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Pert - Adelaide - Perth By Teik |
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Pert - Adelaide - Perth By Teik |
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Here's an account of
a recent 7666km two week "adventure" for all those of you interested in such
tales. The time was over the festive season and the trusty steed was
my 1999 NX650 Dominator with around 2400km on the clock. The start and
end of the journey was Perth which is where I live and quite a nice place
too by all accounts. * Monday 27/12/99 - Albany First unintentional stop for the night was Albany. After trying to head in a general eastwards direction I got lost on some trails in the Stirling Range NP and later the Porongorups. The Stirling Ranges was all loose iron gravel and I was not at all comfortable with the trails partly because the rear tyre on the Dominator is a bit nervous but largely cos I'm just not that good off-road. It's not particularly scenic through here with a predominantly low dense vegetation. Quite unlike the majestic Karri forests of just a hundred or so km's west. Also, mid-summer is harsh and it could be well more pleasant in the wetter months. Can't imagine what the trails would be like though. Albany motel prices suck in the peak season and I have the general feeling I should be somewhere else. * Tuesday 28/12/99 - Esperance Onwards to Esperance. This was a fairly uneventful road trip except for the two vicious locust swarms. The little bastards sting like darts when they disintegrate at a relative speed of prolly 'round 120km/h and the bike, jacket and jeans are covered in exploded locusts. It doesn't smell too great inside the helmet either. I ended up in Esperance around 4pm (I do like a good sleep in) and decided to camp at Cape Le Grand NP. This is about 70km out from Esperance and one fine camping spot. The beaches are that amazing Esperance crystal aquamarine colour and it'd be a fine spot for a swim if it wasn't that damn cold and if I'd remembered to bring my bathers. The camping spots were all full and, dispirited, I stand on the beach and wander what to do. You tend to get a bit of attention when touring on a bike and people like to come up for a chat. A good fellow told me about the shortcut back to Esperance - 25km along the beach. A Ford Laser was doing it he said and reckoned I should have no problems on the Dominator. Me too, I reckons and it looked a damn fine way to end an afternoon's riding. The sand is hard and it is a totally far out experience blasting along at 120km/h (peak) with the waves crashing just meters to the left and sand dunes rising to the right. Right at the end of this beach trail a sand dune rises all nicely churned up by four wheel drives. Dropping back into second I scamper up the dune and promptly fall off at the top in a deep 4WD rut. This is dead embarrassing as a guy from the 4WD behind gets out and helps me up. There's another km of this soft sandy shit and a bit further up a Laser is being dragged out by a Land cruiser. Those things make sense in this kind of terrain. Finally making it to the Esperance YHA for the night I sit in gloom sipping Stolly and watching the massive lightning storm and rain crash around outside. * Wednesday 29/12/99 - Madura The storms have cleared by the morning and it is nice and cool. Great riding weather. I decide to push on and get a few km's done today. Uncharacteristically, I am out and off by 8am. This will be a tedious day - up to Norseman and across the Eyre. At Norseman I pick up a hitchhiker. I reckon if the crazy bastard is mad enough to flag down a bike without a helmet he deserves a ride. His car ran out of petrol some way out from Norseman. The Dominator handles the extra weight easily and we are flying at 110 km/h (note: throughout this entire trip I more or less studiously stuck to the speed limit). The roads are slightly damp from the rain but the cloud cover is fantastic. I've done the Eyre three times previously this time of the year in cars - it can get pretty uncomfortable. I stop at Madura for the night. The "cheaper" rooms are really crap - I shoulda checked first. Looking out the window at the row of fibro rooms after mine I notice the Rommel and Goering families are on vacation - there's a huge swastika hanging from their open doorway. As Karl from South Park might say "this is really fucked up here". * Thursday 30/12/99 - Port Augusta I really need to make some distance today if I'm going to get to Hindmarsh Island by New Year's eve. I leave at 7am. Around Eucla I face the start of what will be my nemesis for my duration in South Australia - an unseasonal bastard south-easterly. For the next 1000km I struggle with the strong gusting wind and a bloody exhausting struggle it is too. Other than that the day is fairly uneventful (I've done that road so many times). Just a case of gritting one's teeth and bearing with it. The sky is thick with rain clouds and it starts to drizzle around the time I reach Kimba. Port Augusta is like this gleaming oasis in the distance - where I can find a warm bed and decent food. Funny that, cos when I'm in a more normal state of mind, Port Augusta's a bit of a hole. I make PA around 10pm and decamp at a fairly pleasant hotel. I'm surprised they let me in as I look like hell. Guess they must be fairly desperate this time of the year. Somewhat hungry I prowl the streets looking for some nourishment. The only thing open is the golden arches which is enough to put a dampener on one's appetite and I go to bed on an empty stomach. * Friday 31/12/99 - Hindmarsh Island It's New Year's Eve! From Port Augusta it's a leisurely 460km to Hindmarsh Island which is south of Adelaide. I check out at 10am, have a slow breakfast chatting with a biker from Melbourne. He's off to spend the New Year's in Streaky Bay. Good to see I'm not the only mad bastard around. Adelaide is crazy with everyone rushing around making last minute purchases and preparations for the Big Night. I've got a fresh bottle of Smirnoff - I'm well prepared for any event. The southern vales roads south of Adelaide towards Goolwa are fantastic - twisty and hilly. It's a great ride through some really beautiful country. There's a two-hour long ferry queue at the island crossing but eventually I make it across with an hour or two of daylight to spare. New Year's Eve is at Pete's place which is this house right opposite the mouth of the River Murray. I pitch my tent in the shelter of a sand dune (doesn't stop it being knocked down by the brisk southerly). It is a mellow event fuelled by a steady diet of alcohol and drugs. I'm glad I'm back in SA - I've forgotten what a great place it is to live in. * Saturday 1/1/00 - Port Augusta I set off around 1pm still buzzing from the previous night's excessiveness. The southerly is now behind me and I am blown northwards to Port Augusta in no time at all. I lie in bed in the motel watching George Negus run through the ABC special on New Year's around the world. It is completely surreal. I can barely comprehend what he's going on about. The events of the past week have completely disconnected me from normality. This is good. * Sunday 2/1/00 - Flinders Ranges Now begins the meat of the journey. The road towards the Flinders Ranges is quite enjoyable and scenic. I wonder through Quorn, Hawker and onwards to Wilpena Pound. Wilpena is crawling with holiday goers and I decide to give it a miss. I pick up a camping permit for $3 and head off up the unsealed tracks northwards. The Dominator does well trekking through the twisting, spectacular vistas of the National Park. Mind you, I'm not going terribly fast - bumping along at 30-50 km/h but I'm having terrific fun. The terrain is mostly stony clay with the odd valley floor and puddle to negotiate. It's an easy day and I settle on an idyllic camping spot in Brachina Gorge and set up tent around lunchtime. Not in the mood for hiking and slightly sunburnt I laze in the shade reading about half of Greg Egan's "Permutation City". Having picked up a fresh Smirnoff at PA, I am well prepared for any event... Bike note: the big single is well geared for these kind of conditions pulling easily from about 1500-2000 RPM in second or third. The thumping exhaust note puts a smile on the dial too. * Monday 3/1/00 - Coober Pedy I honestly did not expect it to make it this far in one day but it somehow happened. I spend a very enjoyable morning bumping along the dirt tracks of the Flinders Ranges and eventually end up at Parachilna around lunchtime. I've stayed at the Prairie Hotel before and it is a terrific place - well worthy of an overnight stay but I've got more km's to do today and only stop for a drink. It's tarmac northwards through Leigh Creek and up to Lyndhurst and the cool southerly is starting to lose out to the hot desert summer. From Lyndhust to Marree it's loose but fairly smooth sandy gravel, a mere taste of things to come. From there I join the Oodnadatta Track to William Creek. That was 200-odd km of hell. The surface is corrugated sandy stony gravel with the odd hard to see pothole. I'm not comfortable with this stuff and the back and front ends are skipping around a bit. It is also getting pretty warm. Yet, there is the pressure to keep the pace above 80 km/h to get to William Creek in a reasonable amount of time. At William Creek I skull a litre of apple juice, fuel up and continue the track. It gets a lot better in the turn off to Coober Pedy although there are a couple of well hidden sandy bits that cause me to nearly lose it. Completely exhausted I make it to Coober and check in to Radeka's underground backpackers. There are quite a few other fellow adventure-bikers there too, several Germans and one Israeli. One of them owned a Dominator too. I am immediately made welcome, quickly unpack for the night, have a shower and settle down to a hard night's drinking. There were a couple of XLV 750 Africa Twin's there equipped with monster 56 litre tanks. They look like grown-up Dominators - serious big bore adventure bikes. I sure wish Honda still sold those things in Australia. I certainly would consider one in a few year's time. Coober Pedy is an amazing place and I could have stayed there for several more days just soaking in the atmosphere. It's the one other place in Australia I really look forward to revisiting. The other is Nimbin. I guess this says a lot about me... * Wednesday 5/1/00 - Port Augusta It's an easy day's ride back to Port Augusta via the Stuart Highway. The one concern was the 250km stretch between Coober Pedy and Glendambo. The range of the Dominator is pretty shithouse, really. Especially for a bike meant to go around this vast and remote country. I've switched to reserve when cruising at 110 km/h, albeit into headwinds. The southerly is still there and I err on the side of safety and cruise it easy into Glendambo at 80-90 km/h. Pulling into a rest area to check on the petrol situation about 100 kms out, I meet an old fella in a ute having a rest. He tells me he has a jerry can and will top me up if I run out of petrol on the way to Glendambo. Travelling in Oz is good like that. In any case I cruise into Glendambo with a few ml's left in the main tank. Port Augusta. Mmm. Spag bol and garlic bread. * Thursday to Saturday - Perth Well, the rest of the trip was totally uneventful. I did meet my hitchhiker at Balladonia on his way back to Sydney. Fate's a funny thing. Northam to Perth was an entertaining ride - curves again after all those interminable straights. Back in Perth, I wander in a daze to Planet Video and buy a copy of Mad Max III - filmed in Coober Pedy. Order a large pizza from Applecross Pizza, settle down with a six-pack of Cascade stout and contemplate the trip, normality and the city. * Epilogue Yeah, I really grew to like the Dominator over that trip. It tackled most conditions competently. Sure it is compromised in quite a few ways. It really isn't brilliant on the highways the way a road bike would be - could do with more power and wind protection. Also a bit lively at speed. On the dirt the dual purpose tyres really don't cut it the way knobblies would and it is nowhere as light and manoeuvrable as my last bike, an XR250, was. However, this country is about big distances and variable conditions. Under these circumstances I'd have to say I'm pretty happy with the overall package. It certainly lives up to the label "adventure bike" cos I've just been on one. I think my next purchase might be a big fuel tank though then I'd have my perfect bike, at least until I can afford a Triumph Tiger or GS100. |
