18th May - Alice Springs the day after Alan left

Alan managed to get his ticket sorted out with Tiger and he and I rode to the Airport to save on the taxi fare (which turned out to be $45 when I took a taxi the next day!)  Alan entrusted me to ride his beloved GS back to our digs and put it away in the container.  I must say that  I agree with Adolf - it is a bit of a tractor.  I stopped by at Chris' house as we hadn't finalised the arrangements for keys at the factory.  It was Sunday morning and she was reading in bed but kindly hopped up and we shared a coffee together.  She was reading a book about who Jesus Christ was and offered it to me.  We are keeping our keys and hope to stay a night in August when we get back. On the way from the airport I noticed a small solar farm with fancy tracking panels on pedestals.  There is another project called Iterne near the Ghan museum that I planned to visit later in the day.  First I had to ride the Beemer back to the factory and put it away with all of Alan's gear.  I then sorted out my stuff and packed a bag to take home. The first place I visited was the Telegraph Station.

This was called Alice Springs after the daughter of the first Telegraph Manager.  The nearby town was called Stuart, but eventually it had to be changed.  The Telegraph Station was a repeater station for the Overland Telegraph which stretched from London to Port Augusta and had several long undersea crossings.  It was completed in 1872 and was one of the engineering marvels of the age.  South Australia out maneuvered the other colonies to win the contract.  John Stuart successfully crossed the continent from Port Augusta to Darwin and surveyed the route.  It was this massive project that opened up central Australia and a series of repeater stations along the route developed into towns with Alice Springs being the biggest.

This is the actual Telegraph room and there was a morse code message being tapped out inside.  The station automatically repeated the message because it lost signal strength after about 300 miles.  The important job was to keep the huge batteries charged and maintain the equipment and the lines.  The skinny white pole carried the wires.There was quite a lot of electrical equipment and the telegraph was a complex system with lots of new inventions.

This is the actual telegraph wire - just a single wire on top of a wrought iron pole - for 3200 kms across the centre of Australia.  You can still find these poles in the bush today 140 years later. The station closed in 1932 and it was then used as a home for Aboriginal children stolen from their families as part of the disastrous policy to assimilate the Aborigine's by destroying their culture.  Many children lived here over the years until the 1960's.  One of the carers called Hatti Perkins was the mother of Charles Perkins who became Australia's first Aboriginal member of Federal Parliament.  The station was on the banks of the Todd River and there were a lot of locals enjoying a picnic and a bit of kick to kick.

The Todd River is just a dry sandy bed and once a year the Todd River Regatta is held in which teams compete in boats designed to be carried down the river bed.  If there happens to be rain and the river is flowing the regatta is cancelled!

I then rode up to the top of ANZAC Hill to get a view over the centre of town that I enjoyed in 1981 just to see how much had changed.

I wanted to revisit Alice Springs' first cemetery but when I got there, I heard the hoot of a train coming and I got to see a 1.8km long goods train with about 100 cars roll past on the way to Darwin.

The cemetery was opened in 1889 and had a few scattered headstones and fences and looked very peaceful.  There was a headstone for Fred Spicer who was the first occupant in 1889.  He was killed in an accident while inspecting a cattle station for Elders.

 I then headed off to see the Ghan Museum at the old Stuart Station, which was on the outskirts of the present Alice Springs.  It had heaps of memorabilia and the last engine with a couple of carriages were parked outside.  

The old Ghan ran its last service in 1980 and there was a documentary on the railway at the museum.  My sister Sheila traveled on it when she visited Australia in 1969.  They said that if the train arrived on the correct day that was a good service such were the delays due to track damage.  The original route had to follow the watercourses to supply water for the steam engines and the floods would wash the line away at regular intervals.  In fact they carried a few spare lengths of track on the train for just this eventuality!  In 1980 it was then replaced with a modern line 160 kms to the west and in 2004 this was extended to Darwin. 

 Round the back of the train I found a camel happily grazing.  The camels were here before the Ghan and survived the old one at least.  The name Ghan is short for Afghan in reference to the Afghan cameleers who were the only form of transport before the railways came.

I finished off going back to Anzac Hill to see the sunset.  That night was probably the poorest sunset of our entire trip with not even a slight reddening of the sky.  I fell into conversation with three guys from Darwin who had been attending the AGM.  They were returning the next day on two BMW 1600 GTL's and R1200 S;  about $100k worth of motorcycles!  My little DR650 looked very cheap indeed beside these behemoths.  There were also several NSITS on the hill and they made up for the poor sunset.

17th May - Alice Springs End of the first leg

This is the last full day we had in Alice Springs together. The day started with the Ulysses Grand Parade of motorcycles through the centre of the town.

The weather was fine and there were plenty of people on the streets to support us. Approximately 2500 Ulyssians made it to Alice Springs which is a pretty good turnout considering the huge distances everyone had to travel.   Colin put on his new 30th Anniversary Melbourne Branch shirt and joined his branch members for the Parade.

After the Grand Parade there were the usual speeches and then the actual AGM where the new National Committee were elected.  The Mayor of Alice Springs cut a dash in an aboriginal kaftan!

In the evening there was a dinner in the Convention Centre with the theme "The Mad Hatters Party". There were some very creative costumes and a good time was had by all. This year they had the music in a separate room so we could still talk to each other at the dinner. This was a good idea and will probably be used in future AGMs.  Colin tried to join his own Branch but they had been there for an hour and there was no spare seat.  So he had to join Alan's rough mates in the Northern Beaches Branch right at the back of the hall.  We were one of the last tables served our meal, which was very good when it arrived.

The last reveller with the wasp hair style deserves a special mention.  He had decorated the stump of his left arm with some hair and balls!  His parting comment was "at least I always have a bone!!"

This is the end of the first leg  of our trip.

Alan is due to fly back to Sydney on 18th May but had a few anxious moments when he discovered that his flight with Tiger to Sydney had been cancelled along with his return to Alice Springs (Tiger is withdrawing the service). He had to buy another ticket and almost got whacked for luggage as well.   Colin will fly to Melbourne on Monday 19th May.

We return to Alice Springs on 5th August to resume our trip. Colin will be retired by then so there will be no time constraints. When we come back we will travel from Alice Springs to Halls Creek (approx 1000kms) on the Tanami Road (mostly dirt), then on to the Bungle Bungles for a couple of days before attacking the Gibb River Road from the Kununurra end to Windjana Gorge and on to Fitzroy Crossing. We then pass through Halls Creek again before we take off on the Buntine Highway heading east to meet up with the Stuart Highway 417kms away. After that we will be on sealed roads all the way back to Brisbane and Sydney. We should be back in Sydney/Melbourne by 7th September.

16th May - Alice Springs - 333 kms today 4,216 kms so far

We had a slow start today because we didn't have much planned for the morning.  I wanted to pick up the DR but it wasn't ready.  The mechanic had checked the main bearings and the big end and they were all fine.  He thought the noise was definitely coming from the piston, but although a new piston was needed at some stage I could finish off the trip as it was.  He had found that a plastic plug on the engine casing had cracked and was gluing it overnight and hadn't yet reinstalled it.  So Alan and I went off to the AGM site for some breakfast.
After brekkie Alan took me back to Desert Edge and I picked up the DR finally.  I bought some engine oil and some oil for the foam filter and headed back to our digs.  I also bought a padlock for the shipping container.  We arranged to meet at the Araluan Gallery to check out the display on craters, crocodiles and the Strehlow family who lived at Hermannsburg.

Gosse Bluff wasn't a crater I found out, but the remnant of the crater floor that had been thrust up by a rebound of the earth's crust after the impact 146 million years ago.  Wolfe Creek crater was only 300,000 years old which is relatively young.  Carl Strehlow took over the abandoned Hermannsburg Mission in 1894 and ran it for 30 years until he died of dropsy on the way to find medical treatment.  His son Ted became very interested in the culture of the local Aranda people and gained their trust and collected a huge amount of artefacts, photographs and film of the Aranda ceremonies.  The collection is held by the Araluan Gallery but much of it is sacred and off limits for display.
Alan was due to attend the Extended Nat Comm meeting with all the other branch officials in the afternoon, so I rode out to Hermannsburg to see the Lutheran Mission I had just read so much about. 

I passed a memorial to Albert Namatjira on the way there.  The mission was still much as it had been when closed in 1952. 

Hermannsberg Mission

Many of the buildings were intact including Strehlow's house, which was now a cafe.  I had a huge helping of lasagne for my lunch there. 

The Mission had many trials and tribulations one of which was unreliable water supply and its extreme isolation.  In 1935 a group of artists donated enough paintings to raise sufficient funds to install a pipeline from a permanent spring about 8 kms away and this fixed the water problem.  Isolation couldn't be fixed and this made it hard for the Lutheran Church to support the Mission and it eventually closed in 1982 and the land was handed back to the local aboriginals.  There is a fairly large township there now but it is off limits for non-aboriginals.  One interesting development at Hermannsburg was that the Christian message and the Mission was maintained by some of the Aboriginal converts after the European ministers left and this demonstration of administrative ability led later to more self-managed Aboriginal communities.
As I rode back to Alice Springs I came across a horse racing track in the bush. 

It had a large oval track bounded by a white pipe fence and some irrigation pipes. I could imagine a race meeting being held there. There was also a floral tribute at the side of the road to a man called Oliver who died in 2012 aged 30.  These sort of tributes are fairly common in the remote areas of Australia

I decided to stop at Standley Chasm on the way back as it was only a short distance off the main road.  The Chasm was on private land and the owners charged $10 to enter. 

The access track  was much different from what I remembered from 1981 and it took a while to get to the Chasm.  It was very striking with red/orange vertical walls only a few yards apart.  On the way back I came across a group of people attending to a woman who had tripped and broken her arm.  The ambulance officers were there and I was asked to help stretcher her out of the gorge to the ambulance.  The main group of helpers were Ulyssians from the Darling Downs Branch and one of them was an ex-ambo, so he knew how to handle the situation.

I found Greg Rees when I got back to the AGM site and I picked up my shirt.  While I was getting on the DR another rider from Portland started to talk about DR's and his in particular, which was all fitted out for a long trip on dirt roads.  He was planning to go across the desert to Perth from the Olgas and then head north to the Gibb River Rd and returning to Alice Springs down the Tanami Track.  I got his email because his experience would be invaluable for Alan and I.

The night ended with a Beach Party at the AGM site with live music and lots of people dressed up in beach wear.  They even had an artificial beach to dance on!  I met some of the Melbourne Branch members and arranged to meet up at 8 am for the big Parade tomorrow.

15th May - Alice Springs

We spent the day doing many things but not riding.  First I delivered the DR650 back to Desert Edge Motorcycles for an examination of its entrails that could either lead to an expensive rebuild or leaving well alone.  We then doubled up on Alan's GS and every time I climbed on board I nearly tipped the bike over.  Alan gradually got used to having a 90 kg gorilla on the back.
We attended the Ulysses Safety Meeting and enjoyed the free mandatory motorcyclists brekkie of a bacon and egg sandwich and a lukewarm coffee.  I have been enjoying these delicacies since the 1970's at the Easter Bathurst races.  The state-based reporters gave a very thorough account of their activities and the various attempts of State and Federal Governments to either consult with motorcyclists about what is good policy not having any riding experience themselves, or the reaction to some crazy new idea.  We also had some specialist presentations. One on Helmets pointed out that the Australian Standard was out of date and needed to be overhauled and there was total confusion about whether an AS (Australian Standards) sticker was needed or not,  The advice (from an ex copper) was to challenge the more stupid interpretations of the regulations in court.

I managed to blag a ride on a Harley V-Rod after this and thoroughly enjoyed it.  The motor was a gem - smooth and powerful unlike the standard Harley.  It was designed by Porsche so maybe that explains it.  Unfortunately it was spoiled by being in a cruiser frame with a ridiculously wide rear tyre.  It took quite an effort to get the bike leaned over and stay leaned over for corners.

We had arranged to take Chris Fior out to lunch as a thank you for letting us use her accommodation.  By all accounts, camping at the AGM site was not a pleasant experience with strong odours from the nearby sewage treatment works and a lack of ablutions.  We went back to the Aurora Hotel we had used yesterday and had  really good meal and a chat.  Afterwards we had a quick look at the Araluen Gallery which had many Albert Namatjira paintings and those of his children.  They also had paintings of Rex Batterbee, who spotted Albert's talent in the early 1930's and taught him how to paint.  There were some examples of both artists painting the same scene and Namatjira's paintings were the better ones.  They also had some very early paintings of Namatjira and you could see how much he improved.

Battersbee's Painting of Mt Sonder and Namatjira's

We then went to a motorcyclng stunt riding display by Dave McKenna.  He was riding a Yamaha MT09 850 3 cylinder bike specially modified for stunts.  He roared up and down a car park and enthralled the crowd with wheelies, stoppies and doughnuts, but his most spectacular stunt was to lean the bike back so far in a mono that the number plate scraped the ground.

I called Desert Edge and was given the good news that the DR650's main bearings were fine and that the noise was coming from piston slap.  This is quite common on DR's because of it needing bigger clearances as it is air cooled and gets hot.  The piston is also probably worn and needs replacing when I finish the trip.  The bike will do the second leg OK in its current condition.

Alan and I went to the traditional Northern Beaches BBQ at one of the private campgrounds and had  merry time carousing with the 16 or so Ulyssians.  I have decided to support my own Melbourne branch at the Sat morning parade and the Sat evening dinner as I will be getting my own 30th Anniversary shirt tomorrow night from our branch President.

14th May 2014 - Alice Springs

Our first full day in the Alice which was spent doing various housekeeping jobs ie have the Suzuki dealer check the funny noise in the engine of Colin's DR650 and Alan getting a roadworthy certificate for his bike which runs out of rego on 6th August (when the bike will still be in Alice Springs). The Suzuki dealer said he would have to take the cover off the motor to check if the bearings need replacing. That is happening tomorrow.
Sounds expensive!!!! Alan got his roadworthy certificate so is ready to register his bike when he gets back to Sydney. The rest of the day was spent checking out the event site in Blatherskite Park and doing a walking tour of Alice Springs. The most exciting thing at the event site was this drag racer from the USA. Not even a motorcycle!

There is only one motorcycle manufacturer at the AGM and that is Harley Davidson. I guess the others thought it too expensive to transport their bikes and staff for 2500 Ulyssians. Even the traders area was looking a bit thin on the ground with only about twenty business making an appearance. The main attraction  of Alice Springs is the fantastic scenery in the area. The roads are great and there is plenty of choice for routes and destinations. In the afternoon after the motorbike issues were solved we went on a walking tour of the Alice Springs CBD put on by the tourist bureau. Here is the Residency where the territory administrator lived. The Queen and Prince Phillip stayed here in 1963. They built special bathrooms for each of them. The one for the Queen has been demolished since. This is supposedly the royal protocol.  No commoner's bottom can sit were the Queen has!

The next picture is quite interesting. It is the first hospital built in Alice Springs and is called Adelaide House. It was built by the Rev. John Flynn of flying doctor fame. The design of the house was such that air was drawn into the building by a draft from front to back. It was deflected down to the basement were it was cooled by being passed over damp cloth. It then rose up through the building cooling it and dissipating the warm air out through vents in a second floor ... the first air-conditioner.

They have been doing a lot renovating in the centre of Alice Springs, having created a pedestrian mall with indigenous flowers planted down each side. Here is a picture of Sturt's Desert Rose for you flower lovers.

By the way Alice Springs has a population of around 25,000 and is the main distribution centre for the whole of central Australia.

13th May - Kings Canyon to Alice Springs - 358kms today 3883 so far

We woke early to get away on the longest dirt road ride so far - 155 km along the Mereenie Loop.  Breakfast at the resort was very expensive but we needed full tummies for the challenges ahead.  The day was already warm so we were only wearing our riding jackets and pants with no lining.  We had already lowered the tyre pressures even though there was 15kms of sealed road before the gravel road started.

The track was quite variable with hard packed clay interspersed with loose gravel, soft sand and corrugations.  Alan had to stop several times to re-attach his two empty spare fuel containers.  He will have to fit carriers if he wants to carry fuel in them.  My Suzi will easily travel the 600 kms between fuel stops on the Tanami but Alan may need more than 10L extra fuel to make it.  I will bring a 5L can just in case.  Half way along the Loop we met a grader.  This is bad news for bikes as we like to travel in the wheel tracks that have been cleared of loose gravel by our four wheeled friends.  The grader erases the wheel tracks and also spreads an even coating of gravel or sand over the track, which is akin to riding on ball bearings for bikes.  We managed with a few sphincter tightening moments.  It took us about 3 1/2 hours to finish the Loop.  We plan to stick to 150kms/day on the dirt sections of our trip and I think that is the right distance.  Its quite tiring constantly scouring the road ahead for possible dangers and steering the best path.  It doesn't give you much chance to look at the scenery either.

After leaving the dirt and getting back on the tar we stopped at a look out over Gosse Bluff which you can see in the distance.  We met a bunch of Ulyssians out for a day ride and one of them told us that the Bluff is not the usual upthrust piece of sea bed, but a crater caused by a comet 460 million years ago.  The inside is a bit like Wilpena Pound.  One of the riders had a DR650 and I asked him about the noise in my engine.  He didn't know if it was serious or not and when he started his bike it was noisier still!  I have found a Suzuki dealer in town and I'll take the bike there tomorrow.
We turned East and rode through the MacDonnell ranges and I recognised some of the features like Ormiston Gorge and Glen Helen, where we stopped for a bite of lunch.  The folds in the layers of  rocks were fantastic. The Finke River was flowing and the gorge was full of water giving nice reflections of the rocks.

We pumped up the tyres to road pressures.  When I was getting back on the bike I got my right foot stuck on the footrest and the bike toppled over on its side.  It took Alan and I all our strength to pick it up.  Dear knows how we'll lift Alan's GS if it ends up on its side.

We arrived in Alice at 4 pm and were treated to magnificent views of these cliffs in the setting sun.  Note how green the verges are!  We took a while to find the registration place because of the incorrect directions given to me by another rider.  Then we went to Chris Fior's place to pick up the key for the accommodation she has offered us.  It was used by workers as temporary accommodation when her husband ran a building business and is very comfortable.  Chris invited us for dinner and we met her boarder Briggita who is working as a speech therapist in the remote Aboriginal communities.  Chris' son Alex has some containers he rents out and we might be able to use those to store the bikes until August.

12 May - Yulara to Kings Canyon - Kms today – 322 Kms so far – 3480

Left Yulara (Uluru) at 8am and headed to Curtin Springs for breakfast. Had a big fry up along with the flies which have been pretty constant since we left Mildura. I tested the video camera on a mounting on the crash bars. Not bad but needs a bit of fine tuning. Will give it a real go tomorrow when we attack 150kms of gnarly dirt road. It was 228 kms from Curtin Springs to Kings Canyon resort and we arrived at midday. Our luxurious accommodation consisted of a cabin style room with four beds and shared ablutions just one level above camping. After dumping all our gear we high tailed it to Kings Canyon and proceeded to do a 6.2kms walk (in the middle of the day … mad dogs and English men!!!).

Here we are at the top of a rather steep climb … totally knackered.

Colin insisted on taking a picture of this poor unfortunate beetle that I was about to stomp on.

We nearly missed this lizard as he was the only sign of wildlife on the walk (apart from the beetle).

The walk through Kings Canyon took us up one side and along the top ridge. It was quite spectacular and there was a light breeze to keep us cool. There were many photo opportunities along the way like this one of me near a cliff.

The sign in front of me says “Don’t step back”!!!

I took the picture below to send to Rafe. We are going to photo shop Colin in as a pygmy so the tree beside him looks huge.

There has been a fair bit of rain in this area so much so that there are pools of water in the Kings Canyon creek. This is an artistic piece by Colin catching the reflections.

Once we got to the top of the ridge the walking wasn’t so strenuous so we had time to smell the flowers.

Pretty aren’t they?

There was a cliff face that looked as though it had just been created by the rock face falling away.

We were standing on a similar cliff on the opposite side so we decided to move back … just in case.

Colin had been rambling on about some prehistoric tree that had been found when he was last here in 1981 so was dead chuffed when he found it on the walk. It is a member of the Cycad family … whatever that is.

The fiendish park rangers put the markers out for the walk with all the wrong distances. We thought we had gone a long way when a marker would come up saying you have done 1km. Then there was a sign “1km to Car Park” and suddenly we were finished. Bloody masochists.

When we got back to our room we collapsed from all the exertions of our walk. At 5.30pm we perked up when the barmen arrived with a few cold beers for the viewing of the sunset over the Kings Canyon cliffs.

Like last night at Uluru the cloud got in the way of the sun just as it was setting. This didn’t bother Colin as he used the magic of his camera to make the photo look genuine. Off to Alice Springs tomorrow ….. whoopee!!!!!