Australia it is then....!6th November 2008

[BaldBaBoon]

DArwin to ?

Finally left Darwin on the plan to go to Perth,so headed off I did.Got to Katherine without anything of note except a big black cloud bank following me all the way and stopped into the local Cop shop for last minute updates on the road to Perth.

The way is clear they say, and much rejoicing was felt as the road was open for the first time in 4 weeks......long story short, I got to the Victoria river bridge and it was still metres under water.

Too late to head back so out came the tent for a nights rest, another 4 camper vans and two 4x4 also decided the same.About 2 in the Morning there was one initial scream...then all hell broke loose with people running in circles and vehicles starting up with lights and horns going......Turns out one of the boys from a camper van woke up to see a sizeable saltwater cocodile staring at him just outside his swag ( saltwater,big and will have a go at anything ) everyone decided to stay awake and sit on top of the trucks till morning.

River actually higher over night so its back to plan F....head to Port Douglaus.

 

[BaldBaBoon]

Animal abuse

Found a cane toad,dead but totally untouched......so a spark of an idea started up to do some humurous photos involving a huge dinner plate sized toad and various objects.

Decided to carry him/she/it in a paper bag strapped onto the front headlight fairing of the bike, as I didnt really fancy having a dead amphibian inside the panniers or such.Headed into the city back to the Backpackers I was staying at for humurous toad fun when I found out something new.......Cane toads are experts at playing dead or this was a zombie thrown back from the gates of hell to walk the earth as the living undead........either way the effect was the same,I now had a very much alive and very agitated huge amphibian bursting out of a flimsy paper bag but securely bungied to the front of the bike.

Children were pointing and shreiking and adults were doing pretty much the same as the heartless pyscho biker drove along their main street with some Australian wildlife attached to the front of his bike ( and very much alive ) Finally managed to get to a woodland area where Zombie toad was launched into the nearest bush.

Next time I will use a headless Koala or something safer.

 

[BaldBaBoon]

4 days of Hell

4 days to get to Bundaberg, Almost every direct route was under water...under mud...closed or washed away,managed to reach the East coast by a backtracking zig-zag route following locals doing supply runs and farmers using minor tracks that were stilldriveable.

4 Days of rain and sleeping rough in the rain and mud, but managed to get to Rockhampton.Now as the north is impassable, im off to Bundaberg which is famous for Rum and thats about it.

Got 4 punctures in the space of an hour....1 front and 3 rear.Front repaired in minutes, then the second rear punctured...no problem except its getting dark now.Third time the valve ripped off the tube from the rear inner tube.....bugger.

Unload the bike again,lift it up so its supported on one of its panniers and replaced the rear tube with my repaired ( and now spare ) front tube.Not a good fix but good enough that I could push the bike out of the god-forsaken swampland that I was stuck in.........10 bloody kms untll I could get to firm dry land.Must have been close to 300 vehicles passed me....pushing a obviously buggered bike in the dark.

No-one stopped except for two young lads at the end,who went out of their way to help out....went off and got me loads of water ( I used ny entire 10 litres sweating while pushing the bike ) got me some pizza,bananas and the tele numbers of the local bike shops for a recovery in the morning.....thanks lads.

 

[BaldBaBoon]

Mega Motorcycles

Mega Motorcycles of Bundaberg came out and recovered the bike for me, as I was feeling like death warmed up after last nights bike pushing adventure.

Took the bike in, New tubes,tube foam,rim lock and got two spare tubes for me as well as a bag to carry them on my front mudguard ( last one got pinched in Darwin ) while I sat down on their staff sofa in the cool after being fed bacon sandwhich and coffees.Then washed and oiled/checked the bike over for just about the price of only the tubes.....top shop,went out of their way to help me.

Photos coming very soon

Andy

 

[flash of the gap]

this is great stuff really enjoying your adventure

 

[BaldBaBoon]

Scuba

Im staying at a decent backpackers while everything I own is getting washed and dried or at least scrapped free of all the mud and sweat of the past few days.( Called the Cell Block.....used to be an old Police station )
Seems Im older than the average backpacker staying here....in fact Im sure I spent longer in the Army than most of these peeps have been alive.With that and the unbidden thousand yard stare/talking to myself Im scaring strangers and attracting strange women in equal measure?

Booked myself in for some Scuba diving for the next week or so around the southern tip of the barrier reef and some wrecks....and that should take me up to about the time of the Horizons Unlimited meeting at a town called Mitta Mitta where I intend to meet up with some other like minded people.Might even do a few lecture/talks.....specialist subjects " How to tour a desert country, when your crap at sand riding " and " how to tour internationally with no research or prepartion ".

Might not be able to post any shots of me in a wetsuit....unless I can work out how to photoshop my beer gut out.

 

[BaldBaBoon]

Croccodile Mania

In no particular order


I think me and the wee Croc are both thinking the same thing " Lunch? "

Big Croc 5.5 metre

" dont look down "

 

[BaldBaBoon]

Fishing

My first shark!


My mate had better luck.....dont know what it was but it tasted good, all the bones were in middle on a main skeleton and the rest was just pure fillet.

 

[BaldBaBoon]

RAIN

Camping in the rain,trying to get something at least a little dry.....on a good note, there was a lovely beach just behind the site.

That looks a little too deep....the shallow bit is at least 30cm

Ferns Hideaway in Byfield National park.....owners a biker as well.

Australia Day....Guns, Booze and girls in bikinis ( a few blokes in mankinis as well )

 

[BaldBaBoon]

water,water everywhere.

Shedloads of rain....lots of places impassable, but you do get some very rare occuring waterfalls or at least more impressive.

 

[BaldBaBoon]

Puncture Mayhem

Weeks without a single problem,then the mother of all puncture battles in one day.

 

[BaldBaBoon]

Animal Incident

A Hazard with doing long fast stretches of road out here are obvious and a few hidden....kamikazee roos being the obvious and the insect and avian life being a hidden.

Being hit by the overlarge insects out here is like being hit by a paintball....a paintball that is full of a stinking yellow pus and bits of insect that also manages to seek out any chinks in your armour like just between your chin guard and your throat.The Birds are the same, except bigger and explode a lot more violently with impressive little sprays of blood and bird bits.

Got hit on the front fairing by a fat-arsed pidgeon-sized bird at high speed, it duly sprayed a load of blood all over my neck and up under my chin guard into my goatee and mouth.While scraping myself off at the side of the road, noticed the corpse no longer had a head or neck attached and immediately scrabbled about to see if it was stuck to the top of my helmet or something.....nope I was clear.

Two Hours later a combination of intense seat induced pain and lack of fuel called for a roadhouse stop..fuelled up and decided it was time for a bacon toastie.Usual routine in the resturant being the stripping off of armour down to just a T-shirt,when I hear a high-pitched girly scream from just behind me.....Im not pretty,but I dont normally cause this to happen..so I look around.

An Aussie girl is screeching and standing on one bare foot while kicking her other bare foot about trying to dislodge something......which she does and the offending sticky object scoots across the floor to come to a stop against another ladys foot.This lady being of sturner stuff...doesnt screech but stamps down on the blood covered lump of feathers with a resounding crunch.

Well that explains where the head and neck of that bird went then...nestled on between my backpack and armour.

 

[Coolcarbon]

An Aussie girl is screeching and standing on one bare foot while kicking her other bare foot about trying to dislodge something......which she does and the offending sticky object scoots across the floor to come to a stop against another ladys foot.This lady being of sturner stuff...doesnt screech but stamps down on the blood covered lump of feathers with a resounding crunch.

Well that explains where the head and neck of that bird went then...nestled on between my backpack and armour.

Great write up...can just imagine the scene, classic...

 

[Tarmac Teaser]

An Aussie girl is screeching and standing on one bare foot while kicking her other bare foot about trying to dislodge something......which she does and the offending sticky object scoots across the floor to come to a stop against another ladys foot.This lady being of sturner stuff...doesnt screech but stamps down on the blood covered lump of feathers with a resounding crunch.

Well that explains where the head and neck of that bird went then...nestled on between my backpack and armour.

Priceless

Being following your escapades since the first post and boy am I jealous

I'm going to Perth for three weeks in June and looking at getting a bike for a week. How do you find the Suzuki?

 

[BaldBaBoon]

DR650

Tarmac Teaser

Should have a great time in Perth about June,lots of stunning areas to see within travel distance of there.


Bike Hire at the Budget end of the spectrum ( solo rider )

I would narrow down the choice of bike to two bikes out here depending what you are mostly going to be doing,a lot of roads are unsealed roads like gravel....but really do not require an off-road bike for it.

If you are doing a sizeable amount of proper Off-road then it would be a DR650, purely because they are a simple and reliable workhorse....and more importantly they are the cheapest you can hire.If possible try to get a more off-road spec hire bike,the LARGE TANK option would be such a peace of mind option as to be worth its weight in gold ( fuel capacity goes from 13lt to 27 lt ) fuel range goes from 200km to at least 400km.Slow,not very comfy but light and reliable ( and cheap )

If you are going to be doing more distance on the roads to touristy places then I would say that a bike like a Suzuki 650 V-strom is a corker ( rather than a 1000 V-Strom ).These are such underrated bikes its almost criminal.Great tank range on the little 650 which I think is about just shy of 450KM,Comfortable for hours,reliable and economical and reasonably cheap to hire.Also have a acceptable amount of very lightweight offroad ability.


Bigger Budget or Pillion


If you are hiring one for a week and dont mind the extra cost, I would say hire a BMWR 1150 GSA rather than a BMWR 1200 GSA. No matter what the arguments are about what is the best bike at home...the few boys who use them out here seem to swear by them ( slightly cheaper to hire as well ) The comfort and ability,panzer like robustness ( godbless tubeless tyres and driveshaft )as well as the range on the main tank are ideal for lightweight off-road and road work....really ideal.

But I honestly think they are too heavy for serious off-road or for use in more isolated areas where you are basically on your own,and you can really be the only person for 100's of KMs if you take the wrong/right turn.

Buy a few Aussie bike mags out here, especially the adventure bike ones.....the Aussies are well into their adventure bikes and have some awesome equipment for their machines that we dont get or rarely see.The soft luggage stuff is great...Wolfman...is one maker, Barkbusters make really good handguards.

Give me a shout if you need any info like maps etc.

 

[Tarmac Teaser]

Thanks for the info Andy,

I'm looking forward to your Perth installment in the future.

Ride safely.

 

[RobBD]

Tarmac Teaser, Keep us posted as to your arrival date into Perth and we'll catch up. June is not good for me though as I am riding to Darwin via the coast and back via the middle.
Andy, sounds like you are still having fun!

 

[Tarmac Teaser]

Tarmac Teaser, Keep us posted as to your arrival date into Perth and we'll catch up. June is not good for me though as I am riding to Darwin via the coast and back via the middle.
Andy, sounds like you are still having fun!

Hi Rob, no problem, I arrive on the 7th and leave on the 26th.

How long will your trip take as I was originally looking at going to Ayres rock and back until I realised the distance.

Can you recommend any motorcycle hire places around perth as most of the decent looking ones (choice of bike) seem to be in Sydney/Brisbane area.

 

[RobBD]

Tarmac , What sort of bike are you chasing? I will hunt some names for you.

 

[Tarmac Teaser]

Hi Rob, ideally a 990 or 950 ktm adventure or a 640. Yes I'm from the other side

If none of the above a 1150gsa/800gs or 1200gs in that order.