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No idea what happened, but it finally accepted my cut/paste so I dumped it all on here as quick as I could. And I beat the gremlins to get it on!
Writing and organising a ride report takes nearly as long as the bloody ride! Total respect goes out to blokes who do this all the time.
Hope it reads OK and there aren’t too many pics. I cut a lot to get to these, but felt that if I cut many more it wouldn’t reflect what we saw and did.
For those who put this on their list of things to do, all I can say is it’s not hard. You just need to plan it well. Truth be told I enjoy the planning nearly as much as the ride. My wife thinks anybody that enjoys reading about others trips, let alone wants to do them are M. A. double D.! People like my wife just don’t get why we do this stuff.
GOOD THINGS
Being able to meet up with Bucky and leave his vehicle and trailer at Gonz’s place in Dubbo. Thanks Gonz!Talking poo with Bucky during the four hour trip to Bourke
Being able to secure my truck and trailer in a shed in Bourke for a week. Thanks Chinner! Also for putting us up in your mansion the night before we left.
Thanks to Shane and Fred for their assistance in the service of my bike, changing chains and sporckets etc and then mounting and fitting the UHF as a last minute job. Especially when I initially thought we’d run out of time.
If you want to run a trip like this one I cannot tell you enough how much more easy it is to follow the pink line than to have to stop and check paper maps to make sure you’re on the right track. Sure we also carried paper maps as a back up, but knowing when following the pink line you’re right is the best most time saving advice I can give.
The OBT knowledge base. There’s one bloke on here in particular who has helped me no end. I am a mechanical numpty and it helps when others know stuff you don’t and they are more than happy to share their wisdom on many things, knowing full well I don’t have any skills I can reciprocate with. But that’s what being a decent human involves, shame there’s not more of it it the world generally!
Google maps, HEMA maps and even the humble NRMA maps. You have no idea how they help identify dirt roads and circumnavigation of tar!
Go with blokes you know, where possible. If you already know what people can or can’t do it makes the trip more enjoyable. Especially one who can cook fine meals, has a 4wd and really wants to tag along!
Bush camp when you can. Yes we had the Kamaz in support, but NOTHING beats a gazillion star bush camp with a fire, hot quality tucker and some cold drinks! I think Bucky is even thinking about buying a swag!
My bike! I cannot think of a better bike to have done this ride on. I rode eight days straight covering 2200km with nary a sore anything! Before the nay sayers start I last rode in August last year. The tenere just does everything. It’s the jack of all trades, master of none. Except maybe the long range adventure ride.
5W UHF RADIO!
We all had hard wired 12V radio’s on our bikes. At one stage or another each of us had problems. Mine were only that the audio plug just vibrated out. Luckily my radio technician (Shane VOR) was on the trip and a few cable ties later it never moved again for the whole trip. I had the standard mic in cradle on the bars. Bucky and Tractor had push to talk buttons on their bars with mics in their helmets. We all had helmet mounted speakers. Even Shane’s Hilux bullbar mounted aerial failed. He brought a spare, which then also failed.Bucky used perspex and velcro to rig a mount on his Tenere. I used RAM mounts and never had any problems. Bucky will change over to ram mounts before the next ride.
The radio’s were good for safety to call vehicles approaching, when Bucky was stuck under his bike he called us back . But we also used them for general chatter about we were doing or going to do. They were also used to sling some poo around as well :whistle:
The mic was stuck around the back in this pic… not how I rode with it.
BAD THINGS
That NINE months you have left from when you say “Where doing it on X date!” pass in no time what so ever if you keep putting things of because there is plenty of time left.
I went in and ordered winter gloves with four weeks to go. I still sit here waiting for them to turn up. Motorcross gloves and zero degree temps in the mornings are not a good mix.
We did about 300km all told of tar riding. I hate tar. We could have done a little less, but didn’t have the time to run the deviations needed to bypass the Yunta to Broken Hill section.
That’s about all I can think of. If you’ve read down to here you’ve read a lot or at least looked at the pics! Thanks!
FOR THOSE WHO READ FROM DAY ONE BEFORE TODAY –
I HAD ACCIDENTALLY LEFT OUT A “PRELUDE” OR INTRO SECTION. I’VE PASTED IT IN BEFORE THE DAY ONE SECTION IN THE FIRST POST.DAY 8
Up before the sun one last time. We didn’t have breakfast as it was only a short sprint of 99km up to Bourke and Chinners place where we left the truck. The plan was to cook our bacon and eggs on Chinners BBQ.
With a bit of light on the subject
The view as we headed north east into the rising sun and into Bourke
Bucky gives the final thumbs up for the trip
Where we came from
Where we are going
Kamaz pulling up
From here it was a short run into Chinners. Bucky and I loaded our bikes on the trailer and managed to have a shower and change while Shane and Fred knocked up an awesome feed. Chinner who treats his body as a temple didn’t partake. I to treat my body like a temple. The temple of doom!
Soon enough it was time to leave and we endured the four hour drive back to Dubbo where Bucky and I unloaded his bike from my trailer and onto his. We thanked Gonz for looking after Bucky’s trailer and car. I think Gonz is thinking about getting back into the Adventure Riding game… if you do Gonz, you can ride with us anytime.
Thanks to Gonz and Chinner for looking after our gear/vehicles while we were away!
Thanks also to Shane, Freddo, Bucky, Hard KORE, Fitzy and his daughter Tara for a great trip! Bucky has updated his phone to a new SONY experia that he tells me is water and dust proof! He didn’t mention anything about being loss proof though!
Already mentally planning the next one. Hope that all the same crew is available! Thanks men and Tara.
DAY 7
The view from my swag to the east.
Once again there was ice on the swag
Bucky’s machine facing the day ahead
Hard KORE
Decamping… sadly Fitzy had received a direction from the Minsiter to return home TODAY, come hell or high water.
Fitzy and Shane heading for the road. Fitzy turned left and went back into White Cliffs to follow the black snake home. It was a short time Fitzy, I think you enjoyed it and got a taste for it. I’m certain you’ll be back for the next one!
Once again the terrain was constantly changing as we made our way to Tilpa.
Bucky back on the black soil
Hard KORE on the black soil
Shane on black soil
Back to red sandy soil
TILPA pub! To be honest, was a little let down by this.
Certainly not much here!
The Darling River was way down
Bucky knocked over a pie for breakfast, he liked the look of the Irish bar staff too
Some history
Bridge over the river Darling. Tilpa.
Beware of kids on the road!
Bucky back on the west Louth Road
And gone in a flash of black soil dust!
Hard KORE goes off the grid!
So many signs for one cattle grid…
Don’t see too many fences out here
This is where I noticed my wire whip aerial had gone walkabout. Well it had broken off right at the base. Despite it being spring mounted it could take no more.
Have to say that the run on the west Tilpa Louth Road was very smooth and fast! Loved that bit of road, and it was only just over an hour run between the two. Shane went the east road and reported it to also be a good smooth run.
Bridge over the Darling at Louth!
Downstream from the bridge
Upstream from the bridge
Outside “Shindy’s Inn” (Louth pub), very clean, neat and tidy with helpful and happy staff behind the bar!
An hours run tomorrow back to the car in Bourke
The old Post Office
Looking towards the pub from outside the old Post Office.
View across the bridge towards the west road
War memorial in park across from the pub
Found this shower block across the road from the pub, very clean and tidy, scalding hot hot water
Available for use for the princely sum of a donation to the RFDS at the pub. The pub also had showers for use at $5 a pop. I gave my $5 to the RFDS. The other lads report that the shower at the pub was also very good.
Louth Public School
I had a rather spirited run from Tilpa to Louth and fuel consumption wasn’t anywhere within my mind. It was though when I rolled up to the pub at Louth and saw this…
Nice bar lady let me spit chips for a bit, before telling me that a further 20m down the road was a new pump! Ooops.
Soon enough Shane and Freddo turned up. We relaxed a bit before moving down to the free river camping area and claiming a spot.This’ll do me.
The sky always impressed me with how blue it was! I was actually trying to photograph the bird but that didn’t work out for me.
Fred enjoys the view
The view
This is why we ride all the way out here
Cocky’s in a paddock
Many moons ago the founding father of Louth lost his first wife. While married to his second wife he built a super expensive monument to his first wife. Apparently it was designed so that on the date of her death the setting sun shines off the monument straight onto the front door of the homestead (no longer there). We got a bit of sun, but the only clouds in the sky were in front of the setting sun. But you get the idea
Cocky’s on the communication tower
Walking back to camp
Tonight for dinner Shane knocked up some Chile Con Carne! It was awesome! Bucky ruined his by putting hot sauce on it. On the bottle the hotness rating was shown as 15/10! He was warned…
After dinner it got even better! He had been dragging a camp oven around for a week, we hadn’t used it. Shane said it was for cooking scones. Cooking scones? Have you got jam and cream? Yep. Real cream? Yep. What are we waiting for? So he just knocked together a batch of scones. His first use of the camp oven was pretty bloody good.
Camping in the bush doesn’t get any better…
Bucky and Hard KORE went up to the pub. Shane, Fred and I talked poo around the fire before jumping into the swags. The last day was in front of us.
DAY 6
We were up reasonably early, but again not in too much of a rush as we wanted to get somewhere just the other side of White Cliffs.
The start of another fine day in the saddle
Fitzy’s Taj Ma Hal on wheels
Note the snorers camp over the back there?
Shane gave Fitzy the breaking dawn tour of Silverton, by all accounts he loved it. But what’s not to love about the place?
With a quick run out to the Mundi Mundi plain lookout.
This is the hill mad Max drove down an killed the bloke on the bike’s boyfriend (or something like that, it’ been a while since I’ve seen it)
The night before we had told Fitzy of the great milk shakes we had the day earlier at Bells. Guess what? He easily convinced us to visit again. But first I needed air, panniers don’t help to make this an easy task! Checkout old mates set up on the truck behind Bucky!
It was shut until 10am (CST) so that meant our departure would be delayed 30mins or so as we had 10am (EST on our watches). But how could you leave and ride all day knowing you’d missed a Bells Milk Shake for 30 minutes of your time? We’ll wait while Hard CORE makes up his mind between the Malteser and the Jaffa!
Fitzy needed fuel, Shane would go with him and the bikes would head off for the White Cliffs turn off on the Silver City Highway heading towards Tibooburra.
We made it here in reasonable time, the four wheelers were no where to be seen.
Some wag had placed this near the corner
After taking the pic’s I looked closely at my phone and saw that I still had service. Shane’s UHF antenna had given up the ghost and he couldn’t fix it. So the phone would be the only comm’s we’d have… and he even answered!
Somehow the four wheelers had time travelled from the servo and were now AHEAD OF US! Shane had got to the intersection and assumed, wrongly, that we had not stuck to the plan (of waiting for them). So he threw the plan out the window and proceeded. Turned out they had literally just got off the tar onto the dirt about 10km down the road… they’d wait and throw the sausages on for a sausage sanga lunch stop.There was a line up for lunch
Black is the new black!
Fitzy wields the tongs!
It’s the simple things in life, like a sausage sambo on the side of the track, that make a man really happy!
The postie is back!
Fitzy on the move, too fast for the camera man!
How can you not love riding out here?
Pulled up here to search for some wood for tonight…
Tons of wood up the creek!
The landscape continued to change as he rode further north east.
By the way there was only tar around some of the cattle grids, certainly no long sections of tar today! Great news!
Postie on the prowl
Bucky and KORE got into White Cliffs a fair way ahead of the four wheelers and I, as we had stopped and searched for tonights fire wood earlier.
The last 40 or 50km into White Cliffs was awesome and I managed to put some distance between myself and the four wheelers in this section.
Soon enough White Cliffs came into view on the horizon.
Mmmmmmmmmm… red dirt to the horizon!
White Cliffs!
White Cliffs up close
Bucky and Hard KORE had found themselves a nice position on the veranda of the pub. Bad thing was they hadn’t watered the iron horses before they watered themselves!
It was chaos that day it White Cliffs. The delivery truck was in town and every man and his dog was in the store/servo wanting their order. Delivery truck on the left
Not much in White Cliffs above the ground. But there is a fair bit under ground, including a motel!
Bucky has been trying to become more like Hard KORE… he
re he lives on the edge by riding from the pub to the servo without a helmet!
The Kamaz was showing some dirt
It was time to get the hell out of town before we lost daylight. I headed out and came across to clumps of trees 2-300m off the road. Perfect as we’d get at this time of day.
Circling the wagons
Swag set up and ready to go
Bucky moved in just over the way
Hard KORE didn’t like the hard ground… by the way KORE, don’t need no pegs on a swag!
Fred gets snapping
Why would you stay in pubs or motels?
Hard KORE and his apprentice rehydrated on beer, made from beer.
The sun finally settled down behind the horizon.
Rest of the evening we spent around the fire. For dinner tonight the chef (Shane) knocked up curried chicken and rice… you hard core baked beans from a can mob don’t know what you’re missing out on.
DAY 5
Woke up to a cracking morning! It was VERY brisk…
Ice on the rear bag again
And the swag, though I have to say it looked more like the rear bag ice in real life…
We were just over 1000km from the east coast and our homes but we did notice that the sun took until about 8am to come up over the flat horizon each day.
Note the frost in the gully over Hard KORE’s tent!
https://fbcdn-sphotos-a-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-xpf1/t31.0-8/10490076_10203489732936825_6570436966146619830_o.jpgSo we had a snappy breakfast, decamped and were soon on our way. We all got back onto the road and got going. Shane was about 30 seconds too late or too early and was fronted by a woman in a Hilux about what he had been doing… turns out the property is owned by some huge company and she was somebody or others wife. He told her there was no badness happening, that it was getting dark and they needed to camp up. Eventually she was happy enough with the explanation and let him go about his business.
Waiting for Shane after his “talking to”…
We came around a bend to be confronted by a line of fog in front of a small range, it was awesome in the soft morning light. But it was freezing to ride through!
Hard KORE dives in at the deep end, he shows no fear!
Fred got me going in at the deep end too!
[img]https://fbcdn-sphotos-f-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-xpf1/v/t1.0-9/10501996_10203489731416787_5506579683898116827_n.jpg?oh=3811ad00101b9173b4834a914e4fe85e&oe=54461B61&__gda__=1413245726_9aabe5fc3505ee1243e6fe5a2e7210d9[/img]And before too long we hit Yunta. It has a brand new BP servo/roadhouse that wasn’t there when I was last here about ten years or so ago. Fuel prices were around what we paid in Sydney! So was the nationality of the bloke behind the counter.
My phone was going off the dial receiving and sending texts that I had created an sent to mates as I went along boasting about where I was and what we were doing. We made the required phone calls to home and got moving on the WORST type of road there is on an adventure ride. BITUMEN. It was a 200km two hour drone east from Yunta to Broken Hill. I hate riding on tar! Tar is for vehicles towing trailers full of dirt bikes to the dirt. I had looked at other options but in the interest of covering more dirt elsewhere it was the best option.
Stopped at Manna Hill for a few pics of the old railway station… my old man used to work on the railways as a station master, so I’ve seen a few railway stations in my time. But in NSW I have never seen one where the platform is at ground level.
As we went through Cockburn (pronounced Coburn thankyou very much… the C & K are silent) I see Shane has pulled up? Bugger. Wonder what’s wrong?
NOTHING! He had a bit of aerial envy…
I saw he had the camera out as I rolled in… so I stood up. Don’t all adventure riders ride while standing? It was about now I wished I had a spare tyre to hang off the bike as well… that would be really hard core!
[img]https://fbcdn-sphotos-h-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-xfp1/v/t1.0-9/10478235_10203489734576866_3890501064630967236_n.jpg?oh=c1378ee4482ccb42224c447feb7dd487&oe=543C7127&__gda__=1415124546_d99c85752c2d170137342393c215ed80[/img]Fred was really loving it… well he was on the inside! He doesn’t like to give too much away.
What little there is of Cockburn and we are back in NSW with 50km of black stuff until Broken Hill!
Passed a heap of goats on the highway at Thackaringa, they couldn’t have cared less about the passing traffic.
As soon as I go into town I pulled over to have a stretch. As I’m taking off my helmet, the very next vehicle that approaches pulls over and yells something out to me??? I pull my ear plugs out and he wants to know if I’m OK and can he do anything for me? I thanked him and he went about his business… what a nice bloke! We’d covered heaps of dirt roads and when stopped we’d barely get a wave out of some passers by, let alone anyone even remotely looking like stopping to ask after our welfare. But in the city of Broken Hill the first car stops???? Thanks mate, I hope karma is good to you and someone looks after you in the future!
First stop in Broken Hill is Bells Milk Bar! For the last 200km I’d been thinking about that strawberry milkshake! When I was living out here over ten years ago I’d brought a relative into town and took him to Bells for a milkshake. He still talks about that milk shake today!
Hard KORE going hard at the selection
Bucky trying to be Hard KORE and Fred loving it as usual!
Other fluro wearers love a milkshake!
The old school flooring
The local paper, the Barrier Daily Truth hasn’t changed.
And there we have, ladies and gentlemen, the best milkshake I have ever had in NSW!
[img]https://fbcdn-sphotos-c-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-xpa1/v/t1.0-9/10440704_10203489739296984_3418507067073245911_n.jpg?oh=46c619267935af281c676bb7e0bb2ce9&oe=5435BC7B&__gda__=1414286445_3e34cdf39bba738bf2b1649276386291[/img]I even bought a bottle of their syrup to take home for that relative of mine, he was very impressed!
[img]https://fbcdn-sphotos-a-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-xfp1/v/t1.0-9/10418470_10203489740057003_174315749618298130_n.jpg?oh=ac9ac2088fbe2d94c218d45071f1fb65&oe=5435EC6E&__gda__=1412921918_fbae323be5be94782e5edb070bfa4996[/img]Parking opposite Bells
For those who may be going there in future you can find Bells Milk Bar at 160 Patton St, Broken Hill. It’s over in the south on the way to the RFDS museum/shop so make sure you call in. I have NOTHING to do with the business, I just love their product! But not as much as Shane who had the milkshake AND the spider!
After that Shane took us over to the bakery that used to be called “Macs oven foods” you can find that at 191 Zebina Street, Broken Hill for his standard Cornish pastie! No pics, I was too slow.
Old mine site on Menindee Road, Broken Hill.
Took the boys out to the RFDS museum as well, can’t come to Broken Hill and not see that!
On the way back from the RFDS museum Fred was delighted to spot a real life postie also wearing fluro!
We then made our way over to the Westside plaza to restock the liquid refreshments. And then it was out to Penrose Park at Silverton to grab a camp site.
Hard KORE hydrates in preparation for his trip to the Silverton pub.
The boys whacked up their tents in no time flat and headed over to the pub… I’d been there before and we had no phone coverage with Shane or Fitzy, who was due from Dubbo at any time.
They had to walk across Umberumberka Creek
They found the pub
And do what you do at pubs…
As well as checking out the local talent!
Hard KORE was heard to exclaim “That’s why they have donkey food for sale at the bar!”
They also got some snaps of Silverton
Meanwhile I wandered around the park having a gander at the facilities…
Old artillery piece in the park.
The cricket oval
The AWESOME camp kitchen
Jug, toaster, microwave, fridge, BBQ and gas stove/cooktop AND hot water from the tap to wash up! So civilised!
And a train…
Built in 1893!
Shane turned up just before dark and we set up camp… throw swags on ground. Shane proceeded to cook up spaghetti bolognaise that he’d cooked from scratch. I went for a shower and got stuck waiting behind two families worth of kidlets. But I can say the wait was worth it. This was the shower of the trip. Scalding hot, hot water and water pressure that would take skin off. Feeling like a gazillion dollars I walked back to camp to find Fitzy setting up his camp trailer! We knocked that over and went over to the camp kitchen for an awesome feed (again).
We talked some poo around the LED lights on Shane’s truck awning and went to bed. Another heavy day in front of us.
DAY 4
Overnight it was really cool! Probably the coolest night of all those while we were away.
Hard KORE had been throwing the talcum powder around… not really. I can confirm that this was in fact frost.
My swag had ice on it to…
Freddo didn’t really want to come out of the bat swag (he likes sleeping upside down i.e. head lower than his feet)
The prior evening I had seen the phone box up near the shower block. I grabbed some coinage and up to ring the cook as I hadn’t spoken to her since we left Tibooburra. Go in and no coin slot! WTF??? A pay phone that doesn’t accept coins! Telstra (maybe Telecom???) cards only. I last had one of those about 12 or 14 years ago… so here’s some living history:
We had spoken the night before about making today a “get up and go when we are ready day” as we only planned to ride down to be within 50km of Yunta. So we did exactly that… I think we left about 11am, after we refuelled and re-aired (thanks Fred!).
We stopped on the way out for the traditional owners to admire Bucky’s [strike]DRZ[/strike] Tenere
Even though we rode in on these very same roads less than 24hours earlier they looked very different in the midday light as opposed to the sunset light yesterday. I’ll repeat myself “Around every corner and over every crest the view just got better and better until we set up camp that night!”
Great pic this one Hard KORE!
And that was Arkaroola! I’ll be going back for sure. Still haven’t seen the Flinders Ranges but the Gammon Ranges go off!
So we get to the road where we turned off yesterday afternoon, instead of turning left and heading back to Bucky’s phone we turn right go 200m before turning left to head south to Yunta and our overnight camp. Only problem was one of our number didn’t turn left and continued west towards Copley on the Copley Road. There was some chatter on the UHF about a car coming toward us by Hard KORE or Bucky… at some stage the vehicle that had two pairs of eyes realised that they weren’t on the same track as the rest of us. The navigator in the Kamaz had fallen asleep on the job! It took a good 15-20mins to have them tag onto the back of the bunch… don’t know where they would have ended up if we didn’t have the UHF’s!
This is where I waited for the Kamaz
Still can’t see Shane’s dust
Shane’s over there in those hills somewhere
Given our late start this morning we agreed to stop for fruit and anything else that was easily obtainable over the tailgate. Nothing like apples and oranges in the middle of the serenity! This was our lunch stop location
The rest of the day was spent racing the sun, while we were heading south towards Yunta. About 60km north of Yunta I came across a very well timbered area, close to the road. Knowing that we would be trying to get an early start in the morning I wanted to minimise the number of kay’s we’d do before we pulled up at Yunta to refuel before the drag across the 200km of bitumen from Yunta to Broken Hill. Surely there’d be more timbered areas further south? This couldn’t be the only one?
Soon enough it thinned out and it was back to the open country. Just as I made the decision to take up the next good spot I found we came across these ruins.
Apparently remnants of a mine and its facilities from days gone by. I didn’t stop, I was on a mission. KORE and Bucky had a bit of a brief look. I rolled on a bit further and found what appeared to be a promising creek line. Rode off the road for a closer look, no timber and very visible from the road. Went about 500m up the road and did the same thing along the same creek. This time I found it! I don’t mind saying I have a bit of a knack for finding good bush camps…
KORE, Bucky and I started collecting firewood. One of them suggested that we shouldn’t do too much in case Shane didn’t like the camping spot! What? Fark Shane! He’ll be camping here. To reinforce that we lit the fire in a good spot and continued getting the wood in.
Nice photo of camp KORE! The road was up the hill behind KORE when he took this pic, about 200m.
Soon enough Shane turned up wondering if I’d just gone onto Yunta to camp beside the highway? No way Jose’! Turns out though he was happy enough to camp here!
The road wound its way left to right from the trees above Shane’s windscreen all the way to the right, the other side of the crest of the hill. Nobody knew we were there. Just how I like it.
Good times!
It really doesn’t get any better than this!
Bucky feeling the serenity
These tenting blokes don’t know what they’re missing having something between them and the sky out here at night!
Fred! Fred! Put down the Coca! You’ve obviously had far too much, especially as it’s nearly your bedtime…
Then the sunset started
You can never have too much reflective tape around the fire!
We had some really hard S.A. timber we burnt tonight. It burnt slow and hot! It was so good Shane dragged it around for the next two days in readiness for our next bush camp up near White Cliffs somewhere. But we also left a nice pile of it there because it was so slow burning, so if you’re in the area make sure you camp there!
huskybloke wrote:“i thought it would be rude to call a bloke who rides from Newcastle to the start line at Bourke “Really STUPID” when Bucky and I were trailering out.”
i have to agree with my brother a bike trips a bike trip , not trailer it halfway then get on it but as i said we would both use any excuse to go for a ride
Ahhhh… I see we have Hard KORE 1 and Hard KORE 2! :ohmy:
I’ll be the bloke with the trailer waiting at the start line… see you there!
I have completed the report, but the website won’t allow me to copy paste my report over. As soon as that technical error is sorted I’ll post it up.
huskybloke wrote:geez i thought one of them guys looked familiar, its my brother :blink: whats he go under hard kore?He’s Hard to the Kore!
I thought it would be rude to call a bloke who rides from Newcastle to the start line at Bourke “Really STUPID” when Bucky and I were trailering out.
Or maybe because his arse is HARD to put up with 10-12 days sitting on a KTM seat while covering about 4000km. :whistle: And we won’t even start on the tools he was carrying or his 1.6million dollar sleeping bag! :whistle:
DAY 3
Finally we were altogether and the excitement showed, we were up at very dark o’clock. Not so sure of caravanning neighbours would have been all that happy with our early departure. Mind you we weren’t the first vehicles to leave that morning. We watched as a group of about four or five four wheel drives left. When they got to the main track two turned left to head east into NSW, the other two turned right and stopped. Maybe they weren’t together after all? Thirty seconds or so the two left turners must have changed their mind… ‘cause they came back and joined their mates and headed west towards the Strzelecki Track! We had a bit of a chuckle about that one.
View to the east from our camp
There was a little ice on my rear bag this morning… but it’d be worse in a day or two.
About to move out
We headed west with me up front… Fred, the teams official photographer, was in the passenger seat and in the better bits was able to snap a few shots of me mobile, towards the Strzelecki.
There were a few (four to be exact) bad bull dust holes that were identified by red flags in them. I saw them, called them on the UHF for the blokes following on two and four wheels. Some of the dunes had really steep faces on them, I stayed left when cresting and generally didn’t have too many drama’s. Excepting for one dune where I crested at about 80kph, I was standing. All good front went into a bull dust hole and banged hard when it hit the far end… next thing I know is that I performing a “stoppie” without the use of the brake going down the road at 80kph! It was the only “scare self” moment I had during the whole 2200km of the trip. Next I hear Shane on the UHF, he was behind me and saw the whole event unfold “You blokes better watch that next dune, John’s just had a moment!” it didn’t help that he was pissing himself laughing… no photo’s or anything! I’d just like to thank who ever invented gyroscopic force, because it wasn’t my skill that kept me upright.
So I continue west and come around this corner…
… suddenly the pink line on the GPS turns left. Bugger! I didn’t see that turn? I go back and find this…
Bugger me! That wasn’t in the plan. It was a very new sign. I know blokes that have been that way to get to the Strzelecki and then south.
We have a discussion. You can’t go on private property. When we get to where the track intersects with the Strzelecki Track we find a copy of the sign at that end too.
While we waited for Shane to catch up we had a blow and a look at the Strz Track
The track coming out of Lindon station onto the Strz… look ed really interesting too!
Something was growing where it had no right to
Bucky and I discuss the meaning of life in the middle of the track
Shane caught up and we helped ourselves to lunch from the tailgate selection
Fred whacked up the HF aerial
And Shane did a bit of CQ’ing on the travellers net
Fred did some maintenance on the canopy retaining bolts which had loosened off a bit with the corrugations
Bucky’s pony waiting to be given it’s head…
I have to say I was very impressed with the low speeds the road trains travelled at on the dirt, mind you the Strzelecki was, without doubt, THE WORST road we travelled on during the trip.
Soon enough we had the aerial down and the luncheon stuff packed away and we were off southbound. The Strzelecki is one of those iconic roads in outback Australia that I had heard about as a kid, far too many decades ago. It would appear that I wasn’t the only one who heard about it because it looked like many others had been this way
As “tracks” go this was freeway wide.
There was one section of tar in the 150km section we travelled with this sign at the end
No shit Sherlock! Maybe it was for those who camped there the previous night and forgot about the crappy road they travelled?
My view of the view
That bloody white Hilux that was stalking us
Not long after this photo I follow the pink line to the Mt Hopeless turnoff. I see Bucky and Hard KORE parked up where the red arrow is.
There were two bikes just moving off from them as I approached, one fellow on a black Tenere like mine and another on a DR650?? I think…
Anywho, doesn’t matter as I decided I’d just keep moving. Shane stopped with Bucky and I moved to the gate (bottom centre of the above pic), I got on the radio and told Shane I’d keep moving and leave the gate open. Could he ask HK or Bucky to make sure they shut the gate? I zoom off. This is where things started to change on this trip…
Around every corner and over every crest the view just got better and better until we set up camp that night! Not only was the view good the track and it’s condition made it one to be ridden, not just droned down like the Strz Track we had just left. No words I could utter about trhis track and afternoon would go anywhere near describing it. I know I wasn’t dreaming it because we were all experiencing the same thing in our respective helmets/cabin.They coming? There were some comms issues with Bucky and Hard KORE, so we had to revert to old school… count the bikes and keep going.
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Hard KORE being Hard KORE
Bucky loving it… yet to be hit with the bad news.
Why do they tell you how bad it can be AFTER you’ve finished?
Finally we pull up at this intersection which is the turn off to Arkaroola. I’m told Bucky’s bad news… “You what?”… “You lost your mobile phone back at the intersection of the Strzelecki Track?”… “Fark!”…
Bucky looking for his phone… Fred finds it humorous that it’s over 150km to where it was last seen.
Turns out Bucky had it out (using it as his camera, just like I was). When the other bikes turned up he thinks he may have put it on his rear bag to chat. Then as they pulled away Shane and I turned up and basically just kept moving. In his haste to put his helmet back on and catch up with us and Hard KORE he just plain forgot.
So if you’re around the intersection of the Strzelecki Track and the Mt Hopeless turn off to Arkaroola please have a look around for Bucky’s HTC One XL that looks just like this:
He’d be very appreciative if it was returned to him… apparently his computer nerdness rating is zero out of ten. He had EVERY photo he had ever taken still on the phone and they hadn’t been backed up elsewhere, even I can do that Bucky!
But he took it all rather well and we proceeded into Arkaroola. My earlier comment “Around every corner and over every crest the view just got better and better until we set up camp that night! Not only was the view good the track and it’s condition made it one to be ridden, not just droned down like the Strz Track…” still held!
Up this way
Hard KORE on the juice
The views from the servo at Arkaroola…
The following are taken in the camp ground
The moment Fred realised the snorer had placed his tent closer to the neighbouring camp than ours!
I remember the whole mountain being this colour…
The colour doesn’t look as spectacular in this one.
Everybody was feeling the serenity
That night Shane knocked up some steak, train smash and a pasta concoction. It was washed down with a few beers. Arkaroola campsite also had a shower block that we utilised. If you only used the hot tap and could survive on a trickle you had a shower. But I have to say it made me feel like a million dollars, especially after a change of clobber.
A great day on the bike, which ended up in a spectacular camp site. There was no timber around so we for went the fire tonight, but a bush camp was to be had tomorrow night and that meant a fire!
More soonish.
DAY 2
So we’re up bright and early and leave Wanaaring just as the sun is breaching the horizon.
The main drag, Wanaaring during peak hour.
The sun chased us west
Mmmmmmmmmm… red dirt
It was cold, down around 1 or 2 deg Celsius I guess. But that didn’t take into account the wind chill. I hadn’t got hold of a pair of winter weight gloves and was riding in my Fox motocross gloves and pants. I had thermals on underneath, but was still cold. I had a fluro green rainsuit in my panniers and cracked that out. For the rest of the trip I ran three layers on my bottom half every day. Each morning I’d put the rain jacket on but usually take it off by lunch time and have my enduro jacket as the outer layer on my top half.
Somewhere in the middle of no where in particular
Finally, Tibooburra turned up… straight to the servo.
Tibooburra while still very remote has a few more amenities than Wanaaring
B. even showed up for a coffee! When he asked how the ride was I told him I was bloody cold… he made a point of telling me how comfortable it was in the Pajero cab with the air con set to 21 deg c! Bastard.
Had the WORST meal of the trip in Tibooburra. If you are in town do NOT go for the lamb and gravy roll from the store across the road from the single storey pub. It sounded great, mentally I was comparing it to one I have here in Sydney… It was a hot dog bun with something they claimed was lamb and meat, and who puts cheese on a lamb roll (for any US cousins reading this, we don’t use cheese as a condiment over here).
Soon enough it was time to get going so we could hit Cameron Corner with time to set up camp in the daylight and hopefully meet Shane and Freddo before the sun went down. Mentally I had Tibooburra to Cameron Corner as a 240km trip. In actual fact it’s about 140km, bad blue, but a positive one. We ended up with more fuel and time at the end of the day.
We headed north on the Silver City Highway (dirt road) before hanging a left and entering the Surt National Park and generally heading west to Cameron Corner where NSW, SA and QLD state borders meet in the red sand.
My fluro rainsuit in action!
Hard KORE was still having drama’s with his side stand and was having to put the stand down on the left and then get off the bike on the right hand side…
Stones every where, slippery bastards to ride on.
Close up of the same stones
Toona Gate Road turnoff
The landscape changed continually from black soil, to red sand to clay, to small stones, white sand… an amazing part of the world.
About 30km from the corner we came across this dry lake. It was home to millions of flys.
Lake is up behind those trees
That clown in the green suit is everywhere! I used all the safety colours, my neck warmer was fluro orange from the $2 run out bin at one of the bigger camping chains… BARGAIN and safe!
My ignorance showed at the gate which is the border between South Australia and New South Wales. The other two blokes who hadn’t been there before were chasing their camera’s for pics. I’d been there four or five times before and it was just an obstacle between me and our destination. In fact I didn’t even walk up to the post at the corner this time. Sad case of “been there done that”. But I don’t begrudge them their want to take pics… it was EXACTLY what I did when I first layed eyes on the place.
I’ll get the gate boys…
Anytime you’re ready…
Bucky was loving it… I was impressed. This was the same bloke who told me less than 12 months ago he wasn’t really interested in exploring outback NSW as, apparently, there was just lots of “nothing to look at”. I think I can safely say he’s changed his views.
On clearing the gate we reach our destination… photo taken by Hard KORE from South Australia of the Corner Store/pub in Queensland having literally just crossed the SA/NSW border.
Hard KORE at the corner!
I rode up to the pub while the boys got their photo’s to look for Shane. He found me… walked out of the pub with a freshly cracked and cold beer. CHEERS! Finally here again, fifteen years after we last did it together. Both having been back since.
We decided to set up camp before it got dark. This’ll do nicely! No fire needed as we were eating at the pub. We’d just walk from Queensland to South Australia and jump in our swags!
That’d be me in the fluro work top! Can’t beat the swag, three buckles roll it out get in. I had sheets and blankets and even a real pillow from home. Couldn’t carry it on the bike. Just as well I’m soft core and have a great mate who is happy to drag it around for me.
Why the place exists.
Shane or Freddo got very artistic
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The tuning fork machine that got me here and around our whole loop with zero problems, all I did was put fuel in, check air, oil and water and tension the chain every second day as the chain was new for the ride and was stretching a little.
We are the little group on the right. When we set up there was NO ONE to the left of the pic. Within ten minutes of us setting up they came from everywhere with caravans and roof tents and more lights than a major city. You come all the way out here and have to camp on top of everyone else????
Just on dark we wander back over to the pub…
Freddo wishing he had Googles around to help him verify what the old blokes were saying around the table
Couple of these while we waited for dinner time
Then I ordered the Scotch Filet for just $30… you’d pay more in Sydney for less of a feed than this. THIS WAS THE BEST PURCHASED MEAL OF THE TRIP!!! We didn’t purchase many due to our on tour chef Shane’s abilities in the kitchen.
While eating, this shirt was highlighted to me. It looks like even the hard core come out here? I have spoken with most of them on the interwebs and even ridden with one or two of them. Small world.
And that was our night before we walked to South Australia and went to bed. Luckily the “campers” had a street light set up and we didn’t need any torches to get back to where we belonged. Watched the gazillion stars for a bit before tucking my head down into the swag due to the cold.
Another day on the road tomorrow!
You change after you fall off… :dry:
PTW,
No way! It’s a three day ride and I only ride for one day… ask any of them :whistle: and I’m scared without even having seen a photo!
A few tips to improve your ride reports! :whistle:
TrailBoss wrote:Let me say this is the 4th time I have been up and down Mt Pinnibar on this side and it’s really changed :ohmy:So Pete and I pre-ran the day 1 special today. Today was an adventure, a true adventure ride. The run up Mt Pinnibar was the toughest 30 mins I have ever done. Where are the photo’s?
I havent been so scared and excited at the same time for ages. At times I couldnt believe I was still going up and on the bike. It makes Jacobs ladder look and feel like the Sydney / Newcastle F3 freeway. The rocks were relentless, the water has washed every bit of fill out between them making sunny corner seem like a sandy beach!!Where are the photo’s?
It rained towards the top and made it even worse with fogging goggles and visors. Once the THREEphotos were completed we headed down a dfiierent way towards Omeo. Where are the photo’s? We came across a rocky downhill, and looking back I should have followed my gut and got off. Where are the photo’s?
A 200 kilo bike down a hill most couldnt ride an enduro bike up wasnt going to end well. Where are the photo’s? Still full of stupidity I headed down. Where are the photo’s? I came to grief as I was almost stopped, in the process of dropping the bike I dislocated my left thumb!! Where are the photo’s?
Pete helped me pick the bike up PLENTY OF TIME TO PICK UP BIKES AFTER THE PHOTO’S… MORE TRAINING REQUIRED as I wondered what to do now, reality was there was no going back. The thumb to wrist joint was all out of wack but after some painful rooting around it went back in and while sore worked.Where are the photo’s?
We bulldogged the bikes down the ledge and headed on.Where are the photo’s? It rained and then pissed down, I am not complaining because when I got a rear flat an hour later it stopped raining!Where are the photo’s?
Pete helped me change the tube and we had a can of tuna each. Where are the photo’s? It was half past 1 and it was all we had eaten all day!! Onwards we headed to Omeo. Once here we checked in and crawled into a rum. Where are the photo’s?
My steed for the ride into the Valley of Death…
Some grass and sky near the valley of death that was filled with a gazillion serpents…
LORD VADER ON BOARD THE STEALTH MACHINE IN HI VIZ BLACK…
Mt Pinnibar may not be in the ride for a few reasons. The track condition is far worse then I have ever seen it for one. The track is so weather depend that any rain will make the section from the river to the turn off unable to be done by a recovery vehicle or an adventure bike Where are the photo’s? If there were photo’s I might be able to agree with you…
TB
