from the various perspectives. The communities still have strong feelings for this significant place, which is now a part of the national trust – and so it should be. I know we have just had an election, but are we doing the same thing in a more “humane” way with the boat people that are arriving. Makes you think about what we are actually being told by the governments of the day.

Sorry about that but as you can see it really affected me. I moved onto coffee at a local cafe where I spoke with a miner heading out to the Kimberley Diamond Mine (about 110km up the Gibb River Rd) to start a 13 day shift at the mine.

This afternoon was a rest period, sitting in the shade of the tree at my camp, catching up on some forward planning. Oh I had been to Woolworths and bought some steak for tonight which I had with Leo & Marika from SA. They have been travelling now for about 2 months, have had some Nissan engine trouble, but they also enjoy prospecting for gold and fishing. Lovely people who shared their wine and time with a fellow traveller.

So I watched the sunset, enjoyed the company of others and generally finished in a happier mood then this morning. Tomorrow I head out to see what more this fabulous country of ours has to offer. Be kind, empathetic and thoughtful to your fellow man - it isn’t that hard.

Day 43 – Sat, 21 Aug to Derby

2010-08-21T21:58:00.001+10:00

Posted days 42 & 43 today, I hope you enjoy these posts as much as I have in experiencing and writing them. Let me know what you think, it is great to get feedback.

Well what a big day, I reached the West Coast (well all but), I find out that my newest grandson was actually born on the 17th Aug and not on the 18th, the day I received the text, my Worthington BMW riders group of friends are off on a 2 day ride to Kangaroo Valley, and the Federal Election took place – so much happening…lol.

As you can tell by the title, I am in Derby tonight – and well maybe tomorrow as well. I camped last night at Mary Pool, on the Mary River, there were no showers so when I arrived today I was looking forward to a shower after 2 days of riding in 36C temperatures.

I was up early, again, and packed and then sat by the river and had breakfast – what a simply fabulous way to start the day. The birds singing, the cattle mooing, the breakfast yummy and well I have run out of words ending in “y” and “ing”.

So I hit the road at 7:30am and it was a little cooler this morning – only 25C but it would progressively climb to the 36C by mid morning. I thought I was riding on a plain, but by about 50km W I descended through a pass and left behind the plateau (which I had been on for the past 2 days) and then entered a plain – will this continue or will I drop lower again later. Simply amazing.

The landscape varied from sparse trees to wooded plains. and back again – all very dry with the rivers being sand and gravel beds but with ominous signs indicating water above the roads exceeding 2m. It would be amazing to see this place in the wet, rather than the dry, but it would definitely not be on the motorbike.

I continued onto Fitzroy Crossing – basically an aboriginal community with a white population as well. This had some lovely green grass community areas. It is amazing that with all the dry around, the dry grass and scrub lands the sporting fields, and in FC the community areas, were a lush green colour – no water restrictions in these places.

The road further W became straighter, with km after km of straight roads. There were some roadworks where I travelled about 10km on a purpose built gravel detour whilst the main road was being rebuilt.

I reached the end of the Great Northern Hwy, some 43km S of Derby where I then headed N on the Derby Hwy into Derby itself. I checked into the caravan park, setup camp, showered and I hit the town by 3:30pm. Well hit the town was walking down deserted streets. I will check this out more tomorrow, but having had little to eat, I headed for the pub where I met a miner from down S who was heading for the E. We shared a few drinks, discussed the state of the job market in WA and generally I was vegging out.

I am now writing this blog back at the camp site, a lovely neighbour just gave me a couple of chocolate muffins to have with my cuppa and after 440km I am sitting on the west coast – which means I’ll be heading S from this point on – well maybe a little further W.

Another great day’s riding, made easier by my MP3 player in the GPS. You see I have loaded 100’s of Richard Fidler’s Conversation Hour from the Local ABC web site. What a simply fantastic programme. Not all are to my taste, so I skip those, but so many just seem to be right on the money.

Today I listened to a conversation with Charlie King, an ABC Sports broadcaster in the NT, who had an aboriginal mother and an Irish father, who also is an advocate for the aboriginal community, so appropriate for the areas that I was travelling through. Also Clyde Thomson who is director of the NSW, VIC and TAS Royal Flying Doctor Service, his life and the service – again so appropriate. These were just 2 of the ones I have listened to over the weeks – if you don’t listen to them then check out the podcasts they are extremely enlightening.

Day 42 – Fri, 20 Aug to Mary Pool Campground

2010-08-21T21:54:00.001+10:00

As expected another 4am awakening and rising at 5:30. Bird life everywhere, the early rise is a blessing actually as by the time I was on the road at 7:30 it was 35.5C

Anyway I broke camp, had breakfast in the camp kitchen, had a short walk around the lagoon to see some of the birdlife then hit the road. Today was expected to be a transit day.

As I said yesterday, I rode to Wyndham which is the most northerly town in WA. In fact I road to the end of the bitumen on the Great Northern Hwy, which I now should be on until I hit the W coast.

So I headed back out S along terrific countryside with the river plains between the ranges. I stopped in at the Grotto, a pool formed in a ravine formed by a waterfall which only flows in the wet season.

I turned right at the intersection with the Victoria Hwy and continued S on the Great Northern Hwy. This Hwy ran through the Carr Boyd Ranges which forms the backdrop of Lake Argyle and the road continues down the W side of the Bungle Bungles, where I had flown over only a few days ago.

I passed the entrance to the Argyle Diamond Mine, but you would never know where this was except that I saw the mine site on the map. I guess they don’t want to advertise their access road for security reasons – who knows.

This terrain continued through to Warmun (a closed aboriginal community) with the Turkey Creek Roadhouse where I fuelled the bike and continued on. I stopped for an early lunch a little further S before entering Halls Creek for another refuelling stop - I just wanted to top the tank off.

Halls Creek was a larger town, but all the houses and facilities have cyclone wire fences, usually topped with barbed wire. I guess they have some problems. I was thinking of calling it a day but it was still early so I pressed on to my original destination at Mary River.

On leaving Halls Creek the terrain became flatter (well less escarpments), the vegetation became more sparse and the earth redder. The temperature stayed around 36C for most of the day. It was hot and dry riding. The road was excellent, part of the National Hwy 1, with lots of upgraded sections.

As the vegetation was becoming more sparse and the earth more exposed I was beginning to worry about my choice of camp site for the night. If it turned out to be a rough earth site then the next town was Fitzroy Crossing some 180km further E and this would mean me riding through to after 5pm – not a decision I wanted to take as I like to be off the road well before 4pm to avoid the wildlife – Skippy and his friends.

I turned into the Mary Pool Campground (free camping – toilets but no showers) and it was worth the extra travel from Halls Creek. The river is almost empty although I did sight one fresh water croc. I selected a site and a chap, Peter walked over from a 5th wheeler and suggested a better grassier spot near the bank – don’t worry the water is some 50m away.

I got to chatting with Peter and his wife Sandy, they are from Castle Hill and still returning from the Ulysses AGM in Albany last March. Their Harleys are in the back of the specially built 5th wheeler and they are just taking their time returning home. It took them 2 months to get from Albany to Perth after the AGM. They still have a way to go.

I rode about 480km today, a little tyring given the heat, so I have had dinner, finishing this blog in the fading light and will be saying good night very soon.

Day 41 – Thu, 19 Aug to Wyndham

2010-08-19T21:11:00.001+10:00

Earlier today I posted Days 39 & 40 so catch up on those before reading this blog post.

I was in a blissful sleep when I heard this wonderful sounding music – I woke and it was still carrying through the morning darkness. It was a bird, it was fabulous, but bloody early – it was 4am. I managed to doze until 5:30 at which time I rose and started to break camp.

I thought this would be a good idea, to do it in the cool of the morning. I had the tent down and the bike packed and then had breakfast. A family group setup camp beside me last night, and they are doing the rough roads together – mum, dad and 20 something daughters and son. All travelling light and all in a Toyota Hi-Lux. I suggested it may be a bit squeezie but they were having a ball. I did have to ask which one was raising the tent walls with their snoring, and it was the son.

I rode out of Lake Argyle around 7am and the temperature was already in the high 20’s – I think we are in for a warm day. Into Kununurra to restock – 8am at the local Coles store and there were plenty of people around. I said goodbye to Dave, another BMW GS rider doing a trip from Urunga (near Coffs) as he was heading for Halls Creek.

I headed for the town lookout to get a perspective – Kelly Knob – and saw some of the irrigated areas, and the black soils of the region. Met and talked with an SBS crew filming for a co-production with the BBC, on a female Scottish doctor working in the local aboriginal health centre.

Then I headed further W then N to Wyndham, being the most northerly town in WA. So it is all downhill to Perth from here. Well Wyndham is nothing to write home about. An old port town which is well past its best. The town of Kununurra, a little over 100km away is now the main regional town.

What Wyndham does have is the Bastion Lookout which overlooks the junction of the 5 rivers – the King, the Durack, the Pentecost, the Forrest and the Ord all joined by the Cambridge Gulf. The Bastion separates all these from the Ord and overlooks the Wyndham Port. The flood plains are enormous, surrounded by high escarpments.

The sign I did see was that we were All Clear for Cyclones – a good thing to see in the dry season. So I had lunch at the lookout and a number of other visitors came and went. I was approached by a Frenchman who could not speak English, and I can’t speak French. But we managed for about 10 minutes, and he has the same bike back in France – but without ESA. A few minutes later he came back with his daughter (who is residing in Oz for a while) and she acted as translator and we then spoke for at least 40 minutes. He was interested in all aspects of riding in Oz, and he was real surprised to find that the nearest BMW dealers were Darwin or Perth. Back home people don’t want to travel any further then about 60km to their service – so he was real interested in road side assist.

This was a treat for me and also I truly believe for him. We parted, but then he was back again about 10 minutes later and we found the translator again.

Today I am camped about 10km S from Wyndham town, in a camp site beside a lagoon where the bird life is allegedly amazing. Nothing seen yet, maybe tomorrow morning – probably another early rise. There was the local goanna grazing in the grass next to a huge Boa Baobab tree.

Oh by the way the riding temperatures were high today, generally in the high 30’s, often hovering around 39C. As I rode up to the the Bastion Lookout it reached 41C. It is however surprising comfortable whilst on the move, but when you stop you feel the heat immensely.

Day 40 – Wed, 18 Aug at Lake Argyle

2010-08-19T18:21:00.001+10:00

I haven’t adjusted to WA time – the sun rises still the same as in the NT but it is 1 and 1/2 hours earlier. So the sun sets earlier and rises at an ungodly hour. By 7 am it was quite warm, actually hot. Hopefully it will get better as I head further W.

I decided to stay another day here at Lake Argyle so the morning was just hanging out, a bit more swimming, followed by lunch and then the real reason. I was taking a flight by float plane from Lake Argyle across to the Bungle Bungles (to the E) back over the Argyle Diamond Mine and back to the Lake again. About 3 hours in all including a landing on the Lake to visit a deserted island and have afternoon tea.

What a day, but the big news is that I am a grandfather again. Kelly had a boy at around 10:30 this morning, Benjamin James and I received text messages. Well not exactly, you see at Lake Argyle there is no Telstra mobile service. I was flying above the Kimberleys returning from the Bungle Bungles when I decided to check what time it was – I use my mobile as a watch.

I noticed that I had a couple of text messages and that I had service. Reading the messages I was told I have another grandson, 3.68kg (8lb 8oz in old money) and everyone is healthy. Congratulations to Kelly and Andrew, and Benjamin’s three sisters, Kimmy, Nessa & Sammy.

I shared the news with the rest of the people on the plane (8 of us), even the photo that I had received. The news was really a highlight, but the awesome landscape below, just so vast, couldn’t be missed.

Look I know you read things and see documentaries, but to experience it first hand is just exceptional. This truly is a bloody big country, and simply mind blowing.

The people who live and work here on the remote cattle stations and the mines, are just exceptional human beings. The remoteness of the area is incredible. If you ever have the chance just come and see it for yourself, you will not be disappointed.

Remember, you can click on any photo to enlarge it, I am not a particularly good photographer from the air it takes someone with more skill then I, but I hope you get a feel for this incredible landscape.

At the S part of the Lake fires are still creating a smoke haze visible in the last photo as we said goodbye to our float plane and Adam our 28 year old pilot. This service has only been operating for 4 weeks, even though he has been flying in the region for the past 5 odd years. He and and his partner, and their respective personal partners have started this business with some financial support from a 40 something entrepreneur. I wish them all the success for our flight was informative and enjoyable.

Oh by the way, the take off and landings were a real highlight, the first time I have ever done this in a float plane. So smooth – not sure I would want to do it in rough water though.

Day 39 – Tue, 17 Aug to Lake Argyle, WA

2010-08-19T18:10:00.001+10:00

This morning I woke well before dawn and I rose and sat with a cuppa as the day broke over the creek to my E. The bird concerto in the trees and above the creek was simply amazing, but as the light increased they then quietened and the air became warmer.

I headed further W today, crossed the Victoria River and not long out of Timber Creek I found the history of the naming of Gregory NP.

As expected Gregory was an expedition leader in the 1855 leaving Morton Bay and eventually had a camp in the area on the Victoria River. They spent many weeks in the area before leaving a note carved into a local Baobab tree with date and details of where to find their planned route in case they perished before arriving home.

This expedition basically put paid to the notion that there would be a great inland sea and was instrumental in opening the area up for grazing.

The landscape changed again as we ran along and through the Pinkerton Range. The Baobab trees were becoming more common, and I had never knew the size and the shapes that they can get, extremely interesting, and I couldn’t help but look out for the next one. I couldn’t always photograph them as it was not always possible to stop in a safe place to do so.

I stopped at a rest stop for morning tea and met a wonderful couple, driving a truck towing an A-Van camper – he (also a bike rider) was actually delivering the truck to a station further W and his car was being carried by the truck and they were going to have a touring holiday on the way home.

No sooner had I left them I reached the border where I met up with four riders from Victoria doing a circuit as well – 2xBMW & 2xVStroms. We had a brief chat and then crossed into WA passing through an agricultural check point. I then entered the Kimberley Region – one of my many granddaughters has been eagerly waiting for me to reach this region - you guessed it, her name is Kimberley. Kimmy I am here my darling.

Just over the border you turn off and head S into Lake Argyle – well what a wonderful experience this is. The Lake is the consequence of the damming of the Ord River – which has created a lake some 12 times (at the moment and it is only 1/3 full) of Sydney Harbour, and is the basis for the regions development. When the Dam was finished after 3 years of construction in 1972, they expected it to reach its current level over a 3 year period. It reached it in 3 months – someone got their maths wrong. It will rise 15m over an enormous area creating a lake some 72 x the size of Sydney Harbour – simply massive.

The deep blue of the water surrounded by the red rocky mountains is just an amazing sight (there was some smoke haze around). I was going to proceed on but after doing some sightseeing of the dam, having lunch in a park maybe 100m downstream from the wall, I decided to camp for the night.

What a fabulous decision as the camp ground is terrific with a pool overlooking the lake – a view worth a million+ dollars and I was only paying $12.50 for the night to have this privilege.

I met a couple & their 3 children from my stay at Mataranka. Another group, Peter a cattle ringer, his wife Ann and 18 year old son from Barcaldine who just wanted to talk and share their trips. Peter & I sat with a cold ale whilst we watched the sun set over the Lake.

This has been simply a long (the clock went back another 1 & 1/2 hours today) and truly inspiring day – far beyond my expectations.

Day 38 – Mon, 16 Aug to Timber Creek

2010-08-16T19:39:00.004+10:00

Today I have posted Days 37 & 38.

The sun and the swimming does wonders for me. I started my new book – Desperado by Joseph O’Conner and Irish writer – only to read to about 7:30 – I was in my tent rather then be attacked by the insect population – and well, I simply was too tired to read on. So lights out and surfaced about 6:15am – wow.

So I broke camp and headed S to Katherine. Objective to get another camera. I pulled into the local Woolworths and found a Country Target where I bought my camera. I also managed to do my civic duty by voting – this is the way all elections should be, be on holidays when they call it, miss all the campaigning and then vote early.

After restocking the pantry, I hit the road. I am now heading W on the Victoria Hwy towards WA. The countryside is similar to that which I have been experiencing, low woodlands. This Hwy is again part of the Savannah Way which I started on, way back in Cairns and will eventually take me all the way to Broome. How amazing is the colour of the soil, especially when it is cut by a road work crew – a deep dark red.

After about 110km W of Katherine the landscape began to change. I was approaching escarpments, which I know have been cut by the mighty Victoria River. But it changed the outlook and the road. The savannah type vegetation continued, but the topography was more striking with the ranges now full on.

I entered the Gregory NP which the Hwy passes through. This park sits at the transitional zone between the tropical and semi arid regions. Not a lot of wildlife, not even birds, maybe it was just too hot – it reached 38C on the road today.

I stopped at the Victoria River Roadhouse for a cold ice tea and pressed onto Timber Creek where I am camped tonight. In all about 380km for the day.

Timber Creek is a small town a little over half way to the WA border. It is near the Victoria River which eventually empties into the sea SW of Darwin. The creek behind the campground has fresh water crocs swimming in it and at 5pm they feed them from a small bridge that crosses the creek.

At present I am sitting having a cuppa in the cool of the evening. Dinner is finished and there are a number of campers and vans around me. It is amazingly calm, and I just can’t believe how much I am enjoying this trip. The camping is wonderful, you meet so many different people, not only grey nomads, but young families and overseas travellers. I guess I enjoy the contact with these latter groups the most.

People say that I am doing it tough on the motorbike, but how wrong they are. It is simply wonderful. The ones who are doing it tough are those on the push bikes. I was talking to a guy, about my age, this afternoon, and he is riding from Mt Garnet – which is just S of Atherton, QLD and is riding his bicycle to Broome, taking about 2 months. He chose this way because he gets the prevailing E winds – now he can have that on his own.

Day 37 – Sun, 15 Aug to Edith Falls (Leliyn)

2010-08-16T19:37:00.001+10:00

After the luxury of last night – well what passes for luxury in Pine Creek - it was a relatively slow start to the day although I was on the road at 9am.

Not sure what today would bring, but I thought I would check out Edith Falls (about 40km N of Katherine and 20km E of the Stuart Hwy) then head into Katherine for the night. The ride was short, only about 70km and when I arrived I thought, this will do me.

The camp sites were grassed – not a bad starting point – and the falls had a large pool for swimming. A cafe on site and pleasant surroundings.

The Edith Falls are on the Edith River (that could be a trick question) on the NW part of the same NP as that of Katherine Gorge. I setup camp and did my washing – great little housekeeper – and then headed for the pool.

It was enormous, possibly 3-4 times the size of the Wangi Falls pool, the falls were rather insignificant but the water flowed in so it was clear and cool. I guess the air temperature is around 35+C today, feels a lot more, but the pool water was on the cool side – cooler (some would say colder) then the water at Wangi Falls. From the shore to the actual Falls was a swim of about 150m, the length of the pool was possibly 2-3X that.

A local – a Territorian as they refer to themselves – said this was “too cold, you see we don’t swim in the dry season, too cold for us”.

The afternoon was spent swimming (the water clarity was amazing) – and yeah I did swim across to the Falls - and talking to others around the plunge pool. I even got myself a new book to read – oh I haven’t told you that one have I?

You see whilst in Darwin I picked up a couple of books from the backpackers book exchange (you put your read ones in and exchange for another one) – obviously you have to take what is there. I got an old Jack Higgins book and another by Clive Cussler – didn’t really look to hard at them just went with the authors.

Last night I finished my 4th book for the trip, the Jack Higgins novel. I took the Clive Cussler to the pub for dinner, just in case I felt like starting it. When I opened it I thought what the …., it was in Dutch – I think.

So today I found a couple who have a read book and I am swapping my Jack Higgins novel – not sure what the new one will be but that is part of the adventure.

So for now think of me sitting in the warmth with you guys suffering in the cold and having to endue the election campaign. Enjoy, because know that I am!

(PS. all these photos were from my low res mobile phone)

Day 36 – Sat, 14 Aug to Pine Creek

2010-08-14T17:36:00.001+10:00

I am back in internet range so I have posted days 34, 35 and 36 today so check these out first.

Well after I wrote the blog post last night I headed back down to the pool for a late evening swim – yeah just rubbing it in again. This morning I woke at 6am and headed out for a walk before breakfast, sunrise up here is not until around 7 so it was still quite dark.

I headed down to the pool to watch the sunrise over the falls and decided to do the circuit walk up one side, across the back of the top and down the other. Not what I had planned as I was in thongs rather then good walking shoes, but hey I was there and the moment took me away.

The flying foxes that had taken off the night before, filling the sky above were now heading back for the day. They hung from the trees to the S of the pool and it is amazing the amount of talking that goes on between them. They must be a real social group with the numbers in any given tree and the thousands in the trees overhead.

I headed up the path, saw what I thought were small frogs, but then maybe they were small cane toads – too difficult in the light. A sign said that if you are walking in the early hours of the morning look for the beautiful orb spider, the large female and the small males. The webs could be across the track.

Well not more then a metre up the track and there was one, I cleared the path of the web but I know by the time I returned I was pulling webs from my head and body – I was that day’s track web cleaner. I had visions of spiders all over me.

So the walk took about one and half hours and climbed to a platform that overlooks the W part of the park. At the top, the Tabletop Plateau, the vegetation was more stunted trees and open grass, quite different from the palm and heavily clustered growth around the creek and pools below the falls.

The return trip on the N part of the pool was a downhill, steep descent across many roughly made steps. This played havoc with my L knee. This was soon soothed by a swim in the Wangi Falls pool again. It was bliss, I was the only person there so I had the whole pool to myself – just serene.

After breakfast and breaking camp I made a straight trip back to the Stuart Hwy and headed S. Passed through Adelaide River, and then took a slight detour (about 65km) through the ranges and some twistie road before rejoining the Stuart Hwy further S. I had been riding for over 2 hours covering a little over 250km when I arrived in Pine Creek (where the S entrance to Kakadu meets the Stuart Hwy).

This is an old mining and railway town – much bigger then I first thought. So I had morning tea, the temperature was high (it was 35C when I had left Wangi Falls at 10:30), and I thought who needs to be riding today, so I booked into the Pine Creek Motel (what a luxury), part of the Hotel complex. So this afternoon I am having a cold ale (first one for almost a week – well maybe 4 odd days) and sitting in the cool of the outdoor beer garden writing this blog.

Oh I only have photos from this morning around the Wangi Falls walk, at breakfast I sat on my camera and broke the electronics, so I’ll have to see whether I can get another camera in Katherine.

Day 35 – Fri, 13 Aug to Wangi Falls, Litchfield NP

2010-08-14T17:29:00.001+10:00

A wonderful night sleep and an early rise this morning, had breakfast with an English couple (Peter & Barbara) doing a week’s holiday in a rental car and a 4 man tent – backpacking by car they called it.

Today I headed back into Litchfield NP with the hope that the fires were gone. Well there were signs of the fires close to the road but the road was open. Nothing like the fires that Sydney experiences, nor I guess which would occur in the really dry season up here. The overnight was cool (well could even say on the cold side) and I guess the fire simply ran its course and extinguished itself. There was still some smoke around but little to be of any consequence.

I passed by the Termite Mounds of yesterday and the first stop was Buley Rockhole just for a look as I had only travelled about 30km and I wasn’t getting out of my bike gear for a plunge.

Great spot though with water cascading down over rocky slopes into pools and continuing on down the next slope, etc. There were a few teenagers (well 20 something's) jumping off higher rocks into one of the pools. Great starting point, but lets press on.

Next up were the Tolmer Falls – this was only a short 400m walk to view the falls but also with incredible vistas across the Park. Absolutely stunning – the falls dropping well over 70-80m with rock archways and passages being formed over the thousands of years (well maybe the millennia). It was hard to leave actually, as the place had that really special feel, with the viewing platform possibly 100+m above tall palms growing by the waters edge below, and the countryside opening out far beyond. I had morning tea and pushed on as I wanted to see the popular spot – Wangi Falls.

I arrived and decided to stay the night in the NP campground just above the falls. The sites were a little rough but I managed to find a spot that was suitable, within easy walk to picnic tables and barbeque areas where I am presently sitting writing this post.

I could hear the falls but couldn’t see them, So I got the hot work out of the way and setup camp. I then took lunch and my book to spend the afternoon down at the falls. Well what can I say – I am out of adjectives – maybe stupendous, oh what the heck just look at the photo.

What a place, huge spring fed falls, maybe 80-90m tall falling into a huge plunge pool maybe 40-50m across, if not more. During the wet season the falls become a raging flow, but the falls are presently fed by spring water. Signs say fresh water crocs may exist, and during the wet season estuarine crocs (salties) may come in by the flooded creeks. But not today.

I was down there just after noon and spent some 3-4 hours around the pool. First up a swim in the refreshingly clean cool fresh water, only about three other guys in the pool when I first entered. But during the day the numbers increased and this will be a popular spot during any day, especially on weekends. I can see why the Darwinians love this place more than Kakadu.

After my swim I had lunch, read for awhile then another swim and the story repeats itself. I was wondering what other people were doing in Sydney in the cold of winter whilst I enjoy the warmth (35+C) of the NT. Sorry guys but can’t help rubbing it in.

I am unsure what I’ll do tomorrow, whether to stay another night or head out. I’ll see how I feel in the morning and take it as it goes. Probably won’t be back here for sometime, if ever, so maybe I should just enjoy it. Until then, see yah.

Day 34 - Thu, 12 Aug to Litchfield Park

2010-08-14T17:22:00.001+10:00

I packed and said goodbye to Darwin. Last night after dinner I walked up town and did my shopping at Coles, so I was all ready for today. It was an easy day as planned – only 185km rather than the usual 500-600km of the past few riding days. It finished being easier then expected as I got part way into Litchfield NP and I was turned around (as was everyone) as there was a bushfire ahead and the road was closed.

More on that later, but this morning I took in Howard Springs – yes kids where we swam with the barramundi all those years ago. The pool was closed temporarily for restoration but it looked inviting. The springs were developed into a rest and swimming area during the war, trying to reduce the boredom and preventing the “men from going troppo”. Still lots of fish and turtles in the water to swim with.

Howard Springs was also one of the earlier water supplies for Darwin, until the Manton Dam was completed in 1942 which served Darwin until the Darwin River Dam (water storage 10x larger) was built which is now Darwin’s primary water source. The Manton Dam is still a backup water supply but is mainly used for recreation.

I drove into the the Manton Dam water reserve which is used for swimming, fishing, waterskiing, jet skiing, etc. Whilst there a ranger walked up and we had a chat – he said that he was heading out to check the traps. What traps I asked, and his reply was crocodile traps. Yep he said they have to set traps in case they get into the waterway as people swim here. The Darwin River Dam is full of crocodiles and being not too far away during the wet season crocs can travel from one dam to the other – hence the traps.

After that I headed onto Batchelor (just a quick fuel top-up) – looked to be a nice place, with quite a few QLD Govt offices (country style) a general store come post office, come take away, come fuel station. The attendant agreed with me that his town looked like a cool place to live.

I then headed towards Litchfield NP and got as far as the magnetic termite mounds. At this point local bush fire brigades and police had closed the road into the park – we are hoping it will be open tomorrow. I was chatting to the young female police officer and I asked her was she earlier doing random breathe tests at the turn around point. Yep she said with a smile, she recons that she might as well make her time spent there worthwhile.

Earlier, at the breath testing queue she told me I could continue when she was 3 cars ahead of my position. Later she said that she didn’t want me sitting in the hot sun in my bike gear – being a rider herself she new how hot it could get – so I recon she was okay.

Anyway the termite mounds were incredible. There were the normal termites that build towering homes, but in the lower plains the magnetic termites live. They don’t build their tunnels into the earth to maintain constant temperatures, so they align their mounds on a N-S orientation. Thus in the wet they don’t get their tunnels inundated with water, and they can move from the E to W side of their mounds to regulate the heat in their bodies – sneaky little mites aren’t they.

So I turned back at this point and travelled about 25km to the Litchfield Tourist & Van Park. What a great place as an alternative. Lots of grassed camp sites, a huge camp kitchen, with gas cookers, sinks, tables and chairs and a pool. At present I have this camp area to myself (and there are 3 other areas in the Park available), so not where I planned to be tonight, but really okay and hopefully into Litchfield and the falls tomorrow.

Day 33 – Wed, 11 Aug at Darwin

2010-08-11T17:15:00.001+10:00

Early morning rise as I had to be at the BMW dealer by 7:15am to ensure that I would be the first bike serviced. I didn’t want to be waiting all day for the bike.

I arrived and yep the gates don’t open to 8am and I am the only bike – they could have told me that yesterday. Oh, well the mechanic recommends that we fix the lower windscreen mount and re-attach the driving lights. He has a new GSA which he can get the parts from and then order in the relevant parts to replace his bike’s bits. So the parts are available for shipping to them so he cannibalises his bike – only a couple of parts.

On collection the service is done and he informs me that the whole windscreen support as well as the crash bars are going to need replacing. They are bent and he needed to use some persuasion to get things roughly in place. This will have to wait until I get back to Sydney as it is not worth hanging around to have it done here.

Rather than waiting around whilst the bike was done I headed over to the Australian Aviation Heritage Centre which was on the other side of the Stuart Hwy at the end of the RAAF base (I think). Well this was a real surprise and well worth the $12 entry fee.

First up was a brief history of the Japanese bombing of Darwin – I don’t know why but I thought there were only a couple of initial attacks, but it lasted for many years following the first attack in 1942.

Inside the hanger was an American B52 bomber – that’s right one of those massive strategic bombers (only one of two outside the USA). It is on permanent loan to the museum from a US museum. Scattered around underneath and beside this were various planes and artefacts from Australia’s military aviation past and photos and a great collection of interesting items.

Absolutely wonderful time spent there and reminded me of our visit to the Spruce Goose in Oregon, USA back in 2006 when Robyn and I stubbled across an aviation museum there – great places to see interesting things, and usually unexpected.

On collecting the bike I headed for a place where I could do a little more bike maintenance. I wanted to change the air pre-filter that I had installed before leaving. So I headed for Fannie Bay and parked in the shade with a cool breeze coming off the water (somewhere they call the East Point). I changed the pre-filter (not as bad as I would have thought given some of the riding conditions that I have been through) and checked the actual air filter (which was absolutely clean). So I put on a new pre-filter then cleaned the old one and re-oiled it in readiness for the next change. Great suggestion from Rick from the BMW riders group to install these filters from Unifilter (that’s the front section of the red pre-filter in the ice cream container before cleaning).

So now I am back in the room, oh I am at the Darwin YWCA, but they do allow men and the bathrooms on floors 1 & 3 are unisex, with women's only on floor 2. Lots of rooms, a pool, one large kitchen and a smaller kitchenette on each floor. In Mitchell Street (the heart of Darwin) but far enough away from the action to be fairly quiet.

So my riding gear is in the washing machine as I thought I should do this, as it was standing up by itself when I took the gear off. I’m off to the pool now then heading up town for a light meal. See you then.

Day 32 – Tue, 10 Aug to Darwin

2010-08-10T22:22:00.001+10:00

Time to get moving again, packed camp but still managed to fit it a talk with a couple before departing. They were a German couple (30 something) and they approached me to talk about the bike and the ride.

She was impressed with the water carriers on the bottom of my panniers – even took photos Gary tried to say they were patented.lol.. You see they were riding bikes as well. She was on a 400 (dirt) and he was on a Honda Transalp 650. They have been on the road for sometime – 2 and half years doing the Americas, shipped their bikes to NZ (didn’t say how long they were there) now doing a 12 month trip around Australia. They left Sydney, rode to Cape York then across the top on the Savannah Way (all the 4wd stuff including creek crossings).They don’t do big km days but just keep pushing on. I wish them well.

Today was a transit day to Darwin. I headed back to Mataranka and then N. Along the way stopped in at Catta Catta Caves for morning tea and learnt about the limestone caves and outcrops covering the whole northern region – hence the profusion of springs from this underground water network.

By lunch I was in Katherine so I took a 50km round trip detour out to the Katherine Gorge – just did a walk around and did some reading of the information boards. I have previously done the 3 gorges river trip.

Then back on the road again to Adelaide River where I took another detour to the war cemetery where those that were killed in the bombing of Darwin were laid to rest – both the servicemen and the private individuals (for example those working in the post office).

I arrived in Darwin and dropped into the BMW dealership to make sure that all was okay for my bike service in the morning. Well who should be there but my fall down mate, John – talk about great timing. He was just picking up his bike following the completion of the work from his crash. He was staying in Darwin for the night so he picked me up (in a car he had on loan) from my accommodation and we headed for the harbour where we just finished a great Greek seafood meal (far better than the camp meals).

Day 31 – Mon, 9 Aug at Mataranka Thermal Pool

2010-08-09T19:40:00.001+10:00

Today was similar to yesterday. Morning plunge, midday read then an afternoon plunge. Cleaned some of my gear, bike and general maintenance.

I had a few friends pass through the camp this morning, a couple of liar birds – I just caught it with the camera as it was entering another camp.. This afternoon a number of wallabies graced me with their presence. Really cool.

Anyway, the knee really has responded to the rest and the water. It still is a little stiff and restricted but far better than when I arrived here on Saturday.

The Mataranka Homestead where I have been based is the site of the original homestead that figured in the book, and subsequently the movie “We of the Never, Never”. The replica of the homestead that was used in the movie has been located here and is open for public viewing. The movie can be run (only if you request the staff to do so as they have seen it so often) in the bar area – I have seen a number of scenes but not the whole movie. Just another interesting facet of this place.

Day 30 – Sun, 8 Aug at Mataranka Thermal Pool

2010-08-08T20:19:00.001+10:00

Well today was a complete break. Didn’t get out of bed early, read my book then wandered down to the thermal pool soaked, even read my book some more.

Somehow I fitted lunch in at the cafe, booked my accommodation for Darwin, decided to stay here another night and now writing my blog and about to finish my book – well maybe.

Yep, just what a lazy Sunday should be. Oh I did manage to squeeze in a late afternoon soak in the pool. I did give my left leg a workout in the water – more of the same tomorrow I suspect.

Oh by the way the pool is supplied with a flow of 30.5million litres of fresh water (34C) per day. Unbelievable!!!!

The water flows over rocks at the end of the pool down a small stream and into the Waterhouse River that feeds the Roper River. There are fresh water crocs present, and occasionally after the wet season they have to look for the salties and clear them before opening the river for swimming. I’ll stay in the thermal pool thank you very much.

Oh, yesterday a 3-4m python happily slid into the thermal pool and they say some people could walk on water in their attempt to get out.

Day 29, Sat, 7 Aug to Mataranka

2010-08-07T21:34:00.001+10:00

Check out Days 28 & today as both posted today.

As I said yesterday I was on a mission to get to Mataranka today. The morning started cool, around 10C but progressively built to a warm 35C during the day.

The road was ahead and I simply got stuck in – well not really as I really enjoyed today. I initially thought that the Stuart Hwy would be a drag – something I remember from all those years ago when I had 4 kids on board – maybe that was it, the inevitable “when are we going to get there” question.

Anyway it was no time and I was in Elliot (almost half way) for fuel and morning tea. I really enjoyed the ride, the scenery, the sound of the bike, the smells from the road and everything about the day. The scenery changed often from straight road, to curves, small climbs and more straight road. The GPS says I generally have been descending but you would never have guessed it.

Elliot is basically an aboriginal community with some infrastructure but it is well past its best times. I headed on and next stop was Daly Waters.

Well this is a hive of activity with every tourist on the Stuart Hwy stopping by to take in the character of the place. I had a cold drink in the beer garden, chatted with a couple of locals (well overseas backpackers working there). These workers are everywhere, our tourist locations would not function without the many overseas backpackers working in all of these out of the way places.

After Daly Waters it was a quick run into Mataranka Thermal Pools where I am now based for a couple of nights. I setup camp and then went for a 2 hour plunge in the thermal pool – oh I hope you are jealous because it was fantastic.

I showered and then walked up to the bar where I caught the Aus v NZ Rugby and who should walk in but my fall crash bang mate, John. He had been here and is heading out for Darwin tomorrow. I’ll let you know what the pool is like again tomorrow also just to make sure you get the message – until then stay safe & well, and extremely jealous.

Day 28 – Fri, 6 Aug to Threeways

2010-08-07T21:33:00.001+10:00

This morning I said bye to a few people that I had met at the backpackers. One guy, a Swiss had shipped his motorbike to Darwin and is riding across N Australia to Cairns and then back to Darwin via the Savannah Way (the 4WD track).

I left the Isa and quickly caught up with a number of Harley rider groups. This would be the case for most of the day as their meeting apparently had finished yesterday and the 400 odd riders were all heading their various ways.

Two HD riders from Wagga Wagga were heading the long way home over the next couple of weeks. They were going via Darwin, Broome, Perth and then the Nullarbor. Good luck to them – I hope they have a support vehicle…lol.

I had decided to ride the shortest and quickest way to Mataranka so that I could spend a couple of days soaking my knee in the warm thermal pools – looking forward to that. My family only spent one wonderful afternoon at Mataranka about 16 odd years ago (something we all remember well), so I have been looking forward to spending a bit more time there.

So I headed W towards Camooweal (the last QLD town before crossing the border) then to the Barkly Roadhouse and onto the Threeways where the Barkly Hwy meets the Stuart Hwy, 25km N of Tennant Creek.

As soon as I crossed into the NT the landscape changed to flat grass country – no trees – to the horizon in all directions. This remained the case for at least the next 100km and then changed to low treed areas (2-3m) then eventually to really scrubby land, which is the case where I am tonight.

The day was just, no not just, a great riding day covering 620km and I am now in a budget room (basically means I share the showers and toilets with the caravaners). Tomorrow I head due N and I hope to be soaking my legs, nah my body in those warm thermal waters by this time tomorrow.

Day 27 – Thu, 5 Aug at Mount Isa

2010-08-05T18:05:00.002+10:00

Today was a rest day as I said it would be yesterday.

Did some laundry and after breakfast headed for the Base Hospital emergency department – only a 10 minute walk so my accommodation was perfect.

I was expecting to be there most of the day but by a little after 11am I was finished – really happy with the staff and the care I received.

They took x-rays of my knee and as expected the doctor feels it is soft tissue damage – possibly some minor tears to the ligaments and strains of the muscle tendons. If things are not on the improve over the next few days then I am to get another check up in Darwin, my next major centre, or maybe Katherine.

Next up was to get OP looked at as requested by the insurance company. So I found a dealer – Harley Davidson dealer of all places. They couldn’t help until Monday as there is the QLD Chapter of the HOG having their annual meeting here this weekend – this on top of the rodeo, no wonder there is no accommodation – there is something like 400+ HD riders in town.

So around to the local Honda + Yamaha + Suzuki dealer called Bike & Rider. The head mechanic there took a look over OP and gave him a clean bill of health. So we are both feeling better for the attention – yes Kelly, Optimus Prime and I are experiencing all the highs & lows on this trip so I will continue to use the plural “we'” in describing the adventure..lol..

The first picture above is the LHS showing the clearance of the crash bar, the picture on the right is the RHS clearance as it should be.

I took some pictures of OP’s damage and although I cannot recall what happened after I lost it, it would appear from the damage that we hit on the L side (the crash bar taking the impact) we must have bounced and then hit on the R side as this is the side on which we finished facing in the opposite direction, flat on my back with my right boot stuck under the bike. I was able to undo and slip my foot out of my boot to get out. When OP was righted the boot was stuck to the exhaust (melted on). I guess I was lucky that it was only my left knee injured.

I then headed off for an hour of sightseeing, mainly to the lookout. Mt Isa is a far larger town then I had expected – around 20,000 odd people live here. The huge Xstrada copper mine is obviously the major employer, but tourism is increasing especially at Rodeo time.

The Rodeo is a 3 day event and is world renowned and arguably the prime event on the Australian rodeo calendar. The locals like to say that you aren’t Australian until you been to the Isa, and that it is the real Outback.

As you can see this is an early post – nice to simply have some time to do nothing. Tomorrow I head further W and cross into the NT. See you then.

Day 26 – Wed, 4 Aug to Mt Isa

2010-08-04T19:15:00.006+10:00

You will find posts for days 24, 25 and today posted tonight.

Last night I had an ordinary night sleep (well actually crappy). My left knee which I injured yesterday had swollen and was giving me some problems in bed. John & I woke early packed exchanged contact details and said our goodbyes. We said that we would most likely meet along the way.

We were travelling to a different time schedule and he is a keen photographer, so he would stop regularly for photo opportunities.

The road today was an initial 145km to Bourke & Wills Roadhouse. This was the road in the other day. Lots of cattle – as John calls them the ones with the ears on upside down. I did see quite a few emus and more brolgas. Those birds are magnificent when you see them take off. Lots of kites as usual, but also about a 600mm wedge tail eagle.

I was in a negative mood. Just over thinking the accident yesterday and my knee was stiff on the pegs. So I chastised myself for such thoughts, what has happened has happened, put on some music and said today was another day. My mood heightened and I enjoyed the rest of the day.

At B&W I met up with John again, but I had to spend quite some time on the phone to the insurance company. I then set off to Cloncurry (142km) for afternoon tea at the local bakery (Rod & Jon take note) and then onto Mt Isa (118km).

On leaving the Curry (as they call it) the road (the Barkly Hwy) crosses the Mt Gordon Ranges (I think). Anyway, the landscape is quite different to the Savannah country that I have been in for the past week.

The road gradually climbs through passes (remember it is not Switzerland) and is an excellent two lane highway. Lots of road rains heading E and even a couple of exceptionally wide (5.4m) loads – mining trucks being transported on low loaders with police escort.

Tonight I am in the local Backpackers Travellers Rest. I had booked ahead because the big rodeo is on in town this weekend and places were tight. I decided on the ride in that I would stay an extra night to rest the bones and get my knee checked out. Nothing they can do I bet but just to clear the mind.

So just a ride day (the latter part better than the start) – lots more ahead. It was also great to speak with Robyn tonight as I have been some days out of mobile range.

Day 25 – Tue, 3 Aug to Gregory Downs

2010-08-04T19:12:00.002+10:00

The morning started off a little cool – it must be so because even the locals were complaining. As I was leaving today I wanted to check out as much as possible of Lawn Hill NP, or at least around the camp area.

So at 7:30 I set off for a 2km walk that took me to the Indara falls and then up to a lookout and back to the camp. What can I say it was like an oasis in the surrounding rugged country.

The falls are fed by a spring that feeds the Lawn Hill Creek guaranteeing a year round water supply. In the wet season it floods to quite some metres above the current water level and you can see the debris of palms and trees on the embankments.

The emerald green creek cuts through a sandstone and limestone gorge. The gorge is a haven for masses of pandanus, cluster figs, Leichardt trees, cabbage palms, ferns, mosses and even bulrushes.

On my return to camp I had breakfast, broke camp and then headed for a canoe hire. I paddled up through the same gorge that I had viewed from above. This gave a total different perspective, especially seeing the roots of the figs adhering to the face of sheer cliffs rising more than 20m above the water with trees seemingly growing out of rock.

I returned to camp and had lunch with Russel & Elizabeth from VIC. They had apparently seen me at Karumba and left the morning after I arrived. This was a good couple of hours spent relaxing prior to my ride out.

Today I planned to only ride the 100km of gravel back to Gregory Downs and stay the night. The trip started off well until about 20km out I hit an exceptionally bad section of road (exceptionally thick layers and mounds of stone) just after being passed by a vehicle that had filled the air with a thick cloud of red dust.

Well I managed to ride through it for some 20-30m but eventually the inevitable happened - OP & I hit the dirt (sorry no photos, didn’t have my brain in gear to take one). I was okay, except for my pride but OP suffered a few broken items that will need to be attended to hopefully when I get to Darwin. So my Darwin stint may need to be extended, I’ll hopefully know when I get back into phone service and make some calls.

I suffered a slight gravel rash on the bum and a slightly twisted left knee but all is well. After an hour or so of simply getting my head back together and using cable ties to attach items I was ready to go. A survey crew from the local mine had stopped and they got OP back on the right side of his tyres.

A number of passing drivers stopped to check my status. One such luckily stopped because I had the fortunate honour of telling him he had a flat rear tyre.

After starting out I had to stop and open a cattle gate and at this stage another BMW GS rider caught up to me. We had a discussion and he too had come off that morning. He damaged his R pannier and jarred his back. He too is John, similar age, and is doing a similar trip to me but only taking around 8 weeks. We obviously discussed our misfortunes and determined that we both came off in the same section of road.

So we rode together to give each other company and I guess for moral support. We arrived in Gregory Downs close on 5:30pm and decided to book into the hotel/motel. Camping was not going to do it tonight. There was only one room so we just agreed to share.

So we have just finished a nice meal, and now hitting the sack. What a day of contrasts, such highs and lows. Tomorrow is another day of riding ahead – see you out there.