8th May - Maree to Woomera

We enjoyed our first in-room breakfast courtesy of the cereal, orange juice, biscuits and tea in the room.  That meant we took off at 8 am for a change.  There was not a cloud in the sky but the forecast was for rain.  We had decided to miss William Creek and use the Borefields Rd to Roxby Downs.  The roads from there to Coober Pedy were all sealed.  We would have 220 kms of dirt road to negotiate but our experience so far on the Oodnadatta Track was good.  We were cruising along at 80 kph when I spotted this water tank.  It was a remnant of the old 19th century Ghan railway.  Being made of cast iron it will last for ever in the desert climate and it is the highest object for 100's kms.

This photo is for Rafe Miller.  He took Alan and I across the Utah desert with long straight roads leading to distant hills.  So I thought this looks like the Australian version.

We came across a sculpture park at a place called Alberrie that had used many familiar objects in a new way.  This piece is two light aircraft standing on their tails and connected by the wings.  The title was Plane Henge for obvious reasons.  A short distance away another of the cast iron Ghan water tanks had a head and neck attached to make it look like a huge dog.

We continued on past the turn off for Roxby Downs because I wanted to see South Lake Eyre, which had water in it.  You can see it as the grey area in the distance with the white salt around the edge.

The Borefields road was at first similar to the Oodnadatta Track and we cruised along at 80 as usual,  I was leading and suddenly found that the bike felt like it was on black ice with no grip.  I realised that I was on bulldust.  I was sure I was going to fall off and  just tried to keep the bike tracking straight and upright then I was off it.  I stopped and turned around to try and warn Alan but he was doing the same as me.  We both got quite a scare and were carefully surveying the road ahead for more bulldust from then on.  The other challenge was that as this track had far less traffic than the Oodnadatta Track the wheel ruts were much less defined.  So we had to take our own track through the loose gravel for much of the time.  That caused a few frights and I slowed down to 60 -70 kph just to be safe.  We came to the BHP Billiton Olympic Dam lease area and stopped outside the gatehouse.  There was mobile reception so we inquired about mine tours but they only have them on Fridays.  So we decided to head on to Woomera and check out the rocket range.  One benefit of the slower speeds on the Borefield road was that our fuel consumption plummeted and I got over 26 Km/L.

We stopped in Roxby Downs for lunch and to check on accommodation in Woomera.  We fell into conversation with a man in the restaurant who had worked at Olympic Dam since it opened.  He told us how they blast the ore in huge stopes and gradually drop it into the underground mine.  They then fill in the void created with concrete.  He was also a keen dirt bike racer and had participated in the Finke Desert Race several times.  The bikes  get up to speeds of 185 kph!

Olympic Dam mine uses a huge amount of electricity and these twin High Voltage power lines marched across the flat landscape in long straight lines.  The Woomera caravan park was a staff accommodation facility when Woomera was very busy in the 1950's and 1960's testing rockets for Britain.  It was a bit of a cell block, but we had a new cabin.  There were quite a few Ulyssians in residence as the hordes gather for the AGM.  We walked into town to check out the outdoor display of old rockets that had been fired at Woomera over the years.  There was a local historical society display about the town's hey days.  Alan particularly liked the section on ham radio with all the old call signs on the wall.  Then we looked through the Visitor Centre display which was more professional but not as much fun.  Woomera had a huge firing range right across Australia to the coast of Western Australia, all based on the quaint notion that the land was deserted just because there were no white men living there.  They completely forgot about the 1000's of aboriginals that lived on the range.  The site was for 20 years a joint facility with the USA and used to track missiles, famously Saddam Hussein's Scud missiles during the first Gulf War.

This is the Blue Streak that Britain developed as an intercontinental missile.  It was reasonably successful and managed to launch a satellite in the 1960's.  The UK then abandoned its missile program because of costs and the Blue Streak was used as the final stage in a joint European ELDO missile program.  That program was a failure.  Lots of other tests were conducted at Woomera including live firing at unmanned drones.  There are some current projects but the place is a shadow of its former self.

7th May - Wilpena to Maree

Alan beat me loading the bikes this morning which has to be a first. The lady at Rawnsley Park recommended the Wild Lime Cafe in Blinman for breakfast. It was run by a couple of ferrals with dreadlocks. It was the most expensive breakfast on the planet at $64 for two. Vegetable soup with damper, foccacia with gluten free bread and vitamin free filling plus to mugs of coffee, but very nice anyway.

There were 30 kms of dirt road to Parachilna and then we were back on the main sealed road to Leigh Creek.  The road was the same one Morag and I took in 1981 with Lachlan, Hilary and a Holden HR station wagon.  It wound along a gorge through the western ridge of the Flinders ranges and ended up with a straight flat road to the highway - very like the rest of the roads in these parts.   As we headed north we had our final glimpse of the ranges.

We rode through Leigh Creek where Morag had her 30th birthday in 1981, past the huge open cut coal mine and on to Lyndhurst.  We planned to stop there to fill up but the petrol station was closed despite the big sign outside the town extolling the facilities at the BP!  We thought it prudent to ring on to Maree to check they had fuel, but as there was no mobile reception we had to use pay phones - none of which worked.  So we set off with some trepidation on the 78 km trip to Maree.  Both Alan and I were alarmed at the fuel consumption on our bikes as we had to do a very long run between fuel stops on the Tanami.  We were therefore concerned about the extra kms.  It turned out that we were both back up above 20 km/L mainly due to our lower speed.  I had noticed that the engine oil was a bit low at Wilpena and had topped it up.  As well the motor was making a clicking sound when cold which may be a worn bearing.  I concluded that the 120 kph cruising speed to Wilpena from Mildura might have over stretched the DR 650 so was keeping speeds on the highway down to 100 kph.

Maree was a very sleepy little place since the railway closed in 1981, with the two main businesses - the roadhouse and the pub - competing for every tourist dollar that was going.

We stayed in a cabin owned by the roadhouse and had a beer in the pub, but we decided to eat at the roadhouse.  The owner was also the cook and he produced a very creditable lamb shank which we washed down with a bottle of red of 2009 vintage from his limited cellar.  It must have been priced wrong because it was the best wine there and half the price of the rest.  I sent a postcard off to my work colleagues as it was also the post office.  The only other diners were the back packers he had employed to run the place so once we were finished he wanted us out.  The trouble was that the wifi only worked in the roadhouse and I wanted to write this blog.  As a compromise he left the wifi running and we sat outside in the garage forecourt finishing off the bottle of red.  It was futile in the end as Alan couldn't get his notebook to connect to the wifi.

We were consulting the weather web sites because a cold front was approaching SA with lots of rain.  At first it appeared to miss the Oodnadatta Track but later forecasts had 1-5 mm of rain predicted.  We decided to give William Creek a miss and use the Borefields Road to get to Roxby Downs and a sealed road before the rain arrived.

Back at the cabin we continued our nightly game of Gin Rummy with me comfortably ahead.  The evening was balmy and clear and we saw a lot of stars once the moon set.

6th May - Wilpena Pound

After a couple of long days pounding the bitumen we had a day off today to explore the Flinders Ranges NP.   I have visited Wilpena Pound twice before, but Alan had never been here.  We decided to go for a walk in the morning and do a trail ride in the afternoon.

But first we tried out one of the dehydrated meals we planned to use for the second part of our trip.  So we had bacon and eggs with baked beans for breakfast and I must say it wasn't too bad and just needed boiling water to add to the packets.  We rode the bikes to Wilpena Pound and found that from the visitors centre we had to walk as no vehicles were allowed past that point.  We selected an 8 km walk to the Hills homestead and up to a look out called Wangara.  The walk followed Wilpena creek into the Pound and is the only access point.  The Hills family cleared the scrub in the late 1800's using an old water tank that was on display.  Various droughts caused problems but they stuck it out until a huge flood washed away their access track past Sliding Rock.  They kept the lease until 1922 and then left.

We took the track up the hill  behind the homestead and enjoyed great views of the whole Pound.  The Pound was formed millions of years ago as the core of a large mountain was gradually eroded leaving a jagged ring of hills around a flat internal plain.  The hills were a harder band of sandstone tilted up by folding of the earth's crust.  It formed a natural enclosure for stock and the internal area was ideal for grazing.

We got back to the visitors centre on schedule and set off for a ride around the northern areas of the park taking in Bunyeroo Gorge Rd and further north the Brachina Gorge.  We lowered our tyre pressures and found the Hiddenaus coped very easily with the dirt road and we could travel quite quickly.  The countryside was spectacular and was made even more so when the sun came out later in the afternoon.

We got back to Rawnsley Park in time to buy some food from the store for dinner including wood for a barbeque.  The  meal was a great success and washed down with a bottle of wine. While cooking the sunset highlighted the rocks on the Rawnsley Bluff opposite the cabin.  We moved up to the camp kitchen to connect to the internet and had a chat with a couple of nice sorts from Montreal who were touring around Australia for 6 months in the university break.

Tomorrow we head off to Maree and then William Creek.  Things are going well.

4-5th May - First Real Day of the Trip - Mildura to Wilpena Pound

I met up with Alan at the site of a large solar power project Lachlan Bateman has been involved with over the last 12 months.  We were staying at a motel in the centre of town and Alan had arrived earlier that afternoon.  We had dinner at the Mildura Brewery the same place we had eaten at during the Ulysses AGM.  The MotoGP race from Jerez in Spain was on Ch 1 that evening so we settled down to watch after dinner.  Marc Marquez won by a large margin with daylight second.  He is on a different level to the other riders and now has won the first 4 races of the season along with Pole position at each race.

The next day was going to be a long one as we planned to ride to Wilpena Pound about 600 kms.  The weather was cloudy and cool but no rain.  We took off early, planning breakfast in Renmark 137 kms away.  The road passed through wheat country and the sun would occasionally peek through the clouds. We entered South Australia under a Dunlop tyre arch more usually found at race circuits.

We crossed the Murray on a very old steel arch bridge.  I wanted  a photo and saw a caravan park on the banks of the river that would give a good view, but the owner took exception to me trespassing on his property and asked me to leave!  He then changed his mind and let me take the photo.

We had breakfast at the Renmark hotel right on the Murray, filled up and headed to Burra, an old mining town, along the right bank of the Murray.  There we met a couple of other Ulyssians who were heading to Alice Springs.  They had BMW 1300 tourers with large trailers and certainly wont be taking the same route as us.

We headed on north through Jamestown and on to the RM Williams Way and into the Flinders Ranges.  The hills were unusually green because of recent rain and looked more like Ireland than Australia.  We were booked to stay at Rawnsley Park Station which was in the shadows of the ramparts of Wilpena Pound.  We passed this local version of Moorag (with a calf) outside the Craddock Hotel.  The jagged profile of the Flinders Ranges are visible behind me.

We plan to do some walking and some riding though the spectacular Flinders Ranges including the magnificent Wilpena Pound.

Alan's on his way.

I have completed the 170,000 kms service on my BMW R1200 GS. This consisted of changing front and rear brake pads, changing alternator V belt, changing oil and oil filter, replacing the four spark plugs and the foam filter on the air intake. I replaced my plastic BMW Vario panniers with Metal Mule panniers and the standard BMW exhaust with a scorpion exhaust. This allowed me to mount a frame that allowed the panniers to be balanced rather than offset. I also found some Wolfman storage bags that I can mount on the main crash bars. Finally I had both tyres replaced with Heidenau K60 Scouts. These are 50/50 on road/off road tyres which I hope will perform well on gravel roads.

Plans have changed

Colin has a problem at work which means he can’t take 6 weeks off at one stretch. So he and Alan have agreed to ride to Alice Springs and then store the bikes for 2 1/2 months until the beginning of August before tackling the Tanami. In some ways this is a better idea than heading off from Alice Springs in mid May. The weather has been unpredictable at that time of year and in 2010 on their round Australia ride, the Gibb River Road was closed at the end of May due to rain.

So we will ride Melbourne/Sydney to Alice Springs 4th May to 13th May. Stay in Alice until 18th May and then fly home on 19th May. We will return on 5th August and head off to Yuendumu and the Tanami – returning to Melbourne/Sydney by Alan’s 70th birthday on 4th September.

Full Dress Rehersal - Easter 2014

This Easter Monday I rode the DR down to Anglesea to do a dress rehearsal of packing the bike with a full load and trying out the Hiddenau tyres on the sandy tracks in the Otway State Forest. I reversed the Ventura bag so it sat on the back of the seat and strapped a 5L can of petrol and a 5L can of water onto the rack. I also slung the saddle bags over the seat. I sorted out a reasonable tool kit and stored the spare parts I had collected as well. I fitted the extended gear change lever which was necessitated by the fact my Alpine Stars motocross boots were too big to get under the standard lever. I had bought myself a Bell dirt bike helmet, some goggles and motocross gloves. Catherine was house sitting in Anglesea and put me up for the night and acted as back up vehicle in her Xtrail.

Riding down to Anglesea with the full business made me feel good and I now think I'm ready for the trip. Catherine took me to the sandy trails she had noticed in the Otway State Forest at the back of Anglesea. I dropped the pressures in the new Hiddenau tyres and set off along some undulating gravel roads. The bike felt great and I was soon cruising along at 70 kph. Corrugations and ruts made no difference to the DR, it just ploughed through them. Catherine noticed a motorcycle trail off to the side so we tried that. It was much rougher and soon I was riding along a narrow sandy track with a few ruts. The track lead us to the Anglesea brown coal power station which was built by ALCOA to feed its Pt Henry aluminium smelter. The locals blame it for causing a massive fish kill in the river. I had to get used to the bike skipping around in the ruts and had a few moments, but it wasn't too bad at all. I could have let a bit more air out of the tyres. We did the track twice, doubling back at the end. I rode about 50kms and the DR was so easy to ride on the gravel tracks.

The Ventura bag forced me to sit well forward on the seat and that pushed my knees out around the 30L petrol tank like a frog. This was not too uncomfortable but felt awkward so when I got back to Anglesea I turned the Ventura bag around again and put the petrol and water can in it. If I use the sausage bag across the back of the seat I should have enough storage and that is the way I will set the bike up. I tried a couple of positions for the gear lever and haven't decided which is the best yet.

Its only 2 weeks to go before I set off and I can't wait.