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Day 21 of the Around Australia Ride was another designated rest day, this time to be spent in Margaret River.  I opted to take a winery tour on that day and had originally planned to spend the morning getting an update done and would explore the town later.  This is until a smart individual told me that by the time we got back from the tour any of the shops in town would no doubt be closed seeing as it was a Sunday.  So I did go into town that morning, however I neglected to factor that being there at 8:00am nothing was open at that time either with the exception of coffee shops. Oh well, I had a nice coffee. 

10am was the schedualed start of our winery tour and we where promptly on a couple of buses to be taken around the countryside.  Now anyone hoping to find some amazing insights into the wine culture of Margaret River are about to be sorely dissapointed.  While I do greatly enjoy a glass of red I must confess to being quite the novice when it comes to wine.   

 At the start of the tour, and repeatedly during it we were told it was the polite thing to do to actually pay attention at each winery when they are giving their presentations during tastings.  I think maybe we had been pegged as a bunch of rough and ready motorcycle riders but they needn’t have worried.  We were all very polite and very attentive indeed.  And why wouldn’t you be? The vintners in Margaret River obviously take a lot of pride in what they do and have reason to be proud of their accomplishments. 

Through the day we saw three wineries, a liquour distillery, a brewery, a cheese factory and a chocalate factory.  With the exception of the first winery Xanadu Wines, we were advised the others being Knotting Hill and Hay Shed Hill were only available via cellar door or internet order.  So we were going to try wines that you can’t find at your local Jim Murphys.   

Each of the wineries we visited were quite lovely in their own right.  The attention to the cellar door was impressive although I think the Knotting Hill winery was maybe my favorite. We were told that only 10 years ago (or so) the Knotting Hill winery was nothing more than a paddock for some cows to graze on.  The building and the man-made lake were new additions with the lake also being filled with perch that we could see from the deck. We had lunch there as well with the tour providing a bit of an Outback experience by serving kangaroo, bush turkey and roast meat.  There were also whichetty grubs for those adventurous enough.  Nutty.  

Probably the favorite destination for most was The Grove winery where they mainly seem to promote liquors and ports.  The presentation was great with a lot of laughs from all with a drop from the only slightest hints of pretension we had seen earlier.  No small amount of coin was spent here either and it was noted that the ladies made a bee-line for the Shockalot pre-mixed cocktails at the end which quickly sold out. We didn’t have to worry though as more was able to be made before we left.  

The cheese and chocolate factories were small diversions. I do admit feeling a little disappointed with the cheese – less than half a dozen for tasting and move from left to right and out the door with your purchase, if you please. And the chocolate, I am sorry to say ladies, just didn’t interest me although the presentation hall was quite impressive.  The day wrapped up at Bootleggers Brewery for some beer tasting.  This was the only locale that we had to pay for the tasting ($12) and unfortunately this is what I finished the day on.  Yeah, unfortunately.  I like beer, I like commercial beer, but it would appear that I do not like boutique beer.  Pity more that there is not a whisky distillery down here that I could have have sampled. 

All in all it was a most enjoyable day. I haven’t been on winery tour before and I guess I can see the mentality of some that it is an opportunity for a big piss-fest.  To this I say if that is your idea then save your money and just go down to your local and swill something there instead.  As mentioned earlier, the winery operators take pride in what that do and to have groups come through with no other intention than getting drunk on free grog (ignoring tour costs) I guess you can understand their disappointment. I don’t think they were sorry to see the likes of us though with quite a number of riders making purchases to be put in support vehicles, or shipped straight home for cellaring. Next time I would like have to do a tour with a friend who is knowledgeable of wine so they too can take me on their journey. You know who you are. 

And what did I think of the wine? I really enjoyed it, sorry I can’t give you a more in-depth review than that.  We had some great tasting drops during the day and I purchased my fair share of red to be sent home to try later at my leisure.  These businesses made themselves available to us to try their wares and it only seemed fair to ensure I spent coin where I felt it was worth.

The stint from Scarborough to Margaret River was the shortest day of the Around Australia Ride at 290kms.  But despite leaving Scarborough at 9:00am I didn’t pull into Margaret River until 5:30pm that night.  So what did I get up to on this shortest of days?

It was while I moving to the south of Perth that the mighty Yamaha Road Star, that I bought new in 1999, turned 100,000kms.  100k, it’s a bit of an achievement a lot of riders don’t see on a single bike.  And for me what better way to celebrate it during this, my 20th year of motorcycling and while riding around Australia.  Over the last two decades, and by the end of this trip, my Road Star and I will have seen every Australian state and with the exception of Darwin have been to every capital city.  It’s been a long road for us together and with a bit of luck there will be a goodly amount of kilometres to go.

After the Thrombolites we went in search of lunch and on the way passed some Male Bag Riders.  You read that correctly, a bunch of guys riding postie bikes along the highway. The Male Bag Ride started today on the 23rd and they are going from Perth to Adelaide raising money for prostate cancer research.  You can read more about them at the Male Bag Ride website. Oh and if the three riders I took the photo of could forgive me for almost killing us all as the postie bikes could only do 80kmh and next thing I knew there was a huge truck in my mirrors.  Sorry about that, fellas.

 

The day was getting a bit long in the tooth, but Wes and the boys were quite keen to get to Cape Naturaliste that was not too much further up the road.  After much consulting of maps and tapping at GPS screens we finally got underway and then technology promptly told Wes to turn in the wrong direction (yeah, technology’s fault…).  10kms down the road he realised the error of his (technology’s”) ways and started to turn around.  For me the sun was getting lower on the horizon and I was very much wanting to get on the Caves Road to Margaret River which is purported to be quite a decent bit of tarmac, so I waved the lads goodbye and went on my own way to Yalingup.

Come hither, yon twisted road,
for I would take measure of thee.

Toasty

Sorry for the lack of photos in this update, I was just too chillaxed to take any.

Day 19 of the Around Australia Ride was a rest day in the suburb of Scarborough, Perth.  This was also intended to be a bit of a service stop for riders as we would have been on the road some 8-9,000kms by this stage.  I decided I would only get a tyre change and had this completed the day before so I could spend the entire day just relaxing, and relax I did.  Whilst other riders shot to all points of the Perth compass for servicing, exploring “Free-o”, boat rides and other such things – I went nowhere.

That’s right, I didn’t even fire the bike up, choosing instead to have a long breakfast while I did some updates to the blog.  This was followed by a massage which while nice was not quite the “deep tissue massage” I was expecting.  I guess that is what I get for going to a day spa for a massage instead of a proper remedial clinic.  But it was only a walk across the road and the foot bath before the massage (?!???!??) was quite pleasant too.

After the massage it was time for a walk along the beach.  I went north as far as I could and got a little extra sun.  Cringing as I write this but it wasn’t as nice as Cable Beach with its hard packed sand, but it was a warm day, not too windy and gave the legs a good workout that they needed.

Once the walk was done it was time for lunch at a local Dome franchise which I quite enjoyed – finally, a risotto that has been cooked properly.  I lingered there quite a bit as the restaurant had a great view of the water.

Once that was done it was back to the motel for another update and what the hell, a long bath.  When I said I had a relaxing day I’m not joking.  It was all wrapped up with some drinks at a pub and watching the sun go down over the Indian Ocean, probably for the last time.  Tomorrow we are off to Margaret River.  It’s only a short day so I’ll either get there extra early, or quite late if the exploring is good.

So there you go, quite a short update and some might be wondering with all that Perth has to offer why didn’t I get out more?  To be honest Perth is somewhere I can visit anytime I have the inclination, it’s not out of the way, it’s accessible and I am sure I will come back again.  I really needed the break here and the thought of getting on the bike to go anywhere just didn’t appeal at all. I feel much better for just relaxing around Scarborough and I would rather choose to take time-out here than be forced to take it later down the track at somewhere I DO want to explore.

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.

Well here we are, about as close to the halfway point in actual days that you will get for the Around Australia Ride.  And what a journey it has been of over 8,000kms to get this far.  To date we have seen weather extremes of hot and cold, dry and wet.  We have had beautiful scenery and boring highways.  We have seen big trucks and bigger trucks and have jousted against the wide loads.  Personally I have taken over 1,000 photos, I think amongst all of us the images could total over 100,000 by the time we’re done.  We have drunk lots of beer and wine and we have injected a fair whack of money into each local economy that we stop at.  Donations continue to come in from people buying shirts or just handing over money at petrol stations when they hear what we are doing. You can still donate if you’re still interested by the way.  Tax deductible donations can be made via the Everyday Hero website. We’ve only had one injury incident and in the grand scheme of things it was minor (although Tony may think otherwise) with a broken ankle from a slow speed turn – with the speeds and animals out here I am surprised no-one has collected anything bigger than a bush turkey. We’ve been on TV quite a few times and in a number of papers.  People are recognising us as “those guys (and girls thank you) riding around Australia for that charity thing”.  Yes, it has been quite the adventure.

After the previous day’s run of 870km the short 480km sprint to Geraldton was a cake-walk.  We had to be there early too as the local police were putting on a BBQ for us at 1pm so another pre 7am start was on the cards.  The trip to Geraldton was fairly uninspiring but on this day I saw the most varied amount of wildlife yet.  The usual cows, wallabies, kites and eagles were present, but I also spotted feral cats, goats, sheep and my first pair of Emus.  Again, they have the whole damn outback to wander around and yet two Emus just strolled across the road in front of me, taking their merry old time. Despite the size in the photo they were actually quite large, and like the big Red Kangaroo I sure wouldn’t like to collect one while doing 120kmh.  They’re one budgie the Road Star probably couldn’t go up against and win.

Due to the early start and short stops I made Geraldton by 12pm.  I had pondered a detour to Monkey Mia, but it was an additional 300kms to the day and quite frankly I just wasn’t up to it.  Geraldton is another seaside town and its little shopping strip was quite nice and varied.  The weather was warm and coffee in the local Dome franchise was very enjoyable indeed. Quite a few people visited the HMAS Sydney memorial as well, in place to honour the 645 lives lost when it sunk after a battle with a German cruiser in 1941 – the wreck only found in 2008. 1pm came around and we mustered at the police station for a BBQ lunch put on for a gold coin donation.  Local media were present with Allan McGuirk giving a couple of interviews and there were some speeches.  Myself and Karen also got our 15 seconds of fame and ended up on local WIN news that night as well.  It was a lot of fun, but I don’t think I am going to live up to the ribbing my new “superstar” status has found me.

It was good to have gotten to Geraldton so early as it meant I could relax back at the motel room once lunch was done and dusted.  The previous night in Carnarvon (from the big 870km day) I had to share with Jimie and I would liken his snoring to that of a passing road train, on a rutted track, while carrying 100 drums of steel ball bearings, as the engine misses a cylinder or two, and all the while dragging a trailer off the back that has lost its wheels.  Thankfully earplugs and sheer exhaustion got me to sleep in the end but I am was definitly looking forward to my solo snoozing quarters in Geraldton and with a very short day of 420kms to Scarborough (Perth) the next day, heck I might even have a sleep-in.

This is it, the big one, the largest day of the Around Australia Ride with the Steven Walter Foundation. 870 kilometres – a big day in what, we are told, will be big heat.

We’d been advised the day before that the last support vehicle would be pulling out of Port Hedland at 6am.  That’s right, 6am, and you wanted to be in front of it as to be behind with an issue could mean a long, hot and very lonely wait.  The mess hall (I’ll call it that) was open from 4:30am, but not for us specially, this is to cater to the miners on the morning shift.  I didn’t really go into detail about the great food here from the previous night, so let me elaborate.  Dinner was everything a hungry miner, or motorcyclist could want.  Hot food, cold food, salads, pastas, breads, rice, lasagnas, and meat.  Probably the best steak I have had so far on this trip was had at this venue cooked to a perfect medium rare.  And the deserts, ice cream, jelly, pudding, fudge, cheeses (I love cheese) juices, cordials, coffee, tea you name it.  And it was all quality food.  Breakfast on this morning saw rows of bacon, eggs, sausages, cereals, juices, tomatoes, hash browns, pancakes.  All as much as you can eat as long as you don’t waste any of it.  The facilities were clean, the staff courteous and the miners and bikers more than appreciative.

So back to the day.  I was on the road just after 5:00am and while I don’t normally like to leave before it is fully light I wanted to get a head start on the day as much as possible.  As the sun did peak over the horizon I was happy to be joined by my wing-man again, he’s a good rider and all round top bloke, I reckon. The morning’s air was fresh, very fresh, and quite a few times I considered stopping to get out my spring gloves and long sleeve shirt.  But I kept reminding myself the forecast was to be well into the 30s.  Sure enough, within an hour or two the temperatures were rising almost as fast as I was covering the kilometres. I also saw my first big Red Kangaroo. He was on the side of the road watching me as I went by, he was standing tall and proud in the early sun, head up, ears back, soaking up the warming light. I would have slowed for a photo but the last thing I needed was to spook him into bounding in front of me.  Birds are no match for the Roadie, but this big boy could make a mess of things fast.

The scenery, I am glad to report, was not as featureless as we had feared.  Certainly there were some long flat roads, but there were small mesas off into the distance and interesting rock formations along the way.  But boy it was getting hot.  By 9:00am I’d covered more than 300kms and there was still over 500kms to go and could feel the sweat running down my back.  Regular stops were a must to rehydrate and get off the bike.  As the air got even hotter fatigue can set in without a rider realising it, it can be dangerous, and I even found myself getting the thousand yard stares every once in a while.

The land out here is red, just beautiful, and as the sun got higher in the sky the landscape changed with it.  From a deep moody maroon, to a vibrant rich redness peeking through skanty trees and scrubby brush.  I stopped at a ridge I had been following  for a while and taking my own advice got off the bike and clambered up it.  Unfortunately the camera couldn’t capture what I saw, but I was essentially standing on top of a long red sand dune.  A couple hundred metres into the distance rose another one in the same line, and beyond it I could see another.  I could only imagine what this would look like from an eagle’s view.  From a height they would be like ripples of water on a breaking shoreline, winding and snaking their way along the landscape.  And what of this leather clad biker standing upon it with his machine down below?  Nothing more than a broken piece of shell I would think, barely rating a speck in the great vastness of this beauty.

The air was reaching levels approaching blast furnace.  I have ridden in hotter, but not for as long, and the temperature would rise and fall in waves.  Just as soon as I thought it was cooling off slightly I would hit another pocket of super hot air and feel my reserves draining.  At a road side stop with the support vehicles I poured a half bottle of water down my back and front, underneath the jacket.  It felt fantastic and cool, but then completely dry less than 20 minutes down the road.  The key in this climate is to take lots of small drinks, as opposed to really big ones.  It helps your body absorb the fluid better instead of it being, shall we say, processed straight through your system.  A number of riders had camel backs that they could just sip sip sip at, although the water sitting in the tubing to the mouthpiece was always at air temperature – 40 degrees – so it would have been closer to drinking hot coffee, without the coffee.

It was 3:30pm with about 50kms to go until Carnarvon I spotted Michael on the side of the road talking to a couple of pushbike riders.  I was not doing too great with incredibly sore shoulders, a stiff neck, and yawning a lot which is a bad sign.  Pulling over the first thing I noticed was quite a stiff breeze that I had been riding into.  No wonder I was buggered, holding my head into the equivalent of 140kmh winds I know does me no favours.  But the cyclists.  We met Greg and Kathy, they too were on their way to Carnarvon but due to the wind wouldn’t make it today and were probably going to hole up for the night in a dried creek bed another 20kms down the road.  Their story is an interesting one and started around 18 months ago when Greg sold his business and Kathy quit her job.  They have basically been riding ever since and while their story is not unique in that regard (we have seen a few cyclists over the weeks) their plan is to also do a lot of the offroad trips normally the domains of road trains and 4WDs.  Because they go off the beaten track they have to plan very carefully in regards to food and especially water.  Just like today’s headwind, if they are not able to make destinations when they plan they could be in real trouble.  One time they were literally down to counting tea-bags due to unforeseen difficulties.  They were a very interesting couple and it does make you think about what you are doing cooped up in that office day in day out.  You can see more about Greg and Kathy at their website http://2tyred.org

We reached Carnarvon around 4:00pm and I felt a small twinge of guilt it had only take Michael and myself half an hour while Greg and Kathy would spend the night on the side of the road.  To say I was done in was an understatement, but after 11 hours it was done.  The biggest physical and mental challenge of the trip and we had all made it without mishap or misadventure in temperatures I believe that peaked 42 degrees.  Another wonderful sunset over the Indian Ocean before pizza at The Old Post Office, supposedly rated one of the top five pizza places in the world according to Lonely Planet. Someone turned down the kangaroo fillet saying they had seen enough dead kangaroo on the road.  I thought it was funny that they then ordered beef steak – I’ve seen more dead cattle on the side of the road than I have kangaroos.  Dinner was pretty good with a seafood marinara pizza for me (top five…? Lonely Planet hasn’t been to my place for pizza),  but then all I wanted was bed.  Tomorrow is a paltry 430kms to Geraldton – should knock that over before breakfast I reckon.

Day 15 of the Around Australia Ride, it’s funny how the scenery changes from day to day. Before reaching Broome it was a mix of not too bad, to boring. From Broome to Port Hedland, however, it was mostly a mix of boring and boring. After a nice relaxing break we had 613km to push through to meet the predominantly mining town of Port Hedland. As a result there wasn’t so much scenery to capture as there were things that travelled along the road itself.     

 First the road trains.  Yep still plenty of them and still quite large.  The ones coming at you aren’t too bad as you just get over to the left hand side of the lane as far as you can and hope for the best.  Sometimes they will pass with nary a whisper, other times you feel a sledgehammer of air strike you in the chest.  And they are big trains out here, supporting the mining and gas industries.  You show them respect, as failure to do so could end you  up in the ditch faster than you can blink.     

So we have reached Broome and now it was time to have a break.  And a forced break is just about what it was.  We got to Broome on Friday afternoon, Saturday saw shops shutting up at 12 and Sunday the town was practically empty.  I’ve mentioned it before but we got here in the low season so a lot of the normal activities and tours are suspended.  Heck, I was even after another massage but struck out with either no-one operating or they were out of town.

There are a couple of pubs in town and plenty of jewellery shops where you can buy pearls, either on their own or already set into something nice.  Broome was settled as a pearling port some 100 years ago and the industry continues to this day.  It’s quite the cultural mix in Broome from the people who came here to find their fortune.  During the peak season the town is thick with Grey Nomads and their migrations around this country.  Much like our own migration albeit theirs is at a significantly slower pace.

I enjoyed walking the main street of Broome which was only a short stroll from our motel.  We were able to go down for coffee, or lunch, dinner, a drink or whatever took our fancy. I also went for a wander along Cable Beach and took a short swim.  The water was so warm and I would have spent much longer there than I wanted except for the fact that I had caught quite a bit of sun the day before and didn’t need to burn any further.

The most notable thing for me in Broome was the final night when a number of us went down to Cable Beach with our motorcycles to watch the sunset.  It is the done thing with the beach thickly covered in 4WDs and tourists being led on the back of camels – all waiting for the burning sun to kiss the sea.  I hung about with Banno till it was dark and we got some great shots of the bikes and just enjoyed the sunset.  With the Boab tree it was one of the more memorable things I have done on this trip so far.

Additionally the last night saw Xavier Rudd (a crooner of note, I am told) playing at our motel which resulted in a lot of the facilities being made unavailable – namely the bar. And when we returned from Cable Beach the area was thick with cars and the sound of bass notes on the air. Not looking forward to another roast dinner (yes you can get tired of them) I got some Chinese and retired to my room with a bottle of red.

Speaking of food, some readers may have noticed a lack of culinary commentary for this trip.  I was actually keen to try some things different during this ride, like kangaroo steaks, crocodile skewers or emu burgers.  But the fact is most of the food we have come across so far has been of convenience.  Either traveller’s tucker at roadhouses along the highway, or the ever present bain-maries full of roast meat, port, potatoes and cheesy cauliflower at each motel we have stayed at.  I’ve actually skipped out on breakfast at a number of the stops preferring to grab a quick sandwich down the road.

If you think it seems like I didn’t do a lot in Broome you would be right.  Other than some walks, a dip or two in the pool, catching up on corrospondance I didn’t do much at all.  And it was good.  After close to 7,000kms in less than two weeks I needed a break and seeing as we have a day of 870kms coming up on the Monday it was sensible to not do any extended riding. We’ve been told the roads ahead aren’t exactly awe inspiring and after the roads on the way to Broome it is hard to believe aything could stack up to that any time soon while we are on the highway.

Fitzroy Crossing to Broome was a short day of 400kms and by now I was genuinely ready to just blaze through to Broome and get off the bike for a few days.  We were mustered out the front of the Fitzroy River Lodge (another generous title methinks) for another videoed group start and were soon on the way.  It was a slow ride up the road in formation past the camera and then we were left to our own devices for the open road.  We all had Tony Roberts in our thoughts as we passed a sign for Fitzroy Hospital.

There isn’t a lot to say about this day, the scenery had turned from magnificent to fairly uninspiring, it was very hot and the kilometres couldn’t go by fast enough.  I did amuse myself now and then by taking photos of other riders, and I also stopped for some more Boab trees. 

I have to say I am really taken with the Boabs, they are just fascinating with every one being that bit different from the last. Sometimes they are alone and maybe a little bit forlorn, sometimes a couple will be close to each other almost touching but not quite, and sometimes they are in thick clusters of three or four.  The different shapes of how they grow are also amazing.   Occasionally you will see Boabs that look like they have been lovingly manicured into shape over

the past hundreds, or even thousands of years.  Others are twisted and gnarly, looking like something that would pass for the Whomping Willow out of the Harry Potter books, if you are into that sort of thing. A lot of the ones directly next to the road have been scarred by thoughtful passers by with things like “Johnno 1999” and other such vandalism, but the ones that are a little ways off the road are often very special.  If you do happen to stop and look, have a chat to the tree, they are very very old and I’m sure they would enjoy the company for a moment.

It was not long after 12pm local time that I reached Broomeand received my first sight of the Indian Ocean in almost 30 years.  With the sun blazing in the sky the waters were everything from a light through to an azure blue, so sharp and clear I’m sure if I was swimming out there I would see all the way to the bottom no matter what the depth.  But it was hot, bloody hot so I wasted no further time and went in search of the motel.

I’ve now been on the road roughly 6,850 kilometres which is near enought to the half way point for the full 14,000kms that I’ll do.  Tomorrow will be the first day of the third week, and we still have another three weeks to go until we reach Thredbo on November 5th.  It has been such a great trip so far, everyone is getting on well and we’re all finding our own little places in the world. 

I’ve enjoyed taking time out to go exploring and I’m really glad I have been getting off the bike for the photos as much as I am.  If I was to give only one bit of advice about photography on the road it is this – stop and take the picture!  Look I know that’s really obvious but in the first few days I saw some great things but neglected to stop, or turn around and then later regretted it.  So I’ll say it again – stop and take the picture.  Walk off the road and take the picture.  Climb the hill and take the picture.  Turn around, go back and take the picture. Sure it will make the day that little big longer if you do, but it is time well spent.

The next couple of days will be summed up in a single post in the near future.  There’s not a lot to do in Broome in the “low” season, and I plan to take time-out and just relax a bit.

Day 11 of the Around Australia Ride took us from Kununurra to Fitzroy Crossing.  Another large day of 650kms and after the previous day I was keen to just burn straight through to Fitzroy Crossing as quick as I could.  Thankfully this was not to be.

I say thankfully because I think this day, of all the days so far, has been the most scenic, especially from Kununurra through to Halls Creek.  I took no less than 100 photos with most from the saddle of the Road Star as I tooled along.  Just about everywhere I looked there was stunning scenery of some form or other. Even the flat lands looked impressive as there was always something not far on the horizon to tempt the senses.  I took pictures from the side of the road, in the scrub, from lookouts and even clambered up a small hill at one point – I was having so much fun.

I could try and go on about the reds, greens, browns, greys, oranges in the earth.  About the sky that was blue, white, grey, dark and everything in between.  I could go on about the birds, small and large, the animals everywhere, the eagles and hawks circling on the thermals, the scurrying of prey unseen below.  The termite mounds that have gone from small to bigger than me.  I could try and go on about all those things but I think I will try and let the pictures in the gallery at the bottom of this post do the talking instead.

Probably my most favorite shots were of a huge Boab tree, or actually about four that had all grown in a tight cluster.  I’d gone past the tree thinking it looked great but it was a good hundred metres into the scrub and I didn’t want to leave the bike on the side of the road, but then as fate would have it there was an old road that joined to the main highway and I was able to backtrack just a little bit.  I must have spent half an hour under and around this amazing tree.  I was just far enough from the highway that I couldn’t be seen and while I did have a brief thought of how I could be in trouble if something happened to me, and I would be lucky to be found if it did, I didn’t realise how poignant getting injured out here could be until later in the day.

There also seemed to be a lot more wildlife on the road with plenty of cows, brahman (boy they’re big) and wild horses.  Yes you read right, lots of horses out here and while they have the entire freakin outback to roam they seem to like hanging out on the side of highways and getting hit by trucks.  Most fascinating was three horses I came across on the side of the road.  I slowed down as you can never be sure which way they are going to bolt, but instead of bolting they just wandered on to the road in front of me!  Didn’t give a fig about this noisy bike slowly pacing behind them until I gave a big twist of the throttle and a blast on the air horn – that got them moving.  They kicked and bucked and pooped all over the place, but still never left the damn road!  After criss-crossing for almost half a kilometre they finally veered off into the scrub – no wonder I have seen so many of them dead on the side of the road.

There was also a road side stop for fuel on this run as it was 290kms from Halls Creek to Fitzroy Crossing without any service.  It was at this stop when Allan and Rachel got the call that we had a rider down 20kms back down the road.  As far as offs go it was fairly innocuous, but unfortunately for Tony Roberts when he was doing a u-turn (as I understand it) his bike went into the red dirt on the side of the road which is very muddy and slippery and lost the front wheel.  The bad news is the bike came down on his leg and broke his ankle.  Last update I heard he was being flown to Darwin for pinning and plating.  It was a stark reminder of how careful we have to be on this trip and Tony was just unlucky, so damned unlucky with his off as a good half a dozen of us (myself included) have laid bikes down in slow turns or loose gravel.  It also gave me reason for a long think about being off the road with the Boab tree, the road I had gone down had become a rutted track with lots of old dug up blacktop trying to twist my own front wheel from under me.  Would have been a very long crawl back to the highway if something similar happened – providing I could have pulled myself from under the 350kgs of a fully laden Road Star.

So the last 100kms into Fitzroy River were very sombre, made even more so as two ambulances passed us about 20kms out heading to the scene.  It had been a fantastic day, and still remains my favorite I think, but it was certainly tempered by the incident.  Our thoughts are with you Tony and hell, seeing as it was your right leg it’s only for the rear brake so you don’t need to use it anyway.  Hopefully we will see you again before the ride is done.