Australia Farm and Outback

Hiya,
I just spent 2 weeks travelling around NSW Australia on a 640 ktm adv, I took lots of pics so will work on a long report hope u lot enjoy it.
Here is a pic of what is to come but i have to get there first.

Packed up ready to go all camping gear food for a few days and tools


Leaving Sydney Early Bye Bye to the traffic


St Albans pub very nice way to leave sydney good dirt road upto the great north and wollombi


Cool looking barn across road from pub





The road after St albans is great dirt twisty passing thru farms and lots of animals about check the sign roos wombats and koalas

Heading to Quirindi stopped here some place called battery rock weird formation


I took the back road from Merriwa over the range mostly dirt to willow tree but turn off before reaching it really good road climbs upto about 700m then drop down to warm farming country


Got there just on dusk thru a cover over the bike and relaxed a lot of riding started at 7 finished around 5pm pretty tired but glad to be out of the city and ready to go west


Next morning on the farm got a few things to do check out the new foal and calf


My dad with a 3 day old foalhe got bad colic so has been in the yard since born dad checking him out and getting him used to humans



Same foal after 3 days in the lockup i took him to a nice green paddock and he went crazy doing laps of his mum loving the freedom and grass

The old way horses and dogs is giving way to the Motorbike revolution




The new way of farming mostly using Quad runners and 2 dogs the cattle are almost trained to come to the yards by feeding and the way the lanes are organised. So instead of needing a heap of cowboys horses and dogs one guy on a quaddie can do it all.


Two well trained dogs can do most of the work these guys are good and love their work



Here is the orphan calf his mum died having him so we have been feeding him milk formulae mix it up and put it in this fake Teet thing he is doing okay

The next day Guunedah's Agquip like a farmers easter show i wanted to get a new Swag and something to stop the bike stand falling over in the soft red outback sand so worth a look


where is my hilux i have heard stories of guys looking for hours for their car getting here early and then seeing this sea of identical trucks

Chopper flights


I wanted to get a swag but they were so busy i couldn't get any service and wasn't paying $250 without trying it out so went to honda and found their solution to sidestands digging into soft soil, not bad but i don't think it will work with a heavy 640 loaded with supplies



Our solution was to weld a piece of oval shaped metal to the bottom of the kick stand facing out when down but back when up so it won't hit my andy strapz panniers works really well u can use your boot toe on the tab to firmly place it on loose gravel etc wire brushed it and some black spray paint looks like a custom jobbie.

Xellent pics sooo far.....looking for more....

this pic is GOOD !!!

Left early to get to cobar it was very cold windy lots of semis nearly blowing me off the road then getting stuck behind heaps of slow Grey Nomads on the twisty roads to Cobar. The roads get straight and some good views.



Conola fields very stunning it smells like breakfast putting butter on warm toasts nice but the roads are straight and i have my bike geared down for sand wish i had bought my old front sprocket or an extra gear!


The straight roads go on for ages get an ipod


Arrived in Cobar late in the afternoon and all accommodation looked booked out as Louth races just finished lots of no vacancy so found this dodgy place behind a pub. I thought it must be some dodgy pub/brothel thing with all these single rooms but turned out ok a lot of miners got sacked last week so only me and one other guy staying there. Everyone was very friendly and turned out a great place to stay with the pub and food 10 meters from my door


Changed the tyres for some sweet dunlop 908s good dirt grippage '


The Road Cobar to Louth starts off bitumen then serious red dirt lots of goats shetland poines and emus so watch out


Dead straight but u have to watch for sandy sections


U can see the dust of a 4wd in the distance it was very windy and some creepy serpent like trails of Red sandy/bulldust getting blown across the road

keepem comin

Good stuff

Those are good photos. St Albans pub is a great place.

Louth pub store etc


got a beer and filled up very friendly and helpful u can camp behind the pub looked like a good site but i'm heading to Trilby station only 20kms away.


I turned up at Trilby and there was no one anywhere at the office or entire station followed the signs to the camp site a bit creepy no one around and skulls every where



headed down to a camp site and it was very sweet
saw this fella keeping guard


And this pelican on the river took off as soon as he saw me i thought very different to the coast ones that look fo a free feed, then i saw a lot of shotgun shells around so some yobbos must take pot shots at them, mongrels


Trilby campsite right near the river heaps of fire wood and lots of critters around seemed like i was the only person for miles around


I sat down by the mighty darling to check out the wildlife at dusk and some kangas turned up


the pics are a bit blurry but it was a mother with joey and 2 siblings only 20 metres away i think the low chair and dark clothing make me blend in so they ignored me for awhile


I made some really dumb mistakes here at night wanting to put the fire out quickly to goto bed i stupidly used my drinking water and then in the morning made heaps of brews for coffee etc found out i had used up almost all my drinking water, idiot! 2nd day on the dirt and out of water on a deserted station and the river water was undrinkable.
camping at Trilby great views


I had a wander around the next day they have this shed with 2 cesnas heard later they muster with them and spot the herd.


I road upto the station homestead and the owner was there i paid my camping fee and asked for water, he pointed me to a fresh rainwater tank sweetest water i have ever had. We had a chat about the farm and he told me the river is his boundary fence and as it is so low his stock can walk across to the neighbours, basically openhouse.

will do more tomorrow hope u likes it

Looks like a great trip

Yep like it

+1!

Really great, more please.

Back on the roads a bit later than usual did some bike work in the morning the fuel now will be low grade so i pulled the right panel off and disconnected the high grade fuel. The chain was starting to make a pretty bad grating noise from all the fine dirt trapped in it, lubing it works for a while but then just attracts more grit. Also dropped the front tyre down to 15 then 12psi later in the day, my big worry was these cattle grids there are heaps of them and u don't know how good they are can be rutted out in front or behind as trucks have to break. Mostly back off a bit then hammer over them but stay away from the middle as can be gaps there.

The grids are about the only feature in the landscape pretty crazy u actually look forward to them and can get some good jumps on some.


U can see the mirage effect forming at the end of this pic and this is in the winter in summer they must be crazy. After seeing no one for a while u start to see white Toyotas in the mirage or houses something messing with the mind.


This a view of what is beside the road dry as dry it looks like salt is leeching up thru the soil and destroying everything, u will look at this and then see a sheep or goat with a few kids beside her and just wonder what are they eating.


Got to Tilpa pub a bit after lunch time very cool place they have uhf (see channel 35 on roof) so u can call in order food etc. The kitchen was supposed to close at 2 i was there at 2:15pm but the cook opened up and cooked me some lunch i got this sought of treatment in white cliffs as well legends the people out here really take care of visitors and bend rules to help u out.


The river behind the pub very low and dry i got talking to some locals and was warned about camping in Willcania and new i wouldn't make it by dark anyway so decided to stay here. I asked the barmaid where can i camp she points me to a local guy, he just asks very dryly "power or no power" i say "no power" "no worries just go over the bridge turn left and camp by the river for free"


camp site all to myself very nice. It has lots of wrecked old cars that must have been trapped by the flooding Darling a few turned over by the water.


old holden i think

Had a great night at the pub lots of people rocked up for a party in the area, met the road workers grading the section to willcannia they told me to take the right fork of the river as they have been fixing it and it is pretty good.
A big plate of cooked yabbies got placed on the bar for everyone and watched some aussie canoe guy win gold very good night.


Met this couple travelling the same roads to Broken hill to work on a sheep station he is a shearer and girlfriend a rousebaout, got the outback travelling system worked out swags in back of trailer spare fuel wheels and 2 savage dogs in the car protecting it. Note how low the tyre pressures are.



Road to willcannia
goes gravel around the corner very nice road.


Had a good look around and found something very shocking under the Tilpa bridge Philth u may have to skip this next bit it is very graphic.


An abandoned honda ct110 postie with a Tilpa pub sticker on it


next morning off to the beautiful willcannia


This road was fun and i had the bike running very well i passed the road crew working grading watering etc and had some fun Dakkar like runs looking in the rear view mirror u just see the trail of dust blown up by the bike as u hammer thru the outback absolutley awesome. Really blasting and feeling like u are leaving a trail of smoking dust across the country


I pulled up here and tried to warm my hands up and just relax the silence is amazing didn't see a living thing or sound, The couple in the white commodore cam passed and asked if i was ok, all good and they kept going they were the only people i saw until willcannia.

Got to willcannia pretty early what a ghetto like some south african soweto heaps of young mums with 2 kids walking around and people just sitting on the street, i filled up and headed out to white cliffs. Saw some old retired grey nomads couldn't back their trailer to fill up so there was a que of about 4 or 5 waiting for the same diesel bowser must have taken them an hour to fill up. Talked to the service station owner met a guy who gave me advice on the white cliffs road got 2 red bullshits and out of there.


Road into White Cliffs they put these big S bends in to slow down the trucks and stop the dust watching trucks arrive along this is like watching vehicles coming from another world nothing out there as far as u can see, the dust clouds from the semis is about 2 storeys high like something out of mad max simply awesome.




If u are on the same dirt road as these guys u want to pullover if u see them they hammer and the dust is intense, they also rut out the roads a bit so have to work on a speed to float over these ruts.


Don't mess with these guys



Arrived at the White cliffs pub dry and tired and the pub is closed they only open at 4pm everything runs on different times so people can do other jobs such as mining building etc, bit weird but u get used to it and this was the weirdest but most hospitable place i have been people were awesome, i think got a bit more respect as i had come from Sydney to here and tried most of the dirt roads, they really don't like the whinging Grey nomads.


White cliffs hard country looking form this hill u can see only dessert as far as the horizon scary but beautiful, start to think i better take better care of my bike as i'm a long long way from home and homes a long way from me.

Are there really wild shetland ponies in the outback? I´ve heard of emus and cats and camels, but the ponies are new to me.

This is the spoil from the mining digging a shaft down and piling the rubble on the surface there are houses under here my motel was just to the east of here and it had 6 rooms, really crazy.

The roof or ground of Pjs guesthouse it is massive over 6 rooms very spacious and u really don't feel that u are below ground


My room very nice one as it had a window below ground the first shaft so not so dark and clasuto. The window is the orignal shaft they dig down straight get to a level and then branch out in 4 directions of the compass looking for opal these became the rooms of the guest house really nicley done and behing the rooms is still a live mine that i got a tour off later.



The mine behind my room stunning had old pick marks from 1890's


Solar panel dishes experiment form 20 years ago not working now just a monument very stunning to look at though

Nice!