The Trip

Those readers who have been following me on Twitter or Facebook will be a little confused that the latest posts have mentioned nothing of a broken collar bone. I’ve been out of mobile range for a few days, so the posts came a little late…

Day Four was meant to be a rest day. Six of our company booked flights over Lake Eyre at lunch time. Andy, Katy and I decided to ride out to the lake on the motorbikes instead. The road was terrible. Many cars had made new side-tracks beside the main one to thy to avoid the corrugations. Andy and I took a number of these, and the going was slow but consistent at about 50km/h.

It was about 18km down the track that I came across what I’m now sure was a patch of bulldust. I saw it,  and recognised it as sand, and slowed right down. My front wheel dug in, and I was off, landing on my left hip and shoulder. I rolled a couple of times, and remember a cloud of dust – to thepoint where I could no longer see the other bike. I got up and checked myself over, told Andy I was OK, then felt a click and knew I wasn’t completely OK after all.

I managed to get my jacket off (getting the left arm out was not fun) and sit down on the side of the track. Katy sat with me while Andy rode back for help. About 45 minutes later a 4WD came past with a lone grey nomad on board. He gave me a hat to keep the sun off my head. Andy, Nick and Jordy arrived shortly after (as did the returning nomad, who got his hat back). They were amazing. Jordy got me into a sling, and pep-talked me all the way back. Nick rode the bike back, and Andy navigated the bumps brilliantly.

Back at Camp, Mandy had been in touch with the flying doctor. I spoke to him when I got back, and he suugested I go to Coober Pedy for an x-ray. We at lunch and worked out a plan. Nick and Jane would drive me to Coober straight away, while the others packed up camp. The drive was about 2 hours, and while it was rough, it wasn’t too bad.

The x-ray machine at the hospital was broken, and it took four shots to get an image worth looking at. By the time we were done it was dark, and the others had reached town. We made camp at the caravan park, where I got a cabin for the night. After a late dinner of pizza, it was time for bed.

Now, what to do…

I’m glad I actually ate breakfast this morning… it turned out to be a big day. In the process of packing up I realised that my rego holder, including the screw that hold in my battery, had fallen off at some point in the trip. I found a bolt that would fit in the hole, but it really is too long… never mind.

We managed to get camp packed up and get on the road again fairly quickly this morning, despite the wild winds and threatening rain. The track out from Brachina Gorge had somehow deteriorated over night, and the corrugations that we would have ridden over at 70 or 80 yesterday nearly shook us apart.

The trek up the highway was less windy than yesterday, and the sun shone through patchy cloud all day. We rode on to Leigh Creek  and Lyndhurst on the bitumen, which came to an end there. The road from Lyndhurst to Marree was rough in places, but well packed and pretty consistent. I managed to average 90km/h on the bike, and at one point caught myself doing about 125.

Marree marked the start of the Oodnadatta Track, which was similar in quality to the road we’d been on, but less consistent.

I was really happy with the riding today. I managed to keep the speed up through changing conditions, and recovered from a few minor scares without losing my nerve, and without falling off.

We stopped for lunch in Coward Springs, which would be a lovely spot to camp. After lunch we took a short walk to the spring-fed swimming hole, which was effectively a box os railway sleepers set into the ground, where it bubbled away and overflowed into some wetlands. We cooled our feet there for a while, before heading back to the vehicles.

The ride from Coward Springs to William Creek was only about 70km, but it was the most challenging stretch of the day. The road surface changed constantly, which made it hard to hold a reasonable speed. Despite a few scares, we made it to William Creek OK.

The wind still hdn’t really died down when we arrived, so we’ve made camp under a shelter made of railway sleepers and tracks. The wind has dropped now, but it’s good to know we have good shelter if it picks up again.

Tomorrow, 6 of our company are taking flights over Lake Eyre. The remaining three (Andy, Katy and myself) will probably ride to the lake, and see what we can see from ground level. From what we’ve heard, the water stops about 10 km from the car park, so I’m not certain what we’ll be looking at… but I know it will be lovely.

7:45pm
I’m lying on my camp mat in my tent, at a place called Brachina Gorge in the Flinders Ranges. The only really strange thing about that is that it is 7:45pm.

My day started at, I guess, about 1:45am, when I woke up. That’s the trouble with early nights: your body can very easily decide that time is up, and that you’ve had enough sleep. After checking the time, and convincing myself that it was indeed not yet time to get up, I went back to sleep. During the early morning the wind picked up, and by the time it really was time to get up, it was still blowing a gale, with a little rain thrown in for good measure.

Thankfully the rain didn’t last, and the tent was soon dry. By the time we’d showered, breakfasted, repacked the food trailer and loaded all the bikes and cars, it was around 10am.

I tried out my comms gear today, having only used the iPod yesterday. The AutoComm is very sensitive to electrical noise, so I decided to run it from a 9v battery, rather than from the bike. Unfortunately, when running on batteries, the unit is switched on and off by connecting the rider’s headset. Since I’m using my own earphones and mic through a home-made adapter, it never registers to the unit as a connected headset… so the unit never turns on. The work-around is to connect a real headset to the rider connection (sans microphone) and place that inside the tank bag, then connect my own rig to the pillion lead. Not ideal, but workable.

The throat mic worked OK, though it was much more susceptible to wind and contact noise than I thought it would be. Around town it would engage whenever I moved my head. On the highway, particularly in today’s strong winds, it engaged constantly. (In its defence, it appears that the helmet mics used by the others did exactly the same.) That meant that the wind noise that my moulded earphones are meant to keep out got pumped into my head via my earphones anyway.

The PTT (push to talk) switch worked for a while, but that also fell down. It seems that the headphone jack connector I made for it is not reliable. Sometimes it would work; other times it would work with a beep, which is meant to be an audio feedback to tell you you’ve started transmitting; other times it wouldn’t do anything.

Also, the radio itself went flat, since it didn’t have much charge anyway, and had jumped out of its cradle. That will need to be looked at. Looking back, that might have accounted for some of the unreliability of the comms system.

On the road, wind was terrible… mostly cross-winds that threatened to blow us off the bikes. Mandy started off as a pillion passenger, but got sufficiently (and rightly) freaked out to get back in the car at the first opportunity. Marco and I pressed on, leaning hard to the left just to maintain a straight line. It was exhausting!

I was low on fuel, and stopped in a small town not far out of Burra. I was last in the convoy, so it might have taken the others a few moments to notice I was gone. I met Marco and Mandy a few hundred meters out of town, and the rest of the convoy a kilometre or two further on. I went flying past at high speed, and at a pretty wild angle.

By the time we reached Carrieton at 12:30pm, Marco was just about out of fuel. The only problem was, the petrol station (and the town, it seemed) closed at 12:00pm. We filled him up from the jerry can, and decided to stop for lunch there. The food that Jane has bought and prepared for this trip has been fantastic. Lunch was sandwiches with good cheese, salami, ham, and left over salad from last night. Yum!

After lunch we rode on toward Hawker and stopped for fuel, where we all fuelled up this time. From there, we headed for the Flinders Ranges. We turned off the tarmac toward Bechina Gorge. The road in was wide and well graded. On the bikes it was a case of pick a tyre track and ride. We managed to hold 80 or 90 KM/h through that, even with the corrugations. Finally the cross-wind cam into its own, blowing the dust to one side.

We made camp in a beautiful spot, but unfortunately the wind just refused to die down. We literally circled the wagons and had dinner, but it was not a hugely pleasant time. And that’s why we were in bed at 7:45pm.

5:30am
I’m sitting in a camp chair in the growing light. The wind hasn’t let up, and the temperature (which was pretty mild last night) has dropped. There’s a blanket of cloud on us now, and it could be a cold, wet morning.

• Nearly ready to hit the road…. #fb #
• met the convoy at Ararat. Cruising west part Stawell #fb #
• now in South Australia. Told the troops 2pm lunch stop. No one has factored in the time zone change yet #
• between Bordertown and Keith #fb #
• late lunch in Talem Bend, and on the road to Burra #fb #
• enjoying golden light and long shadows, between Tarlee and Burra #fb #
• made camp at Burra. Stew is heating, wine is good, all is well. #fb #
• stopped in Carrieton. Insane crosswinds all morning. Scary. #fb #
• Marco is out of fuel, and the Petrol station closed half an hour ago. Jerry can, and lunch. #fb #

Mt Evelyn, Malvern and Ocean Grove… to Burra

Well, so much for the 5:00am start.

I got up at 4am, after waking up at what seemed like 15 minute intervals through the night. Pretty standard fare for me. My eyes see that I’ve set my alarm for some ungodly hour, and advise my body that it probably needs to have a back-up plan organised. Sometimes I just with I was consulted in the whole process.

Anyway, by the time we were ready and fuelled up, it was 5:45am. The “troupie” was travelling with us from Mt Evelyn, and since we had to fuel up the bikes (and left’s face it, we were always going to be quicker than a diesel 4WD), we suggested that the troupie not wait for us, but get going… and we would catch up.

We rode from Mt Evelyn to Warrandyte, to Research, and to the Ring Road, then headed out the Western Hwy. Shortly before Ballarat we hit a patch of what I gess was weather… that was not at all fun. It looked like fog, but it clung to the visor like rain. It was cold, too. All up we stopped in Ballan (for warmth) and Beufort (for fuel), and made our rendezvous with the others about an hour late. To our shame and confusion, the troupie beat us by 15 minutes.

While Marco and I had breakfast at Maccas, the others loaded our bikes onto the trailer. If felt a bit like a sell-out, trailering the bikes on the first day… but I know it’s for the best.

From Ararat we took the Western Hwy and, apart from toilet stops, made it all the way to Talem Bend before stopping for a late lunch. We bought veggies there as well, as we couldn’t bring them with us Victoria into South Australia.

From Talem Bend we drove to (and through, 4 times) Murray Bridge, and then on toward Burra. The drive was great, and th golden light and long shadows from the setting sun were just magical as we passed by fields of wheat and canola. Having senate the morning with Andy, Jordy and Katy, I travelled with Nick and Jane for the afternoon, and had a great chat with them as we drove along. We pulled in to the caravan park  in Burra at about 6:15pm. Amanda rang just as we were driving into town… it was perfect timing, and I was glad to hear her voice as the day’s travels came to an end.

Jane had prepared a fantastic stew at home, so while that heated on the stove, we made camp on the only patch of grass left in the park. Dinner was great, and it was really nice to have the 9 of us around the table for our first sit-down meal.

As I write this, just about everyone has filed off to bed, or is well on their way. My glass of shiraz is slowly freezing over, as am I. Nearly time for bed. (this was written at 9:30 last night… but the blog was down)

If you’re on twitter, follow @hdcoffeeboy. I’m trying to tweet our current location whenever we stop.

The last few mods to the bike are done. If there’s anything left to do, I somehow doubt it will get done now.

I fitted the Pivot Pegz the other day, only to find that my dirt bike boots no longer fit under the gear lever. What I really need is a longer leaver, but for now I’ll have to raise the one I’ve got… though I’ve done that once already.

The bike came back from a final service and check last night. Richie at Valley Force Husaberg in Lilydale worked his usual magic. He tightened everything (and everything needed tightening), and fitted a pair of black VPS Barkbusters. In addition to all that I’ve picked up a new chain and sprockets, and a new set of Dunlop D606s.

Just about ready to go…

With only few days to go, I think it’s safe to say that this is the last update to the itinerary. Take a look at the “Crazy Idea” page…