AUSTRALIA 2019/2020

grez

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Well after epic planning, and miss planning, the day is almost upon me where I squeeze myself into that big silver bird and fly over to the other side, or underside, of the world.

The plan such as it is.........................

Fly to Perth. Hire bike, a BMW 700 GS, and head up the Great Northern Highway to Newman before turning left to Karijin National Park. Then its on to Exmouth and back down the coast with a detour to Hyden to see wave rock before returning to Perth and handing the bike back.

Then its more flying to Darwin and back to Perth to pick up the bike again. Head down to Margaret River and Augusta before heading along the southern coast to Esperance. From there its head a bit north before turning right and crossing the Nullarbor Desert and into the Flinders Ranges. Down to Adelaide for Christmas and then the Grampians national park before the Great ocean Road to Melbourne for the New Year. Hand the bike back and relax with friends for a while before the long slog back to the cold UK and work.

The question is, will I make it and avoid encounters with kangaroos, emus, cattle, horses, camels, crocodiles, snakes, spiders, road trains............................why the hell am I going ?

Pictures and report when internet connection allows.
 
Just watch for the spring loaded marsupials ;)

You may find if you hire a bike, they will offer no cover after the sun goes down. (certainly Perth way)

This is due to the local wildlife, they make a nasty mess of cars bikes & people ;)


Margret river is great,

Try and get to Bussleton and walk the jetty if you can

We did a drive in movie in Perth on Christmas eve. quite surreal lol


jealous as feck.. lots of piccys & words please
 
Have a safe trip and I hope the weather is better than Exmouth Devon, it’s a bit damp here!! Never had a bike in OZ but have driven from just outside Adelaide up to Cape Tribulation in Queensland on the east coast during our trips, the cops are a bit over zealous with their speed traps, beware!! Looking fwd to the reports.

Al.
 
Sounds great. I haven't been to Oz since 1997 when I spent a month there. Flew to Cairns first and did a load of diving on the GBR including a liveaboard, then flew down to Sydney for a stop and then over to Perth to stay with some friends for Christmas and New Year. I ended up doing some part ime work in a dive centre there, helping out with cylinder fills, dive leading and helping customers and so on, did a load of diving on lobster hunts and on Rottnest Island. I also went south nr Busselton to dive the newly sunk HMAS Swan, it had been deliberately sunk as an artificial reef not too long before I got there and already it was being colonised by all sorts of life, got right into the bowels of the wreck. Returned to Perth before flying back to the UK. Have a great time.
 
Watch out for speed limits as they vary from state to state Also there are different time zones iirc 7 plus daylight saving too:rob Have a great trip:beerjug:
 
Cheers guys. Worked my route out so I can set off at least an hour after sun up and get to my destination around 1 1/2 hours before dusk to avoid most of the wildlife. Sent my full itinerary (full spread sheet of fuel stops, scenic stops and hotels - so anal) to the hire company and they are fine with it, they suggested a few tweeks including Busselton which is the first stop on the southern part of the trip.

Lived in Melbourne for a year many years ago and yes they are keen on speed checks. My average daily speeds are quite low as I want to see the countryside and not just ride through it.

Daylight savings are over so just normal time zones to consider, with Darwin being weird as they are 1/2 hour out from the rest of the country.
 
Wave Rock is mind boggling.
There's a reasonably good motel nearby which is surrounded by salt lakes and encrusted vegetation - petrified trees etc. Early morning colours are photogenic.

Not much else there but the scenery is stunning.
Love the way crows sound in OZ.
 
You'll love it. The only bit of that that i've done is the great ocean road from Melbourne to Adalaide and then back through the Grampian mountains and been up the west coast as far as Brisbane through the mountains and back down the coast.
A fantastic place and really friendly folk. Enjoy.:thumb2
 
Well finally made it to Perth. Almost missed the connection in Amsterdam as some fu*$wit in Manchester managed to miss the gate and we lost 40 mins getting their luggage back off. From Amsterdam to China, 7-hour layover, then to Perth with China Southern business class, definitely the way to go. Free food and beer in the lounge and decent sleeping on flat beds on the plane.

Only problem now is Booking.com and lastminute.com buggering up my hotel and flights to Darwin. Got confirmation the payment to the hotel had gone through followed several hours later by an e-mail saying it hadn’t and a phone call when I got here saying it had. Apparently doing a few different bookings with booking.com is to much for their system to cope with ! Might have to stop using them and use expedia or ebookers instead.

Time to shower and sleep and hit Perth tomorrow.
 
We did the reverse of most of this trip earlier this year, but in a campervan: Sydney to Perth. Good in parts is about all I can say about it. Me and Australia just don’t gel I guess. Warning about Nullabor, there really is fuck all there and I don’t mean the bits between the roadhouses where you expect fuck all, I mean the roadhouses are crap as are the towns at either end. Petrol, crisps, chocolate, fishing bait and ice are about as sophisticated as it gets, oh ok you might get a burger and chips but not a decent coffee or anything resembling nice food. And if you want beer they will take a copy of your passport. You may well have to pay for water from a tap.

On the plus side loads of wild camping so free. The Wave was good and also go to the cave place nearby which has loads of hand prints from ancient aborigines - you know spitting dye over their hand to make an outline. Probably the best site we went to.
 
If you Bump into Motomartin give him a clump from me :D (Kaister/Phil)
 
Sounds great. I haven't been to Oz since 1997 when I spent a month there. Flew to Cairns first and did a load of diving on the GBR including a liveaboard, then flew down to Sydney for a stop and then over to Perth to stay with some friends for Christmas and New Year. I ended up doing some part ime work in a dive centre there, helping out with cylinder fills, dive leading and helping customers and so on, did a load of diving on lobster hunts and on Rottnest Island. I also went south nr Busselton to dive the newly sunk HMAS Swan, it had been deliberately sunk as an artificial reef not too long before I got there and already it was being colonised by all sorts of life, got right into the bowels of the wreck. Returned to Perth before flying back to the UK. Have a great time.

Well it's going to take something big to top that trip (bordering on a thread hijack), when i die i hope its your life that flashes past my eyes and not mine!:eek:
 
Well I finally got around to starting the trip report, after I got back. All I can say is it was epic and not without incident.

Arrived at Manchester airport and checked in to business lounge, oh the decadence. Had breakfast and wandered to the plane. We took off over half an hour late as people missed the gate and they needed to take their luggage off, I will never understand how people manage to do that.

Quick hop to Amsterdam where the locals were treated to an old fat guy running across the airport to make the connection and then onto China Southern for the first long leg. Spent 7 hours in the business lounge in China before heading off to Perth and finally the hotel around 11:00 pm and sleep. Love how they feed and water you in business class, has ruined me for flying forever.

Tomorrow explore Perth.
 

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Got up bright and early and wandered downtown. General impression is it’s a nice city with not too many high rises but they are working on it. Twenty minute walk gets me into the CBD and I find a street straight from olde England. Wander down to the waterfront and to the bell tower.

Twelve of the 18 bells came from London's St.Martin-in-the-Fields church in Trafalgar Square as a Bicentenary gift to the people of Western Australia in 1988. Originally cast in the 13th century and recast in the 16th and 18th centuries, they were rung at the homecoming of James Cook after his voyage of discovery in 1771, after the Battle of El Alamein in 1942 and at the coronation of every British monarch since George II in 1727. There you go, a bit of a history lesson.

Then off to the park on the hill to get a good look at the city. Climbed the Kokoda Track Memorial Walk. This is a tribute to Australian troops who fought through atrocious conditions and against vastly superior numbers in the Papua New Guinea campaign of July 1942 - January 1943.

The fighting on The Kokoda Track was one of the vital elements of the Australian efforts in World War II. The Papua campaign, including The Kokoda Track, Milne Bay, Buna, Gona and Sanananda resulted in a total of 8,546 Australian and United States casualties.
More than 2,700 casualties were from malaria and at least 3,700 more from tropical diseases. More than 2,000 Australians and 600 Americans were killed. During the four months of fighting in the Owen Stanley Ranges, 607 soldiers were killed and 1,015 wounded from the Australian infantry.

It’s a lot harder than it looks in the heat, around 35 C, but gets to the top of the hill giving a great view of Perth. More wandering before meeting friends for food and beer (there is a theme developing here).
 

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More from Perth. War memorial on top of the hill in the park. That is a fire in the distance but a building not the bush.
 

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Woke nice and early on day two only to find a message on my phone that the security deposit for the bike hire has been rejected by the bank. Here begins a long and fruitless phone call with my bank (HSBC if you want to know). First they didn’t know I was on holiday despite telling them online as your supposed to. Then get told there is nothing they can do as it is night there but the best suggestion they had was to cancel my credit card and issue a new one which I would get in 10 days. I asked if they were going to fly somebody to outback Australia to give it to me and was met by stony silence by the “helpdesk” guy. The bank was totally fucking useless with no idea about anything, later I found out this had happened to a friend with the same bank. Managed to get around the problem with the bike hire company but meant I left for Freemantle later than I wanted.

Walked into the centre of Perth and hopped on a very clean train to Freemantle for a look at the old prison, walk around the town and generally mooch around before tomorrows start to the big ride. Not a bad place but I wouldn’t want to live there.
 

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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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The Old Convent Guest House in Dalwallinu and the inside of the pub. As you can see from before the roads were very busy.
 

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I'm off to Oz next month, but not on a bike.

Just to check - is everything still on fire?
 


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