The Red Centre
12th - 21st October
After weeks of waiting and preparing we finally leave towards Ayres Rock. Specifically today we head towards McKinley, the home to "Walkabout Creek Hotel" of "Crocodile Dundee" fame. We get up at 05:30 as we know the distance is around 800 km of boring terrain. On the way we are sevrely hit by a thunderstorm in Charters Tower in which we are drenched within a few minutes. We take refuge in a petrol station with some meat pies and coffees whilst the storm passes over.
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Just before leaving Townsville.
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Hmmm, good to be riding on a day like today...turned out to be a violent but short(1Hr) storm.
Later during the morning I'd felt a reluctance for the bike to accelerate-the last time this had happened to me it turned out to be a shortage/exhaustion of oil so I was naturally concerned. At the first gas station I could find I checked the oil level to find it was below the normal operting level. I bought some more and topped it up, adding around 500ml. It still seemed a little on the low side but I used to own an 1100GS in England and the oil level window never seemed that reliable to me and I didn't want to over-fill it.
As we continue on we see our first aboriginals by a lake where we stopped for lunch. I’d seen a weird looking array of 2 simple canon-looking devices and what looked like a large mushroom but hadn’t worked our what they were for. I should have looked harder as the canons were effectively giant water pistols for a giant water fight and the mushroom provided a water-fall big enough for 4-5 men to stand underneath it to cool off. The aboriginal men had no trouble working this out and had a few minutes drenching each other. Where we stopped for lunch we were accompanied by a very strong wind trying to steal our sandwiches and by loads of flies which didn’t make for a particularly relaxing stop.
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The Aboringinals and the Mushroom & Water canons.
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A typical Aussie Hotel seen along the way.
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Gassing up at my first Road-House.
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I finally find some competition for the limits of luggage carrying on the GS....
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...however the offer of a drag race was declined !!
We decided to take an unpaved road for the last 80 or so km’s towards McKinnley as it cut a huge amount of driving off had we stuck to the tarred route. It was a good decision as it was good fun.
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One Owner....
We stopped to take a few pictures and make a video of me blasting up and down the dusty track.
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The road less travelled put a smile on both our faces.
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Finally we got to Walkabout Creek Hotel achieiving our 800km's to find it had moved, albeit only a few hundred metres. Even though it had only supposedly moved Sylvia didn’t remember the internal layout as it had been back when she'd visited in 1991. I was initailly a bit shocked but the walls had a few pictures of Paul Hogan so I was satisfied anyway !!
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Walkabout Creek Hotel...couldn't find Wal anywhere.
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We ate dinner in a Road House across the road as the "Walk About" owner had gotten greedy (and miserable) with his food prices. After dinner we take a couple of beers in rmemberance of Mick Dundee back at the Hotel and chat with a few journalists and a truck driver who are there to spectate the annual horse race planned for the following day. At around 9pm, the Hotel bar is closed and the light that was illuminating us outside on the porch is sharply & rudely turned off. Everybody is cheesed off at the owners attitude.
The following morning we awake aware that we only have to ride around 400k’s and so take it fairly easy. We eat breakfast in the same roadhouse café as the previous evenings dinner and finally get going around 11:30 having drank 3 mugs of tea. We cruise at around 140 and stop at Mt Isa for some lunch and to see if it is deserving of a visit. A long-awaited Cheeseburger, ice-creams and a coffee later in McDonalds saw an hour slip by and we set off again having to briefly return to fill up with some more petrol. I check the oil level again and it is still low on the window and end up adding a further 500ml before the level is correct. The quite shocking net oil usage being around 1l/ per 2,500km's which apparently falls within BMW's guide lines of consumption. (Mt Isa wasn't worth further inspection !)
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Now that's what I call a Road-train, start overtaking in the morning and finish in the afternoon.
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The afternoon goes quite quickly and we arrive in Camooweal at around 5 o’clock. We were a bit confused as to where the entry to the campsite was and ended up on a very deep gravel track which resulted in us falling off as I was too tired to anticpate it being deep and the front wheel was incapable of keeping any grip. We both fell off and my left leg was initially trapped under the bike and hurting. Sylvia managed to escape unscathed. It took me a few seconds to position my leg to free it from the bike. When I did, it hurt quite a lot and for 20 seconds or so I couldn’t move from my now freed position lying face down on the ground. I got up in the end and surveyed the bike.
Remembering my BMW off-road course from 2005, I positioned myself up by the handlebars and asked Sylvia to assist my lifting from the back end. To my pleasure and amazement the bike came up fully loaded without much of a struggle. I put it on the side-stand and checked for damage. None except a few light scratches on the crash bars and Cylinder head protection cover. I took the bike to the camp site and I started to set up camp as Sylvia went to take care of the administration for the site. A few minutes later she came to let me know that she’d just met a Russian on an around the world motorcycle trip. To cut a long story short Dimitri ended up camping next to us for the night. It turns out that he is a professional photographer contracted by the Russian leg of the National Geographic to look at a number of countries modern-day culture. His English wasn’t great but we managed to exchange a few stories and call it a night.
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A sign painted onto the wall of the Road house at Camooweal.
We tried to get up early the following morning but struggled(partly as my leg was stiff from the fall yesterday), even though we knew we had a 600km day. Finally we were up and discovered that we’d left my brand new super Remington Razor at Walk aboit Creek Hotel !!!Arrgghh, 3, maybe 4 shaves since new !!! I settled for a cheap wet razor and Sylvia and I had breakfast. Finally we hit the road and left the state of Queensland.
We were greeted by worse roads in the Northern territory but higher speed limits. We could now ride at 130 instead of the 110 maximum of Queensland. That was nice but the roads were really boring. Never have I driven anywhere with so little to look at for such a long time. We took our first stop at 270k’s at Barkly Homestead and were greeted by a load of Aussie drunk red-necks out for their Sunday drink. This place was noisy and not relaxing at all !! We took a few teas/coffees there, filled up with gas and set off again after about 40 mins. We knocked off another 240 km’s and stopped for lunch at a Red Rooster (a bit like KFC) in Tennant creek. The chicken at the Red Rooster was dry and nasty.
Whilst in Tennant Creek we bought some provisions for camping as we were to stay at a state camp ground by the Devils Marbles where nothing would be available. We bought a bag of ice too to keep all our various fluids cold, milk, water, orange juice and beer. The only problem was we didn’t really have anywhere to put it all which resulted in me having to open up the expansion-zip oin the tank bag which allowed me to double it's height and volume. By the time we put the ice and a few drinks in the bag was very heavy and sat very unstably on the tank ! Sylvia also ended up with a carrier bag resting next to her on one if the panniers. We still had over a 100km’s to do so we took it easy....initially.... about 10km’s later we were back up to around 130km’s and soon got to the Devils Marbles.
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We set up tent quickly and took off to a prime photo spot on the bike with a beer each. We took our pictures and drank our beer as the sun went down, returning to our camp ground just before darkness to see what we believed to be a Dingo strolling by!!!! We’d eaten well today on the road and so didn’t bother with dinner in the end and went to bed fairly early as we wanted to be up for the sun-rise the following morning.
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Sunset at Devils Marbles.
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Will the man never learn ?....just one more try...go on, just one more !!
I woke up to the alarm and stuck my head out of the tent to check on the photo-sun-rise potential-it looked good so we got up and had a quick coffee before marauding off with cameras clicking like crickets. There was a period of around 30 mins where the sun was at its best for colouring the 'marbles' and we were able to capture them nicely.
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Sunrise....The early alarm was rewarded by a lovely pre-breakfast view of the Marbles
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Once the sun was properly up we took breakfast and another hot drink before de-camping and hitting the road again.
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One of the local bird species...not sure what it's called.
We left the Devils Marbles and headed down towards Alice Springs. We needed to stop along the way for petrol and a break and so we stopped at Ti Tree which has the most central pub in Australia. We took tea and something to eat, refuled but were saddened by the number of starving dogs in the area-They appear to be owned by the Aboriginals although no one was looking after them. One dog in particular was in a very sorry state so we opened up a tin of Tuna and gave it to him on some bread, and then another 2 dogs turned up in a similar state and the tuna and bread just managed to give them all something when, from across the road, came another dog who had a broken front leg. We'd thrown the tin and bread bag into a 50gal oil drum used as a litter bin. This poor mutt jumped straight up and into the bin to see if there was anything left-there wasn't and we had nothing left to give. Within a few seconds this poor dog had managed to jump out of the drum again and carry on as if nothing had happened. It saddened us both - If anybody from Ti Tree is reading this-shame on you !!
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Speaks for itself !!
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G'Day - Sylvia wanted this picture to record two typical Aussie outbacker blokes.
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I recorded this as a typical Aussie number plate !!
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Another 4 trailer road-train. These wern't so common as the 3 trailered ones.
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The first hungry dog we saw at Ti Tree.
We arrived at Alice Springs and managed to replace my new razor lost at McKinely from another Harvery Norman store. Initially I was told the price was $109 but was reduced to $79 once I explained my story about having originally purchased it for $69 and losing it. $79 was fine for me but after a few further moments the salesman decided to "price match" the Townsville Harvey Norman and so I was able to purchase it for the original $69 again !! Very kind.
Not long after arriving at our camp-site we met Trevor who was a member of the Ulysees motorcycle club which is for the older riders who refuse to grow up. I couldn't see why he wanted to talk to us.....ahheemmmm. Anyway we were invited to a meeting the following evening.
The following day we did some washing and web update amendments and went into town looking for an Internet cafe and information centre. I was pleased at last to be able to get some updates uploaded but dismayed when 45 mins later I was advised they were closing-it was 17:00 !! In the end Sylvia mangaged to get some helpful information for sight-seeing & I found a cafe 'chain' called Globalgossip who were open untill late which enabled me to prepare soem photos for uploading at a later stage.
This was one of the first occssions of seeing Aboriginals and for the most it wasn't a pretty sight. The young were uneducated and their Fathers and Uncles often to be seen hanging around the Bottle stores(Off licences) in various states of soberity.
By the time we got back to the campsite it was too late to meet up with Trevor and his friends as we barely had enough time to prepare and eat dinner before going to bed.
The bikes scheduled oil change was for 10,000km. We had now however done 11,000km and with all the heat and dust we'd driven through I was keen to keep to BMW's schedule as we wouldn't reach Darwin where the full 10,000km service was to be carried out until around 14,5000km's. The campsite actually had an area designated to oil changing and so with the aid of an 8mm hex key borrowed from from Trevor, and a discarded coke bottle cut to make a funnel, was able to change the oil. As the old oil drained I could feel that it still had a significant amount of lubrication life still in it, none-the-less I was pleased to have the peace of mind of fresh oil running around in the engine.
Once the oil change was done we loaded the bike and set off for Ayres rock, now being given back its original Aboriginal name of Uluru. The ride was very hot. We arrived and pitched up at the only camp-site and bought our National Park entries to give us access to Uluru and went to see the sun-set on this very famous rock. If you are in Australia it is almost a prerequisite that you visit Ulura-I'm not quite sure why, perhaps because it represents the centre. What ever it is, the rock itself does not really inspire more than a few moments of inspection before you can mentally tick the been-there, seen-it & photed it box.
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Sunset at Uluru - formely know as Ayres rock.
In the evening we met a Norweigen couple(Tom & Linn) travlleing on an 1150 Adventure and a Dakar and so had a nice chat with them. I learnt from Tom that for the first 20,000km the oil consumption I'd experienced was normal !! and after that it becomes negligible. Mmmmm. We also got to see 2 Dingoes walking near the camp kitchen.
During the night we were rudely woken by the howling of a pack of Dingos-there must have been something bewteen 15-20 of them which was surprising given the number of people staying at the site-perhaps they were looking for scraps of food ?
The following day Sylvia and I set off to try and climb Ulura but were prohibited by the tempreture being above 38 degress. We'd already decided to walk about it's base and so started our walk there which was to take about 3 and a half hours.
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For too much of the walk there were signs declaring certain areas of rock as having special spiritual significance to the aboriginlas and therefore were prohibited from taking photos. I believe in the spiritual realm but this is just too much and reminds me of the red indians fear of something of their soul being taken when a photo was taken of them.
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This is a tree we spotted growing out of a crack on our walk around Uluru-it was quite an impressive and unusual sight.
In the evening we rode out to the Olgas to view and photo the sunset. It wasn't very inspirational either- We can see why tour companies make sure their guests are served some alcohol !
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The Olgas. Not so inspiring to me.
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...however the evening was improved slightly by the sunset we saw away from the Olgas.
Tom & Linn though rescued our evening properly with some good converstaion.
The following morning was to be our last morning and so we went back to Ulura for some sun-rise pictures which wasn't amazing either but at least we saw it ! We also hoped to climb Uluru but today were prohibited by too strong winds. On the one hand it felt like the weather conditions were being used as an excuse to keep visitors off the rock as the Aboriginals don't like it being climbed, whilst on the other we knew that there had been deaths and you could clearly see that there was a real risk of slipping and falling.
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The path up Uluru-whilst we wern't able to try it, it isn't as easy as you might expect. A few have died trying.
After returning to the site we got packed quite quicky and rode towards Kings Canon. We both arrived very tired and had expected to see more Roadhouses on the way. As it turned out, after ‘rejecting’ one after 100km’s of riding, the next was at 283 km!!! When we got to Kings Canyon (at around 320km's !!) though we got to meet up with Tom & Linn again who kindly invited us to dinner "after we'd seen the sun-set"....which we actually managed to miss !! Whilst eating dinner we saw a number of Dingos running around the camp-site looking for food. There were a number of warnings of feeding Dingoes and so we assumed they have had some trouble in the past. None-the-less we left them some food away from the site later the following evening. We also met some new coloured feathered friends, Galas, which are a pink headed parrot-cum-cokatoo looking bird who is just a little more timid of people than the Lorikeets.
The following morning we walked around the Canyons crater rim walk which is known for its beauty. The walk lasted for 4 hours and we were fortunate enough to be accompanied by a nice breeze for most of it which was very welcome as the in-the-shade tempreture was around 38 degrees and the tempreture on the rock nearer 50 !! At one point I wanted to go off the main track a little to capture some more unusual photos but was seen by a ranger assisting in the making of a film, and subsequently stopped. The detour I wanted to make wasn't really adventurous but it was off the path. I'm sorry but this is a Nanny-state mentality and I felt like arguing on the basis of Sylvia & I'd recent Everest adventures but I could sense a US police-man type rehearsed mechanical response coming and I couldn't be bothered and so I retraced my steps.
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The Kings Canyon.
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Seen on our walk around the crater to the Canyon itself.
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This is fossilised sea bed from when the Canyon was under water.
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HOT, darned hot ! This tree was frazzled in just 2 hours...honest it did..
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Seen at the end of our trek...for those of you who don't know me, my surname is Giles.
The walk was nice and we both enjoyed it. By the time we got back to the car park the breeze had departed and the heat felt that much hotter. We sat in the shade sipping our warm water whilst trying to cool-off before riding back to our camp-site. It was really hot.
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Seen at the end of our trek in a shaded area provided for a rest and cool down. I was surprised at how blunt the Ozzies are in their government notices. We saw a poster for not throwing cigarette butts on the street and that was even blunter !!!
The following day we were to return to Alice Springs via the Morenee loop, a gravel/dust track of some 154km's. We'd checked out the road surface from a number of sources and we were under the impression that there was minimal sand and the rest was formed of a level gravel. We'd been looking forward to another mini-adventure after our approach ride to McKinnley and this was to be it.
About 5km's in we were struggling with dark red sand and forced down to around 15-20kk/hr with both feet half way betwwen the floor and pegs. By around 20km's we were in a sand trough of about 10cm which was just too much with road tyres and so I tried to ride us out on to a central hump left by the abscence of vehicle tyres but as I rode up it I was too slow and we stalled just at the point where my left leg was too far from the ground to stop us tipping over. I knew we'd fall off and told Sylvia so-we both pretty well just walked off the bike.
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Nah mate, no sand or dust down there...you'll be fine !!
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Lifting it however this time turned out to be a different fiasco and we both had to work really hard to right the bike even using the tecniques I knew normally worked. As a result of the struggle we did right the bike but Sylvia badly hurt her back in the process and I was concerned about possibly rupturing myself. We had a chat about the track and decided it was too risky. Added to which we couldn't really afford the time for a slow days ride anyway. The net result was that we returned to the paved route and aimed for the 'long-way-round' back to Alice Springs. We arrived back at the same Camp-site we'd used before and set up tent on the same pitch.
Tomorrow we wanted to cover around 1100km's to Mataranka so we had a quiet evening and went to bed.
Mike.
12th - 21st October
After weeks of waiting and preparing we finally leave towards Ayres Rock. Specifically today we head towards McKinley, the home to "Walkabout Creek Hotel" of "Crocodile Dundee" fame. We get up at 05:30 as we know the distance is around 800 km of boring terrain. On the way we are sevrely hit by a thunderstorm in Charters Tower in which we are drenched within a few minutes. We take refuge in a petrol station with some meat pies and coffees whilst the storm passes over.
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Just before leaving Townsville.
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Hmmm, good to be riding on a day like today...turned out to be a violent but short(1Hr) storm.
Later during the morning I'd felt a reluctance for the bike to accelerate-the last time this had happened to me it turned out to be a shortage/exhaustion of oil so I was naturally concerned. At the first gas station I could find I checked the oil level to find it was below the normal operting level. I bought some more and topped it up, adding around 500ml. It still seemed a little on the low side but I used to own an 1100GS in England and the oil level window never seemed that reliable to me and I didn't want to over-fill it.
As we continue on we see our first aboriginals by a lake where we stopped for lunch. I’d seen a weird looking array of 2 simple canon-looking devices and what looked like a large mushroom but hadn’t worked our what they were for. I should have looked harder as the canons were effectively giant water pistols for a giant water fight and the mushroom provided a water-fall big enough for 4-5 men to stand underneath it to cool off. The aboriginal men had no trouble working this out and had a few minutes drenching each other. Where we stopped for lunch we were accompanied by a very strong wind trying to steal our sandwiches and by loads of flies which didn’t make for a particularly relaxing stop.
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The Aboringinals and the Mushroom & Water canons.
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A typical Aussie Hotel seen along the way.
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Gassing up at my first Road-House.
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I finally find some competition for the limits of luggage carrying on the GS....
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...however the offer of a drag race was declined !!
We decided to take an unpaved road for the last 80 or so km’s towards McKinnley as it cut a huge amount of driving off had we stuck to the tarred route. It was a good decision as it was good fun.
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One Owner....
We stopped to take a few pictures and make a video of me blasting up and down the dusty track.
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The road less travelled put a smile on both our faces.
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Finally we got to Walkabout Creek Hotel achieiving our 800km's to find it had moved, albeit only a few hundred metres. Even though it had only supposedly moved Sylvia didn’t remember the internal layout as it had been back when she'd visited in 1991. I was initailly a bit shocked but the walls had a few pictures of Paul Hogan so I was satisfied anyway !!
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Walkabout Creek Hotel...couldn't find Wal anywhere.
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We ate dinner in a Road House across the road as the "Walk About" owner had gotten greedy (and miserable) with his food prices. After dinner we take a couple of beers in rmemberance of Mick Dundee back at the Hotel and chat with a few journalists and a truck driver who are there to spectate the annual horse race planned for the following day. At around 9pm, the Hotel bar is closed and the light that was illuminating us outside on the porch is sharply & rudely turned off. Everybody is cheesed off at the owners attitude.
The following morning we awake aware that we only have to ride around 400k’s and so take it fairly easy. We eat breakfast in the same roadhouse café as the previous evenings dinner and finally get going around 11:30 having drank 3 mugs of tea. We cruise at around 140 and stop at Mt Isa for some lunch and to see if it is deserving of a visit. A long-awaited Cheeseburger, ice-creams and a coffee later in McDonalds saw an hour slip by and we set off again having to briefly return to fill up with some more petrol. I check the oil level again and it is still low on the window and end up adding a further 500ml before the level is correct. The quite shocking net oil usage being around 1l/ per 2,500km's which apparently falls within BMW's guide lines of consumption. (Mt Isa wasn't worth further inspection !)
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Now that's what I call a Road-train, start overtaking in the morning and finish in the afternoon.
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The afternoon goes quite quickly and we arrive in Camooweal at around 5 o’clock. We were a bit confused as to where the entry to the campsite was and ended up on a very deep gravel track which resulted in us falling off as I was too tired to anticpate it being deep and the front wheel was incapable of keeping any grip. We both fell off and my left leg was initially trapped under the bike and hurting. Sylvia managed to escape unscathed. It took me a few seconds to position my leg to free it from the bike. When I did, it hurt quite a lot and for 20 seconds or so I couldn’t move from my now freed position lying face down on the ground. I got up in the end and surveyed the bike.
Remembering my BMW off-road course from 2005, I positioned myself up by the handlebars and asked Sylvia to assist my lifting from the back end. To my pleasure and amazement the bike came up fully loaded without much of a struggle. I put it on the side-stand and checked for damage. None except a few light scratches on the crash bars and Cylinder head protection cover. I took the bike to the camp site and I started to set up camp as Sylvia went to take care of the administration for the site. A few minutes later she came to let me know that she’d just met a Russian on an around the world motorcycle trip. To cut a long story short Dimitri ended up camping next to us for the night. It turns out that he is a professional photographer contracted by the Russian leg of the National Geographic to look at a number of countries modern-day culture. His English wasn’t great but we managed to exchange a few stories and call it a night.
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A sign painted onto the wall of the Road house at Camooweal.
We tried to get up early the following morning but struggled(partly as my leg was stiff from the fall yesterday), even though we knew we had a 600km day. Finally we were up and discovered that we’d left my brand new super Remington Razor at Walk aboit Creek Hotel !!!Arrgghh, 3, maybe 4 shaves since new !!! I settled for a cheap wet razor and Sylvia and I had breakfast. Finally we hit the road and left the state of Queensland.
We were greeted by worse roads in the Northern territory but higher speed limits. We could now ride at 130 instead of the 110 maximum of Queensland. That was nice but the roads were really boring. Never have I driven anywhere with so little to look at for such a long time. We took our first stop at 270k’s at Barkly Homestead and were greeted by a load of Aussie drunk red-necks out for their Sunday drink. This place was noisy and not relaxing at all !! We took a few teas/coffees there, filled up with gas and set off again after about 40 mins. We knocked off another 240 km’s and stopped for lunch at a Red Rooster (a bit like KFC) in Tennant creek. The chicken at the Red Rooster was dry and nasty.
Whilst in Tennant Creek we bought some provisions for camping as we were to stay at a state camp ground by the Devils Marbles where nothing would be available. We bought a bag of ice too to keep all our various fluids cold, milk, water, orange juice and beer. The only problem was we didn’t really have anywhere to put it all which resulted in me having to open up the expansion-zip oin the tank bag which allowed me to double it's height and volume. By the time we put the ice and a few drinks in the bag was very heavy and sat very unstably on the tank ! Sylvia also ended up with a carrier bag resting next to her on one if the panniers. We still had over a 100km’s to do so we took it easy....initially.... about 10km’s later we were back up to around 130km’s and soon got to the Devils Marbles.
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We set up tent quickly and took off to a prime photo spot on the bike with a beer each. We took our pictures and drank our beer as the sun went down, returning to our camp ground just before darkness to see what we believed to be a Dingo strolling by!!!! We’d eaten well today on the road and so didn’t bother with dinner in the end and went to bed fairly early as we wanted to be up for the sun-rise the following morning.
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Sunset at Devils Marbles.
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Will the man never learn ?....just one more try...go on, just one more !!
I woke up to the alarm and stuck my head out of the tent to check on the photo-sun-rise potential-it looked good so we got up and had a quick coffee before marauding off with cameras clicking like crickets. There was a period of around 30 mins where the sun was at its best for colouring the 'marbles' and we were able to capture them nicely.
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Sunrise....The early alarm was rewarded by a lovely pre-breakfast view of the Marbles
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Once the sun was properly up we took breakfast and another hot drink before de-camping and hitting the road again.
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One of the local bird species...not sure what it's called.
We left the Devils Marbles and headed down towards Alice Springs. We needed to stop along the way for petrol and a break and so we stopped at Ti Tree which has the most central pub in Australia. We took tea and something to eat, refuled but were saddened by the number of starving dogs in the area-They appear to be owned by the Aboriginals although no one was looking after them. One dog in particular was in a very sorry state so we opened up a tin of Tuna and gave it to him on some bread, and then another 2 dogs turned up in a similar state and the tuna and bread just managed to give them all something when, from across the road, came another dog who had a broken front leg. We'd thrown the tin and bread bag into a 50gal oil drum used as a litter bin. This poor mutt jumped straight up and into the bin to see if there was anything left-there wasn't and we had nothing left to give. Within a few seconds this poor dog had managed to jump out of the drum again and carry on as if nothing had happened. It saddened us both - If anybody from Ti Tree is reading this-shame on you !!
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Speaks for itself !!
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G'Day - Sylvia wanted this picture to record two typical Aussie outbacker blokes.
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I recorded this as a typical Aussie number plate !!
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Another 4 trailer road-train. These wern't so common as the 3 trailered ones.
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The first hungry dog we saw at Ti Tree.
We arrived at Alice Springs and managed to replace my new razor lost at McKinely from another Harvery Norman store. Initially I was told the price was $109 but was reduced to $79 once I explained my story about having originally purchased it for $69 and losing it. $79 was fine for me but after a few further moments the salesman decided to "price match" the Townsville Harvey Norman and so I was able to purchase it for the original $69 again !! Very kind.
Not long after arriving at our camp-site we met Trevor who was a member of the Ulysees motorcycle club which is for the older riders who refuse to grow up. I couldn't see why he wanted to talk to us.....ahheemmmm. Anyway we were invited to a meeting the following evening.
The following day we did some washing and web update amendments and went into town looking for an Internet cafe and information centre. I was pleased at last to be able to get some updates uploaded but dismayed when 45 mins later I was advised they were closing-it was 17:00 !! In the end Sylvia mangaged to get some helpful information for sight-seeing & I found a cafe 'chain' called Globalgossip who were open untill late which enabled me to prepare soem photos for uploading at a later stage.
This was one of the first occssions of seeing Aboriginals and for the most it wasn't a pretty sight. The young were uneducated and their Fathers and Uncles often to be seen hanging around the Bottle stores(Off licences) in various states of soberity.
By the time we got back to the campsite it was too late to meet up with Trevor and his friends as we barely had enough time to prepare and eat dinner before going to bed.
The bikes scheduled oil change was for 10,000km. We had now however done 11,000km and with all the heat and dust we'd driven through I was keen to keep to BMW's schedule as we wouldn't reach Darwin where the full 10,000km service was to be carried out until around 14,5000km's. The campsite actually had an area designated to oil changing and so with the aid of an 8mm hex key borrowed from from Trevor, and a discarded coke bottle cut to make a funnel, was able to change the oil. As the old oil drained I could feel that it still had a significant amount of lubrication life still in it, none-the-less I was pleased to have the peace of mind of fresh oil running around in the engine.
Once the oil change was done we loaded the bike and set off for Ayres rock, now being given back its original Aboriginal name of Uluru. The ride was very hot. We arrived and pitched up at the only camp-site and bought our National Park entries to give us access to Uluru and went to see the sun-set on this very famous rock. If you are in Australia it is almost a prerequisite that you visit Ulura-I'm not quite sure why, perhaps because it represents the centre. What ever it is, the rock itself does not really inspire more than a few moments of inspection before you can mentally tick the been-there, seen-it & photed it box.
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Sunset at Uluru - formely know as Ayres rock.
In the evening we met a Norweigen couple(Tom & Linn) travlleing on an 1150 Adventure and a Dakar and so had a nice chat with them. I learnt from Tom that for the first 20,000km the oil consumption I'd experienced was normal !! and after that it becomes negligible. Mmmmm. We also got to see 2 Dingoes walking near the camp kitchen.
During the night we were rudely woken by the howling of a pack of Dingos-there must have been something bewteen 15-20 of them which was surprising given the number of people staying at the site-perhaps they were looking for scraps of food ?
The following day Sylvia and I set off to try and climb Ulura but were prohibited by the tempreture being above 38 degress. We'd already decided to walk about it's base and so started our walk there which was to take about 3 and a half hours.
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For too much of the walk there were signs declaring certain areas of rock as having special spiritual significance to the aboriginlas and therefore were prohibited from taking photos. I believe in the spiritual realm but this is just too much and reminds me of the red indians fear of something of their soul being taken when a photo was taken of them.
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This is a tree we spotted growing out of a crack on our walk around Uluru-it was quite an impressive and unusual sight.
In the evening we rode out to the Olgas to view and photo the sunset. It wasn't very inspirational either- We can see why tour companies make sure their guests are served some alcohol !
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The Olgas. Not so inspiring to me.
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...however the evening was improved slightly by the sunset we saw away from the Olgas.
Tom & Linn though rescued our evening properly with some good converstaion.
The following morning was to be our last morning and so we went back to Ulura for some sun-rise pictures which wasn't amazing either but at least we saw it ! We also hoped to climb Uluru but today were prohibited by too strong winds. On the one hand it felt like the weather conditions were being used as an excuse to keep visitors off the rock as the Aboriginals don't like it being climbed, whilst on the other we knew that there had been deaths and you could clearly see that there was a real risk of slipping and falling.
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The path up Uluru-whilst we wern't able to try it, it isn't as easy as you might expect. A few have died trying.
After returning to the site we got packed quite quicky and rode towards Kings Canon. We both arrived very tired and had expected to see more Roadhouses on the way. As it turned out, after ‘rejecting’ one after 100km’s of riding, the next was at 283 km!!! When we got to Kings Canyon (at around 320km's !!) though we got to meet up with Tom & Linn again who kindly invited us to dinner "after we'd seen the sun-set"....which we actually managed to miss !! Whilst eating dinner we saw a number of Dingos running around the camp-site looking for food. There were a number of warnings of feeding Dingoes and so we assumed they have had some trouble in the past. None-the-less we left them some food away from the site later the following evening. We also met some new coloured feathered friends, Galas, which are a pink headed parrot-cum-cokatoo looking bird who is just a little more timid of people than the Lorikeets.
The following morning we walked around the Canyons crater rim walk which is known for its beauty. The walk lasted for 4 hours and we were fortunate enough to be accompanied by a nice breeze for most of it which was very welcome as the in-the-shade tempreture was around 38 degrees and the tempreture on the rock nearer 50 !! At one point I wanted to go off the main track a little to capture some more unusual photos but was seen by a ranger assisting in the making of a film, and subsequently stopped. The detour I wanted to make wasn't really adventurous but it was off the path. I'm sorry but this is a Nanny-state mentality and I felt like arguing on the basis of Sylvia & I'd recent Everest adventures but I could sense a US police-man type rehearsed mechanical response coming and I couldn't be bothered and so I retraced my steps.
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The Kings Canyon.
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Seen on our walk around the crater to the Canyon itself.
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This is fossilised sea bed from when the Canyon was under water.
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HOT, darned hot ! This tree was frazzled in just 2 hours...honest it did..
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Seen at the end of our trek...for those of you who don't know me, my surname is Giles.
The walk was nice and we both enjoyed it. By the time we got back to the car park the breeze had departed and the heat felt that much hotter. We sat in the shade sipping our warm water whilst trying to cool-off before riding back to our camp-site. It was really hot.
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Seen at the end of our trek in a shaded area provided for a rest and cool down. I was surprised at how blunt the Ozzies are in their government notices. We saw a poster for not throwing cigarette butts on the street and that was even blunter !!!
The following day we were to return to Alice Springs via the Morenee loop, a gravel/dust track of some 154km's. We'd checked out the road surface from a number of sources and we were under the impression that there was minimal sand and the rest was formed of a level gravel. We'd been looking forward to another mini-adventure after our approach ride to McKinnley and this was to be it.
About 5km's in we were struggling with dark red sand and forced down to around 15-20kk/hr with both feet half way betwwen the floor and pegs. By around 20km's we were in a sand trough of about 10cm which was just too much with road tyres and so I tried to ride us out on to a central hump left by the abscence of vehicle tyres but as I rode up it I was too slow and we stalled just at the point where my left leg was too far from the ground to stop us tipping over. I knew we'd fall off and told Sylvia so-we both pretty well just walked off the bike.
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Nah mate, no sand or dust down there...you'll be fine !!
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Lifting it however this time turned out to be a different fiasco and we both had to work really hard to right the bike even using the tecniques I knew normally worked. As a result of the struggle we did right the bike but Sylvia badly hurt her back in the process and I was concerned about possibly rupturing myself. We had a chat about the track and decided it was too risky. Added to which we couldn't really afford the time for a slow days ride anyway. The net result was that we returned to the paved route and aimed for the 'long-way-round' back to Alice Springs. We arrived back at the same Camp-site we'd used before and set up tent on the same pitch.
Tomorrow we wanted to cover around 1100km's to Mataranka so we had a quiet evening and went to bed.
Mike.
)
