Posts From Australia

This is the first entry for my proposed motorcycle ride around Australia. The start date for this adventure is still 3-4 weeks away so there is no riding to report on as yet. But I am reasonably far into the preparation.

Sydney celebrated the first day of this adventure with grey skies and light rain which was not the upbeat start I had hoped for. To be honest the weather somewhat matched my own nervousness about the size of the undertaking on which I was embarkiing.

When I alighted from my tent this morning I was greeted by a large group of Kangaroos and a cool but clear day. The kangaroos gradually dispersed as I fussed around packing up my gear. Once underway Orange was my first destination for coffee and breakfast.

From last nights camp it was a nice but cold ride of about 75km to the town of Lake Cargellico. I had never been to this town before so was interested to see whether the lake was "real", as often lakes in Australia are only seasonal. However Cargellico was a sizeable body of water, which at least this morning, was teaming with bird life. The town itself was larger than I had expected but does seem to be dying as there are many closed and closing businesses.

Over the past few weeks I have noticed a petrol smell around my motorcycle, and I have made various efforts to see if fuel was leaking or whether the smell was some combination of imagination and vapours escaping from the fuel cap. Well the question was answered yesterday when I noticed a wet patch under the bike after it had been parked at the Kidman motel overnight. I even managed to see a few drops of fuel fall from the skid plate onto the ground. After some thought I googled for motorcycle repair shops in the area and eventually found Motorcycle and Marine in the town of Hay and made an appointment for today the 20th May. Thus the task for today is to get to Hay and make that appointment.

It rained heavily overnight and was still raining moderately at departure time this monring. That made the 130km from Hay to Balranald uncomfortable and completely destroyed any thoughts of photographs on that leg of todays journey. Fortunately after Balranald the weather started improving and by the time I got to the little town of Euston the sun was out. Which was fortuinate as Euston is spectacular in a modest way. Just before the town the road passes Lake Benanee a sizeable lake on the south side of the road which is accessible by a large picnic and over-nighting area. Euston is situated on the Murray River and the town make good use of the situation with a large and up-market recreation club right on the river bank.

It was a little difficult getting out of Renmark this morning, as it is a sizeable town with lots of relatively new housing -- like in the last 25 years. Using two GPS devices was also a contributing factor to my navigation difficulties.

When I woke this morning the weather was calm but cool, however the streaky clouds in the sky gave a warning of the windy day to come. By the time I had packed and ridden the 20km south to my old home town of Wallaroo the promised wind had arrived and with it dust. Why dust, well much of this part of South Australia is grain farming and for at least some farmers it is ploughing time. So high winds and ploughing makes for dust. And so it continued for much of the day. Indeed the weather was so unpleasant that I did not spend long in Wallaroo just long enough to get a photo of our old family home and another of the two land marks that I remeber from childhood.

As promised in yesterdays entry I spent some time this morning looking around Whyalla. It is certainly a town of contrasts. On the one hand there is the rusty iron color that dominates anything to do with the steel works that is the reason this town exists. On the other hand it has a beautiful waterfront and beach area. Finally It is a sizeable town and hence a big political problem as the many people who live here and work here NOT at the steel works are still dependent on the survival of those works.

There is not much to say about today. This morning the wind was even stronger than yesterday, and to add to the pleasure, the day started out wet and throughout todays ride patches of blue sky alternated with heavy rain. The wind was constant. This mornings weather report forecast gusts upto 120km/h.

Onto the Eyre Highway and heading west, that is the story of today and will be the story for a few days. A few kms down the road we got a last look at Ceduna (or actually the grain silos of Thevenard) looking backwards across ploughed agricultural land.

I have travelled a long way west since the start of this trip and hence my body clock is a little out of sync with the sun. I also try to touch base with Nina at the start of the day via satellite communicator. Between these two factors I was awake very early this morning, well before the sun. As a reward I got to watch the changing light as the day emerged in the east. It also meant I was underway early, 7:30am (South Australian Time).

The first photo in todays record is of the motel building at Cocklebiddy Roadhouse. The photo was taken at around 8:00 local time (1 hour and 15 minutes behind Sydney) as I was captured by the quality of the light. Interestingly the bike was quite wet from dew overnight.

Not much to say about today. Over the past few days Nina and I have been having communication problems with our phones. Along the Eyre highway there is supposed to be almost continuous Telstra 4G coverage, but the Telstra account on my phone has not been connecting. However my T-Mobile account (US based) will connect and shows that it is connecting to the Telstra network. So I think it is an account problem.

A quick look around Esperence this morning before getting underway. The beach front is the crown jewel of this town and the weather went out of its way to give me a fine view.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

The goal today was to get some new tyres for the bike. That was done by about 11:00am and later in the afternoon I did a short photo expedition around Katherine. The big attraction in the town of Katherine, apart from supplies, is the local river (of the same name) and the thermal pool.

I could have called this post familiar territory as Nina and I have travelled the road south from Katherine a few times and are now familiar with the tourist stops along the way. The first one is Mataranka about 100km south. It is famous for its pools of blue fresh water that make great swimming holes for locals and visitors.

As promised in yesterdays post, I will include some photos of the Daly Waters Road House, below. The roadhouse has a lot of accommodation, at least 60 rooms in addition to a caravan park. Perhaps the most interesting (or unique) feature of the roadhouse is the wrecked aeroplane.

While researching the Tablelands Highway I discovered that it was built in the 1960s to facilitate the transport of beef, there are absolutely no services available anywhere along its 375kms, it is mostly a single lane of paved road, the pavement is in poor condition, and there are many large and small pot-holes.

From Barkly Roadhouse this morning the road (which is called the Barkly Highway) heads towards the border with Queensland and the town of Camooweal. Along the way there are a few rest areas which I remember from our last trip to this part of the world. At the last of these rest areas about 60km from Camooweal I met a guy named Norm who was on an expedition to walk from Townsville to Darwin. He is carrying his survival gear in a modified garden troller.

The first order of business today was to stop at a camping shop in Mt Isa and get myself a new functional sleeping mat. On the 100km drive into Mt Isa I stopped at a rest area that had a very nice red/pink flowering plant next to one of the picnic shelters. This rest area was a memorial to the completion of the Barkly Highway joining Camooweal and Mt Isa.

The first stop of note on todays ride was the town of Cloncurry something like 60-70km from last nights camp at Mary Kathleen. This town is famous as the birth place of QANTAS. At the local airport the original hanger building still exists and is labelled with the original name of the airline Queensland and Northern Territory Aerial Service, from which the initials QANTAS were derived.

For much of this morning Nina and I were still dealing with the electrical issue from yesterday. So my mind was not really on what I was seeing while traveling along. Mind you the scenery was cooperating with my level of indifference as for much of the first 150km the land was flat grassland.

Todays ride was notably different. Firstly the country side was made up of gentle hills, and covered in Eucalypt forest as compared to the grassland of the past week or more, and there were more towns (or at least villages). In the 250kms of todays ride I stopped at 3 intermediate towns, Prairie, Torrens Creek and Pentland. I also stopped at Balfes Creek but it seems to be abandoned. I did not stop at the village of Homestead. All those places in 250kms, I must be getting close to civilization.

Before getting underway today I did a very quick visit to the main street of Charters Towers to see the old Stock Exchange building which is now a shopping mall, followed by a visit to Tower Hill for a view of the city from above and to note the conical hills in the distance which are (according to some theories) responsible for the "Tower" part of the towns name.

On todays ride I saw lots of bright green fields. I think it is some form of vegetable oil plant but cannot be sure. Even google did not help me as it came up with a list of about a dozen things it could be from sorgum to wheat to cotton. I did see evidence of fluffy white cotton on the road side.

Today was cold, thanks to a strong cold southerly wind, and the result was a destinct lack of enthusiasm on my part to stop and take photos. The stretch of road south of Rolleston to Injune (about 165km) was interesting with views of the mountains of Carnarvon National Park for much of the stretch. South of Injune the terrain was forested rolling hills.

I did not spend any time this morning looking around Roma, that may have been a mistake, but it explains why there are no photos of the largish town that I stayed in last night. South from Roma the first stop of the day was the town of Surat which is located on the banks of the Balonne River. On the north side of the town is a large free camping area which was well occupied by caravaners. In the town the river provides a great setting for a walking trail.

Before hitting the road this morning I walked the few meters to Dirrenbandi's town park and photographed the metal relief-statue of a charge by Australia horse soldiers in WWI, and some coloured poles (which I think have some aboriginal significance). After that I had coffee at the town bakery which is run by a Russian family.

Todays ride passed through a series of towns with names that might seem unusual to those who did not grow up in Australia. So I decided to share those names in this post in the photos below. Some of the towns also have icons other than their names, suchs a grain silo art. I have included those icons after the name of the town. I started the day at Coonamble and Finished at Kandos.

Every trip has its last day, and it is today for this trip. There are some mixed feelings as you might imagine. Pleased to have completed the adventure and to be home to see my lady Nina, but also sorry to see it come to an end. And of course my brain is running over all the things I would do differently next time and whether there will be a next time at my age. Time will tell.