This is the first entry for my proposed motorcycle ride around Australia. The start date for this adventure is still 3-4 weeks away so there is no riding to report on as yet. But I am reasonably far into the preparation.
...click/tap to read the full postSydney celebrated the first day of this adventure with grey skies and light rain which was not the upbeat start I had hoped for. To be honest the weather somewhat matched my own nervousness about the size of the undertaking on which I was embarkiing.
...click/tap to read the full postWhen I alighted from my tent this morning I was greeted by a large group of Kangaroos and a cool but clear day. The kangaroos gradually dispersed as I fussed around packing up my gear. Once underway Orange was my first destination for coffee and breakfast.
...click/tap to read the full postFrom last nights camp it was a nice but cold ride of about 75km to the town of Lake Cargellico. I had never been to this town before so was interested to see whether the lake was "real", as often lakes in Australia are only seasonal. However Cargellico was a sizeable body of water, which at least this morning, was teaming with bird life. The town itself was larger than I had expected but does seem to be dying as there are many closed and closing businesses.
...click/tap to read the full postOver the past few weeks I have noticed a petrol smell around my motorcycle, and I have made various efforts to see if fuel was leaking or whether the smell was some combination of imagination and vapours escaping from the fuel cap. Well the question was answered yesterday when I noticed a wet patch under the bike after it had been parked at the Kidman motel overnight. I even managed to see a few drops of fuel fall from the skid plate onto the ground. After some thought I googled for motorcycle repair shops in the area and eventually found Motorcycle and Marine in the town of Hay and made an appointment for today the 20th May. Thus the task for today is to get to Hay and make that appointment.
...click/tap to read the full postIt rained heavily overnight and was still raining moderately at departure time this monring. That made the 130km from Hay to Balranald uncomfortable and completely destroyed any thoughts of photographs on that leg of todays journey. Fortunately after Balranald the weather started improving and by the time I got to the little town of Euston the sun was out. Which was fortuinate as Euston is spectacular in a modest way. Just before the town the road passes Lake Benanee a sizeable lake on the south side of the road which is accessible by a large picnic and over-nighting area. Euston is situated on the Murray River and the town make good use of the situation with a large and up-market recreation club right on the river bank.
...click/tap to read the full postIt was a little difficult getting out of Renmark this morning, as it is a sizeable town with lots of relatively new housing -- like in the last 25 years. Using two GPS devices was also a contributing factor to my navigation difficulties.
...click/tap to read the full postWhen I woke this morning the weather was calm but cool, however the streaky clouds in the sky gave a warning of the windy day to come. By the time I had packed and ridden the 20km south to my old home town of Wallaroo the promised wind had arrived and with it dust. Why dust, well much of this part of South Australia is grain farming and for at least some farmers it is ploughing time. So high winds and ploughing makes for dust. And so it continued for much of the day. Indeed the weather was so unpleasant that I did not spend long in Wallaroo just long enough to get a photo of our old family home and another of the two land marks that I remeber from childhood.
...click/tap to read the full postAs promised in yesterdays entry I spent some time this morning looking around Whyalla. It is certainly a town of contrasts. On the one hand there is the rusty iron color that dominates anything to do with the steel works that is the reason this town exists. On the other hand it has a beautiful waterfront and beach area. Finally It is a sizeable town and hence a big political problem as the many people who live here and work here NOT at the steel works are still dependent on the survival of those works.
...click/tap to read the full postThere is not much to say about today. This morning the wind was even stronger than yesterday, and to add to the pleasure, the day started out wet and throughout todays ride patches of blue sky alternated with heavy rain. The wind was constant. This mornings weather report forecast gusts upto 120km/h.
...click/tap to read the full postOnto the Eyre Highway and heading west, that is the story of today and will be the story for a few days. A few kms down the road we got a last look at Ceduna (or actually the grain silos of Thevenard) looking backwards across ploughed agricultural land.
...click/tap to read the full postI have travelled a long way west since the start of this trip and hence my body clock is a little out of sync with the sun. I also try to touch base with Nina at the start of the day via satellite communicator. Between these two factors I was awake very early this morning, well before the sun. As a reward I got to watch the changing light as the day emerged in the east. It also meant I was underway early, 7:30am (South Australian Time).
...click/tap to read the full postThe first photo in todays record is of the motel building at Cocklebiddy Roadhouse. The photo was taken at around 8:00 local time (1 hour and 15 minutes behind Sydney) as I was captured by the quality of the light. Interestingly the bike was quite wet from dew overnight.
...click/tap to read the full postNot much to say about today. Over the past few days Nina and I have been having communication problems with our phones. Along the Eyre highway there is supposed to be almost continuous Telstra 4G coverage, but the Telstra account on my phone has not been connecting. However my T-Mobile account (US based) will connect and shows that it is connecting to the Telstra network. So I think it is an account problem.
...click/tap to read the full postA quick look around Esperence this morning before getting underway. The beach front is the crown jewel of this town and the weather went out of its way to give me a fine view.
...click/tap to read the full postToday there were more names ending in "...up", more farmland and more interesting stands of trees. Though I neglected to photograph the farmland and trees.
...click/tap to read the full postToday was about getting to Margaret River. I am going to spend a few days there with an old University mate named Richard. Thus I was viewing the day as a travel/get-there day but to my surprise the scenery through Boyup Brook, Bridgetown, and Nannup was wonderful.
...click/tap to read the full postThe bike is serviced and has a new rear tyre and I have had a delightful visit with my old mate Richard and his lady Jenny. And Nina is waiting with controlled impatience for this old mans adventure to move on to completion. So it is time to get back on the road.
...click/tap to read the full postThe place I stayed last night was very nice. An old brick house, thoroughly renovated, a bed room for each guest and shared kitchen, dining room and tv room. It was called Avon Homestay.
...click/tap to read the full postBefore getting underway today I did a short tour of the town of Southern Cross and sought to capture some of the effort by the locals to make their town charming. Once fueled up it was time to hit the road. And some road it was going to be. As I would discover the 180 km to Coolgardie that I saw on a sign as I left the town completely overlooked the fact that there was nothing else in the way of civilization before Coolgardie.
...click/tap to read the full postI was cold last night; if I can believe the Apple weather app 3°C. So I got up early hoping to warm myself with tea while waiting for the sun to rise and start warning the world. In the first group of photos below you can see steam condensing in the air from the hot water and tea. There is also a small patch of ice on the black saddle bag in the 4th image.
...click/tap to read the full postMy first task this morning was to visit the site of the Gwalia mine just south of Leonora. I have visited this place before and the following link here will take you to that blog entry. I could not help but add a few more photos.
...click/tap to read the full postI spent some time this morning before departure looking at, and photographing, the town and its attractions. It really is a cute little place and a considerable effort has been made to make it attractive. I was particularly taken by the old postoffice building that has been turned into a cafe decorated with old postoffice memorabilia.
...click/tap to read the full postToday started with the closing of the Strawberry Moon. And with the sun now in the East it was possible to get a couple of acceptable shots of Lake Nallan.
...click/tap to read the full postDuring last evening the clouds gathered and covered the sky. Fortunately this did not result in rain but did make for a much warmer night than the previous one.
...click/tap to read the full postBefore leaving this morning i decided to capture a few more images of Newman, specifically the motel I stayed in called The Lodge Motel, some of the feathered residents of Newman wearing their latest iron-ore red outfits, a couple of images of the mine site itself, and finally a little after leaving the town I got a picture of Mt Newman after which the town used to be named.
...click/tap to read the full postThe Auski Roadhouse was a very busy place with road trains by the dozens coming and going; and it was a preview to the days riding. During todays the 2-3 hours riding to Port Hedland I estimate I passed a roadtrain every single minute and many of them were big ore carriers, like the one in the images below. The ore carrier below has 4 trailers behind the tractor, the tractor has 2 steering axles at the front each with two wheels, the first trailer has 2 sets of 3 axles (each with 4 wheels), and the subsequent 3 trailers have 3 axles (each with 4 wheels) at the front and 4 axles at the rear. Thats a total of 112 tyres/wheels (3 x 7 x 4) + (3 x 4) + (3 x 4) + 2 + 2.
...click/tap to read the full postThe first task this morning was a quick look around Port Hedland and some photos to try and capture this town. The BHP sign on the tank in the first picture below seems to me to sum up this town. It is without a doubt an industrial site that happens also to be a town. There are large bulk carrier ships in the harbor, hugh fuel storage tanks close to the main street, and the large salt production facility on the main entrance to the town. In the large flat area south and west of the harbor are all kinds of facilities like the airport, power station, and depots for all those road trains I discussed in yesterdays post.
...click/tap to read the full postBefore leaving Marble Bar this morning I wanted to take a photo of Marble Bar Pools. These are a series of water pools about 3 km west of Marble Bar on the Coongan River. Unfortunately the roads down into the river bed and to the pools were closed for some kind of earth works project.
...click/tap to read the full postThis morning while having breakfast and packing up I got a visit from some of the permanent residents of the Sandfire Road House.
...click/tap to read the full postThe primary business today was to get a new rear tyre for the bike. This was completed by 9:00am at Kimberly Motorcycle Center. I owe Peter and his team a big thanks as they went out of their way to fit me into their schedule.
...click/tap to read the full postToday marked a noteable event for this short tour of Australia because today I reached Derby on the North West Coast where the Indian Ocean meets the Timor Sea. From this point onwards my travel will have a general South East direction and will be heading home as Derby marked, in some sense, the turnaround point of the trip.
...click/tap to read the full postTodays plan was to ride to Fitzroy Crossing a shortish ride of only about 240kms, and to camp at Fitzroy Crossing Resort. Since I did not want to arrive at midday and spend all afternoon sitting in the sun the challenge of the day was to leave late and travel slowly. You see it is cooler riding the bike that being stationary in the sun.
...click/tap to read the full postToday started with a crossing of the newish bridge over the Fitzroy River. This bridge was rebuilt asfter the floods of 2023 washed away the old one. Recall that I crossed the floodplain of this same river 2 days ago on my way to Wallare Roadhouse. It is a mighty river and foreshadows the Ord River and Lake Argyle over the next few days.
...click/tap to read the full postSomehow spending a night in a tent always results in getting up early. So this morning I was up very early, like 6:00 am, and with nothing to do at a bush camp was under way by about 7:00am. During the 20km drive into the town of Halls Creek I passed the first significant turnoff of the day, the start of the famous Tanami Track which is a lonely 1000km dirt track that provides a short cut from the Kimberly area to Alice Springs.
...click/tap to read the full postBefore leaving Turkey Roadhouse this morning I took a few photos of the place. Since I spent 2 nights and 1.5 days here I figured I should try to remember the place.
...click/tap to read the full postThe main goal of todays ride was to visit Lake Argyle which is the center piece of the Ord River Scheme which I have mentioned in an earlier post. This side trip starts about 40km east of Kununnurra goes south. As you can see in the photos below I found some more interestung plants, this time with vivid orange flowers.
...click/tap to read the full postThe first step in todays journey was a ride of about 55km into a small town called Timber Creek but just before entering the town there is a turnoff to the south to a hill-top monument to The Nackaroos. Nina and I discovered this place the last time we travelled through this area. The Nackaroos was an Army Detatchment stationed in this area during WWII to detect infiltration of enemy troops. I found it an interesting story and the link above will take you to a wiki entry on the subject.
...click/tap to read the full post