Day 18 Geraldton to Scarborough

The ride from Geraldton to Scarborough was, for the most part, quite unmemorable. Despite turning off on to a road that claimed to be a Scenic Drive, there wasn’t a lot that was scenic about it at all.  This probably wasn’t helped by the fact it was overcast all day and very chilly.  Having become well acclimatised to the weather up north we found it a bit of a shock to the system to not see temperatures make it into the 20s all day.  Thankfully the road itself was in good condition and served up some long sweeping curves that allowed a reasonable pace.  This was after donning a long sleeved shirt and jumper which was still buried at the bottom of my t-bag. 

Now I say the day was mostly unmemorable, but thankfully there was one thing that I will very much remember.  The Pinnacles.  The Pinnacles are located in the Nambung National Park, a few hours north of Perth near the coastal town of Cervantes.  They are actually limestone formations and have been exposed as the surrounding sands continue to shift.  As you will see by the photos I was able to ride around them on my Road Star, there is a track marked out by stones that is a loop of about 4.5kms that tourists can drive through.  And there are plenty of tourists there (conscious I was one myself) so finding photo opportunities when there was no-one walking through the shot was a little tough. 

If you’re not into driving through you can quite easily spend hours wandering around the site, it would be a good few hectares in size and the Pinnacles are so varied in the shape and clusters.  Some are quite tall, taller than your head, others are only about knee high.  It was a shame the day was so overcast as the sand is quite yellow and I think it would have contrasted against a blue sky in quite a spectacular fashion.  I would have loved to have spent a lot more time at the Pinnacles to wander through them myself, but I was very conscious of the time and the need to get to Perth so I could get a new rear tyre. 

So on to Perth and out west to a dealership to get a new tyre.  After some 8,000kms covering a lot of straight roads you can see that the tyre was quite squared off.  You may also notice that there is still a bit of tread left and I thought about pushing through to Adelaide to get it changed then.  But motorcycle tyres have a habit of going from looking fine to, “where the hell did my rubber go?” very quickly.  I would rather throw away some kilometres in Perth than to have canvas suddenly start to show half way across the Nullarbor. I have to say I felt a bit gouged by this particular dealer, the tyre price seemed excessive for one, and then on the 30km back to my motel I noticed something stuffed in the side of my t-bag.  It was my rego sticker holder that someone there must have snapped off and not bothered to tell me about.  Plus they gave the bike a wipe down, but all they succeeded in doing was push the mud around – and quite frankly I was wearing it as a badge of honour – so next time either wash the bike properly or don’t touch it!  Sorry folks, no plug for you.

Once I finally navigated myself back to the Sunmoon Resort in Scarborough I had let my peevishness at what the un-named dealerhip had done evaporate, and let it be replaced by happy thoughts and accomodation only a street from the beach.  Once I checked in I went down to the water and checked out the serenity, it was great.  Quite a few riders had already taken up residence at a pub overlooking the water and we spent the afternoon watching the sun go down.  Tomorrow is a rest day in Scarborough and personally I don’t plan on going anywhere at all, although I may get another massage as the shoulders are pretty bad.