Posts for June, 2025


More UPs, more farmland (Boyup Brook, Australia)

Journal entry for Sunday 1st Jun, 2025 (day 17, miles 277)

Today there were more names ending in "...up", more farmland and more interesting stands of trees. Though I neglected to photograph the farmland and trees.

 ...click/tap to read the full post

Visit with a friend (Margaret River, Australia)

Journal entry for Monday 2nd Jun, 2025 (day 18, miles 140)

Today was about getting to Margaret River. I am going to spend a few days there with an old University mate named Richard. Thus I was viewing the day as a travel/get-there day but to my surprise the scenery through Boyup Brook, Bridgetown, and Nannup was wonderful.

 ...click/tap to read the full post

On the road again (Northam, Australia)

Journal entry for Friday 6th Jun, 2025 (day 22, miles 460)

The bike is serviced and has a new rear tyre and I have had a delightful visit with my old mate Richard and his lady Jenny. And Nina is waiting with controlled impatience for this old mans adventure to move on to completion. So it is time to get back on the road.

 ...click/tap to read the full post

West Oz wheat belt (Southern Cross, Australia)

Journal entry for Saturday 7th Jun, 2025 (day 23, miles 283)

The place I stayed last night was very nice. An old brick house, thoroughly renovated, a bed room for each guest and shared kitchen, dining room and tv room. It was called Avon Homestay.

 ...click/tap to read the full post

A nice day (North of Kalgoorlie, Australia)

Journal entry for Sunday 8th Jun, 2025 (day 24, miles 271)

Before getting underway today I did a short tour of the town of Southern Cross and sought to capture some of the effort by the locals to make their town charming. Once fueled up it was time to hit the road. And some road it was going to be. As I would discover the 180 km to Coolgardie that I saw on a sign as I left the town completely overlooked the fact that there was nothing else in the way of civilization before Coolgardie.

 ...click/tap to read the full post

Lake Ballard and those statues (Leonora, Australia)

Journal entry for Monday 9th Jun, 2025 (day 25, miles 305)

I was cold last night; if I can believe the Apple weather app 3°C. So I got up early hoping to warm myself with tea while waiting for the sun to rise and start warning the world. In the first group of photos below you can see steam condensing in the air from the hot water and tea. There is also a small patch of ice on the black saddle bag in the 4th image.

 ...click/tap to read the full post

Gwalia Mine just outside Leonora (Sandstone, Australia)

Journal entry for Tuesday 10th Jun, 2025 (day 26, miles 298)

My first task this morning was to visit the site of the Gwalia mine just south of Leonora. I have visited this place before and the following link here will take you to that blog entry. I could not help but add a few more photos.

 ...click/tap to read the full post

Lake Nallan Camp (Lake Nallan, Australia)

Journal entry for Wednesday 11th Jun, 2025 (day 27, miles 273)

I spent some time this morning before departure looking at, and photographing, the town and its attractions. It really is a cute little place and a considerable effort has been made to make it attractive. I was particularly taken by the old postoffice building that has been turned into a cafe decorated with old postoffice memorabilia.

 ...click/tap to read the full post

Looking for Telstra Service (Bush Camp, Australia)

Journal entry for Thursday 12th Jun, 2025 (day 28, miles 258)

Today started with the closing of the Strawberry Moon. And with the sun now in the East it was possible to get a couple of acceptable shots of Lake Nallan.

 ...click/tap to read the full post

Destination Newman and a rest day (Newman, Australia)

Journal entry for Friday 13th Jun, 2025 (day 29, miles 268)

During last evening the clouds gathered and covered the sky. Fortunately this did not result in rain but did make for a much warmer night than the previous one.

 ...click/tap to read the full post

Pilbara Scenery (Auski Tourist Village, Australia)

Journal entry for Sunday 15th Jun, 2025 (day 31, miles 223)

Before leaving this morning i decided to capture a few more images of Newman, specifically the motel I stayed in called The Lodge Motel, some of the feathered residents of Newman wearing their latest iron-ore red outfits, a couple of images of the mine site itself, and finally a little after leaving the town I got a picture of Mt Newman after which the town used to be named.

 ...click/tap to read the full post

A Day of Road Trains (Port hedland, Australia)

Journal entry for Monday 16th Jun, 2025 (day 32, miles 313)

The Auski Roadhouse was a very busy place with road trains by the dozens coming and going; and it was a preview to the days riding. During todays the 2-3 hours riding to Port Hedland I estimate I passed a roadtrain every single minute and many of them were big ore carriers, like the one in the images below. The ore carrier below has 4 trailers behind the tractor, the tractor has 2 steering axles at the front each with two wheels, the first trailer has 2 sets of 3 axles (each with 4 wheels), and the subsequent 3 trailers have 3 axles (each with 4 wheels) at the front and 4 axles at the rear. Thats a total of 112 tyres/wheels (3 x 7 x 4) + (3 x 4) + (3 x 4) + 2 + 2.

 ...click/tap to read the full post

Side trip to Marble Bar (Marble Bar, Australia)

Journal entry for Tuesday 17th Jun, 2025 (day 33, miles 230)

The first task this morning was a quick look around Port Hedland and some photos to try and capture this town. The BHP sign on the tank in the first picture below seems to me to sum up this town. It is without a doubt an industrial site that happens also to be a town. There are large bulk carrier ships in the harbor, hugh fuel storage tanks close to the main street, and the large salt production facility on the main entrance to the town. In the large flat area south and west of the harbor are all kinds of facilities like the airport, power station, and depots for all those road trains I discussed in yesterdays post.

 ...click/tap to read the full post

Big Rivers (Sandfire Road House, Australia)

Journal entry for Wednesday 18th Jun, 2025 (day 34, miles 403)

Before leaving Marble Bar this morning I wanted to take a photo of Marble Bar Pools. These are a series of water pools about 3 km west of Marble Bar on the Coongan River. Unfortunately the roads down into the river bed and to the pools were closed for some kind of earth works project.

 ...click/tap to read the full post

Road to Broome (Sandfire Road House, Australia)

Journal entry for Thursday 19th Jun, 2025 (day 35, miles 350)

This morning while having breakfast and packing up I got a visit from some of the permanent residents of the Sandfire Road House.

 ...click/tap to read the full post

A day in Broome (Roebuck Plains Road House, Australia)

Journal entry for Friday 20th Jun, 2025 (day 36, miles 152)

The primary business today was to get a new rear tyre for the bike. This was completed by 9:00am at Kimberly Motorcycle Center. I owe Peter and his team a big thanks as they went out of their way to fit me into their schedule.

 ...click/tap to read the full post

Turn-around (Wallare Roadhouse, Australia)

Journal entry for Saturday 21st Jun, 2025 (day 37, miles 253)

Today marked a noteable event for this short tour of Australia because today I reached Derby on the North West Coast where the Indian Ocean meets the Timor Sea. From this point onwards my travel will have a general South East direction and will be heading home as Derby marked, in some sense, the turnaround point of the trip.

 ...click/tap to read the full post

Boabs and Termites (Fiztroy Crossing, Australia)

Journal entry for Sunday 22nd Jun, 2025 (day 38, miles 238)

Todays plan was to ride to Fitzroy Crossing a shortish ride of only about 240kms, and to camp at Fitzroy Crossing Resort. Since I did not want to arrive at midday and spend all afternoon sitting in the sun the challenge of the day was to leave late and travel slowly. You see it is cooler riding the bike that being stationary in the sun.

 ...click/tap to read the full post

The Might Fitzroy - again (Halls Ck Rest Area, Australia)

Journal entry for Monday 23rd Jun, 2025 (day 39, miles 2,282)

Today started with a crossing of the newish bridge over the Fitzroy River. This bridge was rebuilt asfter the floods of 2023 washed away the old one. Recall that I crossed the floodplain of this same river 2 days ago on my way to Wallare Roadhouse. It is a mighty river and foreshadows the Ord River and Lake Argyle over the next few days.

 ...click/tap to read the full post

Ord River Country (Warmun Road House, Australia)

Journal entry for Tuesday 24th Jun, 2025 (day 40, miles 186)

Somehow spending a night in a tent always results in getting up early. So this morning I was up very early, like 6:00 am, and with nothing to do at a bush camp was under way by about 7:00am. During the 20km drive into the town of Halls Creek I passed the first significant turnoff of the day, the start of the famous Tanami Track which is a lonely 1000km dirt track that provides a short cut from the Kimberly area to Alice Springs.

 ...click/tap to read the full post

Moving again after a rest day (Kununnurra, Australia)

Journal entry for Thursday 26th Jun, 2025 (day 42, miles 337)

Before leaving Turkey Roadhouse this morning I took a few photos of the place. Since I spent 2 nights and 1.5 days here I figured I should try to remember the place.

 ...click/tap to read the full post

Lake Argyle (Bush Camp West of Timber Creek, Australia)

Journal entry for Friday 27th Jun, 2025 (day 43, miles 207)

The main goal of todays ride was to visit Lake Argyle which is the center piece of the Ord River Scheme which I have mentioned in an earlier post. This side trip starts about 40km east of Kununnurra goes south. As you can see in the photos below I found some more interestung plants, this time with vivid orange flowers.

 ...click/tap to read the full post

The Nackaroos (Katherine, Australia)

Journal entry for Saturday 28th Jun, 2025 (day 44, miles 351)

The first step in todays journey was a ride of about 55km into a small town called Timber Creek but just before entering the town there is a turnoff to the south to a hill-top monument to The Nackaroos. Nina and I discovered this place the last time we travelled through this area. The Nackaroos was an Army Detatchment stationed in this area during WWII to detect infiltration of enemy troops. I found it an interesting story and the link above will take you to a wiki entry on the subject.

 ...click/tap to read the full post