Fill up with petrol and buy a can of the only spray lube they have there.

Finally I pull into Arno Bay and find a relatively protected camp site in the local caravan park. A quick dinner and I'm falling asleep before it even gets dark.

27th Jan: Arno Bay - Smoky Bay
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I'd like to keep exploring the Peninsula, but soon I need to be back in Perth. A really early start sees me arriving in Pt Lincoln around 8:30 in the morning. It's still howling a gale, but a coffee and a muffin at one of local bakeries soon calms the soul. Eventually, I get back on the road again. Coming across the local Honda dealer, I drop in to get some real chain lube, spray the chain and head off up the other coast.

With the wind now behind me, the cruising becomes more relaxed. Sitting on 100-110Km/h life is pretty easy. The lack of buffeting allows me to enjoy the scenery again. Although the roads are pretty straight here, there's some nice lake systems and sand dunes to watch as you travel.

Streaky Bay was my original stopping point. My mate back in Perth recommended it to me, and having missed it the first time through, I was determined to see it this time. The town is a really nice place. So nice, I spent about an hour asleep in one of the parks down by the water. However, the day was still too early to set up camp (about 3pm) and looking at the tourist maps, there's a couple of places to try further north.

After stopping at Perlubie Bay and Haslam, the idea of camping on the beach seemed to be ruled out. The tides were bringing the seaweed and other junk right to the bottom of the dunes. If I fell asleep there, I'd have wet feet in the morning. So, disappointed I keep heading north to Smoky Bay.

There's not much to say about Smoky Bay. A typical seaside fishing town. There are more registered tractors here than cars! The caravan park was quite a nice place so I spent the afternoon walking along the beach and reading.


28th Jan: Smoky Bay - Balladonia
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Today will be a cruising day. Having missed much of the Nullarbor on the outbound trip due to the weather, I'm going to stop and look at things on the way through. Filling up at the Ceduna BP, the ladies there remembered me from 6 weeks earlier!

A ripping tailwind saw me cruising through SA on the way to the border. Cruising around 110 saw me reach the Nullarbor Roadhouse with 298 Km/h on the clock. Filling up the bike saw me reach final evidence of Justin's Law of the Blackbird: "No matter how far you go, or fast you do it, you will never put more than 17.5 litres of petrol into the bike". Here I'd just done around 25Km more than I'd ever done before and I still only put 17.1 litres into it!

A big lunch later and I walk out the door to the sound of a 2 stroke engine coming up the highway. Thinking it might be a trail bike of some description, I'm astounded to see a KR-1S roll into the servo followed by a Honda enduro bike (XLV 750). Thinking it was a mirage (I also own a KR-1S and would never do such a trip on it!) I had to examine it carefully. A 91 model - with a very suspect looking chain on it. Anyway, I wander back in and join the pair while they ate lunch. Bill is riding the Honda back to Perth after a holiday in Adelaide, while Rainer is leaving Adelaide to live in Perth.

After stopping at the border crossing for quarantine, the KR pulls away with a very suspect rattle coming from the chain. Luckily the next stop was only 12K up the road at Eucla. Here we tighten the chain and continue on west, leaving behind my intended resting place for this evening. Oh well, three bikes travelling across the open plains is much more fun than doing it solo :)

The roadhouses rushed by as we continued to travel west. Each time we stopped, suspicious glances were cast over the KR chain. He'd left with no chain lube (on a 3000+Km journey!) and very little of anything else and a very, very cheap, definitely not O-ring chain on the bike. Between Bill and myself, we did our best to keep the chain from falling off the bike completely.

Eventually, with the light fading into a sunset of the west (we were travelling directly into it) and the longest stretch of straight road in the world behind us, we crashed out in the backpackers at Balladonia. A couple of beers and a wonderful burger later and it didn't take long to get to sleep.

29th Jan: Balladonia - Moorine Rocks
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An early start, woken by the sunrise at 5:15am saw us up and showered and packed before the roadhouse opens for breakfast. Borrowing a large adjustable spanner from a local truckie, we attempt to shift the rear cog back another notch - without success because we're already past the last mark.... Hmmm. Not good at all as there's still another 1000Km back to Perth. This chain is definitely not going to make it.

After a quick breakfast Rainer and I jump on the bikes and head off slowly down the 191Km trek to Norseman. This is slow and steady to avoid stretching the chain any more than is necessary. At Norseman, we attempted to find a shop to take a couple of links out of the chain. Although definitely not the best practice, at least this would get us to Perth were a new set of sprockets and chain could be fitted. Unfortunately nobody was available, but they suggested a bike shop up in Kalgoorlie would be open. A quick couple of phone calls and Rainer was on the way to Kal with the instructions of "take it slow and easy". After waiting half an hour while Bill and I had a chat and a coffee I took off. Starting around 140, I was eventually screaming through the roads at around 170. At this speed, the roads start becoming fun rather
than boring long slow corners. However, I never did reach Rainer before he got to the bike shop. Seems he was deciding to go all out with the last of his chain He arrived with it so loose it was jumping off the back sprocket!

With a new cheap chain fitted and lunch in our stomachs we wandered off towards Perth again. Catching Bill on the side of the road talking with some truckie mates (he's a retired driver) his friend suggests the pub at Moorine Rocks is a good place to stop for the night. At just under 400Km back to Perth, the ride tomorrow would be quite leisurely. Arriving at said pub we're greeted with a sign reading: "Pub closed due to local complaints". Well, at least we could get accommodation for the night. Three of us jammed into a small hotel room, I elected to sleep on the floor (much closer to what I'd been sleeping on for the last few weeks!). Dinner was a cook your own BBQ with the local truckies who were staying the night there too. The place was great and so was the food. Definitely recommend it, even if the pub is closed.

30th Jan: Moorine Rocks - Perth
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Sunrise and again we're up and running around at ridiculous hours. But, being on the road, you tend to get used to this. As we wandered back towards Perth, the sense of disappointment was starting to come over. Tomorrow I was going to have to be back at work. Each stop one step closer to doom. Bugger!

Oh well, the rest of the trip went forth uneventfully. Bill parted ways with us after leaving Meckering to visit some friends. Quietly we wandered towards Perth.

Rainer had not been to Perth before, so dropping all my gear off at home, we wander around to my friends place quickly just to quickly see if anything interesting had happened at home while I've been away. After announcing my intentions to take Rainer around Perth on a quick tour I immediately had another interested party. There's something about bike riders and the phrase "we're going for a ride" that instantly sucks any other rider in close proximity into the vortex too. It got worse, as we
were walking out the back door, my housemate was walking into it. "err.... we're off for a ride around Perth". Ooops, the vortex worked again. Now there were four of us.

Doing the usual things we do the city, Mounts Bay Road the waterfront around Nedlands and the ocean side road to Hillarys where we have a beer. Ah......

The story finishes with an uneventful blatt down the freeway to home. Rainer picks up his gear and I escort him down Canning Hwy and Mill Point road to the freeway entrance and point him on the way to Rockingham. There's a bloody great big storm coming through Perth and with a rear tyre that doesn't have any wear indicators left, I chicken out of a ride down to Rocky.

Hitting the sack, I finish the day tired, but having had a wonderful time touring Oz. To the many people that I met on the road: thanks! Would I do it again - try stopping me! Now all I have to do is work out how many more trips I can get in before I head to the USA for work in a few months time....