Webster's dictionary according to the Australian male:
Slab: a case of beer with 24 bottles
Brick: a case of beer with 30 bottles
And do I have a bone to pick with the 4WD drivers out there. Why is it that every Australian that gets behind the wheel of a 4WD on dirt roads have their heads completely up their ass. Every twit that passes me not only is throwing a cloud of dirt in my face then the idiot will pull right in front of me compounding the problem to the extent that I am completely blind with dust and dirt. Thank god that I don't carry a gun because you would find hundreds of dead twits out there besides the Roo's! And the idiots coming the other way are even better in that they wave at you as the cloud of dust covers you.
And now for the rest of the story.
Broome-Roebuck Plains Roadhouse-Sandfire Roadhouse
Leaving Broome and heading south to Barnhill, an Eco caravan park on the beach. I get to the turn off which leads right onto a sand road. I have been running the tyre pressure for the bike at 35/45 due to the weight on seal roads....Well being not the brightest lad on two wheels I head down this sandy track and within 50 meters I am down and eating sand. Okay dummy lets get some air out of the tyres, so we go to 20/30 and within minutes I go down again and bend the pannier frame out of shape. Now I do have problems but knowing that I have to get out of there the pressure is dropped to 10/20 psi. Pick the bike up for the second time, shake and spit out enough sand to start another road, using duct tape and nylon ties I manage to get everything back on the bike. Turn the bike around and out to the sealed road where I spend the next 2 hours swearing, bending, screwing and cursing the all mighty before I am under way. Next stop is the Sandfire roadhouse that burned down 2 months ago and thank you that they had fuel!!!. Sleep that night was on a picnic table and with the dew running around 100% I was wet, the gear was wet but the sun was out the following morning and the road was clear.
Sandfire Roadhouse-Pardoo Roadhouse-Marble Bar
Marble Bar was the next stop, small mining town and a great caravan site. Temps in Marble Bar during the wet run (December – February) above 100 degrees for 30-40 days on end! Being that Marble Bar was so isolated, the prices on beer and food was the highest I had occurred so far.
From Marble Bar took a gravel road to the sealed road heading south to Tom Price. The gravel road was 160km and was in good nick. The last water crossing was a bit of surprise as it came up to the bottom of the bike seat and over the top of my boots. It was the deepest one I've been in since my travels in OZ. One of the caravan's from Marble Bar on the dirt road broke his axle at the 60km mark. Had to leave the caravan there and face the trip back to Marble Bar and hopefully find someone to come out and fix the axle.
The first water crossing from Marble Bar. The concrete bottom was so slick that you virtually had to walk your bike across to keep from going down.
The ever present road trains and dust.
Does it get any better then this!
Tom Price, iron ore quarry, with plenty of gravel roads to explore. Spent 4 days here just exploring the Karijini National Park and the large city of Wittenoom, population 5 and expanding to 9. Wittenoom is the city that Australia would like to forget due to asbestos in the 1950's.
One of the many gorges around the National Park.
National Park controlled burn area.
Was thinking that I would venture forth and take the dirt road from Tom Price north to Roebourne, even went to the expense of buying a 5 liter gas can as the word I got from the information center that the road was in good shape. Just to cover bases I went to the road engineer that covers this particular dirt road. It is in terrible shape due to heavy equipment and corrugations. His recommendation was to take the seal road up north and forget the dirt. Well my next door tent neighbor has a new gas can!!
The Grey Nomad
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