Day 32: Perth for a break

Olga's tyre was holding this morning so we decded not to muck arund and head off to Perth but also to include a bit of "scenic" coast road near Coolimba. I put scenic in quote marks because it wasn't really what we would have called a scenic road. But we didn't have too many kms to do that day so we were in cruise mode and stopped for a break by the Indian Ocean.

Then it was basically just a pootle into Perth. Dick decided to ignore the instructions from the GPS and plotted our route into the hotel which he did very well. Unfortunately we overshot the hotel and wound up in a very fast moving one way section just beyond the hotel. Nothing for it - this is what R1200GS's are for - we rode back along the footpath and into the hotel where we parked up out the front. The people waiting at the bus stop didn't seem to mind very much.

The receptionist was distinctly snooty with us - perhaps were a bit too grubby and noisy for him. They had also cocked up the booking and had put us in a double room. He sniffingly checked us in and then told us that we couldn't possibly leave the bikes parked at the front of the hotel. That suited us just fine anyway so we parked around the back and hit him up for a trolley to get all our filthy and mud encrusted panniers into the lift and up to our room. He also organised a trolley bed so Dick and I wouldn't have to top 'n tail in a double bed.

Dick was heading off for three days in EnZud to do some business stuff so he was up and away at 6am leaving me to enjoy the delights of Perth - and to get his bike retyred and repaired.

So I'll pick up this blog on Thursday when he gets back and we hit the road south.

Cheers to everyone.

Day 31: Sliming our way to Geraldton

Up early again in the morning and hello. Hello hello hello. Olga's rear tyre has only 5psi. Hmmm. And bugger. We put her on the centre stand, rotated the wheel to find the plug and put a big gob of spit on it. Shades of Rotorua. Lots of spittly bubbles. Conundrum. Replug? Pump up and go to tyre repairer? Then Dick remembered that he had a can of slime in his kit. It was only a little hole and the trye was due to be replaced in Perth so it made a lot of sense. The pressure in the can lifted the rear tyre to 35psi and we headed off.

Stopped at the Wooramel Roadhouse for breakfast and then kept heading south. We debated going out to the Denham Peninsula, partly because it was the most westerly part of Oz and also because the road was called The Useless Loop. Common sense won out however and we continued heading south stopping off at the Overlander and Billabong Roadhouses for petrol and a break and arrived in Geraldton in the mid-afternoon. We had a look at the Lonely Planets book and thought that a backpackers called the Foreshore looked ok so - as usual in case they don't like bikers - called in by phone and made a booking. The backpackers was great - a real faded lady but good rooms adequate facilities and a good central location.

Olga's tyre was holding well so we set off and went out for a roam and dinner. Wound up in the Freemasons Hotel (I can hear my dad turning in his grave - well I could if he hadn't been cremated) where we watched Australia thrash the Irish in rugby. It was quite bizarre - in a very old hotel surrounded by aussies watching rugby. I made the mistake of ordering a schooner of Hoergarden (wheat beer) and was stunned to be charged $10.70 per glass. Goodness me! (or something like that!)

I was feeling vegetable-deprived so we went Chinese for dinner expecting to find a vegetable chop suey or something similar but ended up ordering two dishes that were almost identical - both with battered meat/fish and a spicy brown sauce. They tasted great but we were a bit overwhelmed by it all.

Tonight was Saturday night so the place was pretty rowdy that night. Also the bikes were parked in an open area and the back of the hostel so I was a bit nervous about that too. So ... not the greatest of sleeps that night but all was ok.

Day 30: Dampier to Carnarvon - quite a lot of not a lot....

A big day riding today from Dampier to Carnarvon. We got away early and stopped for brekkie at the Fortescue Roadhouse and then basically pushed on the 680kms to Carnarvon. As the heading says - quite a lot really of not a lot at all. Just sand and scrub and long long long long roads.

A highlight was recrossing the Tropic of Capricorn - we are officially out of the tropics!

Not much there really but an opportunity to stop and be silly - I'll post the silly photos when Dick gets back with his/our USB cable. Here....

On down to Carnarvon where we checked into a backpackers in the old part of town. There was a big rigmorole with opening and locking gates where we could actually have driven in the front door of the hostel and out the back to the cabins. Seeing as how we planned to stay there the night we thought this might not have been the best of ideas.

We were getting a bit worried with the state of Olga's tyre by now - it had been losing pressure right through the day. Seemed to be holding for now but we'll see how it goes in the morning. Then we went out for dinner - for the life of me I can't remember where!!!

:-)

Day 29: Crocs, sand and hamburgers

A gentle start again to the day today with breakfast supplied by the hostel. We spent some time getting organised and then went down to the local McCafes for a latte and some free WiFi access. We went off at about 11am for a visit to a local Wildlife Park - I was a bit doubtful about this but it was great. Lots of crocs but also lots of other animals - including the most gorgeous dingos. I'll post some good photos when I can but for now .....

Now that is something I am glad we didn't meet on the Pentecost River. We then cruised on south for about 370kms to a beach caravan park called Eighty Mile Beach. A lovely beach although the campsite itself was a bit crappy. They had heaps of tent sites in sandy locations but for some reason put us in an area with a coarse pebbly ground. Not so easy on the tent floors. So we - as you do when faced with adversity - got the port bottle out and went and sat on the beach to watch the sun go down over the Indian Ocean. It was great. A beautiful white sandy beach with people walking, swimming, fishing and generally having a good time. And a beautiful sunset.

That night was camp hamburger night so we went for that - we still have some pasta we could have cooked up but couldn't be bothered. Hamburger night was obviously a major social event as lots of the campers brought chairs and stools (and wine) up to the reception area where the cooks were being kept busy. And the hamburgers themselves were not bad.

We went back to our tent site and were invited over the neighbours's site for a glass of wine and a chat. A really interesting couple from Sydney. She was a social worker and he was obviously a successful businessman. He and Dick had a lot of fun talking business and I had a lot of fun sitting quietly and drinking their shiraz. (Yeah right) They were both strong Labor (!!) and KRudd supporters so that was interesting; especially in view of what transpired later. They had also visited NZ but had only toured around Stewart Island. She (Sue) was a bird-nut and they tended to go places where she could do lots of birdwatching. They were interested to hear that we had stayed at Parry Creek and asked us a lot about the birds in the billabong there.


That was about it so we headed off to bed. A big ride tomorrow through Port Hedland and Karratha to Dampier.

Day 28: Sweeping down to Broome....

An easy day today with a shorter run through to Broome. Dick got on the phone to BMW in Perth and got things sorted for both bikes. New pannier and tyres for Olga and a tune-up for Helga. Not sure what BMW in Darwin did but they didn't get it quite right. Helga doesnt like being shut down and then started up again straight away - also idling roughly. If she wasn't fuel injected I'd have said it was a vapour lock but I guess it's some kind of computer setting thing.

On the road then down to Broome - good sealed road and we cruised into Broome before lunch. Went to the Visitor Centre and organised accommodation at a backpackers/hotel in Cable Beach. A bit expensive but it was breakfast included with vouchers for a free beer each so that was fine. And it had a pool and comfortable beds.

So we basically spent the day lounging around and pretending we were tourists. I spent some time in the pool and some in the internet room before we went out along the street to a local pub for dinner. It was great - heaps of families, good-humoured staff, reasonable music and the best fettucini I have had since arriving in Oz.

All good so we headed off to bed again.

Day 27: The Puncture Derby

We had an early start to the day but took a while to get Dick's bike organised. He has some cloth straps which we used to hold the broken bracket against the screwhead and another to stabilise the pannier. We put all his heavier stuff into the top box and the other pannier and set off carefully back down the Manning Gorge Road. We were early out so had not too much traffic to compete with and made it back out to the main road without incident.


The road quality was then really variable - sometimes graded smooth where you could sit at 70kph, in other places as rough as a long night on the turps. About 85km down this road we came to the next roadhouse at Immtji (try pronouncing that!) and about another 65kms after that to the section where the road was supposed to be sealed. And it was!! Wahoo off we went at stellar speeds approaching 85kph when all of a sudden the road turned to crap again. And that was really the sum of our day - good road ... yahooo. Crap road ... bugger. We kept our speed well down because we didn't want any more bits to fall off Olga and eventually arrived at the information bays just out of Derby. We stopped there for the obligatory "Yes we did it" photos and a local taxi driver stopped by, having seen the UnZud stickers on Olga. He was a teacher from Timaru who had recently chucked everything in back home and come to Derby to be with his daughter and son-in-law.


We had a good chat and then .... bugger ... nothing happened!!

Nothing happened because Olga's rear tyre was all flat at the bottom.

We wheeled her into the shade and got her up on the centre stand - not an easy job when the rear tyre is flat. Spun the wheel and eventually I spied a tiny fragment of something sharp - still not sure what: a nail, a piece of glass, a sharp stone? We dug out the tyre repair kit and got to work. Just then another kiwi stopped by - he runs a motorcycle workshop just up the road. He could see that we sortof knew what we were doing so he left us to it leaving instructions on how to find him if we needed him. I tried really hard to pull out the sharp but in the end I think I pushed it in. Reamed out the hole, plugged and glued and then sat for 10 minutes with our fingers crossed. Trimmed off the ragged ends and pumped up the tyre and it held. Yes.

Apparently accommodation is impossible to find because the federal government is using motels and hotels to accommodate "asylum seekers" aka "Boat People" depending on whether you vote for Rudd or Abbott. Obviously a sore point with the locals. So we organised a tent site in the local caravan park and settled in. It was T-bone steaks night at the local pub so we went there and just to be different we had T-bone steaks. Not bad either for $12 a time.

We were pretty knackered by now. Again. So we crawled into our little tents and went to sleep. Exciting aye!

Day 26: Dick meets his quota....

Earlier in the trip I had suggested to Dick that we would probably have 3 or 4 offs during this trip around Oz. Today Dick met his quota!

Dawn comes early in Eastern Western Australia so we were up early and into the weetbix. All this from a Hubbard's man! Then back down the track from Ellenbrae towards Mt Barnett. We were warned off the Drysdale Road so kept on the main "road" towards the next roadhouse. There were a few fords to cross but generally the road was ok - a few parts with terrible corrugations and then evening out. (Nothing like a good evening out.)

When we got to Mt Barnett Gorge we decided to go up the sideroad to have a look. I was in front and working through the sandy sections when I suddenly realised that Dick wasn't behind me anymore. I parked up the bike in the middle of the track and sure enough - there was Olga lying on her side. Dick had put the front wheel into a sand drift and lost the front. All good though - no hurt and no damage so we heaved the bike upright and carried on.

Mt Barnett Gorge was lovely with a deep billabong and swimming area. Dick spoiled the scenery by stripping to his daks and going for a swim while I stayed on the bank doing crocodile watch! Not a pretty sight. Unfortunately there were no crocs.

We got Dick decent again - well sort-of - and headed back down the track to the main road. Dick in front this time and at almost the exact same place almost the exact same thing happened - Dick put his front wheel into a sanddrift and over he went. I saw it this time - a lovely dive over the handlebars and rolling in the sand. Olga went in on her right hand side this time and was in deep sand so we struggled a bit to get her upright and the sidestand out. Dick seemed to be ok. Apparently he landed on his head and it didn't hurt a bit.

Back onto the main road and Dick was determined to show he was unfazed by it all and took off like a rocket up the road. I tried to slow him down by hanging back but it didnt work.

After a while we got to the Mount Barnett Roadhouse and checked into a camping ground. Only then did we discover that the camping ground was 7kms up the Manning Gorge Road - again along a sandy track. I was in front again and again realised that Dick wasn't behind me. Went back to find him and he was ok - seemed to be having some problems with the brakes. He led off in front and then again hit some sand and went over once more - heavily this time and onto the left hand side. Dick was ok (ego damaged he said) but Olga was bit worse for the wear. The stay that holds one of the pannier mounting brackets was cracked right through and one of the lugs on the pannier itself was broken. We asked a passing motorist to take the pannier bag on to the camp and followed.

We found a campsite (the place was packed with grey nomads and families) and recovered the pannier. We then got out the straps and the duct tape and made an onthespot repair - the best we could do. A quick swim in another lovely gorge (Dick in his togs this time), some rice and fish for dinner (no port!) and we headed for an early bed.

A tough hot and rough day - but all good. Because of the damage we decided to go out to Derby the next day to arange for repairs to the bike. So a good ride tomorrow - supposedly along some sealed roads!