AUSTRALIA 2019/2020

Nicely done Chris; looking very relaxed on 'your rock'....

grez said:

Packed the gear and headed to the train station to get down to Armadale to the south of Perth where I was met at the station by Mark from BikeRoundOz who drove me to his house which doubles as the pick up point. Here I was introduced to my steed for the next 2 weeks, a well used BMW F700GS. It was in good condition and a lot cheaper to hire a “high mileage” bike than a brand new one. Don’t need the latest bike to have an adventure on, and anyway if I drop it they might not notice the extra scratches………………………more on this later.

Went over the bike and did the paperwork before packing and leaving some gear with Mike, intended to travel light up north. Strapped on the extra fuel tank as in places it would be touch and go if the bike had the range between petrol stations.

Camelbak filled and everything sorted and off I headed for the first leg up to The Old Convent Guest House in Dalwallinu, my bed for the night only 170 miles away but enough for day one given I was leaving around 11:00 am. Decent enough place so dropped gear, shower and head to the pub for dinner and beer.

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Been inside that prison lol,

They introduced my nipper to the concept of "Toeing the line" ..

Have to say, that their version of justice was pretty harsh, 27 years extra on a sentence for someone who escaped for 27 seconds lol

Next stop Jurian Bay, some 230 miles away so an easy day. As usual the temperatures are in the 20’s when I leave rising to the high 30’s. The road down hugs the coast and there is some stunning scenery. The cliffs are pretty impressive and so is the pink lake at Hutt Lagoon. The pink hue created by the presence of carotenoid-producing algae Dunaliella salina, a source of ß-carotene, a food-colouring agent and source of vitamin A.

The Jurien Bay Motel Apartments turned out to be very new and quiet, a nice change from some of the cheaper and nosier motels. Not sure what they thought about me oiling the chain on their nice new tarmac though.

Went for a walk after arriving to the Federation Memorial Park and the harbour, and some of the new huge houses being built as the area develops. One thing you notice about all Australian towns, no matter how small, is they all have a memorial to the fallen of the first and second world wars (and other conflicts) which are without fail kept in pristine condition. It takes some time before it really sinks in that Gallipoli was the defining point for the whole nation.

Today was the trip down to Cervantes and to the Pinnacles Desert, a very gentle 12 miles or so. On the way down the tyre pressure warning light came on so pulled over and did the roadside check, kicked the tyre and prodded it with my finger. Seemed all right so carried on then remembered the warning that the light can come on for no reason. It went off and came on again so decided to check in a garage, pressures fine so ignored it.

Got to the Pinnacles and paid the A$8 to get in and took the advice of the lady at the entrance to do the whole loop. Its well compacted and solid sand she said, apparently the British and the Australians have very different ideas of what solid means. The route is around 4 ½ kilometers so off I went on my supposed 70/30 tyres (read road tyres) onto quite solid sand, wait for it. First stop for pictures got chatting to a British couple who were out visiting their daughter and her boyfriend. Turns out the boyfriend grew up 1 mile from where I did and his local was one of my favorite watering holes, small world.

Rode with expert skill (reality being more like a weeble – ask an older person) around to a few more scenic points and managed, through sheer skill I might add, not to fall off when the “solid” sand became 9 inches of soft devil’s surface. Note, watch out for drivers from China and Asia. Bloke decided it was a good idea to stop right in front of me on soft sand and let Wife out of the car, she got the shock of her life as I almost rode inside the car, stopping when the front wheel hit the inside of the door. Much shouting before he finally realised there was no way I was reversing out along the sand and he moved forward. This was an early warning of the driving standards to come.

Obligatory arty shot in black and white and selfie just to ruin the view.

Up early as this was a longer day with the trip down to Hyden, around 350 miles. Planned a stop at a decent car wash to get the last of the desert dirt off the bike and avoid the excessive cleaning fees. The red dust from the north is basically rust and sets solid. Getting closer to Perth it was odd to be riding in traffic again and negotiating lights and multiple lanes. Route was pleasant enough meandering through forest areas further along before the road into Hyden which showed signs of the fires in the area as the trees each side were burnt down. Late arrival to the motel so settled in and headed for the bar.

Pinnacles are great,

Look for the white dunes as you head to Perth


The Gingen Observatory is near there, Worth visiting to see the gravity tower. Even better at night if the skys are clear


They have a large chunk of Skylab there as well

Rode out to Wave Rock for a bit of a wander. It is very impressive and worth going on top of to see the landscape. Apparently they had to build a wall along the top edge as people kept falling off. Met the locals as I wandered down the other side, which was steeper than it looked.

Decided to do the walk through the trees, getting half way before thinking about snakes, to get to the Hippos Yawn. Then back to the entrance to get a bite to eat before heading to Mulka’s Cave about 20 km away with the last 2 km on the usual washboard dirt road covered in pebbles. Wasn’t worth the visit and the fly’s were going mental

Back to the motel to shower and get dinner. There is a barbecue in the restaurant and you pick your meat and cook it yourself. Steak done time for beer with the firefighters who had been tackling a blaze nearby.

Tomorrow its back to Perth and hand the bike back.

A little town history and the town centre, great cakes in the Bush Bakehouse Cafe next door.

Rode back to Perth and handed the bike back before getting a lift to the station and heading back to town. Bike will be getting a service and new fuel pump and filters before I pick it up again. Left a lot of gear at the bike place as I am heading for Darwin for a few days. Drinks with friends in Perth and an early night ready for the flight tomorrow.

Got to Darwin and into town which is quite small and checked in. Hotel is 5 mins from the harbour but it is very humid. Walked to the harbour and to the Flying Doctor Museum which is well worth a visit. It has a really cool virtual reality film about the bombing of Darwin and good films about the Flying Doctor Service. Woman in the centre was very informative and I would recommend it.

Apparently Darwin was bombed more times than pearl harbour and a greater tonnage of bombs were dropped. Dinner in a restaurant on the harbour and drinks before retiring for the night.

Decided to walk to the Museum and Art Gallery of Northern Territory. Got quite humid so called in at Eva’s café in the Botanic Gardens for breakfast. The museum is a fascinating place with good exhibits. I had no idea that Cyclone Tracy devastated the city of Darwin from 24 to 26 December 1974.

The storm had been observed passing clear of the city initially, but then turned towards it early on 24 December. After 10:00 p.m. damage became severe and wind gusts reached 217 kilometers per hour (134.84 mph) before instruments failed. Residents of Darwin were celebrating Christmas at the time.

Tracy killed 71 people, caused A$837 million in damage (1974 dollars), or approximately A$6.85 billion (2018 dollars), or $4.79 billion 2018 USD. It destroyed more than 70 percent of Darwin's buildings, including 80 percent of houses. It left more than 25,000 out of the 47,000 inhabitants of the city homeless and required the evacuation of over 30,000 people.

The houses at that time were timber framed and quite flimsy, it was amazing to see the photographs of the devastation and read the accounts from people describing the sound of the wind and the corrugated tin sheets flying through the air at over 100 mph. Afterwards the city looked like Hiroshima.

After that it was a walk along the beach and back to town for a shower before heading out to a pub, turns out it was ladies night and once they heard the British accent I became quite popular. New one for me.

Dinner and many beers later I retired for the night as the next day I was flying back to Perth. The next morning was greeted with the same cock up by HSBC bank as in Perth, the bank had declined the security deposit for the bike. This after hours of phone calls and 2 ½ weeks for them to sort it, apparently they had done sod all hoping the problem would just go away. Managed to work around it and headed to town for a final look around and food before heading to the airport. The plane was then delayed leaving due to thunderstorms. The route was via Kununurra and then to Perth where we observed some of the fires below. Late into Perth so food and beer then bed, bike again tomorrow.

Picked up the F700GS (with new fuel pump and filters but still the original tyres with around 2,800 miles on them) in the morning and loaded all my gear onto it. Valuables in the panniers and everything else in the bag on top and I was ready to go. Took the scenic route down the coast to Busselton to the famous 19th-century Jetty. This wood pier stretches nearly 2km to the Underwater Observatory. Rode up the coast to Cape Naturaliste Lighthouse which is 20 m high and opened in 1904. Lots of water towers in the area, always makes me think of the USA in the 1930's.

Rode down to coast road to Margaret River and the cabin in the caravan park which was my bed for the night. The town is quite busy with a good enough selection of pubs and food.

Enjoying this.....great report and photos - thanks for sharing it with us!

grez said:

After 2 nights rest in Exmouth it was time to head south on a short 240 mile jaunt. Crossed the Tropic of Capricorn (missed the sign going north). Started to get hot with temperatures in the low 40’s (how little did I know of what was to come) as I rode down towards Carnarvon. Stopped at the Space and Technology Museum just outside town, very interesting place which celebrates the little known role it played in the manned space programme and the Australian communications industry.

It was built to support NASA’s Gemini, Apollo and Skylab programs, commissioned in 1964 and operated for 11 years. It was the last station to communicate with the space capsules leaving the earth orbit, and the last to make contact before splashdown in the Pacific Ocean.

The Satellite Earth Station was opened in1966, initially with the 12.8 metre wide Casshorn antenna as part of the global satellite communications system. The Casshorn antenna has interacting parabolic and hyperbolic reflectors in a characteristic ‘sugar scoop’ form.

On 21 July 1969, the day of the Apollo 11 moon landing, the Casshorn antenna relayed Neil Armstrong’s first steps on the Moon from NASA's Honey Suckle Creek Tracking Station to Perth's TV audience via Moree earth station - the first live telecast into Western Australia.

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I thought the dish at Parkes was the one used in the Apollo moon landing ?

grez said:

Picked up the F700GS (with new fuel pump and filters but still the original tyres with around 2,800 miles on them) in the morning and loaded all my gear onto it. Valuables in the panniers and everything else in the bag on top and I was ready to go. Took the scenic route down the coast to Busselton to the famous 19th-century Jetty. This wood pier stretches nearly 2km to the Underwater Observatory. Rode up the coast to Cape Naturaliste Lighthouse which is 20 m high and opened in 1904. Lots of water towers in the area, always makes me think of the USA in the 1930's.

Rode down to coast road to Margaret River and the cabin in the caravan park which was my bed for the night. The town is quite busy with a good enough selection of pubs and food.

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I walked that jetty with a busted neck, and then drove back to Perth lol (feck did it hurt)

Next day it was a ride down to Cape Leeuwin Lighthouse near Augusta. This is a much better lighthouse than the one at Cape Naturaliste. Decided to take the guided tour and climb the lighthouse which is well worth it for the history and the view.

The lighthouse is on the most south-westerly point on the mainland. It was built between 1895 and 1896, the stone is local limestone but all the inner working came from the UK. The keepers used to have to carry containers of kerosene fuel up the steps every 2 hours to fill the lamps and wind the weights up to keep it rotating on its bed of mercury, the light being visible for 40 km. The original light was 250,000 candelas.

The light was totally manually operated until 1982 when it was converted to electricity replacing the clockwork mechanism and kerosene burner, one of the last in the world. The new 1,000 watt halogen lamp increased the candelas to 1,000,000. The light was automated in September 1992.

Keepers had a lonely existence on the peninsular and had to go into Augusta for supplies. The winds regularly destroyed buildings and made growing crops a challenge.

This is also the area where the Indian ocean meets the Southern ocean creating unusual currents where they drive into each other.

After the lighthouse it was off to Jewel cave, recommended by the staff at the lighthouse, it was worth it. You join the guided tour and descend the steps into the cave which is home to one of the longest straw stalactites found in any tourist cave in Australia. They show you where entry was first made and an interesting story about the discovery of the body of the now-extinct Tasmanian Tiger that fell into the cave and perished. At one point they turn the lights out and you experience the darkness the first explorers had to contend with. It is up there with Carlsbad Caverns in New Mexico, though not as big.

After that it was a ride through the giant trees as I made my way down to Denmark and finally Albany for a couple of days rest. Only a 290 mile day but a long one nevertheless.

grez said:

Rode out to Wave Rock for a bit of a wander. It is very impressive and worth going on top of to see the landscape. Apparently they had to build a wall along the top edge as people kept falling off. Met the locals as I wandered down the other side, which was steeper than it looked.

Decided to do the walk through the trees, getting half way before thinking about snakes, to get to the Hippos Yawn. Then back to the entrance to get a bite to eat before heading to Mulka’s Cave about 20 km away with the last 2 km on the usual washboard dirt road covered in pebbles. Wasn’t worth the visit and the fly’s were going mental

Back to the motel to shower and get dinner. There is a barbecue in the restaurant and you pick your meat and cook it yourself. Steak done time for beer with the firefighters who had been tackling a blaze nearby.

Tomorrow its back to Perth and hand the bike back.

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Great report Grez, we are there at the moment however in Land cruiser ! We have done your trip to the word about two days behind you, this is a fabulous country......we are down in Margaret River for a week before going to Adelaide for the weekend. Safe homeward journey
Shinyface

I did the trip last year/this year, just late writing the report (due to excessive beer consumption). I set off last week of November and was in Adelaide for Christmas and Melbourne for the New Year before returning second week of January to cold wet Manchester.

The Ayre Highway was hot, in the mid to upper 40's. Watch for wildlife and take the scenic turns to the coast when crossing the Nullarbor, they are worth it.

Ended up in a very nice motel room, 2 bedroom with a washing machine and garden to hang it out in. Put the washing on and headed up the hill to the National Anzac Centre located in the Princess Royal Fortress. The centre overlooks the harbour where over 41,000 men and women departed Australia for the Great War. The museum is a fantastic place, on entering you get a card with the name of one of the soldiers on and you can follow their journey as you pass through. It is a very informative place and well worth a visit.

After the main centre I walked up to the old gun battery looking over the water and through the forest to meet the locals. After that a short ride to the Avenue of Honour and a walk up to the monument to the Desert Mounted Corps on Mount Clarence.

Ended up spending most of the day there so just a ride into town and along the coast before fueling up and getting dinner and ready for the long trip tomorrow.