Walkabout Day 9 - Alice Springs - Uluru

I am up at around 6, and out the door around 6:40. I get to the car park, and besides a couple of cars it was empty. "No no no" I say as I walk on numb feet to where I think my bike had been and was certainly not now... but it had been hidden from view behind one of the remaining cars and comes into view as I walk, a few slots over from where I had thought it was. Relieved, I saddle up, double checked my atlas and GPS, and set out for Alice springs.

It is a fairly short ride compared to some of the other days of riding, but the speed limit is 110km/hr for much of it, which stretches it out longer. I stop in at Stuarts Well, which I had heard mentioned a couple of times as the home of the singing dingo. I ask about it at the counter, “What's this about a singing dingo?”, and am told, "yep, we got one of them". I wait but no further explanation is forthcoming, so I leave. Next door is a camel farm, and I realised I have not seen a camel up close, ever. So I ride in to see. I am glad I have the centre stand on the bike, the side stand doesn't hold the bike up in the sand of the parking lot but the centre stand keeps it upright. As I look around, I find out they offer half hour and full hour rides, along with 3 day safaris, so I sign up for a half hour ride, swapping my bike for a camel briefly. They're big! They give me Thumper to ride, who is apparently their biggest. We go for a ride around a hill, through the spinifex. It is like riding a horse, but taller and with a longer, more loping gait. Thumper is feeling lazy and had to keep being reminded to keep up with my guide.

After the ride I push on, being punished by a quite hot day. I pass a cyclist on his way to Uluru, and as I rest a spell at the next rest stop he turns up. He has a Japanese flag on his cycle, so I greet him in Japanese, which takes him by surprise, and we converse in a pidgin of Japanese and English. His name is Yoshi, and he has been cycling his way down from Darwin, travelling about 150km per day, for the past two months. He had set out for Uluru before, but due to bike problems had to be towed back to Alice, so this is his second attempt. An SAP consultant from Tokyo, he was originally from Kyoto, one of Japan's most beautiful cities in my opinion. He would continue on to Adelaide, Melbourne then Sydney.. almost the same path as I am following, but expecting to reach Sydney in early December. He wanted time to think about his life, so this is how he went about it. I admire his dedication but doubt I'd sign up for it, I think I'd have had enough after a week or two.

At a couple of stops on, I check my thermometer when I get back to the bike... 50 degrees in the sun. My side stand has sunk an inch into the hot road, risking sending the bike over. I must remember to use the centre stand on tarmac now in this heat. The locals tell me the forecast was for 40 degrees in the shade.

I initially mistake Mount Conner for Uluru, but pretty quickly realise my error. It is still quite impressive. My first view of Uluru was memorable. It is so big.

As I got closer the detail became clearer, then I was at the resort. Gemma, and her boyfriend Adam, pick me up and take me to their accommodation complex, where she has organised a room for me. We went and hopped in the pool... it was so nice to be submerged in cool water, after the heat of the journey since leaving Augathella. Then we went into the National Park, and watched the sun set on Uluru. It was magical to watch, the colour changes are quite distinct and startling in their brightness.

I am now at the apex of my journey, the furthest west I have ever set foot in Australia. I am going to pause here for a couple of days and rest, explore and think, before starting the trip home, by my roundabout route. I am glad to have finally laid eyes on Uluru, it is something I have wanted to do for a long time. Tomorrow, I will be closer.

Walkabout Day 8 - Wycliffe Well - Alice Springs

I am up early yet again today, even though I had a paltry 400km to go to get to Alice.

I wander around the Wycliffe Well camp, photographing the sculptures and UFO related paintings that cover the camp. It is quite a unique place and a lot of effort has been put into decorating the camp.

Whilst there, I take the opportunity to take the bike apart and fix that broken connection, soldering the wires together. I can charge devices again! Yay!

The breadboard stack is not working, I can't secure both sides of it under the rack so it slides out, and as the seat is at an angle they'd only be delivering support to one end of the rack, not the whole length. The glue also didn't hold very well. So I pull it apart, use it as a working bench while I work on the bike, then insert the individual boards into my bag to reinforce it.

I check the internet, and find I am finished in 20 minutes. After checking Gmail, Hotmail, Facebook and Avlis, not much more is there to hold my interest. It is a weird sensation for me, as I can usually distract myself for hours online. Days even. Whole weeks have been lost.... but I digress. I read emails from San, updating everyone on my progress, and I note how amazing her memory is for the details of my day as we talk on the phone. She has a knack for writing I think.

I made a friend while at the park, Jewel, who is on a working holiday and has been at Wycliffe Well for 2 months. Previously she had been in Alice Springs for 5 months, and is familiar with the locale. She recommends going to ANZAC Hill overlooking Alice at sunset, so I plan to be there for that.

After catching up with online happenings, I head off, happily listening to my iPod as it charged, stopping to see anything I feel like seeing. I get a lot more sun today, I can feel it... I was off the bike a great deal, looking at things like the monuments to the Overland Telegraph, a marker for the highest point on the Sturt Highway, and a marker for when I cross the Tropic of Capricorn.

I see several dust devils today, even multiple at once, but all at a distance. I can recognise them now, instead of mistaking them for smoke.

I stopped in at Aileron, where a 17m high statue of an Aboriginal man has been built on a hill, and an equally sized Aboriginal woman and child are down on the plain. I climb the hill and get photos of all of them, which is very hot, in the 40 degree heat. Because it is dry heat, cooling down is as easy as jumping on the bike, and I can't stop anywhere too long or I overheat. Once going, the wind keeps me at a comfortable temperature, but I have to make sure I do not get dehydrated.

The petrol price is up to 180 cents per litre, I am glad for the lower fuel consumption of the bike.

I am noticing these buildings regularly along the road, that have no signs indicating who owns or operates them or what they do. They're each a single stand-alone hut, with one door, no windows, and two solar cell towers next to it, with an antenna on top. The number of actual solar panels on the towers varies from building to building. I'm guessing it is a telecommunications repeater station or something, but the aerial seems so small and secondary to the function of the building... maybe they are substations for an underground line.

I make it to Alice Springs, and ride around the town for a bit before selecting a pub to get a room at, down at the bottom of ANZAC Hill.

Tomorrow I will make my way to Uluru, and meet up with Gemma out there. Uluru is the apex of the journey, and I will be heading back to Sydney from that point, in a southward arch.

 I find my way to the top of ANZAC Hill, as recommended by Jewel, and wait up there while the sun sets, taking photos of Alice Springs, talking to San on the phone, and writing up this journal.

After sunset, I head back down to the pub. Apparently it is Death Metal Friday, with live performances. Just as an aside, isn't a live performance of death metal contradictory? Anyway, I find it more amusing than annoying, it doesn't disturb me as I read... I am not trying to have a romantic dinner, unlike the couple at the next table over. I am reading Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, and finding it every bit as profound as I had been led to expect. Less for the motorcycles and more for the attitude towards work and life, that I find resonates with my own experience and outlook. I am looking forward to reading more of it, but do not want it to interfere with taking these notes.

I have had to leave my bike in a public car park, in what amounts to a city. Riding through Alice springs, the city that resonates the most with it for me is Canberra. I am not sure why. The geography is similar, with the city built in a valley between bordering hills. The flora is similar, the gum trees lining the streets. I am not sure what else it could be, but there is some similarity there, to me. I am worried about my bike, but it is out of my hands now.... only time will tell if I leave here tomorrow or not.

Walkabout Day 7 - Mt. Isa - Wycliffe Well

Lately I have been noticing a bit of sluggishness in the response of the bike to the throttle. Riding around town yesterday without the ear plugs in, I could hear the tell-tale clank of the chain taking up slack. When I check, it is alarmingly loose. It has stretched over the past 3000km, as they are wont to do, and is in danger of skipping off the gear. I ride carefully, and kept an eye out for the opportunity to rectify the problem.

This morning I was up at 5:30, and out to try to adjust the chain. It is just a simple, 5 minute job if you have the right tools. I got partway when I realised I didn't have anything near the size socket wrench required, nor did I have a shifter. I had several options, either ride on (stupid), buy tools and do it myself (heavy), or take it to a bike shop for them to do it. I decided on the last option as the first to try.

At the motel, as I'm messing around with the bike, there are several others out. One old guy is wandering around with a cup of coffee, and a black cat following him around like a puppy. We strike up a conversation... he is a train driver, down from Darwin, who has been staying at the motel for 2 months. He has been having some computer problems, so I help him with that... he has a whole office set up in his motel room. He warns me that the siphon I have for transferring fuel is a bad idea, and that a funnel is preferable, but doesn't explain why.

According to the RACQ there are 2 bike shops in town. The first had just had a shipment of bikes which was their priority and they couldn't look at the bike until the afternoon. The second place had not opened at 8... it is now 8:25, and they are currently setting up shop. Once they are done, they'll be able to look at the bike, so I am waiting here now. I hope I can get this fixed up and still get to Tennant Creek today.

Time passes as I wait at Bike & Rider. Once they have set up the shop for the day, they have me bring the bike around the back and one of the guys adjusts the chain in 5 minutes. It required an enormous socket to adjust it... no way I could carry that with me, though maybe a shifter would do. With that done, I spoke to the manager, Terry Hanson, and when I ask what I owe him, and he waves me away, saying he wouldn't charge for a simple chain adjustment. That was a nice surprise.

With that sorted out, I go to the BP station and fill up both my bike and my auxiliary fuel can, as I will be needing it today... from Camooweal to Barkly Homestead is a 261 km stretch, and the bike can only possibly reach that distance but it'd be gasping, and I would have to ride at 90 km/h, turning a 2 hour ride into a 3 hour ordeal. I'm also not confident of my fuel efficiency now, seeing as it dipped so suddenly. So the auxiliary can will be put to good use today.

The ride from Mt Isa to Camooweal is uneventful, the countryside flattens out from the hills around Isa to flat spinifex plains. Just over 10km outside Camooweal, I cross the border into the Northern Territory and the 130km/hr zone. I was a bit nervous because this was the first time I had set out knowing I would run dry before reaching my destination.

I ride at 110km/hr to conserve fuel, waiting to hit reserve as the sign to refuel. I see many termite mounds... in some places there were more mounds than trees, I wonder what they all eat?? There were some massive ones too, the size of a car stood on its end. I take a photo next to one, balancing the camera on the remains of a dilapidated mound. 


At 217km, I switch to reserve and just then see a sign indicating a parking place in 20km. Shade! It is 45 degrees Celsius in the sun, and as long as I keep riding and have my jacket partially unzipped for ventilation I am ok, but if I stop it gets very hot, very quickly. Knowing the fuel transfer would take a while, the shade is a godsend. I pull in and park under the cover, set up and siphon the fuel over. I find out why the siphon is a bad idea, with a mouthful of petrol due to my weak siphoning skills. I need to practice. Strangely I could not feel or taste the petrol. I only knew due to the visual cue of the clear siphon tube. I spit it out and wash out with water when I am done. The bike roars to life and I am off.

A short distance on I see a thin line of smoke going straight up. The grounds around me are charred and appeared to have been burnt off, so I imagine that process was continuing. A thin line of smoke is more indicative of a bonfire, however, not burning off, and it is moving oddly... instead of dispersing like smoke does when wind blows through it, this column appears to waver in a coherent stream, staying together. Very strange. When I get closer, I see there is no fire... it is a dust devil playing in the ashes. I pull over to watch it, it is about 30 metres away. It is quite large, spinning ashes, leaves and branches up into the air. I take my helmet off and earplugs out to listen, but there is only a gentle sighing of the wind. I am well aware it can sweep my way any time and I would cop it, so it is a risk. It doesn't swing my way though, and it is fascinating to watch. I'd stay and watch longer if it weren't so hot.

I push on, and refuel at Barkly homestead. I ride to Three Ways at 135km/hr, to see the difference in fuel efficiency. The difference is quite marked... I hit reserve at 178km at 135km/hr average, whereas I reached 217km at 110km/hr. On reserve, I refuel at Three Ways and finally turn my bike south, after the long trek westward over the past few days. No more riding into the sunset. I arrive at Tennant Creek, but the look of the town did not draw me in and I ride on through. I'm not sure why, but I just got an uncomfortable feeling as I pass through the town.

I have noticed a gradual progression, from Augathella onwards, there is a lot of road kill, many birds feasting on them, including enormous wedge tailed eagles. The eagles are scary up close and I have had to duck to avoid one that flew across the road as I went by. Stupid bird. Where was I? Oh yes. From Isa onwards, gradually there has been less road kill and more retreads on the roads. I am not sure of the reason for this, its just an observation.

I am nearly to Wauchope when I see a turnoff to the Devil's Marbles. That sounds like fiendish fun, so I turn off. The marbles are enormous granite balls stacked up on each other, like a pile of marbles stuck together somehow, many as big as a house. There is a tour bus there, Aus Tours, and the tour guide, Shorty, offers me a drink... I must look thirsty, I am parched! So that was very kind of him. He tells me that sunset is a good time to watch the rocks, so I hang around taking photos as the sun set and communing with the rocks.

After sundown, I push on to Wauchope and refuel, then continue onwards to Wycliffe Well. Both these places are really just a petrol station, bar & restaurant, and camping and accommodation complex, not really a town or settlement, per se.

I am in late, at the ungodly hour of 7:30pm, so dinner is a toasted sandwich and a Coopers Stout, which suits me fine. I am drinking a great deal of water, I must be quite dehydrated from the day.

Wycliffe Well has a focus on UFOs, which are said to have been seen frequently in the area. I wander around at night a bit outside, and am frankly disappointed none come to visit... but life is not without its hardships, and I will prevail. Any aliens reading this, come and visit, ok? Just leave the probes at home, they're not necessary.

Walkabout Day 6 - Cloncurry - Mt. Isa

I have a late start today, not heading out until around 8:15. I get up late and play around with the means of securing my auxiliary fuel can. I don't want the full can resting on the plastic at the end of the bike, which might be damaged by the vibrations, and I don't want it supported by the rack, which is already fully loaded... the fuel tank would be loading it to twice the rated weight. So I position it forward of the bag, squeezing myself forward, held upright by the rack but supported by the seat. I could turn the rack around, but as I said it is heavily loaded and I want it to have more support. It sits about 15mm above the pillion seat at the moment... I'll look for something to squeeze under there so the weight is on the seat, at least partially.

Once satisfied with the setup, I ride to Mt Isa. I am really glad I didn't push on to Mt Isa last night because I would have missed the scenery. It is spectacular! Quite a change from McKinlay to Cloncurry, there are hills and vistas and outcroppings and termite mounds... I can see why the dream time legends spoke of the spirits of the termite mounds being little red devils... They look like they are crouching in the grasses, just the tops of their little red heads poking up.

I can't get a photo that does the scenery justice. I only feel safe pulling over where I can get right off the road... the road trains are often 3 trailers long and I see the last trailer on each sometimes swinging quite wildly, moving half a lane over very quickly. When I overtake, I do it as fast as possible, not wanting to be dawdling alongside the truck.

The adjustments I had made to the fuel can were not secure, and somewhere I lose a strap, so I need a replacement before the can will be secure.

In Mt Isa, I go to the tourist centre and book to go on a tour of an underground mine. Then I get some supplies, spare keys cut, and meet up with Jo's friend Julie and organised to meet up with her when she finishes work. I get some plastic breadboards to go underneath the rack, so the seat will give it some support.

After I used the fuel can, outside Roma, it appears I did not secure the pouring spout properly, and I lost it along the way. I get a length of tubing to use as a siphon instead from Mitre 10, as I found the strong wind near Roma was spraying the petrol everywhere as I poured... I don't think I should try just pouring it straight from the can into the fuel tank.

Lots of thoughts occur to me as I ride, though they are fleeting and yet, I feel, profound directions for my thoughts to take. I wish I had a voice recorder so I could take note of them for reviewing later.

The underground tour is very interesting, I learn a lot about how the process worked in the past, and where it is headed now. Material movement is a lot more dynamic than I had thought, down there.

The lady working at the information centre was very helpful and let me leave my bike bags in their back room during the day and while on the tour. This freed me from worrying about them while I left my bike on the city streets, or in the heat of the day.

After Julie finished work, we meet up and she takes me around town, pointing out areas of interest and explaining the history of different locations, such as the tent houses, which were used to keep cool before air conditioning was invented. They worked by having tent material on the outside, which was kept drenched in water, and the interior kept cool through evaporative cooling. She takes me out of town to a reservoir and forest area. I take lots of photos of landscapes, sunset, peacocks, Brahman cows, but don't get to see any crocodiles sadly... they do populate the reservoir apparently. There were several people out paddling kayaks, so it'd be good feeding, too. She takes me to a lookout, which looks over the whole town and Mt Isa mine, which was fully lit up, and 85 years old, according to the sign on the mine head. There is a sign on the top of the lookout, with directions and distances to many major landmarks, such as Sydney, London, etc. It is cute.

We have dinner, then I hop on my bike and find a motel. I'm not able to get the satellite phone to connect, so I go to the lookout and call San from there. The reception was marginal, and constantly dropping out.. I am not impressed with the satellite phone so far.

I had brought some superglue along with me, in case I needed to reattach anything to the bike. I use this to glue the breadboards together into a stack that will just slide under the rack, and leave it to bond overnight.

Walkabout Day 5 - Augathella - Cloncurry

What a day!

I was up at 5am, and riding out at 5:45. I got to the Augathella roadhouse before it was open, and decided to go to the next town for fuel, as I had plenty. Usually I'd hit reserve around 220km – 240km, and I'd never run it completely dry but from knowing how much was in reserve, I should be able to make it 280-300km before running dry. I was on 120km, with about 95km to go, so I wouldn't even hit reserve before the next time. So, I figure, plenty.

It turns out, I did not have plenty, and the bike stopped, completely out of fuel at 210km. For some reason my fuel efficiency had dropped sharply.

So there I am, by the deserted roadside, at 7am. I've seen maybe one car since I set out. I unstrap my auxiliary fuel can and get ready to walk into Roma, which should be about 6km away, not too far.

Just as I get set to walk, I see a SUV coming my way and I wave it down. I can see him wondering about stopping, then deciding to. He is a cattle trader from Victoria. He says he doesn't normally pick up people, but he had seen me arriving in Augathella last night... he must have been the sole person I saw on the footpath! I guess it meant to him I wasn't a stray or a local, looking to cause trouble. He gave me some advice on where to look out for long stretches without fuel.

I fill my auxiliary fuel can with petrol, and head out, walking back to the bike. After 30 minutes of walking I get a lift the rest of the way, from some opal miners on their way home to Lightning Ridge.

I refuel the bike, and with some effort, the bike roars to life. With a triumphant yawp I am back in the game.




Besides fuel stops, I stop in a couple of places to see tourist attractions.

At Blackall, I see the original Black Stump, of "Beyond the black stump" fame. One small town has an impressive array of bush machinery, vehicles, and WW2 weapons and memorabilia, both Australian and captured from Nazi and Imperial Japanese forces. At Longreach I see the Australian Stockman's Hall of Fame, which is quite interesting. Longreach was where Qantas first started, as two men giving joyrides in a plane they bought together.

I even cross Bonnie Doon Creek... now that guy in my head can stop singing "we're going to Bonnie Doon"... forever, hopefully.

In the afternoon, I pull in to fill up at McKinlay, and noticed some feathers on the bike. It turns out I had hit a bird at wheel height, cracking the front mudguard and exploding once it hit the bike underneath the front cowling. The smell was quite fowl.

I hose it off as best I can at McKinlay. I hope I don't smell like road kill for the rest of this trip.

The plan had been to reach Mount Isa today, but due to running out of fuel and stopping to see the sights, I am one stop short, in Cloncurry, at a roadhouse inn instead.

Cloncurry boasts of the hottest recorded temperature in Australia, 53.1 degrees Celsius. It's okay this evening though.

Once I start unpacking for the night I realise the bird hadn't just exploded over the front of the bike... there are blood splashes on my jeans, jacket, backpack, down the side of the bike, even on my helmet. How I didn't notice it when it happened, I'll never know. I wash it all off as best I could, and call an early night, exhausted.

Walkabout Day 4 - Brisbane - Augathella

My plan this morning is to reach Blackall, the midway point to Mount Isa. As I'm loading my bag onto the rack, I noticed that two bolts I forgot to tighten properly yesterday have disappeared... they must have vibrated loose and fallen out yesterday. Now the vibration of the rack makes a lot more sense. I dash down to the local hardware store and get some replacement bolts, which appear to do the job.

The ride out from Jo's was via Mount Glorious, which was superb, yet again. Further west I strike torrential downpours, which wasn't so fun but I ploughed on in my wet weather gear. It even hails at one point, I take shelter in a roadhouse until the hail passes then head back down into the storm.


At dusk, many wallabies come out by the roadside making me very jumpy. I am still some distance from Blackall but don't want to keep going at night, so I take a turnoff into a small town named Augathella. I see one person on the footpath as I ride slowly through town, other than that it is deserted, until I find the pub and get a room. In the pub as I have dinner, I chat with a couple of guys who are up from Tamworth today, who works in road building, and are off to Katherine to build a runway at the RAAF base there.

I soldered together two of the three joins in the harness yesterday, so of course the third broke today. That means no lighter socket, and no recharging gadgets until I can solder that one too...

I'm trying to use the satellite phone tonight for the first time with San, but it isn't working very well, hard to get through and the connection keeps dropping out.

I realise this trip is not going to be the deep introspective trip I had imagined, because I am moving too much. That is ok, I will have another trip where I spend 40 days and 40 nights in a log cabin in the wilderness, and I will enjoy this trip for what it is.

My feet have blisters even though the boots are not new... from the new position maybe. My butt and thighs are very tender, though my wrists and thumbs did ok today. The sorest thing is my ear holes, from wearing the silicon earplugs. I have switched to the foam ones now (thanks Michael) and they are much better.

Walkabout Day 3 - Brisbane

I spend the morning with Jo, Charlize and Willow, and at lunch we go to the local pub, which seems a popular destination for Sunday lunches. The food is good, and there are facilities for children to play in, so I can see why.

A while ago, I added two modifications to my bike, LED lights that Nicky gave me, and a cigarette lighter socket so I could keep gadgets charged. I left my bike on the street overnight a week before I left Sydney, when it broke down, and someone ripped out the wiring I had added, possibly trying to hotwire it with any loose wires they found. The night before I left, I made a new harness and fitted that to the bike, but on the ride up from Sydney it broke, rendering both of the systems inoperable. Today, I solder together the connections that aren't quite working, getting my systems back online. Then I head out from Samford to Mount Glorious and around through Kilcoy and Mount Pleasant, along this route:

http://maps.google.com/maps?f=d&source=s_d&saddr=Samford+Valley+QLD,+Australia&daddr=mt+glorious,+qld+to:kilcoy,+qld+to:mt+pleasant,+qld+to:Samford+Valley+QLD,+Australia&hl=en&geocode=&mra=ls&sll=-27.153866,152.7491&sspn=0.540093,0.837021&ie=UTF8&ll=-27.151422,152.707901&spn=0.540105,0.837021&z=11

I noticed the bike rack seemed to be vibrating a lot without the bag on it, but as I hadn't ridden without the bag on the rack before, figured it was normal.

The ride had some great bends and curves, and the scenery was beautiful, changing from rainforest to rolling hills to lakeside forests. As it was Sunday there were a fair few cars, all crawling at walking pace through the curves, I overtake those I can, or pull over and wait until they get a few minutes ahead of me, when I cannot.

Walkabout Day 2 - Brisbane

I wake up early this morning, still drifting in and out of dreams, to find a little face very close, watching me very seriously. I awake with a start, my niece Charlize had found me and was silently watching.

I spend the morning talking with her... she is four. She was very excited to see my bike, and soon started asking where her motorbike is. Jo, her mother, said later that Charlie is now very taken with motorbikes, but she'll have to convince her mother before she'll be allowed a motorbike, hehe.

After a swim, I went into town and met up with Michael Check, who I worked with until recently. It was great to catch up with him and David Haneman, they're both always interesting to talk with. During the conversation with Michael I realised there are several machines that will change society dramatically.

1. A printer that can print anything, down to the atomic level..... including people. See http://www.reprap.org
2. A scanner that can read anything, ready for the printer... including people
3. A recycler that can break anything down into raw materials, to be fed to the printer
4. A designer that allows you to design or modify anything to be printed
5. A power plant to deliver power for all these machines, fusion being the most promising at the moment

Any one of these five will change the world, and none have any theoretical barriers to creation. Once all five are done, I wonder what human society would be like....

After lunch with Michael I meet up with Plethora, and we talk about games, role playing, and Avlis, a NWN persistent world. See http://www.avlis.org for more details. She had me laughing so hard I was crying, just by nudging a gnome towards the priestess he was trying to maintain an appropriate distance from, and haunting him with a combat dummy.

I meet up with Jo for dinner, we have steak sandwiches I cooked on the BBQ.

Tomorrow I go for a ride up Mount Glorious, I am very excited about it.

Walkabout Day 1 - Sydney to Brisbane

I leave the house at 9:50am, much later than I had originally planned to leave (the night before!). It takes me much longer to pack, and double check what I have packed, than I had allowed for... a lesson for next time, allow at least 10 hours for packing and getting the bike ready. Now that I have the experience though, potentially next time will be quicker. I won't have to spend hours trying to put the bag rack on, snap my socket wrench, buy a new socket wrench, still be unable to undo the bolt, take the bike to a shop to get the bolt loosened...


As I leave the house, my odometer reads 67887km.

Every hour or two I stop for fuel on my way up the coast. I stop at “the Rock”, a roadhouse disguised as a small Uluru, to take some photos, and at “The Big Prawn”, which was recently in danger of being moved. Aside from that there is not much to stop and see, as I have done the trip from Sydney to Brisbane a number of times and already seen all the tourist traps. It is dark as I cross the border from New South Wales to Queensland, which passes by with little to no fanfare.


Since I first started planning this trip, the song Topaz, by the B52's, conjured to mind a vision of riding into Melbourne at night, the city lights aglow. As I ride into Brisbane, Topaz starts playing on my iPod at just the right moment to show me the vision had been of Brisbane at night, not Melbourne. It was a bit spooky, but felt right.

The first leg of my trip is complete, and I am now in Brisbane, at Jo's place. It's fairly late, I arrive at approximately 10pm.


I'm very tired now so will rest.

Outback Adventure

I've been back in Australia now for a few weeks, we've moved house and are settling in. Shortly, I'm off on my next big adventure, the ride through the Outback that I've been blithering on about all this year.

The initial plan is, I leave on Thursday night, ride up to Mum's place in Boat Harbour, and then early on Friday morning, I head for Brisbane along the coast, getting there in the evening.

In Brisbane, I'll spend two days, staying with my sister and her family, visiting friends and going for a ride around Mount Glorious (I think that's the one), a renowned ride. Then on Monday next week, I'll be headed inland. On Monday night I hope to reach Blackall, and on Tuesday night I should reach Mt. Isa.

I'll take a day to look around Mt. Isa, wash clothes, etc., then push on to Tennant Creek. I'll stay overnight in Tennant Creek and Alice Springs, and take two days off in Uluru, visiting my cousin.

Once I've explored Uluru, I'll head down to Coober Pedy and stay overnight there, then on to Adelaide where I'll spend a day with San's aunt's family, and ride through the Adelaide hills. Then on to Melbourne, and I'll spend a day there with friends, and finally a day spent in Canberra, before back home to Sydney.

I had to leave my bike out on the street one night on the weekend (long story), it wasn't stolen but someone did drop it on the ground and damage quite a few components, snapping a mirror off, bending the clutch lever, damaging the fairing, and ripping out the electronics I'd added, possibly in a vain attempt to hotwire the bike. I had it towed to the bike shop yesterday, and it is being repaired now... hopefully it will all be set by the time I need to leave. I need to take it for a ride before I go though, in case there's some other problem with it... I want to know now, not halfway to Brisbane!

So it's all up in the air right now a bit. My schedule may slip by a day or two, we will see. I likely won't update this blog as I go... I'm going to try to avoid the internet for a bit, because that is partly the point of this journey.

I want to get some psychic space, get away from everyone and everything and allow my thoughts to foment for a while. I feel ideas there that never get a chance to come up, because of the pressures of everyday life. I've been wanting to get away for a few years now, and this gives me the opportunity. I hope it is constructive.

The other part is that I've never seen the interior of Australia. I did a two week trip by myself once, down from Berrima to Narranderra, Hay and Finlay, driving a truck to farms there and working on boreholes, taking videos of their interiors using a special downhole camera. But that's the most I've seen of inland Australia... so this will be a new experience for me, one I am looking forward to doing.

I'm excited, scared, and relaxed about it, all at once. I'm not too concerned about what will happen, because I always seem to make it through every adventure so far... sometimes through planning, usually through luck... I never rely on luck to survive though, I just don't let worries stop me from proceeding.

I'll post afterwards though, transcribing from the journal I intend to keep for the trip.