A Long Weekend

[guzzimike]

Sitting around at home, putting off doing all those things that should be
done, spending waaay too much time surfing the net, especially advrider.
What to do?
A bit of a ride? York for lunch? Can't be bothered.
Finally, fed up, I surrender to what has been fermenting in my twisted little
mind for the last few days, I mean, it's not temptation if you don't give in
to it.
So I pack up the trusty F800 and head East again, this time to Pooncarie &
Top Hut Station in NSW, about 3000km away from my home in the hills behind
Perth WA.
The South Aussie/Victorian/NSW crew have organised (a loose term) a bit of
a binge on Friday night at Pooncarie, on the banks of the Darling river,
followed by Saturday night at Top Hut about 75km South East in the middle
of BFN.
So on the Monday I approach SWMBO as she leaves for work, it works, she
relishes any opportunity to get rid of me, it seems.
So I head for the bike shop to pick up a new rear tyre, strap everything on,
ride to the gate and remember I've only got WA maps in the GPS.
This takes several hours to remedy and by the time I get my act together it’s
too late to go anywhere, so ennui sets in again until the girl arrives home
and enquires as to why I am still here and not to be such a sook.
So Tuesday morning I wheel the bike out of the shed, and head off down the road.

If you ride east about 300km from my house through the wheatbelt you come
to Hyden, famous worldwide it seems, by the number of foreign tourists
in inappropriate cars, for it’s Wave Rock.
I subscribe to the “seen one rock you’ve seen ‘em all” school of thinking,
so I give that one a big miss and hit the gravel on my way to Norseman
(named after a racehorse)
The Hyden - Norseman Rd is about 300km long, a gravel superhighway, but with no services at all.
If you pass more than 3 or 4 cars it's a rare day.

Along this road are a few distractions.
The Breakaways


McDermid Rock


With some very tough plants growing in fissures in the rock.

Johnson Lakes,
Like most Australian lakes, they are dry, most of the time.

After Norseman we hit the slab, until, with fading light and enthusiasm, camp is made 5km east of Caiguna.
1000km for the day.


More to come.

[Phil_Fong]

[bully1]

hey Mike when did you do this run? I think I passed you in S.A couple weeks back on my return trip.

[guzzimike]

Originally Posted by bully1

hey Mike when did you do this run? I think I passed you in S.A couple weeks back on my return trip.

Hey Bully
Left here on 27 Oct

[bully1]

yeah Mike must have been you between Penong and Ceduna from memory, might have been the other side of Ceduna though.

I arrived back in Perth 30th after overnighting in Balladonia thurs night, night before was in Kimba, passed you on the thursday morning.

[rawdog]

[mcc66]

Looking forward to reading more.
Thanks for sharing.
mcc66
Michael.

[guzzimike]

When you sleep outside you tend to wake early. We are also 1000km east
of home but in the same time zone, so the sun gets up at sparrows fart.

This insignificant track marks the new overland "telegaph" - the optic
fibre cable linking the east with the west, this replaced the microwave
link in the mid 90s which in turn had replaced the old wire in about
1970.The microwave made direct dial phone from east to west possible
for the first time. We've come a long way in 40 years aye?



We call it, "crossing the Nullarbor" but the Nullarbor (from the Latin
Nullis = none Arbor = trees) is only about 17 km long where the road
crosses it. the rest of the time the journey takes you through woodland
as seen in my camp shot above. It is actually quite diverse and having
done this trip many times before, I still don't find it boring.



At Eucla, close to the Western Australia - South Australia (imaginitive names Huh?) are the ruins of the old telegraph station which operated from 1886 - 1927. It must have been a hard life. They worked in starched collars and black coats. The SA guys on one side of a partition and the WA on the other side, passing telegams through holes in the partition.
They were separate colonies then and even used a different sort of Morse Code.



After we cross the Border into SA, 1400 km from home, the road follows the Baxter Cliffs for about 150km, giving some speccy views, and whales in season.



Pretty soon we come to the Nullarbor proper

As I said the treeless plain doesn't last long and soon we are in the Far West wheatlands of SA, currently having their best year on record, after 4 years of drought. This is marginal country with only 8" annual rainfall, and how they get a crop at all beats me.
And so, at the end of day 2, 2000km from home I come to Ceduna SA and civilization, the first town for 1400km.
A good feed at the pub & a good nights kip in the cabin park and I'm ready for bear!
More coming.

[oz_mick]

[GB]

Beautiful ride!! Thanks for the report and pics!!

[Sundowner]

You make the tyranny of crossing this country sound so easy and enjoyable, Mick. Pleasure sharing the road/tracks with you, mate. Pearler of a RR as well. Still reckon it's an amazing coincidence to bump into you in Loxton that day. Couldn't have timed it better.

[bully1]

It is easy to cross the country! you just point it west and ride,refuel before you run out each time and 2 days later you watch the sun go down over Rotto! piece of piss don't over complicate it just do it!!!!!

[guzzimike]

Ceduna's on central summer time, so I lost 2.5hrs yesterday, being as it's way out west the sun sleeps in, so it's 7am before the skippys go to bed.
I get a sleep in.
Something about early mornings


A quick trip across the top of the Eyre Peninsular and I'm in Port Augusta where the mighty Mitas 09 finally gets the flick and the very helpful guys at Northern M/C drop everything and fit my MT21 that I'd dragged all the way from Perth.
It's warming up.
Over the bottom end of the Flinders Ranges via Horrocks Pass.
(named for him after he died from spear wounds)

Then we cut across SA heading for Mildura Victoria.
We see some windmills. Some people hate 'em, recon they bugger up the pristine landscape.
I love 'em they look so majestic, so clean & crisp.


Then, in one of life's great coincidences, I am tooling around Renmark, wondering what to do next when I stumble across the SA boys on their way to the same place as me.
Never backward in coming forward I promptly invite myself to join them.
We travel in convoy to Lindsay Island, on the Murray and proceed to start the weekend (and it's only Thursday)
The trailer of knowledge needed a fair bit of ongoing maintainence

Top camping spot, pity about all the orange hogging the limelight!


More tomorrow

[Thorne]

............

[Wilmo]