We headed out from Rockingham on the Friday of the Australia Day long weekend. I was on my '97 DR650 while a couple of mates of mine were in their 4wds. The trip down to Pemberton was fairly uneventful, I had fitted full knobblies for the dirt work we were going to undertake after we got there and they were fairly hairy to ride with on the road.

The road trip to Pemberton took about 3 hours as I had to keep waiting for the slow 4WD's, but they were carrying all the beer which softened the frustration a bit.

After refuelling in Pemberton we headed out to the scenic D'Entrecasteaux National Park.  The surface consisted of graded tracks until we hit a rather deceptive river crossing, deceptive in the fact that although it was fairly wide it looked rather shallow and flat. 

I hit the river crossing at around 35 KPH, which I then found out was a little fast for the conditions. I spent most of the time with the bike either half buried in water or being bounced out of the water by the big rocks under the surface!  I managed to make it with out testing my body armour, this was due to more luck than skill and the DR's very forgiving long wheelbase. 

The 4WD's came through very tentatively and scored some minor damage to their fuel tanks and undercarriage. We camped at a lovely spot on the river, set everything up, checked on the beer supply status and settled down to a bit of relaxation and many a good beer.  

We headed out for some dirt work the next morning. We followed graded tracks for around 15 kilometres before getting to the sandy tracks followed by dunes, and very boggy sand tracks before hitting Warren Beach and going for a swim. 

When I got back on my bike and went to go for a flog up the beach, I ended up in full opposite lock slides coming on with out warning while trying to go in a straight line, so I dismounted and bent down to have a look at what was going on. 

I stood next to the bike and let the clutch out slowly to see the rim spinning and the tyre staying completely still. This was the result of being too slack to fit rim locks which resulted in the valve and surround ripping out of the tube. (Rim Locks are devices fitted to the inside of rims to help prevent the tube from being able to move inside the tyre when running low pressures.)

This was a major disruption to my fun and has since taught me not to head off with out a spare tube. I had done 37,000 kilometres in the previous 12 months aboard the DR without a hassle.

So we loaded the bike in the back of one of the 4WD's and headed back to Pemberton along some tracks which I would have been having a ball on with the bike, but alas I was left to brood over my disappointment from the seat of a boring 4WD. We were lucky enough to find a new tube on the shelf at a Pemberton service station, then headed back to the campsite to fit it over a few beers.

After replacing the tube we spent the next day exploring some sites around Pemberton, followed by some more swimming in the river, then more beer.

We packed up and headed off on the Monday after a baked bean breakfast. 

The D'Entrecasteaux National Park and the areas surrounding it contain some excellent spots and I would recommend a trip down to anyone with a road/trail machine. 

Just take a spare tube or two.........