8th March 2010 - Norseman to Kalgoorlie

Distance travelled: 185 kms
Cumulative distance: 3870 kms


Another drizzily day welcomed us this morning. The caravan park awoke at 6am so we decided we might as well get going as there was going to be no more sleep for our intrepid Ulyssians. Colin managed to get his tent down and packed in fairly short order. Alan has a rather more sophisticated abode with two entrances, copious storage areas and all kinds of extra bits so it takes forever to dismantle and load on the bike. We eventually got away at 8am. At this rate we'll be still packing after we have arrived at the next stop!!!
Breakfast was taken at a roadhouse 90kms north of Norseman called Widgiemooltha (trying pronouncing that with a few drinks under the belt). It was the centre of the gold rush in Western Australia in the late 1800s and early 1900s. There is a replica of a huge nugget weighing 1153 ounces found in 1931 worth five thousand pounds then and about US$1,000,000 now. As soon as all the surface gold was found Widgiemooltha died. The weather was drizzily to start with but luckily fined up after breakfast into a sparkling sunny day.
We arrived in Kalgoorlie which is the centre of the gold mining industry in these parts at 11am before the pub we are staying at had opened. Luckily the manager was kind enough to let us in and park our bikes in the yard. We had had enough riding so we decided to do the tourist bit and check out the local points of interest. The tourist info office was the obvious place to start. Unfortunately they couldn't help us as they had no brochures for the local tour. It seems an audio guide was being developed and was running a bit late. They ran out of brochures a few weeks ago and decided not to get any more printed as the audio guide was imminent!!! C'est la vie so we struggled on regardless and found the Mining Museum open.
One of Colin's old motorcycles was there which impressed him no end. We managed to book a tour of the "Super Pit" for tomorrow. This is the biggest open pit mine in the world and can be easily seen from the space shuttle so the next time you are up there check it out.
This evening we went to the viewing platform above the pit to watch a blast. It was quite spectacular and the platform shook with the blast to give a bit more realism. The pub we are staying is called the York Hotel and was built in 1900. It was pretty flash in those days and has recently been renovated. It is fairly basic with shared bathroom facilities which doesn't bother these geriatric bikers. Alan has run out of clean undies so some washing was essential. The room is now festooned with all kinds of unmentionables. Hopefully they are all dried by the morning otherwise they'll get a bit mouldy in the panniers. Tomorrow after our tour of the Super Pit we are off to beautiful Esperance on the south coast. The forecast doesn't sound too flash but we live in hope. Whatever happened to sunny Australia???

7th March 2010 - Border Village to Norseman

Distance travelled: 718 kms
Cumulative distance: 3685 kms


It rained again overnight so we were doubly glad of a roof over our head, though the accommodation was cramped and expensive. There were quite a few bikers there so we had a few yarns to tell.

We left early aiming to have breakfast at Mundrabilla about 60 kms down the road. First we had to pass the quarantine check for fruit which is not allowed across the border. A nice young lady looked into our bags and made notes.

Munddrabilla had a special meaning for Colin. When he first came to Australia and was still looking for a job, he watched a lot of the 1976 Olympics on TV. The main sponsor was Caltex and one oft repeated ad was located on the Eyre Hwy with the hosts intoning "You can get anything you want at Mundrabilla" With that thought in mind Colin pulled in expectantly to the road house only to find the worst one of the trip! There was a surly Kiwi sheila serving as well instead of the nice young ladies from Scotland/England/Germany. They had obviously gone backwards since 1976.

The only bright spot was meeting a couple and their young son who were playing the Nullarbor Golf Course. There was a hole every 200 kms behind the road houses. We watched them play a Par 4 behind Mundrabilla. It had an artificial turf tee and green, but in between was saltbush and scrub.

The road kill started to appear at this point, mostly kangaroos, though the signs warned of camels and emus as well. The local crows feasted on the carcases and only flew off as you were almost upon them. The big thing to see was a Wedge-Tailed Eagle feeding. These are the largest Australian birds and they have a huge wing span. Seeing them take off just as you go past was very memorable.

We came to the 90 mile straight were the road was dead straight for 146 kms. It undulated up and down the low hills but disappeared into the distance gun-barrel straight. We had to pass road trains which are trucks with up to three trailers. They create a very big bow wave in the air and if the wind is blowing from behind them as well, as you come along the side you are hit by a very violent blast of air just as you pass the cab. The tactic we used was to gun the bikes as we passed and get ready to steer to counter the wind blast - very hairy.

The western end of the Nullarbor was even more deserted than the start. There were more trees but no buildings at all. One place was shown as having an old telegraph station as a ruin so we pulled off the road to have a look. The track was blocked off with a Private Land sign. So much for tourist attractions!

We got to Norseman at about 5 pm and found the campsite OK. After pitching the tents we headed off to town for a bite to eat. Being Sunday, not much was open but we found the Norseman's Working Mans Club. This was a real country institution. They had a kitchen that was running about 1 hour late with orders: probably because of all the bikers in there. There was a chook raffle and we had to play Mel to get a game of pool because she "owned the table". Mel beat us even though she was pretty pissed.

6th March 2010 - Streaky Bay to Border Village

Distance travelled: 607 kms
Cumulative distance: 2967 kms

At 4am the heavens opened and we cowered inside our tents hoping we kept dry. The rain stopped and we went back to sleep until the waves breaking on the beach woke us up again at 7 am. We broke camp - slowly in Alan's case and half way through the rain started again. The end result was two wet tents and unhappy campers.

We eventually got away at 10 am and headed to Ceduna for a Big Brekky - along with a few dozen other bikers heading for the same place as us. We heard that the tourist industry had not been aware that 3,000 Ulyssians would descend on them enroute to the AGM in Albany and they were not ready. One cafe was so overwhelmed and understaffed that it just closed down!

We headed off for the beginning of the famous Nullarbor Plain which begins out side Ceduna and runs to Norseman 1,300 kms to the west. While the Nullarbor Plain might be famous ( for its flatness and lack of trees, no-one actually lives there so travellers have to rely on the Road Houses that are at about 150 kms spacing for fuel and food. One of these was called Yalata and we had planned to stop there for fuel. There was another Road House 50kms before Yalata but we sailed through until I spotted a sign "No petrol for 144 kms". Yalata had closed and even the pumps had been removed. The Scots girl serving at the Nundaroo RH told us that they often had to rescue stranded motorist with a can of petrol. No doubt it was a nice little earner for them too!

We kept on riding through the frequent showers and were buffeted by the strong cross winds coming off the Great Australian Bight. One lady serving us at a RH confidently informed us that a couple of riders had been blown off the road and crashed and one had been killed. That slowed us down and we kept below 100 kph for the rest of the day.

The eastern end of the Nullarbor was really barren with only saltbush and scrub. It is a huge limestone plateau that falls straight into the Southern Ocean with 80m high cliffs. The Plain goes back inland for 100's kms. The Eyre Hwy (the road to WA) passes within 500m of the cliff, but you wouldn't realise it from the road. There were very few signposted viewing places and most of these were in locations that didn't have the really high cliffs. I suppose a few tourists had fallen to their deaths. Colin found an unmarked track that lead to the top of the sheer cliffs and we could look over at the heaving seas below.

We had a camp-site arranged at Eucla just inside the WA border. We didn't fancy sleeping in wet tents so we tried to change to a motel room. We and half of the other Ulyssians; there was no room at the inn. We pulled into Border Village on the SA side of the border on the off-chance there was a room there and there was! The place was run by a Belfast man as well - actually he had come to Australia from the Shankill Rd when he was 8 years old. We had a sunny evening to dry our tents as well which was a bonus.

5th March 2010 - Adelaide to Streaky Bay

Distance travelled: 711 kms
Cumulative distance: 2360 kms

We left before dawn this day to avoid the rush hour. Mable guided us through Adelaide to the Port Wakefield Rd and north. En route we passed through Adelaide waste precinct and many places familiar to Colin. Later as we barreled up the highway we passed the tip at Dublin and Inkerman - both of professional interest to Colin. We skirted Port Pirie which has one of the highest chimneys in the world to get rid of the fumes from the zinc smelter!

First Stop was Port Augusta the cross roads of Australia. It has a road sign outside the town with Darwin (2800 kms) to the north and Perth (2400 kms) to the west. We stopped for morning tea and couldn't find a parking spot it was so busy! Port Augusta is booming because of the nearby iron mines and steel smelter. There were the usual sea front developments to rival Adelaide.

We stopped at Iron Knob for petrol which is Australia's oldest iron ore mine. In fact the hill you see behind the excavator is made of iron ore and is being slowly dug up and shipped to Whyalla for smelting.

The country side reminded me of the spoil dumps outside Johannesburg, but were natural mesas. We continued west along Hwy 1. We had a very nice lunch in a little place Widunna called Gary Owen. We were served by a Scots girl who was travelling and working around Australia. This was the first of many such young women we met along the way. We arrived in Streaky Bay at 5 pm and went to the camp site to erect our first camp! It was beside the sea, in fact on the beach. Then we returned to Streaky Bay, which reminded me of Port Campbell and was a popular resort town. We had a beer on the terrace of the Town Hotel overlooking the jetty and later had a delicious meal nearby - served by a girl from London.

We return to our tents for our first night under canvas - that experience will be for the next blog entry.

4th March 2010 - Melbourne to Adelaide

Distance travelled: 746 kms
Cumulative distance: 1649 kms

Here we are ready to go from Morag's house.

I wrote an extensive Blog last night but the signal dropped out before it uploaded!! So far we have had low battery and low signal stopping the Blog, but tonight we are in Norseman and all is good.

Well we left Melbourne on Thursday in time to hit the morning rush hour. Normally that isn't a problem on a bike, but Alan had his wide panniers on and couldn't lane split, so we had to sit in the traffic queues with the tin tops. It took us 1 1/2 hours to get free of Melbourne.

We hit the Western Hwy to Adelaide a distance of 743 km. For you N-Irelanders that is Belfast to Cork and 1/3 the way back again. We would be doing that sort of distance every day for the next week.

The photo is of a very Big Koala outside Horsham. Australia abounds with big things and I will be posting them as we go. Alan and I almost lost each other when I stopped to take this photo. He didn't hear my horn as he was plugged into his iPod and wouldn't hear if a truck was going to run him over. We hadn't yet figured out how to use the UHF radios we had brought so it was just by good luck we met up in a petrol station down the road.

We rode on into South Australia (SA) and the temperature started to rise to 35 degrees C and stayed there until we reached Adelaide. We hit the evening rush hour there and sweated our way through heavy traffic until we reached Gerry Hood's house near the beach. Mabel (Alan's GPS) couldn't find the house number because it was too new. We eventually found her and had a good night especially the Lasagne.

So far no problems except for Mabel!

3rd March 2010 - Sydney to Melbourne

Distance travelled: 903 kms
Cumulative distance: 903 kms

Took off from Sydney at sparrows fart (5.30am). Everything fitted on bike. Looked like an old hobo leaving Elanora in the dark. Had breakfast at MacDonalds at Sutton Forest (170 kms). This is the only time I chance MacDonalds. Was a bit cool so put liner in jacket. Was able to cruise at 120kph so made good progress. There is only about 10kms around Tarcutta and Holbrook of the Sydney to Melbourne highway that has to be upgraded to dual carriageway which s great. Pretty boring trip being on freeway all the way. The countryside was looking good after the recent rain. Had lunch at Wangaratta and arrived Melbourne 4.15pm. Colin still at work god love him. This retirement is a great lark.

1st March 2010 - Will my BMW R1200GS handle the payload?

Today I loaded my bike with all the gear I am planning to take on this trip and it fits!!!! Which is good as I didn't fancy lugging a trailer. I was intending to take a picture of the loaded bike but it has been raining most of the day so I'll try tomorrow. I have decided to take my gas stove and pots only because I have room so we can stop on the side of the road and boil the billy. I bet we don't use it as we'll probably drop into the nearest Starbucks on the Nullarbor for Colin to have his Latte!!! Also in my luggage I have a small notebook computer (ASUS ieee) with which we hope to keep this Blog up to date. I also have all kinds of electrical contraptions for charging video cameras, mobile phones, CB radios, computers etc. It's a real get away from it all trip. I am now studying the manual on the CB Radios as I haven't got round to testing them. We intend to use them to keep in contact when Colin goes fanging ahead of me and runs out of fuel or breaks down.