Over a few beers on a Monday night, may mate Darren mentioned how he would like to do the Pilbara again sometime, "Well lets go!", I replied. So with that decision made, Visa and MasterCard checked for available credit, time off work organised and bikes loaded up, we set off from Perth on the Wednesday morning. Darren on his '87 XT 250, and myself on a '97 DR650.

After leaning into a 100 kph tarmac bend and feeling the rear let go, I knew the problem straight away, flat tyre.  We had gone past the Chittering roadhouse just 4 kilometres previous so I started pushing the DR back up the road. Darren headed back out to the roadhouse in a vain hope that they stocked bike tubes, he had no luck. Darren took over pushing the bike the rest of the way and I started the 55 K' ride back into Midland to pick up some spare tubes.

By the time I returned Darren had unpacked my bike and removed the rim. We then set about removing the trashed tube and the offending nail. With new tube installed, we started the one hour operation of trying to get the tyre back onto the rim, a lack of decent tools and my rim-lock caused much swearing and tool bending. We finally got the bugger in, tried to pump it up, no joy. We had punctured the tube trying to get the tyre back over the loosened rim-lock.

In went tube number two, it pumped up okay, we put the bike back together and went off for a test ride.  The rear wheel was all over the place, the tyre bead had been trashed. We made camp at the roadhouse and strapped my rim to the back of Darren's bike in readiness for another 110km round trip to Midland in order to get another tyre. I didn't ride mine with the wobbly rear as I didn't want to destroy the rear suspension. We got underway the next morning encountering quite a few showers as we passed through Bindoon, New Norcia, Bindi Bindi, Wubin, Paynes Find and Mount Magnet. We picked up a cask of port in Magnet and headed out of town to find a site to set up the tent as dusk was upon us. We found a nice little spot called 'Granite Flats', where we set up camp, cooked dinner and consumed way too much port.

Friday morning saw a slightly seedy pair of travellers cook some brekky and head North again through Cue, Meekatharra and Kumarina, before setting up camp a bit off the main road, as the light was fading quickly. We relaxed around the campfire after a casual but slightly damp 500 kilometre day.

We arrived in Newman around noon Saturday to be greeted by the news that it was the biggest weekend on the towns' calendar. We met up with some friends that had travelled inland from Karratha to attend the street drags to be held in the town that afternoon. There was some pretty unusual machinery getting around the 6000 strong mining town situated just North of the Tropic of Capricorn including, a Cagiva 125 Mito, 916 Senna and 916 SP. I was extremely tempted to enter the DR, but the fact that I still had 2000 kilometres to ride stopped me, just.  I had dragged the DR before and recorded 14.6 seconds for the quarter mile on two wheels and a bit over 15 on one wheel so would have had some fun.

Sunday morning saw us a bit seedy again but we managed to pack up and head out to the magnificent Karijini (Hamersley Range) National Park. We fuelled right up at the Auski roadhouse before heading out to Karijini, traversing the track in the chasm provided by Vampire Gorge. Upon entering the gorge we were greeted by signs proclaiming the dangers present from the asbestos fibres, a result of heavy asbestos mining in previous decades. The signs read "wind up the windows, turn A/C off and do not get out of the car". About 30 kilometres into the gorge it was Darren's turn to get a puncture, another nail. This time we used a fantastic little patch and gas cartridge puncture repair kit I had picked up in Midland. The asbestos fibres were everywhere so we decided to use Peter Jackson gas filters to help protect us from asbestosis. With the tube patched we screwed the gas cartridge over the valve cap and stood back in absolute shock as the tyre went from flat to inflated in about a tenth of a second, to say we were amazed would be an understatement, we are not going anywhere without one of these again, ever. We made the Joffre campsite just before dark and set up camp again, by now we had this down to a 15 minute operation. A fellow camper who flew people out on helicopter scenic flights during the day, and roughed it by night, was nice enough to share his last drop of port with us.

Monday morning saw us up and at it at dawn. We visited all the gorges before taking a siesta at Fortescue Falls, and Fern Pool (pictured) and in Dales Gorge. I went for a dip in the fantastic Fern Pool which was teeming with fish. I did not want to leave this spot but Darren was eager to get underway, so I had to pull myself out from my heavenly transcendence and start the prick of a climb back out of the gorge. The climb is made especially difficult in MX boots with one fused ankle, a very dodgy other ankle and a buggered knee.  All caused by an errant Holden Gemini pilot a few years previous. We again mounted our trusty steeds and started the journey out of Karijini and across to Tom Price. We fuelled here and refilled our water bottles. It was a desolate 294 kilometre stretch to travel before rejoining the North West Coastal Highway near the Nanutarra Roadhouse. We camped here alongside a Japanese tourist on a 250 Honda travelling across to Cairns. He couldn't speak any English and was about to cross some of the most desolate country in the world; and we thought we were a bit mad.

We got an early start on our 900 K' stretch down to Dongara, passing through Carnarvon and Geraldton. Dongara-Port Denison is situated on the coast some 359 km north of Perth. Darren's parents have retired here so we got a soft bed for the first time in what seemed like years to our aching bones.

I stopped while exiting Dongara to photograph my odometer as it hit 50,000 kilometres. I saw this as quite a milestone for my 18 month old DR.

We then travelled the final few hundred kilometres to Perth at a brisk pace to finally arrive home nearly a week after we had left.  A fantastic trip and Karijini is definitely one of Australia's most impressive natural features.