End of trip report June to September 2007

OZ Travel Log end of trip report June to September 2007



If you can make sense of this random rambling then you are a better person for it! And I will not validate any lies told over the past 4 months......

Lets due the numbers:
US mileage 18,700=30,030km
Started from Sydney(New South Wales) on 23 June, moving counter clockwise and got to Kinglake (Victoria) on the 24 September.
Number of nights in a tent..........too many and started to smell like my socks
Number of nights sleeping between sheets.......
Number of OZ black boxes of fine red wine consumed......
Number of BIG green bottles of Victoria Bitter beer..........
Number of cell phones thrown from a cliff....1(Vodafone)
Number of days that I wore the same set of clothes......15.....just kidding!????? my socks will only know

Bad:
1.NZ freight forwarder, just outright incompetent
2.OZ freight forwarder customers broker, just did not know what they were doing costing me in excess of $2500.00 in car/cabin rental fees
3.Coffee, does no one have pot coffeeeeeeeee? This espresso crap glues you to the ceiling with caffeine!
4.Sandy/bull dust roads, corrugations
5.No senior discount at the Kalgoorlie brothel
6.Top Tourist Shady Glen caravan site Darwin along with the attitude of the manager
7.Meeting the unexpected Roo or wild stock on the open road
8. Road house menu.....Christ is there anything out there that is not deep fried and 10 days old.

Good:
1.The Australian people,
2.Caravan groupies
3.The open road
4.Beer and cheap black box red wine (2 litres)
5 Big 4 caravan sites at Alice Springs, Katherine and Robe and the Top Tourist caravan site in Coobowie.

Mechanical: BMW F650 GS Repairs
Front forks seals, front forward sprocket replaced, wheel bearings for front and rear, tyres (2 sets), chain, 5 oil changes, seat recovered.

Motorcycle tools: Bead breaker, long tyre irons, extra tubes for front and back tyre, air compressor that plugs into the 12 volt bike system, torx tips, tool bag, assorted nuts/bolts, litre of oil, can of lubricant, 24mm wrench for oil plug, assorted BMW bike repair parts,

Motorcycle Clothing: Dri-rider jacket, BMW trousers, suspenders, SIDI boots, Shoei Helmet(had to be tossed from damaged of me going airborne once too many times), winter gloves, summer gloves, balaclava, AERO tech inner jacket, thermo underwear, scarf

Accessories: North Face 4 season 2 man tent, sleeping bag, inflatable air mattress and pillow, 2 one litre fuel containers, 4 (1) litre water bottles, assorted nylon ties, clothes pins, washing up liquid, wet-ones, paper towels, reading material, a complete set of Hema 4WD maps of OZ, OZ Motorcycle Atlas, head lamp, radio, 40 gig hard drive, camera battery charger, electrical plug adapter(US to OZ), plastic Ziploc bags of 1 gallon and quart size, rubber mallet

Cameras:
Canon 20D SLR digital(failed completely).
Canon G5 point and shoot camera(LCD screen failed)

GPS: Garmin 60Cx: Australian V7 Mapsource software loaded. GPS would at the odd time freeze up on the track that it was recording. You had to stop and remove and reinsert the batteries to get the system working again. Or the GPS would lose all Mapsource data and the courser had you out in Never, Never land some where.

Clothing: 3 pr of socks, 2 long sleeve shirts, 2 pr of shorts, one long sleeve rash guard and 1 Tee shirt. And 90% of the clothes will be burned or treated as Hazardous waste as I have received notice from the Honolulu Quarantine that I will be deloused with DDT on arrival.

Emergency backup:
1.Cell phone (very doubtful in the outback)
2.EPIRB: emergency beacon tied (406Mhz) into satellite system
3.Medical flight insurance: will fly you back to the USA and will attempt to recovered your bike if possible

Food:
Breakfast: A banana and a cup of coffee or juice
Lunch: If I missed breakfast, then at the first fuel stop it was Mrs. Macs Beef Pot pies. This would sit in your stomach like a 40 pound weight.
Dinner: A package of biscuits, onion dip and either wine or beer.
I generally carried on the bike banana's and trail mix.

Ugly: Vodafone. If anyone ever decides to buy, subscribe to this company while in OZ you should be shot, quartered and buried and run through with sheep dip. This company is the worse of the worse for everything it stands for. Buyer beware!!!!!

Reference Reading:

Crocodile and Buffalo Hunter Tom Cole
The Territory Ernestine Hill
The Great Australian Loneliness Ernestine Hill
The White Divers of Broome John Bailey
Mr. Stuart's Track John Bailey
Northern Patrol, An Australian Saga
R.H.Pilmer
Common Wildflowers of Western OZ
Down Under Bill Bryson
A guide to plants of Inland Australia
Phillip Moore
Batavia's Graveyard Mike Dash
Life in the bush- Bio of Len Beadell
Mark Shepard
Cattle Duffers of the Outback Frances M. Boyle
Mail for the back of Beyond John Maddock
Out of the bush Len Beadell

Thoughts for the un-traveled road:
I would have loved to do the major dirt 4WD roads but going out by yourself would be just asking for trouble and the availability of fuel is crucial.

The ideal solution would be to travel with another bike and a support vehicle. And take a bloody course on riding in the sand!

What I will really miss, once I am back in Hawaii, is the open road and the freedom that you feel riding the bike. Would I do it again, yes, and again by myself.

I would time my trip to coincide for the wild flowers(Sept/Oct) in Western Australia, that’s if it ever rains out there.

Norm Garon

The Grey Nomad

September 25 Portland to Kinglake (Victoria)

OZ Travel Log for 9.25.2007 Portland to Kinglake (Victoria)

Notes:
Finally got away from Portland after milking the cows and changing the hay.

Kinglake,Victoria: Final mileage = 18,769(US miles)= 30,030km
Travel was conducted from 6.22.2007 to 9.24.2007

Portland-Port Fairy-Warrnambool-Childers Cove-Bay of Islands-London Bridge-Port Campbell
On the Great Ocean road heading east. First stop was Port Fairy, a very up scale community where as soon as you drive in you realize that there is money here. The rest of the trip to Port Campbell was pretty much stopping taking pics and just enjoying the scenery.


The trips from now on are going to be so short in comparison to what I've done in the past that I need to expand my travel itinerary.





Port Campbell-Lavers Hill (gravel)-Colac-Beech Forest (gravel)-Hopetown Falls-Apollo Bay
All of the gravel roads were in excellent shape. Spent the night at a Big 4 caravan sight. It was another wet night but with the weather pattern that been around for the last few days it is to be expected. And you would think by now that I would take better care of my gear especially when you expect rain. Nothing is better then putting on wet gear the next morning for another day of travel.

Apollo Bay-Point Finders light house-Deans Marsh (dirt)-Moriac.
You could virtually spend weeks running the dirt roads up in this area. This is where the Motorcycle Atlas is of no help. You either have to have the forestry road maps or a more definitive set of 4WD maps and the GPS is no help either.

Geelong-Queenscliff - ferry to Sorrento- Portsea (after getting loss)-Rosebud- Flinders - Hastings - Bass Highway into Phillip Island.
Too many people and just a very busy route through out. It was the Big 4 site right after the bridge to Phillip Island. Being that I was the big spender for the next couple of days it was a cabin for the peace and quite. The Australia Motorcycle GP will be held at Phillip Island in October and the area will be a mad house for everyone but does the $$$$$$$$$$$$ come in!


Phillip Island
Early out the next morning following the road to Korumbarra then just north of Streelecki Rd there is a dirt track called the Grand Ridge Road. It carries you through farm country and logging areas. The view along this road is worth every bit of the ride. Gravel in the logging areas is a bit bigger then you would normally run across but take your time. Came across my first dead wombat, freshly killed and don't the farmers just love em! Getting back to the dirt track, you do go through Mirboo North and you best stop at the bakery for a proper fat pill and long black coffee. Leaving town you are back into the bush and some how some where I missed the sign for the Ridge road so I ended up on Budgeree Road(where do they get these names.....!). Needless to say I ended up making a large circle on myself and if I didn't end up back at Mirbo North. Total dirt track for that day was 360km. Got back to the cabin in time for another great glass of that fine wine out of the black cardboard box.

Phillip Island-Wonthaggi-Cape Patterson-Venus Bay-Tarwin Lower-Cape Liptrap-Yanakie-Tidal River(Wilsons Promontory).
It was a fair day ride trying to stay off the main roads as much as possible. Remind me to spend another night at a National Park when the kids are out of school...........




Wilsons Promontory - Kinglake (Victoria)
It was bloody cold this AM and remained so all of the way to Kinglake.
Had to stop in Melbourne to pickup another set of tyres for the bike. Of course the GPS had me going through down town Melbourne to the Mitas tyre dealer(wasn't that fun). Got there and loaded the set of tyres on me bike.....didn't I just look grand going down the road with all of my camping gear and tyres on the back. Took the Western Ring Road to Hurstbridge then followed the road through the Kinglake National Park(good place to grind your foot pegs down on your bike) to Kinglake. The town is small but it has an outstanding bakery, enough said and if you have a problem with this try your local roadhouse food for a while (Mrs. Mac's Beef Pot Pies!)........isn't life just grand.

Kinglake
BMW: changed out the tyres, sparkplugs, oil & filter, brake pads, air filter. This is it for this year of travel.

Plans are to be back in January(mid) head down to Portland then over to Adelaide return to Melbourne to catch the ferry for Tasmania. Return from Tassie and run the Victoria mountains then off north to Canberra and stop with another bunch of groupies. Drink their wine and run naked around the neighborhood. Finally get the bike back to Sydney by mid March for shipment home to Hawaii.

Future plans for OZ is to buy a second hand Toyota Trooper and cover all of the dirt/4WD tracks in OZ over a 4-5 year period. Looking at coming back to OZ and traveling between June and October time frame each year.

When I get back next year and someone hears of a vehicle for sale please let me know.

The Gray-Haired Yank.....

September 18 Port Elliot (SA) to Portland (Victoria)

OZ Travel Log for 9.18.2007 Port Elliot (SA) to Portland (Victoria)

Notes:
Crossing into Victoria at 1118hrs on 9.15.2007. Have covered just over 27,000km's on the bike since June.

Warning: Anyone that consumes a large bag of unsalted cashew nuts over a 2 day period will generate enough methane gas to out do the milking cow.........

Port Elliot-Goolwa-Milang-Strathalbyn-Wellington-Meningle-Robe
The cost of fuel is up 6 cents per litre since my arrival 3 days ago...... Rain the night before but the weather cleared up and the winds dried out the bulk of the wet gear. Fueled up and stopped at the Port Elliot Bakery before heading down the road.
The Coorong National Park has a series of dirt roads that would be the place to stop during the better time of the year as you are sitting right on the ocean.

The trip to Robe was wet and cold but just another day with the wheels down.
Into Robe and spent the night at the Big 4 caravan site. A cabin is $35 per night and it comes with everything except the loo. Robe during the winter months has a population of 1100. Summer the numbers jump to 20,000.......Talk to the locals and it is just a nightmare.


Robe - Portland
Robe- Route B101-Beachport-B1-Mt Gambier-C192-Nelson-Cape Bridgewater-C193-Portland
Stopped off at Beachport, again they have a population of 400 during winter but summer pushes the number to over 5-6000. Beachport has a tourist route that takes you along their coast line and it is worth the time spent.

Portland:
Spent the past 2-3 days with a couple that I had met briefly in Auckland, NZ from Australia last June at the Auckland Ulysses meeting.

I figured that just finding a place for a couple of days, living out in the barn, fresh hay, with the milk cows was worth the time in Portland. They have 7 cats and 3 dogs that at times reminds me of spending nights at both Halls Creek or Jabiru listening to the locals vocalize. The husband is so much into gadgets that the wife has barely enough money to put clothes on her back...... matter of fact she was spotted stealing clothes from the homeless just to complete her wardrobe.

Sunday was a day trip to Penola for the monthly Ulysses luncheon with members from South OZ and Victoria. I was the youngest one there. Weather going up was fine but Mother Nature was waiting for us on the return trip. Rain and gusty winds and Sunday being that almost all small town petrol stations where closed, I had to used the emergency fuel backup before finding a petrol station that was open..... No Worries !

September 12 Copley to Port Elliot (SA)

OZ Travel Log for 9.12.2007 Copley to Port Elliot (SA)

Notes of sort:
Another OZ slang word: No worries! This is a newbie for me since getting close to Victoria and Adelaide. Must be the southern slang for mate...!

Tan line: During my travels dressed like the Michelin icon. My tan line goes from the edge of my gloves to the start of the jacket. It varies from 1 inch or less. Talk about sun screen.....

Washing clothes in a sheep dip tank: I have found the cure all for washing clothes on the run. When your socks get so ripe that your motorcycle boots start changing colors. Find the nearest sheep farmer and ask if it is possible to use the dip tank. As all of your clothes are of the new high tech clothing that dries on the fly......A good 3 dip can keep you content for weeks on end.

Box Wine: Yalumba - Cabernet Sauvignon 2006 vintage in a very fashionable 2 litre black cardboard box

Copley – Parachina – Brachina Gorge – Bunyeroo Gorge – Wilpena - Hawker (SA)
South from Copley to the Geological Scenic drive through the Brachina Gorge and Bunyeroo scenic drive. The initial 5 kms had just terrible corrugations but once through that the road levels out. It is a bit rough in some sections but worth the drive. The road brings you just out side Hawker. Stopped in Hawker for lunch at the grocery/cafe and the night at the Big 4 caravan site. The Mobile Gas station in town has a good selection of books on 1800’s Australian history.




Hawker-Quorn-Wilmington-Melrose-Gladstone-Crystal Brook-Snowtown-Kadina-Moonta-Minlaton-Yorketown-Coobowie.
It had to be one of the most enjoyable, picturesque rides that I've been on a very long time. Just about all farm country but with small town’s 20-50 km apart. Reminds you of traveling through New Zealand.






Yorke Peninsula - Coobowie
Spent the next few days at the Big 4 Caravan site in Coobowie. The Yorke Peninsula has both good dirt roads and great scenery and it was worth the time spent.




Coobowie – Ardrossan – Port Wakefield – A1 –A17 – A3 – A13 – Morphett Vale – Mt Compass – Victor Harbor - Port Elliot
As the two previous nights had been just a bit wet in the tent, the last night at the Coobowie Caravan site was spent in a very dry cabin.....TV, heater, dry, dry and even dryer cabin.

Followed the coast road to Port Wakefield, small farming communities throughout. Once reaching Port Wakefield you then hit the main road to Adelaide and life gets just a bit busier. It was A1 to A17 to A3 and finally to A13 which runs you straight down to Victor Harbor. At the round-about you hook a left for Port Elliot and there you are at Big 4 Caravan site for the next couple of days. A very nice site and being that Adelaide is just 50 kms north, both Victor Harbor and Port Elliot are just an extension of the big city itself.
Fleurieu Peninsula: While in Port Elliot spent the day touring the peninsula. Starting from Victor Harbor and going SE out of town. Find the first dirt road and don't get off of it until you have covered them all. All of the dirt roads are in good shape and with great scenery along with the ride. Eventually you end up at Cape Jervis, the ferry that crosses the channel to Kangaroo Island, and if the weather is right you might see a roo or two. From Cape Jervis follow the sealed road back to Victor Harbor. Along with the Yorke Peninsula, the Fleurieu Peninsula has to be one of the better scenic rides.


And a great bakery in Port Elliot


And friendly neighbors





Next stop is Robe.

September 7th Port Augusta (SA) - Alice Springs (NT) - Copley (SA)

OZ Travel Log for 9.7.2007 Port Augusta (SA) - Alice Springs (NT) - Copley (SA)

Note: going back to the trip from Port Lincoln to Port Augusta where I encounter 25-45 kts of wind out of the NW. During that transit I encountered 3 huge dust clouds. The clouds were at least 100 meters high and blowing straight into the ocean, if not the ocean the city of Adelaide was feeling the blunt of the dust cloud. Can't even begin to calculate the number of metric tons of top soil that was lost.

Port Augusta-Pimba-Glendambo- Coober Pedy
A very long ride to Coober Pedy. Before getting up on the plateau you are passing huge salt lakes on both sides of the road. The first stop for fuel is at Spuds Roadhouse. Be it food, fuel or pokie (one arm bandits), Spuds has it. Next fuel stop was Glendambo; it must be the fly capital of the world! Into Goober Pedy for the night and if you didn't know better you swear that Mad Max is right around the corner. This town survives on Opal mining only. So what you have is a town that is surrounded by huge mounds of dirt and only dirt.




And the flies are where?


Coober Pedy welcoming sign


And Mad Max is out there….!

Coober Pedy (SA) –Kulgera- Eridunda - Curtain springs (Northern Territory)
Another long day in the saddle but just getting into Curtain Springs had me on the right road to Ayers Rock. Curtain Springs offer free camping but believe me they make up for it in fuel, beer and food plus the cost of taking a shower.
The Australian wedge tail eagle is not a threaten specie believe me. If I counted one I counted 50 plus on the road from Coober Pedy. And do they have an attitude...!


Curtain Springs



Curtain Springs - Ayers Rock - Eridunda - Alice Springs
Getting into see the rock was $25 right off at the National Park. This allow you to drive around the rock, climb it, and take as many pictures as possible and the Park system smiled all the way to the bank.


A welcoming site into Ayers Rock. The first and only camel carcass that I saw.


Ayers Rock or the Aboriginal name of Uluru




Getting back out to the main road for Alice Springs was another 200 km and was this getting a bit long in the tooth. About 40km from Alice Springs, I just about to fell asleep at the wheel. A short stop at a rest stop, 40 minutes of eye lids in the closed position and I was a new lad heading for Alice. Got into Alice and it was the Big 4 caravan site for the next couple of days. In the next site to me was a pommie (brit) couple, he was understandable but his wife had a Scottish brogue that you could cut with a knife. It finally got to the point that her husband would translate everything she said or use sign language.


Alice had great weather while I was there and did manage to make a side trip to Trephina Gorge Nature Park.







Alice Springs (NT) to Coober Pedy (SA)
What a bloody long drive at 600km plus. There is nothing that I would comment on concerning this leg only that it was over with.

Coober Pedy to Port Augusta
Spending the night at Coober Pedy with ground cloth, themarest mattress and sleeping bag. The next morning it was roll everything up including the dirt and down the road it was. It was a bit fresh that morn but with the thought of Port Augusta for the night and a cold beer and finally off the road from Alice Springs, things had to look up. Port Augusta for the night at Big 4 Caravan Park and grass area for the tent.

Port Augusta-Quorn-Hawker-Parachina-Beltana-Leigh Creek- Copley (South Flinders Range)
Out of Port Augusta, cross the bridge for Adelaide, hook a left at Route B83 and head north. Stopped at Parachilna for fuel and immediately was covered in flies. I asked the pub owner was it better in the summer; yes it was, as I would be completely covered with flies and the temp would be around 45 degrees.



Buildings like these were very common going up the Flinders Range. Over a 100 yrs old and supported The Old Ghan Railroad.



One of many old Ghan Railroad trestles

Copely was the next stop for the night and paradise it was. It is a town that everyone forgot except when the coal train comes through and sounds its horn around 0200hrs. Has a great little bakery and being that it is out there in no where, the flies are in abundance.


Ahhhhhhhhh, the good old bush bakery……


Sunset at Copley


The Copley flies are not a problem…!

Spent another day in Copley and made a run up to Maree for the day. Dirt road all the way but out there it is.


And if you think this sign is exciting, try finding the town…..


Antique tub used back in the early 1800’s by Molly Flanders.

From Copley it is south to Adelaide and points SE with the bike having to be in Melbourne by the 25th. I will be back in Hawaii on the September 29th.