Kinchega Days 60-63
Spent time with my brother and his family camping on the Darling River at Kinchega National Park.
3 day Criss-Cross. Oct 2009
DD, Pockets and Mohawk left Macca’s on Tues morning. Great ride up Bucketts Way to Gloucester for morning tea. Then up Thunderbolts to Walcha stopping only when Pockets cleaned up a brush turkey. Thru to Uralla and quick lunch and internet at Armidale. A bit cool and the big Kwaka was using fuel at an alarming rate, (carbies and altitude). Beautiful ride along Waterfall Way to Ebor and up Summerland Way thru’ Nymboida to Grafton. No beds as there was Arts Festival, so on to Casino. 700Kms in the day. Great room and people at the Swagman Motel and walk around the corner to the RMS Club.
Wed and a fantastic ride across the ranges via Bruxner H/Way to Tenterfield. Cool again and on to Glenn Innes for coffee. Pockets decided to abandon ship as he had to put the cat out, so he headed down the New England while DD and I did the Gwydir H/Way to Grafton. Back across Summerlad Way thru’ Nymboida and Ebor to Armidale and coffee. Then Uralla and Walcha for the night at the Commercial Hotel. Great food and people. 600kms for the day.
Day 3 and it was the Oxley H/way to Wauchope… 175kms mega road. On to DD’s mum at Port for toasted sandwiches. Decided to head directly home via very windy Pacific H/Way and some rain. Coffee and goodbyes at Heatherbrae Pie shop. 500kms. Thanks lads.
All up 1800kms and some great roads and good company.
John Holmes Day 58
Joined the Broken Hill Branch of the Ulysses for a ride out to Penrose Park and then on to Silverton Pub for a John Holmes. They get a very good turn out.
Just missed the Ghost Town Rally, apparently a very good roll up, 380 odd people although the weather was pretty ordinary.
The ‘Bird among a few of the bikes.
They were everywhere.
My beer and John Holmes at Silverton Pub.
Ned and I went to the Demo Club (a bit too early) to watch the NRL Grand Final on the big screen but we both drank way toooo much beer. They too, had free John Holmes on the menu at half time. I can’t remember watching much of the game and Ned was asked to leave the premises (keeping up the family tradition). We think that Melbourne Storm won 🙂
Broken Hill Day 57
Joined the Argent Milk Bar Gang for a reunion today at the milk bar and then we went for a ride out to Little Topar Pub for lunch.
Off to Silverton tomorrow with the Broken Hill Branch of the Ulysses club and then to the Demo Club to watch the NRL final and have a few beers with my brother. Game is not on telly here, they only like AFL 🙁
Quite cold here still and so I am reluctant to head south just yet, NSW school holidays will also have an impact. Might end up going up into QLD. I have no cold weather gear with me and it is impossible to buy even a sloppy joe here.
Ned and his new best mate (Peter the explosives exspurt) standing in the main street ... duh!
Still Alive Day 50
Bit of a technical glitch (whole friggen’ server hacked by the #%*kers)
Climbed Uluru, walked around it and then headed to the Olgas and did the ‘Valley of the Winds’ walk.
Met another crazy motorbike rider, a nice young bloke named John Baxter who was on a similar journey.
Rode to Coober Pedy and lived in an underground campsite, met some awesome people including Eric Smart who is riding his push-bike from Aberdeen to Adelaide.
Foul weather riding at a 30 degree lean on the way to Port Augusta.
Will fill in more soon.
Alice Springs Day 42
Took the ‘Bird around to Desert Edge Honda and had a chat with the very helpful service manager who even knew what a Michelin was 🙂 but recommended I try Bridgestone Battlax BT 021 as they may be a bit longer wearing for my type of riding. Anyway, they had them in stock and so $670 later, they were fitted. The ‘Bird ticked over 70,000kms today to celebrate the new shoes.
Big day on the card, bought the tyres and then chased around town to buy a new tent and airbed, hopefully the newies will perform better.
Put my tourist hat back on reluctantly and went up a hill to see what I could see.
Followed a few of those ‘Brown’ signs and one lead me to ‘Alice Springs Desert Park’ where the lady took a lobster from me and away I went…….fascinating.
Alice Springs Day 41
Somehow managed to drag myself away from Tennant Creek and continued south down the Stuart towards Alice Springs.
Using my amazing general knowledge of all things amazing to see in amazing Australia, I almost rode past the amazing ‘Devil’s Marbles’ but the big signs and bypass road sorta caught my eye.
Just outside the ‘Marbles’ this sign almost made me turn around.
Stopped for fuel at Barrow Creek, one of the Telegraph Stations but the pub was interesting. Spoke to the publican about the similarity to Daly Waters Pub and he assured me that they copied Barrow Creek. I also asked him why there was no bra and panties collection in the bar (like at Daly Waters) and he said he kept all those in his bedroom….boom, boom.
Barrow Creek Caravan Park, does it get any better than this?
Could this be the silliest sign ever?? Errr….okay……I’ll try hard to comply.
Managed to break the drought as I rode the last 100k’s into Alice Springs and it poured, water flowing over the road was quite dangerous.
Didn’t fancy battling a tent in the rain and am spending the night at Toddys Backpackers.
Mataranka to Tennant Creek Day 40
Woke up early to try to fix my tent poles, what a job! I think I will throw the whole thing in the bin and buy a new one at Alice Springs.
Packed the bike and went up to watch the dude feed the barra.
Made the obligatory stop at Daly Waters Pub.
Stopped for a quick look at the ‘Stuart Tree’…………..fascinating.
Stopped again for fuel and a break at Renner Springs but could not locate the ‘springs’.
The ‘Threeways’ where I will probably be returning.
And then there was Tennant Creek, wow! What a great place. They EVEN have a walk of fame.
Paul Kelly, just for Briz.
Jabiru to Mataranka Day 39
Packed all the bits up at Jabiru (still filthy hot and tent pole broken again) and headed off down the return leg of the Kakadu Highway to Pine Creek and Katherine.
Fuelled up and thought about where I was going, who cares? and headed to Mataranka. Staying at the same place as Briz and Ivan and will try and repair my tent while I am here. Yes, the walls really are made of rammed earth.
Followed the trail of the great white hunter and went out to visit Mataranka Springs and had a lovely swim at Bitter Springs (after forking out for new goggles at the Mataranka Store as my other new ones were now at Woongarah 😉 )
A snake skin waiting for me on the bin outside the shop.
The steps to climb out after coming down stream with the current, the path back to the start was sharp rocks and after spending time in the warm water, feet were way too soft for the task and so I had to swim back up against the current.
Brian already posted heaps of photos of Mataranka Springs so my photo is of the flying foxes that were everywhere as was all their juices 🙁
Jabiru Day 38
NIGE flag at Jabiru/Kakadu.
Went for a tour of the Ranger Uranium Mine. It is a very complex process to extract the uranium from the ore.
Went out to Cahills Crossing on East Alligator River and saw a couple of biguns.
Around the corner to the Border Store and into Ubirr.
Did some other touristy stuff and then went out to Cooinda for a Yellow Water tour.
Saw heaps of birds (even a Jabiru) and crocs, it was surprisingly good.
Should always finish a touristy day with a touristy shot.
Had the usual (by now) few beers and a feed back at the pool and crashed, big day for an old man.