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.