Andy Luck 1

As we spent the evening of the 14^th March making up an oilskin cover for the tent pack, all our packing had to be done on the morning of Saturday 15^th March. This was a last minute idea of mine which proved to be useful not only as waterproofing, but also to secure clothing items temporarily discarded, from prying eyes when stationary and from the wind when in motion.

Saturday 15^th March, my 52^nd birthday, arrived and Marilyn began her famous packing act. It is no mean feat to pack sufficient for a journey of 4 weeks duration so that it can be accommodated on a motorcycle! Once completed, I loaded the luggage on the Yamaha FJ1200, rather than the Honda VFR750, as it is equipped with better luggage carrying facilities and, most importantly, has a CB Radio / Intercom system to enable us to talk to each other. Once you have such a facility it is very hard to be without it. The final luggage total was a Gearsack Rack and Pack, Gearsack Panniers, Bagster Tankbag and the Bag containing the emergency Tent and Sleeping bags, now wrapped neatly in its new cover, on top of the Gearsack Pack. We were using the new Andy Strapz to hold down the tent bag and these proved to be excellent. Easy and safe to use, they worked very well. No more risking your eyes with Ocky Straps!

We finally got away at 11:30am in cool but sunny conditions. We were heading for Robe, in South Australia, that night but it seemed that this would be a little optimistic! With the new Western Ring Road it is so easy to reach the Western Highway. Joining it at the Roundabout on Diamond Creek Road just East of Greensborough, one whizzes right around Melbourne to take the Ballarat exit onto the Western Highway. Ballarat saw us stop for lunch at MacDonald's. Convenient, consistent, quick and inexpensive, just what a traveller needs! After lunch we set off down the Glenelg Highway towards Hamilton, Casterton and Mount Gambier. The feeling of riding off across a continent in warm sunny weather, knowing you have thousands of kilometres to cover, with no time pressure, is truly wonderful! The FJ was running beautifully after my recent TLC. Shims checked and replaced, carbs balanced, oil changed, tyres checked, cables lubricated, new speedo, new chain guard, new rear brake pads - I should hope she was running beautifully! The FJ has been a great bike, whatever the load you never notice any loss of performance. You do, however, notice the increased fuel consumption. I think we averaged about 13 kilometres to the litre on this trip, about 37 Miles to the Gallon in the old money. Hmm!

At a toilet stop at Streatham, about halfway to Hamilton, we got talking to a couple in a 4 Wheel Drive, as you do (at least in Australia). I had great satisfaction in replying “Monkey Mia”, to the casual question, “How far are you going?”. I don’t think he believed me initially but he was quite envious when provided with the details. “Half your luck mate!” Bladders relieved, we pressed on to Hamilton and Casterton. It was now apparent that we would not make Robe that night unless we rode at night. This is something I avoid if possible, not only for the hazards of wildlife, but because you cannot see the scenery! We stopped at the Tower Motel at Mt Gambier that night, went to bed early and were on the road again at 6:30am the next day. At that time of day it was cold enough to demand warm riding suits but by the time we reached Robe, and had a late breakfast, these could be packed away again. Robe is a pretty little town, with a motorcycle friendly Hotel, at which we were going to stop. Today however we contented ourselves with a look around town and a light snack at a pleasant little restaurant. There was another motorcyclist there; he had ridden from Western Australia on his way to Tasmania to join the Annual BMW Safari. It was here that Marilyn noticed an oil leak from the cam box on the FJ. Oh great, just what we needed! Investigation showed that I had broken the RH retaining bolt when I adjusted the shims. Idiot! Strangely enough Robe does not possess a supply of FJ1200 spares so I phoned John Donellan in Adelaide to ask if he could get one for me there. John had advertised in ‘Riding On’, the club magazine, inviting any Ulyssean travelling through to stop with him. I, of course, had phoned him expecting to be 75^th in the queue. No, we were his only caller! We were welcome. However, asking him to interrupt his working day to find me a bolt might be pushing it a bit! No, by the time we arrived, he had found one for me, actually 2, one second hand, complete with rubber washer. I actually had one of those with me but who would have guessed that?

This was not the only thing to go wrong before we reached Adelaide. Riding alongside the Coorong, a long coastal salt lake I had always wanted to see, but found rather disappointing, I suddenly noticed my brand new speedo had stopped working. It had covered a whole 880 km; this has to be a record, even for me! As I had got this half price from Yamaha because the previous one only lasted 18,000 km, I was more than a little miffed! This was now my 4^th speedo! The next day, in Adelaide, I phoned Yamaha in Sydney again to express my, err, disappointment with this state of affairs, and, I must say, they were very good; arranging for me to pick up a free replacement from Pitmans Yamaha in Adelaide. This I did, dismantling the bike in Pitmans car park. My Leatherman SuperTool proved very useful here! Despite this emergency we arrived at the station well in time to get our bike on the Indian Pacific. Here we were told, in contrast to our written instructions, that we need not be there until 6:00pm as the bike was to be loaded into a baggage car rather than onto a car transporter! Oh well, time for some sightseeing!

John and his wife Joyce are good people. A second marriage for both of them, John runs a Brake Servo reconditioning business from home about 50% of the time and is a builder the other 50%. They also foster seriously mentally and physically handicapped children and yet they have the resources to welcome strangers into their home. Remarkable people.

We met some other Ulysseans at the Station, one had his bike with him, a Gold Wing with number plate ‘Moose’, that being his nickname. Big guy, that may explain it! A Gold Wing, I might add only JUST goes across the width of a baggage car. Well, we got the FJ packed away and investigated our sleeping car. It was asymmetrical, wider at my end than Marilyn’s, with a washbasin (my end) and a narrow, deep wardrobe at the other. One bunk slides down from the roof and the other folds out from the wall. Fold out FIRST, then pull down! There was also a saloon car with coffee and tea facilities plus a Restaurant Car. We travelled ‘Holiday Class’ rather than First Class, so we had to pay for meals as required. We had taken a supply of rolls and assorted fillings, so we had only to buy our evening meal.

Riding the Indian Pacific is something we have wanted to do ever since we arrived in Australia, it is, after all, one of the Great Railway Journeys of the World. After motorcycles, trains are my favourite form of transport so we had to take this opportunity. I had hoped to find the train full of Ulysseans so we could talk bikes all the way but we were a week earlier than most people, so I was to be disappointed. Of course there were ‘civilians’ to talk to but its not quite the same somehow. It was an interesting trip, I never find the Australian landscape boring, even though there is a great deal of it! The true Nullarbor plain, i.e. no trees (no bushes either!), is only about 30klms wide at the Eyre Highway, but it spreads out northwards and at the railway is over 100 km wide. It is quite amazing, absolutely nothing other than low saltbush as far as the eye can see. Just after the start of the longest stretch of straight railway in the world, 273 Kilometres, is Cook, “Queen City of the Nullarbor. City is perhaps overstating it a bit! Cook is actually being closed down, with the new concrete sleepers, each one $100, and welded rail, the manpower required to maintain the track no longer needs a ‘town’ in the middle of the desert. We did stop here, get off and stretch our legs whilst the train filled up with diesel and water. The water was for the passengers, the First Class Passengers were roughing it as a suicidal kangaroo had caused a water leak. No showers in first class!

By this time we had been travelling since the evening of the 17^th March and had spent our first night asleep in comfort, after joining the ‘Standard Gauge Club’ of course. Another ambition fulfilled! Dawn over the Nullarbor arrived about 6:30am and the next day was spent reading in our cabin, taking tea and coffee in the lounge, chatting with other travellers, looking round Cook, and eating dinner in the restaurant car. We saw very little wildlife, a few Emus and some cattle at one of the stops, Rawlinna I think it was. We did see some of the ‘Cool Rooms’ which dot the route. Built of wooden sleepers and corrugated iron, these were used by the builders of the railway to escape the heat, over 50 degrees in summer. ‘Cool Rooms?’ I hear you ask. Clever stuff this. The Nullarbor Plain is mainly Limestone and is riddled with cave systems. These remain at a constant temperature of below 20 degrees and changes in atmospheric pressure cause them to ‘breathe’ though fissures in the rock. When the pressure in the caves is above atmospheric, cool air rushes out of the ground. A bushman’s trick is to float a hat on such a column of air. Of course if you try this when the caves are breathing in you are likely to lose your hat! This actually happened to a ‘know it all’ German Tourist, much to the pleasure of his Australian guide! The Cool Rooms are built over such vents and can be 30 degrees C cooler than the ambient temperature.