Gone, Again... ( Random Adventures in Oz )

no, you may not make a suggestion!


















yeah ok, you can... and its not a bad one... in fact i'm typing up the next post now... but.... i'm sleepy


so you wont see it for a few more days

but thanks for watchin/feedback


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Yep, late September.

I had but I've changed my mind - I have a cunning plan for the Oz Safari 2014. I'll need a pit crew. You clowns will work well.

i like cunning plans


clowns... not so much...


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Fantastic read and cool photos, thanks for sharing. You seem happy with 800, any niggles and is your seat standard or have you changed it.

Ok, big breath......



I packed up the bike, had another shower, picked up a new tube, did a tiny bit of shoppin.... and buggered off west
into the West MacDonnell Ranges.. about 1.30 in the arvo....






(oh i should mention... i'd been watching Sundowner's 'Spot Tracker' when i got the chance... i could only get
his co-ordinates... but i could wack them into my GPS to see where he was...
seemed he must have become 'watertight' again and they'd moved off from Finke... and had camped out
at (if memory serves me) around about Mt Dare.. whereever it was it was definately on our (west) side of the
Simpson Desert... good to see they were on the rd.. then a few days later (and prob a few days before now...) it was showing
him down in the Gawler Ranges....hmmm... no Simpson crossing after all... hmmm TonyRDR did sound pretty set on it...)


ok, back to me..

first stop was 'Ellery Creek Big Hole'..



then some more Ochre Cliffs...




then Ormiston Gorge




i then ducked into Glen Helen and topped up some fuel..

i'd never been into the gorge here, so went for a walk along the escarpment...



across the Finke River...




and around to the Gorge.. not bad..




and took the long way back to the bike...




someone (probably Robbie) had mentioned camping in the Finke River, to the north, just past Glen Helen...

I'd kinda hoped to camp at Redbank Gorge tonight, but i was a bit slow today and so found the river, rode up a sandy track along it..

there were a few other mobs out there camping...

one looked almost like a festival.... i accidentlly followed a track that led down to it... and got bogged in the river sand turning around...

got a push out by a bloke who parked somewhere sensible and walked down... he informed me it was a wedding.....

i stopped a little bit further on and was passed by a couple of frocked up ladies who suggested i should come down to the wedding...

i rode on a bit and found a spot that seemed ok... there was a couple down the river a bit, so i mosseyd over
for a quick chat and make sure i wasnt crowding their space... they were cool, so i settled on my spot....

it had a great view of my bath..




aww yeah , thats the shit!





after bath, i set up camp and went lookin for fire wood..





there was bugger all wood around... too many campers been thru here...

i returned to camp thinkin there would me no fire tonight... when the bloke
and his missus from 'next door' rocked up in their 4wd with a load of wood on the back..

you want some firewood mate... he asked... not much around here... and jumped out and started un-tieing firewood..

'well only if you have some spare..' i said..

yeah mate, we're headin over to the pub for tea and a few drinks, headin home tomorrow so we wont be needin it.....

sweet!!

i got a fire goin...





enjoyed the sunset with a beer or 3..





admired my camp site..




and got some tea going...





then burnt the rest of my wood... and called it a night..



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next morning was cold again..




i packed and headed of to Redbank Gorge..

Its a little bit of a walk, but thru a nice valley..




and well worth the effort...





probably my favorite Gorge in the MacDonnell Ranges..




the access track in is kinda cool too




so then it was time to get moving again...

hey look, Ayre's Rock!




oh, wait, no... thats Hasst Bluff... look, heres a closer pic..




its a meteor crater (or perhaps where a giant serpent came up out of the ground, depending on who you listen too)

figured i'd go have a look...

the track in was a fairly sandy one...




but again, worth the effort..




so parked and went for a bit of a hike up the side of the 'crater'...



sat up there lookin at the world for a while, a couple came up... chated to them... they'd been on another
peak and watched me ride in thru the sand...


climbed down... wondered what lived in here... still dont know...





ran into the couple from up the hill again and they invited me over to their bus for lunch.... nice

so after lunch and cups of tea i was... ummm, Gone....again...

following the Macdonnell Range ..




was out far enough west that termite mounds started to be a feature of the landscape...



and some wildflowers...



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oh and did i mention the corrogations.....




they went on for a while... :huh



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the road wound over the escarpment.. they'd bitumenised
that 1 km of rd (oh and i heard they had gotten funding to bitumen the whole rd!!) :eek1




i stopped in at Kings Canyon resort at nearly dusk to see
what a site (and hot shower) was worth... but it freaked me out a bit and i pushed
on an extra 30-odd km to Kings Creek Station and got a camp site, hot shower, feed and cold beer for a
better price and wasnt smothered it tourists..




next morning i backpedalled the 30 km to Kings Canyon... plenty of tourists
and tour busses etc... but well worth a few hours to do the hike...




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there is a little swim hole up in the middle..





and its a pretty damn big canyon....



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so from there i continued along the bitumen east... a stop at Kathleen Springs..
the walk in takes you past some old stock yards...




before getting to the springs...




Red Centre Way wound south, until hitting Lasseter Highway....Right on that and started heading west...

From Kathleen Springs, Id been makin 'real good time'...

stoped at this lookout for a drink..




while there, a fella from the UK rocked up in his 4wd and caravan...

'Came half way round the world to see that!' he tells me enthusiasticly...

in a fairly un-excited tone i simply replied back.. 'no you didnt'...


'Yeah mate, the wife and i, come out from the Uk to see this.....'

'no you didnt' i repeat...

'thats Mount cCnnor, not Ayers Rock... youve got another 100-odd km to go...'

'Shit' he says... now i'll have to get back in the car and tell the wife she was right......'

he heads of, i head off, give him a wave as i overtake him, then duck in here for some fuel..



the postie's had been thru here the day before...


i rolled on and got a site in the campground at Yulara, then ducked in to the Rock just on sunset..





rode around it....



and headed back to camp...

Had a text from OzBikeDude that he'd made it home, (out the Great Central Rd, then back along a bit of the Trans
Australia Railway Access track), and TonyRDR had gone solo across the Simpson...

well that explained Sundowners spot heading south instead of east....

a couple South africans living in Sydney and doing an East-West crossing on some 660 Tenere's had rolled in
and were camped nearby... had a bit of a chat, went got some tea at
an overpriced pub/cook your own tea place and called it a night....




Next day was fairly laid back... chatted to the Tenere guys... theyd come over the Simpson...

I mentioned that one of our crew headed over the opposite way...solo..

we chatted a bit about it... told em he was on a DR supertanker...

they asked if he was English..

no, Greek i think... but well spoken so you could i guess think english..

It was seeming like they'd 'maybe' seen him...

but then i remembered he had on a white helmet with a flip-up 'jawbone'...fairly unique..

YES...! they had seen him...

they had a support 4wd with them and, talking to the driver of that, he said..

'yeah.. i came over a dune and was going down it...and this guy comes flying up past me... we nearly collided...
he goes past, i stop and watch him in the rear view mirror... he gets up the dune, dumps his bike and starts running
down the hill towards me... I tought he was gonna go nuts at me for not getting out of this way or something.. .. :huh


but then he starts appologising for fanging past...


and goes on to explain, that he couldnt stop... as he'd broken his clutch cable the day before
and so has no clutch! :eek1

Go TonyRDR! solo simpson Crossing without a clutch...has to be a first! :eek1


anyway, mid afternoon i went for another spin out to the Rock..




and had a bit of a walk around...




amazing some of the rock pools around the base..



and then back to camp... where someone had started setting up their tent right next to me... like real close... :ddog

they re-apeared, and they kinda took the hint after i suggested they may as well just climb in with me and save the hassle
of setting up their tent...

anyway, they moved along a bit... and we got chatting..

they were on their honey-moon... just got married they said...

'might be a strange question' i asked, 'but did you get married in the Finke River 2 nights ago..?'

"Yes.....'

bloody small world..

anyway talkin to the lads from Sydney ealier in the day, looked like we were all heading off tomorrow so got a bit organised for
a group tea at the camp kitchen...

good old feast before another long stretch on camp food..

(there was cheesecake as well...!



top night lads!


next morning everyone was up and packin..

Inmate MTBBKER is drivin the Ute,... one of the 660's...




so i was off and headed around the rock one last time..

there was a bit of a queue this morning to get into the national park... i was bored.. so i took a photo..



and then it was off to have a look at Kata Tjuta (The Olga's)



stopped in at a lookout on the way there... and caught the lads just leaving....



the view from the lookout..



and the on, around to The Olga's..

i chucked some lunch, camera, water etc in my daypack and headed off for a walk...



about 20 mins in i took a photo of something... only to have my camera laugh at me and tell me my memory card was full...

no drama... i've got another one..... back in the bike..

so walk back, get that sorted and walk back in again...



kinda hot, sparse end of the world...



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.its a longish walk but a good'n..




weird make-up to these masive mounds...



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view from 'valley of the winds'..



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some handsome bugger eating a can of tuna....



so it was near enough to 3pm when i got back to my bike...

hmmm... what to do next.... pretty much seen all the sights out this way now..

i toddled off again... and saw a dirt rd.. it had a sign down it which i couldnt
quite read... so i rode down and took a look...




and then this one on a bit further...




so i looked back at the Olga's..




down at the sandy road....



and kept on goin.................





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....keep up the good work!

:d:d:d:d:d

seat is standard ( i suspect BMW might have changed suppliers somewhere between the 09 and the 2012 models...)

no niggles (ok, she's heavy to drag up cliffs... )

little loose in the front end in the sand on this trip... but half putting that down to running the scorpion rally front (perhaps too aggressive for the terain...)

no dramas w the bike though... a couple of maintenance tasks after this ride.. (which i'll get to )

but yeah, all good...!

(oh, except the color... but i didnt have a choice... and it'll change one day )



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Hey Eugene...

thanks for watching...

you guys is Sth Africa or Sydney...?


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Greg, I am in South Africa, Morne stays in Brisbane and Piotr in Bundaberg. Morne is actually also an inmate - GasMonkey, poke him he wants to go and ride South America in 2016 (I have start saving some money...)

glad to see ya learned ta lite a fire..................



cheers matty

ps...........................urrry up.

Small world indeed. Glad you caught up with the overseas crew from the Simpson. The next day I caught up with a great bunch of Vics who had an emergency cable kit. I will never take my clutch for granted again .
Amazing pics and great narrative. You have a real flair for it and now you are officially our trip photographer. Great Work

so the Great Central Road it was...

Aub (OzBikeDude) had been thru about a week earlier and reported no problems....

I found the first 100-odd km to be a real pain..

maybe just because it was late in the day.. but the sand and corrogations were not pleasing me..



but being such a wide road you could 'sometimes' find a line that wasnt too bad...




but in general is was just a bumpy old ride...





came across a few grassfires along the way...



but it wad been a fairly long a physical day... about 6:15, i left the road to set camp...




i was only about 200 metres off the rd, but the spinifex, being so long was great cover..




the Scorpion Rally's were holding together nicely..




i waited for the sun to drop...




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and then, once i figured you wouldnt be able to see smoke....made some..




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it was just on 8am when i stuck my head out of the tent the next morning..




not a bad camp...




the sun was climbing slowly...





i had no idea where i'd be tonight... but figured it would be a 'ride till dusk day.. so i packed, rode back out to the road
and kept heading west...

first stop was Lasseter's Cave..




this is what its about...




for the middle of know-where it was surprising how often the scenery changed...




i was getting tired of bumps...




so i headed in to Docker River..




where i found people and fuel..
typical Aboriginal comunity... more dogs than people, more rubbish on the ground than in bins...

oh and wild donkeys in the street..

anyway... my dose of 'culture' for the moring i was gone again...


(with my fingers crossed it wouldnt rain....):eek1





typical of the signs out here.... lock up your jerry-cans...




hmmm.. still got a way to go before i get to Kalgoorlie..




keep an eye out for funky camels...!




time to stretch the legs..




continuing on, i came over a rise and saw 2 headlights up ahead...

seemed to be something big (wide) behind it...

its right headlight was higher than its left which didnt make a lot of sense to me,

so i figured it must be a grader or something like that..


i got a bit closer, and saw the outline of a person run off into the grass on the left of the road..

i got that dodgy... 'is some-one gonna wave me down for help while someone else comes
out of the grass and donks me on the head' sort of feeling.. :huh


but then i got closer still ..

and then a came upon this.. :eek1



they were going the same way as me... trailer rolled 2 and a half times then spun and flipped the bus...

the couple were scratched up a bit but ok...

it had only happened about 20 mins ago, but they had unloaded most of their stuff...

another car had been thru and was going to raise the alarm at the next town about 70km further on..

since they were ok, i left them, but said it i didnt see any police etc come past before i got to the next town, i'd pull in and make sure the alarm had been raised..




they had been on the road for 6 weeks and were on their way home to perth (due home the next day) not the best way to end a trip..


anyway, off i went, past replica Gunbarrel Construction plaques..




a police 4wd came past...thats good..

the cloud was building.. would it rain...? :eek1





one way to find out...!




i'd come into Giles, the shop was shut, but a sign said that there was a tour on at the weather station in an hour...

so i rocked out there, had some lunch,

looked at part of Skylab that crashed nearby..




looked at Len Beadell's Grader..




read a plaque



took a photo of some weather tower thingies..



poked about with some other weather stuff..



and then a fella came out and asked if i wanted to go on a tour..

hell yeah!

i was the only one there so off we went..

they make their own Hydrogen out here for the balloons (which are made in Finland btw...)




dont worry folks, this man is a professional!




and we're off...





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and then a mosey around their monitoring gear...really bloody informative!



this thing measures hours of sunlight per day..

it burns marks into the piece of paper behind it....
(you can make out a burn mark right next to the glass sphere.. )





so after a bloody good tour, it was back to Giles to fuel up on 'Opal'..




and then back out onto the open road..




the rain had stayed away, but the cloud clver made for some real nice light..




about 6pm i pulled up to have a better look at some maps etc to work out where i was gonna pull up for the night..





and settled on this spot..



i got the fire goin and pulled of a panier to sit on...

shoulda brought me fold up stool with me... makes a hell of a difference having something to sit on at the end of the day..



another fine sunset..



and another cold night staring into a fire......






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awww gawd

(thanks for the kind works but Tony... )


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Great ride. Wish I'd gone west. Way more interesting than I thought it'd be scenery wise. Great photography, mate.
I always thought Lasseter died in that cave and was buried nearby. Obviously another cave far away. Info on the sign was great. Lasseter's story is an amazing one. There's a cave in the side of Uluru that has aboriginal cave paintings that tells the story of the biplane, the "Golden Quest" that was forced down with engine trouble during the search for Lasseter. The pilot walked to the Rock looking for water and marked arrows around the rock base pointing in the direction he walked. He hid from the local aboriginals near a waterhole before being rescued by a camel team that was involved in the ground search. I have a couple of books you can borrow if you'd like to read about this famous episode in Oz history. Your photos bring it alive once again.
And not to sound like a suck up, mate, but this is becoming the best RR by an Oz inmate. Compulsory viewing, I reckon, ya bandy legged bastard. Very jealous of your travels. Hope you get eaten by a croc one day.

aww Sundowner.... you say the sweetest things!


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Nice pics again

so the next morning.... yep , cold again..!





mmmm, icey..




i wasnt keen to sit on that... and the tent fly was soaking wet too...

so out with the clothes-line while i packed and had breakfast..




eventaully seat was dry enough, so i was Off-again..

reminded about some peoples 'spiritual connection' to the land..




and pulled up by 5 or 6 funky camels out for a morning stroll....




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and then i hit 11 (or was it 21?) kms of bitumen....

seems the west australian government is pushing for the whole road to be made...




i supose that would mean they could come out and get stuff that had broken down....rather than just setting it on fire... :eek1




getting there!




the road had plenty of good moments..




and then plenty of sandy moments..




another fuel stop... this was at Tjukayirla Roadhouse..

was overdue for a hot shower...asked about prices to camp there... forget the answer, but i moved on...




only went another 20-odd kms... rolled out into the scrub and set camp again..




another fire, another cold night, and another early night..




next morning sure was fresh!




but any threat of rain had buggered off... next stop was this lookout..




then onward on that big red road towards 'Cosmo Newberry'..




hey a tree... thats a bit exciting!




Cosmo Newberry was a few kms off the rd, i headed in, got stopped by a fella in his car with his 'girlfriend', bonnet up,

'hey bruda, we broken down, u got some spare fuel...?'

a bit of banter, and me wondering how some fuel would fix a breakdown, and some excuses that i had no fuel,
thats why i was coming in here, saw me on my way..

'ok budda, but bring back some fuel'..


anyway, the servo wasnt open (didnt look like it would be again either....)

had a chat to a car full of locals that was parked there...

yep, no fuel..

asked if theyd seen a couple of blue and grey bikes come thru...

'yeah brudda, they just been here..' oh, with a hilux..? 'nah mate..'

i was none the wiser..

and headed on out of town a different way..




onward and onward...

ended up on the bitumen again...although i wasnt sure how long for...! :eek1




i was now 'overdue' for my 20k service...

i'd been thinging a bit about that the last few days... that i'd be well over by time i looped back to Adelaide... :huh

anyway, a lookout..




the road i was travelling..




5:15pm... looked like i'd be in Leonora tonight...yay, wouldnt mind a few things (beer, hot water, steak..!)

so i made Leonora... rode around a little bit..

place wasnt tickling my fancy all that much...

i rolled up to the servo to have a look at my maps and see what options i had...

and then i heard bikes...

i looked up to see the South African mob rolling in...

what the..? how did they leave 5 hours before me and get here an hour after me...without even seeing each other..?

turns out the took a detour a few kms to the south from Laverton..

so 2 of us headed of to check out the campground/caravan park... hmmm didnt seem that welcoming, and no-one around the office..

i decided to head off south towards Kalgoorlie, they were heading more west, noth west for the WA coast then down to perth..

so we said out goodbyes and i was GoneAgain south down the bitumen..

I did the 100kms down to Menzies, but was pretty knackerd... and i hadnt really seen much in the way of spots to camp...the road mostly had fences along it too..

there was a few lakes and possible camp grounds closer to KAlgoorlie (another 130kms..)

but it was late, i figured i'd have a quick beer, another map look, and then get some take-aways and head on..

sigh... i had a beer, looked at the map, had another beer, then another one, then paid for a donga out the back, had another beer, moved bike to the compound out the back, had another beer,
some tea, some more beer, a hot shower and was out..

next morning was a fuel up at the '24hr, card only fuel place...




the pub...




the main street..




so last night i'd decided that since bike was overdue for a service.... and Perth was a lot closer than Adelaide...

that i should head for Perth..

It was Tuesday morning, i called BMW in Perth..and was able to book in for a service on Thursday...

That gave me 2 days to get to Perth... it was about 730kms by bitumen...perfect!.. so i turned right (west) and out into the dirt..





i figured, about 160kms west to Evanston, then south to Bullfinch, then backroads to perth.. with a night camped out 'somewhere'..

onwards,,,




there was a lot of 'new' tracks in here, from mining exploration, that made navigating 'interesting..




oh and so the odd truck to pull over for...




took a detour into 'some rock' for a break...



fair place to camp too... but was a bit early for that..




anyway, i toddled on, past dry lakes..




over cattle grids..




past more usefull road signs..



one of my favorite signs....




but yeah... you can see how it would be 'interesting' in the wet.. :eek1




and then you have to cross a 'highway'....

in the midle of no-where...

was tempted to go for a run down it, but it was pretty clear from signage that it wasnt perhaps the best idea..

and fuel was getting down..

amazing the money mining companies have to spend on 'their' roads..



oh well, 'my' road had its good bits...




more lakes and cattle grids..




thru the dog fence...




more lakes (with more good camping)




and then hit the bitumen........




i rolled into Bullfinch (which had moved!)
interesting place.. not much there but they moved the town so you come in thru a kind of graveyard of front gates
and paths with no houses before hitting the 'real town'

no fuel... no drama, i still had a 5 littre jerry..

i decided to push on for Mukinbudin..

i hit the bitumen and pulled the trigger...

my fuel light came on...

i had about 80km to go... and i normally get about 80km on reserve...

i coulda slowed down... but didnt...

i hit the 'Welcome to Mukinbudin' sign and the bike cut out... :eek1

i pulled the clutch and rolled in, hoping to roll into a servo... didnt see one and stopped here in the
main street outside a fish n chip shop...




no choice but to untie everything and fill up from the jerry... which didnt really bother as
i was on bitumen tomorrow into Perth


I'd done 424kms on that 16.1 litre tank of fuel...! a record (for me anyway!)




so after tiping the jerry into the bike, i road around town, and pulled up at the pub..

walked in and asked if the had any rooms for the night...

'we have a couple of motel units out the side with their own bathrooms...' came the reply... gawd a unit, with batchroom,
that'll be too pricey i thought to myself before asking how much..


"$40 bucks" came the reply... :eek1

"I'll have a beer, a room and the dinner menu thanks!"

40 bucks!




goin back there again!

main street, pub, next morning...




so from here it was bitumen back country roads all the way into Perth..




i was running a little early and so called BMW to see if i could drop my bike of tonight instead of in the
morning (wouldnt have to worry about overnight parking that way)

no worries..

i rode into Fremantle and checked into a backpackers, unloaded my gear and rode over to BMW and dropped of the bike with some 'new' friends..




and taxi'd back to Freo..

the next day was raining, so when i got the call about lunchtime that bike was ready, i asked if i could leave it there till tomorrow... no worries..

spent the day moseying around Fremantle..

looking at all sorts of stuff..

even Iranian paper cuttings...



and the night lookin at ferris wheels..



and drinking beer at the Little Creatures Brewery



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and walkin around the wharf..



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next day was still raining but it was supposed to be clearing the day after that...

called BMW again... hey um, its still raining... clearing tomorrow, ok to stay another day..? "no worries!"

so saturday came around and i taxi'd over to BMW to pick up the old girl,




i wasnt looking forward to the few thousand highway kilometres home across the nullarbor..


it was day 28 of a 10 day trip....



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Well done!....again!

Your a champ mate..

inc