Australia, across and back and points of interest

[gavo]

Well the trip from Hyden to Perth was straight forward and we split up when we hit town, I went to stay at a mate's house in Inglewood and the rest went to stay at Doug's mum's place up Woodvale way.A couple of days r&r and bike service and back on the road. Doug , pete and Graham going the coast route and me going through Pinjarra, waroona , Harvey.
Some of the others photo's
looks like Busselton

not sure about this


I went from Bunbury Bridgetown, manjimup and stayed at the Rocky gully Pub, wouldn't recommended it.
On towards Mt Barker

Through the porongarups

Used to stay at this place sometimes when I lived in WA

then on through Chillinup



and on to Esperance.

[gavo]

I arrived in Esperance and for the first night stayed in the caravan park near the rail line.apart from being expensive, $25 for tent site the trains kept me awake.
Moved to the van park around near the jettyand got a cabin and waited for the rest to arrive. Heavy rain , storms, they arrived the next day, really foul weather, so another cabin and another day. 24/5/2010
Left next morning, still raining, off towards Israelite bay.
Graham had been spooked by the sand on cattlewater pass so as soon as we saw sand towards Israelite bay he opted to take the Balladonia road and meet at Caiguna.


the tracks toward the old telegragh station were great,if a bit muddy





And our nights camp on the edge of a mud flat

[gavo]

On our second day around Israelite bay some more good riding plus some sections that were so slippery if you leaned 1 degree off the vertical you went down. Needless to say this took a while




Finally we hit some sand again and as a earlier fire had cleared the place visability was good

Then up away from the coast just before the bight starts



We were still basicly following the old telegraph line with some very sticky mud forcing us to stop periodically to clear the rear wheel.
We were looking for an old smugglers cove in the bight but were running out of time and daylight plus I had run out of water. So we headed for the Eyre highway which was about 20 or 30 kms away and then rode 60kms on the highway in the dark, not good, lots of roos, camels etc.
We made it into Caiguna safely to meet up with Graham who had his own tale of getting bogged on the Balladonia road and having to unload to extract the bike and throwing a chain about 50kms from Caiguna and cracking the cases on the husky hiding the bike and hitching into town.
Caiguna motel

[gavo]

In the morning we left Graham waiting for a salvage truck to arrive from Norseman to take he and bike back and in the end he was flown home and bike shipped to his place all through the RACQ breakdown service free of charge to him
We headed out to Cocklebiddycave




At Madura pass

We took the old coach rode on top of the escarpment through Madura and Munderabilla stations
checking out some more caves



But caught running out of daylight again

We arrive in Eucla at about 8: pm after riding around on muddy tracks in the dark for around 2 hours with several falls and doug riding into a large wombat hole in the dark.
And to add insult to injury by the time we got cleaned up and back to the bar the closed it at 9 and wouldn't sell us 1 bloody beer, NOT happy.
Next day the plan was the old Eyre highway which is dirt from Eucla to Ceduna around 300ks
I remember travelling the road in a car with my parents when it was the main highway east-west

And where it comes back to the newer highway at Nullarbor



After a couple of goods seasons there was plenty of widlife
and the stop of Ivy Tanks which is not the place it used to be









We arrived in Ceduna and found a cabin and went to the post office to pick up the tyre I had posted to myself. Plus it had started raining.

[gavo]

We went to the pub by the waterfront in Ceduna for diner, excellent meal and a few beers. We had been studying the weather, the panned route up Goog's track to Coober Pedy then on to Mt dare and the Simpson was not looking good,
the Simpson was still closed due to flooding various other areas were cut off and the radar showed a large front moving across, damn.Doug wanted to go anyway while Pete and myself were worried about being cut off and not getting back for work. we decided to go for a ride up Goog's the next day unloaded for a look see.
We were the only one's out there no other track on the wet sand





We went as far as the lake, about 80k's each way then headed back to Ceduna to think about our next move.
Checked out the weather radar again and Pete and I decided not to go to the interior. Doug being a bit gun ho said fuck ya I'm going, so we made sure he had enough spares, tubes etc and the spot tracker.
The next morning It was still raining so we split up ,Doug heading north and Pete and I on the Hyway.
Around Iron Knob


then coming into Pt Augusta


This is the last of the photo's we rode in just about non stop rain heading towards Peterborough the cross winds and the pelting rain made me feel I was at a constant 45 deg angle and it was dark. A top meal at the pub and a room made us feel better.
Next day heading towards Broken hill it at Broken hill more gear it was freezing.
Wanted to take the dirt road from Wilcannia to Tilpa but was closed due to flooding so on to Cobar, rain most of the way lots of feral goats and roo's>
Stayed at the caravan park in a cabin. The fact that the family were having a domestic while we were signing in should have told us something. The word dive comes to mind.
North thru Bourke,Brewarrina,Walgett Lightning Ridge stopped in to buy the Mrs something and had a long talk to Herman the German before buying something. Then pushed on to St George, funny how the rain stopped when we got to QLD its the bloody opposite atm . Motel in St George were Pete managed to break the new tv.
Last day 2/6/2010 straight dry ride home arrived late afternoon all up around 12000 ks.
Doug told us he didn't have much trouble and put in a big last day of around 1100 ks plus not much rain it seems to have followed Pete and me
2 years later we got to do The Simpson but still not all of Googs track.

[Ian Robinson]

Thats one hellava long ride ..its a big country. The rain/mud would have made things interesting .

great RR. better late than never.

[philth]

good stuff!