Pt Augusta to Hahndorf to Pinnaroo to Charlton to Ballarat - 12-16th July

My leg was still playing up on Tuesday so hit the bitumen.  I wanted to buy a new helmet as I was not all that comfortable wearing what amounted to an ice cream container on my scone for protection.  One of the other areas I wanted to have a squiz at on the bike was the Flinders Ranges.  They provide a pretty spectacular backdrop riding into Port Augusta.  My leg was still giving me a lot of curry, so I once again decided not adventure into the ranges.  I decided that seeing as I'll be going for a ride through to Blinman in about a month's time that I'll still have some time to see them properly when I'm in a state to enjoy it more.
Once I picked up my new helmet, I posted the old one back to Ballarat - it's going straight to the pool room - well, the shed anyway.  I got out of Adelaide pretty quickly and enjoyed the run through the Adelaide hills to Hahndorf.
The next day I traveled to Birdwood to check out the National Motor Museum.  It was well worth the visit and I spent about 2 hours or so checking out the bikes and cars.  I headed for Murray Bridge where it started to rain again.  The last few days I've been travelling with all my liners in my jackets and pants, a merino thermal and balaclava.  Earlier in the trip I was wondering if it was really worthwhile bringing my winter road gloves - boy was I glad I did as I would only have gangrenous stumps for fingers by now.  Nothing really exciting happened through to Pinnaroo on the SA/Vic border.
From Pinnaroo I was going to head through the Big Desert (which isn't really all that big).  I turned off at Murrayville on the Murryville-Nhill Road.  This became a dirt road, then a sandy road.  I had no idea this area existed in Vic - again, kinda similar to the terrain I saw at the start of the Simpson - minus the big dunes of course.  I'll have to head back this way with the trail bike to get some sand riding skills.  Arrived in Charlton looking forward to some home cooking for a few days.
The end was the short ride from Charlton to Ballarat to complete the journey.  7 weeks away from home and I was pretty glad to be back.  I'm not sure how long that will last for though :)

Some pics from Birdwood

Leyland Brothers West to East Crossing Expidition Landy

Tom Kruse's Badger (renovated)

Well - that's all folks.  I've re-read some of these entries and I think it must've been for the first time.  Some of the spelling and grammar leaves a lot to be desired - not to mention that I think I've left entire words and sentences out.  Thanks for reading if you manged to make it through this far.

Ceduna to Port Augusta - Mon 11th July

One of the tracks that I really wanted to do on this return leg was Goog's track.  It head north of Ceduna and is a road that crosses a lot of sand dunes - some people call it a smaller version of the Simpson desert.  However, after having a few issues doing the short stint of sand to the Eyre Bird Observatory, and also as I would be doing it solo, I decided to give it a miss.  I was a bit disappointed in not having a go at it, but I thought better of doing it solo after reading a few things about how far and how tough it was going to be - basically I wussed out. I'll just have to con someone into doing it with me some other time.  It turns out it was a good idea as I was to find out later today.
The start of the day was, can you guess?  Bloody cold, wet and overcast.  I was prepared to run the whole day on the bitumen - I had had enough of the crummy weather, although I'm sure it could've been a lot worse.  By the time I'd done 75 kms, I came to the small town of Wirrulla where I thought I'd have a go at some dirt roads through to Iron Knob.  It was a fairly major dirt road, but did become fairly sandy at some points - much more enjoyable than the bitumen with some pretty cool scenery.  Soon I started to pass through the edges of the Gawler ranges.  Surprised a few more emus and roos as well.
I passed a couple of ruins, and later on a submarine - the things you see in the outback!  During the early stages of the dirt road after Wirrulla I had started to get a twinge in my left quad - the beginnings of which had started to happen on Sunday.  Whenever I shifted up through the gears I would experience a sharp pain.  Throughout the day this got pretty bad - so much so that I'd either go slow if I'd shifted down so that I wouldn't have to shift up again - or, keep the pace up a bit so that I wouldn't have to slow down, shift down, and then have to shift up again.  Stopped a few times just to stretch the leg as the pain was starting to hang around even when I wasn't shifting up.  It was at this point that I was pretty happy I had decided not to do Goog's track as I would've been going up and down gears a hundred more times than I was on this dirt road.
I arrived at Iron Knob pretty keen to have a break and something to eat except it appeared that pretty much everything was shut down - the Motel, Servo, Newsagent all gone.  Turned around and headed into Port Augsta which was another 70kms away - leg still hurting like hell.  Motelled (is that a word?) it again - getting soft.

Nullarbor to Ceduna - Sun 10th July

Continued along the Old Eyre Highway for a bit before heading north towards Watson which is a siding on the Trans Australian Railway Line.  The track that headed north started off pretty nice, but soon became very rocky with a lot of exposed limestone rock.  The rock slowed me down quite a bit as it was, at times, deceiving as to how sharp the edges were.  Sometimes I could hit everything at 80km/h with no worries, then the next one felt like I'd hit a 4" high ledge.  I can't believe I got through without a pinch flat.  Once again, you've got to love ultra heavy duty tubes - worth their weight in gold.  It probably didn't hurt that I was running fairly high pressures as well - I think about 22-24 psi in front and 25-27 in the rear.
When I was at the Nullarbor roadhouse, there was an ad for flights over the bight and "the real Nullarbor".  I think I now know what that was about, as after 20 or 30 kms, there was not a single tree to be found anywhere, just 6-10 inch high bushes as far as the eye can see.  The land was flat as a tack.  After 80 k's or so of this track, I arrived at Watson - nothing to see here other than a sign saying Watson.  There must have been buildings here at one stage as my GPS reckoned there were ruins here - nothing but a couple of flat concrete foundations indicated that buildings were here.  I was going to continue heading north before heading south to Ooldea but I saw a sign saying I'd be fined if I entered without permission as it was private Aboriginal Lands.  It was also getting close to Maralinga, so I though it wasn't the best place to be anyway :).  I travelled about 30 kms along the TAA (Trans Australia Access Road) which is also another road that you're not supposed to go along as there's no permission given for this part of the TAA anymore and is now a 'private road'.  Stuck between a rock and a hard place, I made the easy decision to head along the TAA and then turn south once I got to Ooldea.  I wanted to go to Ooldea to check out a monument for the joining of the easy and west sections of the railway.  By the time I got to Ooldea I had forgotten about the monument until I was about 40 kms down the road towards Yalata.  I couldn't be bothered turning back and continued down what was pretty much the equivalent of a highway on dirt.
I expected to get fuel at the Yalata roadhouse, but it was still being built/renovated!  Just as well I've got a big tank I guess, otherwise I would've had to head back to Nullarbor to refuel.  Instead of doing 90 odd kms on the highway, I'd done 340 or something like that.
I headed towards Ceduna which was 200 odd kms on the bitumen.  Nothing really to report here, other than Ceduna is a pretty town, but it must have a few problems.  There's a lot of signs stating "Public consumption of alcohol is prohibited" and "No camping other than at campgrounds".  The motel I'm staying at has 7' steel fence surrounding it and the caravan park next door has an 8-10' chain link fence with barbed wire.

The 'real' Nullarbor

Watson - nothing to see here folks

Longest stretch of straight railway (in the world I think?)

Madura to Nullarbor - Sat 9th July

Today I was going to head for the Old Coach Road and the Old Eyre Highway - they both basically parallel the existing Eyre Hwy.  The Old Coach Road started off as a rock based gravel road, but soon became twin track through long wet grass.  Later it became much clearer and it felt like I was passing through station country - I started seeing cattle and horses.  I picked up a bit of fencing wire in my rear wheel.  I was pretty lucky in that the only reason I stopped was that  I heard a 'pop' noise which I thought was a blow out.  It had only wrapped around a half dozen times or so, so was easy to remove.
On exiting this country I passed a sign on the other side of the road saying not to enter this area without permission - oh well.
I had lunch in Eucla as I wanted to check out the Eucla Telegraph station which has been overun by sand dunes.  After lunch, I was trying to fill my Camelbak, but managed to tip over the bike.  Pretty embarrassing doing this in the carpark - but the worst thing was that I had left my helmet on the right side of the handlebar - which side did the bike fall over on?  Yep, the right side.  My precious helmet was surely toast.  Yep.  Nice big puncture mark in the foam on the inside and the visor is a bit messed up.  Nothing for it but to tape it up so it doesn' tl eak through the broken vent.  I'l have to get a new one in Adelaide I guess - it's not the best feeling riding around with a smashed helmet - but I don't have much choice out here really.
I was feeling pretty pissed off with myself right now, but still headed down to have a squiz at the telegraph station for a few photo's.  The story goes that the rabbits got out of control and ate most of the vegetation on the dunes.  As a result the dunes had nothing to stabilise them and they moved - all the way through the station.
Later on I started on the Old Eyre Highway which is another rocky based gravel road that I could easily imagine as an old highway that wasn't sealed.  Along the way I visited the Koonalda ruins which is an old building made from Railway sleepers, along with a couple of dozen wrecked cars.  It used to be a service station of sorts when the Old highway was in operation.
About 80kms from Nullarbor the sun is beginning to set.  The sky is unreal - there is just so much of it with nothing to interrupt the view - and yes, there is a view, even though there's a butt load of nothing out here.  It's hard to explain how cool it is.  I arrived at the Nullarbor roadhouse just on sunset.

DR in the long grass

Tangled

Big sky country

Ouch

Eucla Telegraph Station

Old Eyre Highway

Koonalda

Old Eyre Highway

Sunset at Nullarbor Roadhouse

Nearly to Caiguna to Madura - Fri 8th July

Had a bit of rain overnight - thankfully the tent is waterproof.  Get going relatively early in another overcast morning.  Things are still slippery, but most of the track has dried out despite the showers during the night.  Pulled up at the Caiguna roadhouse for a breakfast of champions.  Cup of instant coffee and a sav in pastry!  Chatted to a couple of blokes who commented on the mud on the bike and how slipper the stuff is once you get off the tar.  Tell me something I don't know!
I did another 65 kms of bitumen before turning off at Cocklebiddy roadhouse for some more dirt tracks.  These tracks were awesome as well - twisty, grippy! and everything was cruising along really well.  There was one patch of slippery mud that I manged to get through OK.  However, I checked the GPS and I had taken a wrong turn so had to turn back - oh well, I get to do these cool tracks again - not all bad.  The next time through the mud and - the big girl is down again!  I'm getting used to picking the bike up by now.  No harm done - but it was a battle to get the bike up when I had trouble finding grip for my own feet!
The correct track wasn't as much fun - heaps of rock and I was continually clipping trees and shrubs on the side of the road.  It's one thing I don't think I've mentioned, but barkbusters are an absolute must - the amount of foliage I've hit on this trip is ridiculous.  I could regenerate plants from right around Australia just by taking samples of the greenery that's been impregnated into my barkbusters.  Anyway, eventually this track just becomes one continuous rock garden that looked my like a dried river bed than a track. Again, with the hitting and the slapping of trees - not only the barkbusters, but my arms, hips, shoulders, face!  This is fun?  Yesterday I thought I wasn't using 3rd gear often enough.  Now I'd be happy if I could use 2nd!  I bounced all the way to an escarpment that would take me down to the Eyre Bird Observatory - formally the Old Eyre Telegraph Station.  After 15 kms of sand (which I battled with the whole way) I turn up at the station.
I met Tony and his wife Jennie who are the current caretakers of the observatory.  They hail from SE Qld, so have come quite a way.  They have a 3 month stint here before heading back home.  He showed me around and was a wealth of info about the history of the place.  Well worth a visit.  On the way out I had a bit of a stumble and ended up leaning the bike against a sand bank that came up to my hips.  No worries I though, I'll just drag my foot out and I'll be right.  Well, I would be if my leg wasn't trapped!  It took me about 5 mins to wriggle, scrape, push and nudge the bike off me before I can free myself.  Then, when trying to pick it up off from the 45 deg angle it was on, I end up dropping it on the other side. Yeah, I swore a little bit.
On the way to Madura I was following a track that followed the escarpment for about 60 kms.  I was actually about 80-100m lower than the level of the highway and I couldn't get back up there until I reach Madura Pass.  Along the way I clipped even more plants.  My boots are as clean as they have ever been after being washed by all the shrubs that I keep hitting along the twin track.  I see a heap of emus and roos running in front of me.  It's amazing how well a tall bird like an emu can be camouflaged. If they weren't running away from me, I wouldn't have seen them at all.  The track is pretty slipper the whole way and it's an early sunset because the escarpment hides the sun earlier.  I had a bit of a panic when the GPS lead me to the Madura ruins instead of the Madura roadhouse.  Shit - how far do I have to go now?  Luckily it was only 5 kms and I pulled up into the roadhouse just on dusk.  It was a pretty full on day.
No pics worth showing from today.

Balladonia to nearly Caiguna - Thu 7th July

The day started off foggy and damp for 75 kms of bitumen.  Had a police licence check before coming across two big wedge tail eagles picking over a dead 'roo.  The big suckes didn't move an inch either.  You'd need to have a bullbar out this way just in case you hit one of these, let alone for the roos and emus.  They look like they're 4 foot tall.
I turned off at the track I'd programmed into the GPS and was flying along at a good pace.  A twin track of gravel and clay.  At one stage I was basically following indentations in the grass - either the GPS lead my astray or I missed a turn somewhere.  Things came good soon enough and the track was much more defined.  I could see a shower coming across so I pulled over to a stand of trees for a smoko break.  After the rain passed I head off at the same pace as before, but it took all of 5 mins before I nearly ended up on my arse.  There was just enough rain to make the clay as slippery as.. hmm.. very slippery anyway.  It became a pain as I wouldn't know when I could get a move along or when I was about to end up on my backside.  There were sections of rock which I had to take it easy on, connected by greasy clay.  It was pretty hard going for a while.
Eventually I came across some rocky tracks that lead me to the edge of Australia.  Awesome views of sheer orange and white cliffs that dropped 50 m or more straight down  to the ocean.  It's an incredible view.  So incredible that I reckon it was a good place for lunch.  Fire up the stove and cook up some Spaghetti Bolognaise and a cup of coffee.  The only noise was the sound of the ocean and everything is right in the world.  I could've stayed there all day.
I headed off - back into the endless stretches of rock gardens separated by greasy and sticky clay.  3rd gear sometimes got a look in, whilst 4th and 5th were off on holiday.  At times the rear tyre was at a 90 deg angle to the track whilst the front was still in the right direction.  The next second the front wouldn't turn at all and was sliding out.  It was starting to get dark and the GPS was telling me I still had 17 kms to go before arriving at Caiguna.  There was no way I was going to get there in one piece if I had to do this stuff in the dark, so I pulled over into a bit of a clearing to setup camp.
My tent was still wet from when I packed it up in Kalgoorlie so I tried to dry the inside a bit with my towel.  Good enough.  By now, it was dark and the only wood I could find was soaked, so I didn't bother trying to get a fire going.  I had a pretty early night after having a dinner of muesli bar and some choccy.  I don't think I covered 160 kms today - and that was with 75 kms on the road that was covered in pretty quick time.

Start of the track into the coat

I thought this was the track getting faint - but it got worse later on.

Edge of Australia - not happy with what my camera does sometimes - need to work out how to use it better.

Spag Bol on the cliffs.

It's got me how mud can be both sticky AND slippery.

Esperance to Balladonia - Wed 6th July

More rain today - can't shake the stuff off for very long it appears.  Found a bike shop that will change the oil at 10:30 am so I head back to Macca's for a coffee and to warm up for a bit.  Had a good chat to the guys in the shop while waiting for the oil to be changed.  I was planning to head to Israelite Bay which is west of Esperance, but is accessed by some pretty cool offraod tracks.  On the way I was going to look at Cape Le Grand national park on some tracks I had found on the GPS.  Trouble is, the tracks are only for land management vehicles only, and I don't have enough fuel to go all the way to the cape, and to get to Condingup to refuel.  bugger.
On getting to Condingup I find that their pumps aren't working! Great, I think have enough fuel to Esperance, but then the owner takes pity on me and sells me some fuel from his own supply at his house. While filling up he reckons that getting to Israelite will be a tough ask given all the rain and that the track will be a 'bloody mess'.  I kind of believe him given that some of the dirt roads into Condingup were a handful and they were proper graded roads.  He suggested to at least check out Duke of Orleans beach.  So I do and it's a ripper - white sands, green/blue water - just like the photo's in the travel blurbs.  Esperance is well known for it's beaches, so it was good to see at least one of them!
I decide to head to Balladonia on the Balladonia Road.  It started out as a wide graded road that is used to service all the farms/stations.  Soon enough it started to get corrugated, then became rocky twin track that was a hoot to ride.  For the last 70kms into Balladonia I was on the pegs, looking out for roos and rocks, all the while looking over my shoulder staring at an awesome sunset.  Everything was clicking and I was in heaven.  However, I probably should have pulled over and made camp as it started getting dark.  I had to slow down, the road was become a chopped up mess and it was dark  Once again, my 2 candle power headlight was barely keeping the night at bay.  I had to pull over twice as I could have sworn that I had two flat tyres.  It was only the road and gravel and my not being able to see the road properly that was making the bike squirm everywhere.
I pulled into the Balladonia Roadhouse - booked a room, had a shower, grabbed a Cooper's Pale Ale and Chicken Parma - what a great way to end what turned out to be a great day.

Have heaps of photo's of the beaches, but my camera was on some weird setting and they pretty much are no good :(

Kalgoorlie to Esperance - Tues 5th July

Bummed around Kalgoorlie waiting for 'after lunch' so that I can get the bike looked at.  Changed the front brake pads before scoffing down my lunch.  Turn up at the bike shop at 1pm, thinking that's pretty close to after lunch.  That's when I learn that after lunch means 2pm.  Any by the way, we only have one person on today, and he's busy picking up a bike 80 kms away so you should have the bike by 5pm.  Hmm.. that's more like just before tea rather than after lunch, so I say I'll give it a miss and take off for Norseman or Esperance a bit ticked off.  Changing the oil should only take 20 mins and I had told them the day before that I was only passing through.  Oh well.
I pretty much stayed on the bitumen today, but did jump on a road that followed the railway line for about 50 kms that was fun for a while.  By the time I roll into Esperance it's freezing, belting down rain and is pitch black - not a great way to be when the light on the bike is about as bright as a couple of candles - well, that's how it appeared to me.  Catch a motel for the night - good chance to catch up on the Tour as well :)
No pics today

Holland track to Kalgoorlie - Mon 4th July

Somewhere on the Holland Track to Kalgoorlie - Mon 4th July
Packed up my camp in the morning with a brekky of a muesli bar and a drink of water. I was pretty happy that I camped the night before as I still had about 50kms of the track to go and there was no way I was going to get in Coolgardie before nightfall. There was more of the same tracks, but it took me a while to get in the groove so I was making a mess of things - nearly dropping the bike again.
Once off the track it was a quick blast up a very well made major dirt road for another 50kms or so into Coolgardie. Didn't look like there was much to see so I hit the tar for 40kms to Kalgoorlie - a very straight and boring bit of bitumen.
Once in Kalgoorlie I looked for the motorcycle shops to see if I could the oil changed in the bike. The Suzuki dealer said they'd be able to do it after lunch tomorrow so I went looking for a caravan park to pitch the tent. I checked out the superpit just near Boulder. Boulder is pretty much a suburb of Kalgoorlie - although I'm sure if you asked people from Boulder, they'd say the opposite. What can you say about the superpit? Well, it s bloody great big hole, that's for sure. It's at about 500m deep at the moment.

I can't remember doing much more after that.
End of the Holland Track

Road into Coolgardie

Kalgoorlie Superpit

Here's some pics from the summary post below

Busselton jetty

Stirling Ranges

Wave Rock - Hyden

Holland Track

This bit was fun -  very fast :)

Rider down! - Holland track

My camp in the middle of the Holland track

Yeah, that's something I left out of the last post about the Holland track.  I was starting to get pretty tired and realised that I hadn't eaten anything for lunch other than a muesli bar.  After half a dozen near misses of nearly dropping it in the sand on some tight corners, I finally succumbed to gravity and down she went.  No damage done to the bike, or myself.  I think I did more damage to myself by lifting the bike up rather than from the fall.  I decided it was time to stop before I ended up hurting myself.  There's a tonne of camping spaces along this track, so it was only 5 min later and I found a place to set up the tent and get a small fire going.  I dined on Mexican Chicken with Nacho chips, a coffee, and a nightcap of Jim Beam.  I was pretty happy with myself.  I hadn't seen anyone on the track all day and had a ball.

Here's a sample of the variety of terrain on the Holland Track

catch up time again

Freo - Wed 29th June
Well, on Wednesday I basically ate and drank my way around Freo CBD - something that's pretty easy to do.  Good brekky (Gino's again), great coffee (Blink), pizza and beer for lunch (Little Creatures Brewery), arvo ales and dinner (Monk's).  Ended the night with a Stone's Arrogant Bastard Ale (7.2%), thankfully only half a pint as it pretty much put me away for the evening - so strong you could carve it I reckon.  It turns out my camera wasn't water proof - or even water resistant, so I had to buy a new one today,.  It's "Adventure Proof".. we'll see about that.

Freo to Busselton - Thu 30th June
Thursday I was greeted with a drizzle as I packed the bike.  Great, my one day off the bike was the dry day, and it starts to rain when I'm due to ride again.  I headed up to South Perth for two new tyres.  On the way down south, it started to rain... then it started to RAIN.  Great, nothing better than running down a highway on a dirt bike, in the rain on brand new knobbies - and I'm doing this for fun?  3 hours later I turned into Busselton and called it a day -  a very short day.  Tried to dry everything off in my motel room and then wandered through town - not much to see really.

Busselton to Mt. Barker - Fri 1st July
Checked out the Busselton jetty - it's something like 2km long, but I wasn't going to walk it with motocross boots on, so took a few pics and headed off.  Passed through Pemberton which is home to the giant Karri gum trees - pretty cool to see.  Didn't take any photo's as I couldn't fit them in frame properly!  Some great roads that would be terrific on a road bike.  I did muck around on some forest roads for a while, but there were a tonne of trees down, so ended up having to turn back around.  Some showers throughout the day and bloody freezing. I wanted to get to Albany, but it was too cold, so pulled the pin in a motel again.

Mt. Barker to Lake Grace - Sat 2nd July
"You're going to have a better day today - it won't rain".  So sayeth the idiot at the motel as I was leaving for Albany.  So, for something different it rained and was cold.  Yeah.  Originally I wanted to get to Albany to have a look around, but because of the rain, I just wanted to pick up a new GPS.  During the Gunbarrel Hwy, my old GPS was starting to go on the blink - more than likely due to the vibrations from the corrugations, or from hitting all those rocks..  The last few days it pretty much bit the dust and wouldn't turn on when I was standing still.  So I put up with the rain, bought a new GPS and got out of Dodge.  It stopped raining, but it was still cold.  I was passing through the Stirling Ranges which would've been good to explore, but I gave it a miss due to the weather.

Lake Grace to somewhere on the Holland Track - Sun 3rd July
Headed off to Hyden to check out Wave Rock and to start the Holland Track.  The rock is OK - looked like pretty much every picture I've seen of it.  About 45 kms later, I got back on dirt roads and was immediately happier.  Soon after it became a real dirt and sand track and I was ecstatic.  The track was reclaimed in 1992 after it had pretty much been overgrown.  As a result, it's a mix of sand, rock, dirt, gravel - tight and twisy in some places, and open in others.

....
I'm sitting in Macca's in Esperance right now - guess what?  It's raining.. I'll finish this update with some pics when I get a chance later.  About to get the oil changed in the bike.