3rd September Melbourne by Qantas

I had my first sleep-in of the trip as I had all day to get to the airport to fly home - or so I thought.  I wandered up to the local shopping centre for some lunch and discovered there was a railway station that was on the Airlink line direct to the airport.  So I bought a ticket for the train.  Then I noticed that the ticket only was valid for 2 hours and it was only 1:15 and the flight wasn't until 8 pm!  I rushed back to Brook Road, took the DR650 round the back and locked it up with the chain and covered it with a bike cover Bob had left there.  I had quite a few bits and bobs to leave behind as there was no way I could take them all back to Melbourne on the plane.  These were sorted out and then bags filled with the stuff I wanted to take.  This included my motocross boots, adventure riding suit and helmet. I had the Givi bag slung over one shoulder, the boots slung over the other shoulder and the Ventura bag held out in front.

So loaded up like a pack horse I staggered up the hill to the Eagle Junction station about 1 km away.  I secretly hoped a passing motorist would take pity and give me a lift, but the only people that acknowledged me were a couple of NSITS who smiled sweetly in amazement.  After four stops to catch my breath and wipe my brow, I made the station with 15 minutes to spare.  I  strained my back and I'm still suffering a week later.  A railway employee  at Eagle Junction told me I would have no trouble if I let my ticket expire as there were never any inspectors at the Airport end.  At the airport station I spotted a free trolley and dived for it only to be stopped by a ticket inspector - luckily my ticket was still valid!

At this stage I had 4 hours to kill at the airport and I checked in my bags.  The very nice Qantas lady put my boots and Ventura bag into a giant plastic bag so it would go through as one item and not incur an extra charge.  Then I remembered that I had a couple of free passes to the Qantas club.  I spent the 4 hours drinking Qantas's wine and eating their food and boarded the plane in good spirits.  Catherine met me in Melbourne and I was soon home to find Morag still in bed suffering the aftermath of the flu.

Reflections on the trip

I decided that I'm not really cut out to be a true adventure rider.  I found the prospect of 100's kms of unpredictable dirt roads a daunting task, that produced mild feelings of anxiety.  While actually riding it wasn't too bad as the DR650 was the perfect bike for the trip and handled the conditions easily.  Bowling along the Tanami at 90 KPH, it was in it's element.  All I had to do was keep my nerve and open the throttle when ever the track turned sandy and rutted.

We had cut out a few of our dirt riding plans by mutual agreement, so Alan must have been feeling the same way.  He had to manhandle 260 kgs of bike and luggage with a dicky throttle response. He played the role of tail-end-Charlie throughout the trip so had to eat my dust if the wind was blowing along the track.  I generally traveled slightly faster but stopped every so often, to make sure Alan was OK.  Only once was this not the case.  In this way we kept in visual contact most of the time and were never more than 1 km apart.  After particularly difficult sections Alan would catch up with me and we both would utter the word "FARRKK!" and head on.

The  DR650 is often touted as the best adventure bike of the lot.  It is a very robust air-cooled single with nothing really to break should you drop it.  The motor is bullet-proof, even when submerged in a creek!  In fact it seemed to go better after its dunking.  The suspension soaked up all the potholes and rocks with no issues, so the preparation Bob Shaw put into it paid off.  The engine has plenty of grunt when you needed it - even for overtaking road trains on the highway.  It carried about 40 kgs of luggage and 100 kgs of rider and the 30L tank gave it a range of over 700 kms on the dirt. Nothing dropped off and nothing broke.  The one bad point is the seat, which brought me lots of pain when riding long days on the tar.  I stood up more on the pegs on the tar than on the dirt just to relieve the pain in my butt!  Apart from that the DR was a great road bike as well as a dirt bike and could cruise at the speed limit all day.  One of the DR riders at the Ulysses AGM had a custom made seat and that is probably a necessity for long trips.

The Heidenau Scout tyres were good on dirt or tar.  The back wore out faster than expected but the front was hardly worn at the end of the trip.  Alan's rear tyre lasted much better on the GS 1200.  It had a solid section in the middle of the tread whereas my smaller section tyre on the DR did not, and this might have explained the wear rate.  At very low speed the front tyre flexed the forks quite a bit but this disappeared over 30 KPH.  The aftermarket screen was well worthwhile for the road miles as it took the wind pressure off the rider.  But it cracked for no reason and wouldn't have lasted much longer.  The lower gearing Bob fitted proved a wise move and the chain hardly wore at all.  None of the spare cables or levers were needed.

The luggage arrangements worked well.  The main weight was in the Ventura bag including the water and fuel cans and all tools. This worked  well in the sandy sections as the weight naturally transferred backwards when the throttle was opened.   The tent was slung across the seat with the clothes bag on top.  This was not too restricting on the riders space and the soft clothes bag could be leant against.  The throw-over panniers held only light stuff like the freeze dried food and plates and mugs.  The NZ freeze dried food was very easy to prepare and quite tasty and it probably helped us lose a bit of weight as well.  The water micro-filter was not really needed because we had access to reasonable water the whole way, but if we had become stranded it would have been essential.

I don't know what our next big trip will be, but I don't think Alan and I will be going the Long Way Round any time soon!  I have a new found respect for Ewan and Charlie and will be re-watching their classic video again.

Alan's Postscript.

I agree with everything Colin has said and would like to add the following comments.

- Thanks to Colin for carrying 5 litres of extra fuel for me and 5 litres of water for both of us. As he has already stated the BMW R1200 GS is quite heavy at 260kgs plus about 60 kgs of luggage plus the rider making a total of 420kgs close to the bikes limit of 440kgs. With a tank that only holds 20 litres I needed an extra 15 litres to get me from Yuendumu to Balgo on the Tanami road. I am not really a camping person but I must give my Expedia inflatable mattress a plug. It was far more comfortable than the Kathmandu self-inflating mats and took up less space in my luggage. The Germans certainly build machines to last. I gave the GS an absolute pounding and it still came back for more. I have over 182,000 kms on the clock and it is as though it is just run in. I had a problem with loss of power in higher gears when I was trying to accelerate hard. This seemed to start when I ran out of fuel heading for Warnum on the Great Northern Highway. I cleaned the air filter at the Three Ways  road house near Tennant Creek but it made no difference. I managed to get home OK where I stripped the bike down to bare essentials to find out what the problem was. With the help of my Ulysses' friend Geoff Wiltshire we manage to deduce that it was the upper ignition coil on the right hand cylinder that was faulty. I replaced it with a second-hand one from a wreckers and the  bike is  running like a dream now.  I will still ride off-road when the opportunity presents itself but will need to check carefully the depth of the water crossings to make sure I don't drown it again as I may not be as lucky getting it started. The Heidenau tyres were great and I will be certainly using them again.

This was certainly a trip worth doing but I don't think I will be repeating it.

2nd September Wooloowin 347 kms today 10,524 kms to date

Alan was up and raring to go so we packed up early but still were able to see the Prentice family at breakfast and make our farewells -- thanks for looking after us and for the big Concert!

We headed off into the Darling Downs - huge paddocks of Sorghum or some other bulk crop.  Farming on an industrial scale.  We stopped in Dalby for our last Big Brekky together. I even managed to remember my pot of mustard when we left. I forgot to pick it up at Parkes on our last trip.

We aimed to stop at the Blacksoil Roadhouse outside Ipswich as our ways would part after that.  I was going to Bob and Barbara Shaw's house at Wooloowin to drop off the DR650 and Alan was going to Rochedale to stay with his niece Louise.  We pulled in beside a white van and found a man cooking up his lunch behind it.  He took our final photo after 6 1/2 weeks on the road and 10,500 kms under our wheels.  We had a few adventures and misadventures, but as we proved on our 2010 ride around Australia, we are a good team and never a cross word passed between us, even when Alan's GS was axle deep in mud in the Bungle Bungles!

We part ways after 6 1/2 weeks on the road

The man with the van was traveling with his 14 year old son following the tennis circuit with hopes of fame and glory no doubt.  Not much luxury for them at this stage as they lived in the van and inquired if there was suitable place in Melbourne near the Rod Laver Arena as they were coming down for the Australian Open in January.  I suggested along the river beside the Botanic Gardens and I plan to drive past to see if they do stop there! (post script - I did see a white van parked there during the Australian Open)

I can't say what happened to Alan on his journey south to Sydney, save that he arrived safely on Thursday 4th; his 70th birthday.  I had a merry old time finding Wooloowin.  I turned off on the M7 and immediately got lost, found the M3 but headed the wrong way south instead of north.  I had to go all the way to Rochedale to turn around and come back into the City.  I probably wasn't too far away from Alan at this stage.  Eventually I arrived at Wooloowin, but on the wrong side of the park that the Shaw's house adjoined.  I was tempted to do one last bit of dirt riding across the park, but went around to Brook Road.  Barbara had left a bed made up and some meals in the freezer, so I was well set up. Bob and Barbara were away on a trip on the Trans Siberian Express and they called me from Ulan Bator in Mongolia to check things were OK.   I unpacked the DR and gave it a well earned wash down.  The Council had concreted the driveway just that afternoon, so I couldn't wheel the bike around the back of the house until the next day, when the concrete had hardened.

A big crack had developed in the screen I had bought for the DR650.  I will bring it back to Mick Hone hopefully for a replacement.  There was no impact or stone chip to cause the crack - it must be a fault.  I settled into the comfort of a double bed - Alan had commandeered all the double beds on the trip - because he's a whole 3 inches taller.

1st September Chinchilla 0 kms today 10,177 kms to date

We spent the day with Frances and the kids. They wagged school especially to entertain Colin and I. First of all Joshua helped me change the oil and oil filter on my motorbike. It seemed to go OK although only a good hard run into Brisbane tomorrow will show up any leaks from the sump plug and/or oil filter.

Alan and Joshua do an oil change on the GS

Here is Joshua giving us a demo of his prowess with his archery set. Libby and Bethany also showed us their skills.

The Prentices now have a fully operational Queenslander house. They have done a great job and it looks really good.

We walked with the kids to the main dam and checked out the water and the cattle.

A nice cooling paddle in the dam and some rock splitting to make skimmers.

Libby, Bethany and Joshua in their dam

In the evening Bethany organised a concert with items from her, Libby and Joshua. Bethany played piano, violin and sang. Libby played Viola (three strings only), clarinet and piano. Joshua played guitar, drums and sang.

A great way to round off our visit to Chinchilla.  Tomorrow we head off to Brisbane where we will go our separate ways.  Colin to Bob and Barbara Shaw’s house to return the DR 650 to its home and then fly to Melbourne on Wednesday and I will stay with my niece Louise and make my way back to Sydney in time for my 70th birthday on the 4h Sept.  We will split off on the M2 outside of Brisbane and that will be the end of 6 1/2 weeks and 10,000 kms of riding across the centre and north of Australia.

This will be the last blog on the road, but we will add our thoughts in a postscript when we get back home.

31st August Chinchilla 470 kms today 10,177 kms to date

We had our last freeze-dried meal for breakfast, Beef Curry.  These meals have proved a great success and quite nutritious and tasty.  I stopped to adjust the chain on the DR and then stopped to adjust it back again.  End of trip paranoia was setting in!

We followed the Warrego Hwy east through Morven, Mitchell, Roma and Miles to Chinchilla.  We stopped for a break under a Coolabah Tree.

The impact of the Coal Seam Gas industry became more apparent especially after Roma.  Four years ago the farmers fences were festooned with anti CSG slogans, but these have disappeared as the mighty petrochemical industry rolled into town.  Backed by the State Government, the local community didn’t have a real say in what happened.  The whole business is clouded in secrecy Daniel Prentice tells us, with landowners legally forbidden to discuss with other farmers what deals they have gotten from the developers. I snapped this gas well just outside of Miles. It has some sort of de-watering tower and what happens to the very salty waste water is one of the issues the industry is yet to face.

Prentice family in Chinchilla

We arrived at the Prentices at about 3:30.  Daniel, Joshua and Libby where out in the fields helping their Dad deal with their cows but we were greeted by Frances, Bethany and of course little Caleb.  We played Pictionary after tea and Libby and Frances pipped the boys at the post.

It is still a bit nippy in the evenings so Daniel lit the fire in the “Shed”. It burned all night and kept us nice and warm.

30th August – Charleville – 512kms today, 9,707kms to date

We had our second last freeze dried meal, Mexican Chicken, for breakfast at Longreach before heading for Charleville. Another perfect sunny day, not a cloud in the sky. Unfortunately they need rain badly through the whole of western Queensland. The road to Barcaldine was wall to wall road kill mainly kangaroos. This happens a lot during droughts as there tends to be more feed on the road side than in the paddocks.  Colin reckons it should be called the Slaughterhouse Highway.

The countryside is flat and bare with only the occasional cluster of scrubby trees.  The land was cleared by the pastoralists supposedly to increase grass cover, but the complete absence of trees makes it more susceptible to damage during drought and denies any shelter to the stock.  There were other areas that still had trees and they looked in much better condition.

We are staying in a cabin at the Bailey Bar Caravan Park where everything actually works which surprised us greatly as in some of the places we have stayed in a lot of the appliances/features  didn’t work.  A maintenance man appeared to replace the fluorescent tube without us actually reporting it, which was amazing.

This is the Corones Hotel the only pub in Charleville which was open for dinner. It seems that Saturday in Charleville is a slow day and most of the eateries don’t bother opening. We had a couple of great steaks at the Corones served by a rather good looking Chinese waitress.  Colin was so impressed he spilled his chips just to see her clear them up.  We watched the final free practice of the British MotoGP with Marquez at the top of the list.

Corones Hotel

It was a slow day for Colin with the photos so he took this one of the bar in the Corones. They were having a “Disco” night so we beat a hasty retreat before it started.

This is a genuine Queenslander house. There are not many of them around these days and this is a great example.

29th August Longreach 189 kms today 9,295 kms to date

We packed up early to get to Longreach as early as we could.  We planned to do the Stockman’s Hall of Fame and the Qantas Museum in one day.  We had found a nice cafe in Winton at the North Gregory Hotel, but had to wait 15 minutes until they officially opened (7am).

The countryside between Winton and Longreach continued as flat dry rangelands, but there were more sheep in the paddocks.  Then in the distance, the country changed to a woodland aspect and we descended to a bridge over a flowing river!  It was the Darr River and the woodland was growing in a wide floodway from there to Longreach.  This photo is of the Thomson River just outside the town.

Thomson river - Longreach

We arrived in Longreach in plenty of time due to my sacrificing my own comfort to ride the 180 kms without stopping.  First we dropped into the Qantas Museum to book a jet tour and we were persuaded to add a dinner/show for another $20.

We visited the Stockman’s Hall of Fame, which was an initiative by RM Williams and a few other rural luminaries.  It was a magnificent display of the settlement of Australia and how the pastoral industry played a very important part in that story.

Stockmans Hall of Fame

Inside the Stockmans Hall of Fame

We saw a stockman show in an outdoor arena and the lone horseman rode 3 different horses, sang songs and ended up riding a huge bull – very entertaining.  He started with a horse that lay on its back to allow the rider to clean it’s hooves without straining his own back.  Alan is shown with Jigsaw the bull.

A demo of wrestling a horse!!

Jigsaw the bull .. on the left.

The Qantas Museum was just across the road.  The original hangar was there, where Qantas built it’s first 6 planes themselves: an Avro and a replica was in the museum.  There was a lot of information about the founders of Qantas – Hudson Fysh, Paul McGuinness who were WWI Air Corp buddies and Fergus McMaster who provided capital and political influence.  It was touch and go initially and a number of mail contracts including to Singapore really gave them the start they needed.

The original hangar

A copy of the original Avro used by Qantas

We had a special guide to take us through the big jet planes in an outside display.  One was a 1979 vintage 747 just like the one I flew to Australia in with Morag. and it was gifted by Qantas – the only involvement it has in the museum.  To land it at Longreach airport it had to be stripped inside to lighten it as the runway was much too short for a fully equipped plane to land.  We walked under the plane and the guide pointed out all the sensors and what they did.

A couple of Egits in the engine cowling.

Then we went inside and saw the inner workings of the aircraft, including the black boxes, which are actually orange.  As we were a small group we were allowed into the cockpit and Captain Alan took his seat at the controls.

These are the "Black Boxes" except they are orange!!

Just made for the job!!

There was the first Boeing 707 that Qantas flew. Alan flew to Australia in 1966 in a similar 707.  This plane went through a complete refit after they to entice a Middle Eastern princeling to buy it as a personal jet.  They made one big mistake when they used pigskin leather for the seats!  The plane ended up mothballed in the UK and was bought by the museum for $1.50 It had to be re-commissioned by a small army of volunteers before it could be flown back to Longreach.  The last plane is a Catalina seaplane from Spain, which is being refitted to replicate 5 Catalina’s that Qantas operated between Darwin and Sri Lanka to deliver mail and documents through enemy airspace during WWII.

We ended up the day at the Heartland show in the old terminal building.  We were entertained by Mike, Lee and Grant with a great selection of their own compositions and bush ballads.  The dinner was excellent – it was prepared by the Qantas chefs.

28th August - Winton ; 468kms today, 9,106ms to date

We were up at 7am and on the road by 8am heading for Cloncurry 120kms away for breakfast. This is the sort of scenery between Mt. Isa and Cloncurry, low hills, twisty roads and interesting scenery much different to the scenery between Cloncurry and Winton which was pretty flat and boring.

This is a little place called McKinlay on the road from Cloncurry to Winton. The pub is called Crocodile Dundee’s.

Occasionally you see crosses like this on the side of the road signifying where someone came to grief. This one is for Ed the “Singing Shearer”.

This IS a WIDE load. It is an ore truck for a mine. It covered more than half the width of the road. It has a vehicle in front and behind warning the traffic that it is approaching. There was only room for a motorbike to get past so I’m not sure what they do when a four wheel vehicle comes along. Probably pull it over on the narrow hard shoulder.

Our answer to the rock formations in Arizona!!!

Winton is dinosaur central. There are all sorts of tours to follow the dinosaur trail etc. The garbage bins in the CBD are dinosaur feet!!! This monster was in the caravan park we stayed in.

We found out that there was a free concert in the town put on by the Queensland government in support of cultural diversity. It was held in the Winton Royal Open Air Theatre an outdoor cinema where the audience sat in deck chairs. The group were very good. There were musicians from India, Zimbabwe, China, South America, Samoa and Australia. They played instruments from their particular part of the world and accompanied each other with great skill.

Cultural event of the trip in Winton's Royal Theatre