Day 5- A pictorial journey

Here's what we did today




We got up real early and walked up a hill.




On top of the hill we found a gold mine




And some nice rocks




Then we found 300 kms of mud and got Lisa's car all dirty




Then we found wave rock



The geologist had to taste it to check the ingredients




It's really really big




So we sat on the top of it chillin and watched the sunset. NICE


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Location:Wave Rock Road,Kondinin,Australia

Day 4 - WA at last

750 Kms , lots of fuel, lots of cool mints, a little crazyness

After an incredible night perched on the edge of the cliffs in the middle of the bight we woke to an incredible sunrise. We had our best packup yet and headed for the WA border. Unfortunately we were searched again and lost all of our fresh food. I can't understand why you don't get any warning. It's just another excuse for beaurocracy(spelt wrong I'm sure).
Highlight of the day was Ashlie overtaking her first road train. Also watching the wedge tailed eagles fight over the fresh road kill was up there.
We are in the gold mining town of Norseman tonight. Totally oz. tomorrow we are going via a 4wd track to wave rock. Should be fun.

Across the Nullabor - Norseman

After another big day we made it across the nullabor. There were a few stir crazy moments in the car today...mostly in the passengers seat. I actually started fighting dad for the wheel.
Made camp in the Norseman caravan park. Norseman is a gold mining town and I was quite surprised to find that I could run through the mine site basically to the underground entry!
Dinner was totally aus (nothing vego on the menu)...except for beer...






Published by Ashlie ( newly inducted contributor)

Nullabor fuel

543 litres from Bathurst


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Location:Eyre Highway,Dundas,Australia

Nullabor diner

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Day 3 - Port Augusta to WA

We are camped in the most amazing spot, literally 10 metres from the edge of the cliffs in the great Australian bight. We are about 70 Kms from the WA border. We just turned down a narrow bush track heading towards the water and we came out at the cliff edge. It's the most amazing spot. We drove for over 9 hours today and covered 950 Kms. We have now put 400 litres of fuel through the car since Bathurst. The car is absolutely amazing, 110kms everywhere. You wouldn't know you we're towing anything. Ash drove another stint today and was much more relaxed. The driving is very gladiatorial with the trucks openly hostile to the caravaners. It's a blood sport. I think we have 1500 Kms to go to Perth with 2.5 days till Lisa and Alexandra arrive. EASY

Nullabor

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Location:Eyre Highway,,Australia

Eyes on ceduna

Ash at the wheel. Looking more comfortable than day 1.

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Location:Eyre Highway,Kimba,Australia

Photos from Day 2

Renmark SA - shopping



Camp dinner



The master at work

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Hay plain -southwest NSW

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Location:Port Wakefield Road,Mount Remarkable,Australia

Day 2 - Mildura to Port Augusta

700kms , 7.5 hours, 1x subway, 2 x fuels stops, no arguments

The day started in heavy fog and 3 degrees. It was a very hard introduction to camper packups for ash. We finally got away from Euston at a little after 8.30. The fog hung around until nearly midday. It made travelling pretty challenging as it was very difficult to overtake. Some of the grey nomads need a bullet. Traveling at 85 Kim's per hour in 110 km roads and absolutely no curtesy for the other drivers. I don't know how the truckies cope.

We stopped at Renmark to recover from our border crossing ordeal after a fruit inspector went right through the car and camper confiscating all the fruit and veg Lisa had given us. We found a great shopping centre and bought enough food for a couple of days as well as some household and hardware items for the camper.

We travelled through both the Barossa and Clare valley wine regions and eventually hit Spenser gulf where we headed north for port Augusta. We are camping in a van park so we can have a shower as the next 2 nights will be in the bush.

Car and camper are awesome. Although we have used 255 ltrs of diesel to get to this point.

Day 1 - let's get this thing started

Well it's been months of preparation and planning. All that hard work just made Ash and I all the more nervous as the reality of what we are going to do settled on us. It was great to finally drive out of the street. We drove till we hit the Murray river at Euston. 800 kms in 8.5 hours. We found a camp by the river and settled in. First camper setup for Ash ( another induction ) and then off to the local for dinner.
Tomorrow we are heading for port Augusta where we will stock up for 2 nights of bush camping.

All the gear is fantastic. No surprise there I guess.



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Photos from day 1

Day 1 induction ( took 3 hours)



Happy travelers



Driving test ( pass )



Camped at the Murray river



Mighty Murray river


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The BIG adventure begins

We couldn't avoid it any longer. It was time to swallow the butterflies and head off for WA. 1 day late and 5.5 days to make Perth. Coldest morning of the winter in Bathurst.

Mighty Murray River

Not all bad. Alex and I camped by the Murray river last night and had a BBQ & JD.

Lead acid iPhone charger

Alexandra

I would just like to mention how much I appreciate the help Alexandra his given me this weekend. She is a tower of strength. Really! Always on the job. Never stops.

Pit bunny extraordinaire

Internal Combustion Coffee Maker

No roughing it at Camp Coatesy. Here is my 2 Kva Coffee machine.

Disaster strikes

You won’t beleive it. The engine failed again on the MGS01 during practice for the first round of the National Bears. Same problem as last time. Case hardening failure on a Cam follower. I’m devastated. We travelled 1300kms to get here.

On the road for South Australia

Alexandra & Mikey & Vale are headed to the races in Mount Gambia SA.

Off to SA this weekend

We are headed to Mount Gambier this weekend for the first round of the National Bears Series. Lets hope we can kick some Ducati Arse. Ill try to updte the racing blog reguarly this year.

Greg breaks his leg in NZ Day 6

When greg twisted his leg late on day 6 of the ride we all pretty much just laughted it off. He had fallen off so much we pretty much thought he was indestructible. It turns out he is not. Greg wrote:

"Turns out my "ankle sprain"  is in fact a broken leg (fibula near knee) and a ripped apart ankle (Maisonneuve fracture), from my boot hitting at speed, the bastard grass hidden rock adjacent to the rut I was in, late on the last day,

Love those NZ ruts and rocks.

Rolled up to the hospital this morning, now have a plaster cast and crutches and going back for a multiple titanium screw insertion operation tomorrow.

Woooh Hooo.

Looking forward to 8 weeks on crutches-not.

But at least I got the auxiliary bandaged lambie, though it's not as cool as the real, trail worn, one eyed, roll-in-the-grass lambie."

NZ Ride - The Riders in Focus

Robbie ( Cricket) , Always busy working. Rides like someone stuck a bunger up his arse and he's trying to blow it out by riding fast. Sometimes the results are pretty spectacular. Always serious unless he has told a joke at which time he proceeds to crack himself up. He is the only point rider that I have ever seen who appears to be trying to lose the rest of the group. It was a bit like greyhound racing where robbie was the rabbit.

In all seriousness, he ran an incredibly well organised ride. He has an amazing sense of direction. I suspect he may have a GPS hardwired to his brain.

Steve ( Sweep ), Never falls off. Always ready to help out. Loves a bit of a race with the back markers. Clearly likes a bit of young lamb on the side.

Dave (ADD), Camera man extraordinaire. Rides like the music is about to stop and he hasn't found a chair yet. Saves himself from near disaster more often than Bear Grills. If enthusiasm was the only thing you need to ride a bike then Dave would be a world champion. His constant high energy state can encourage any rider to have a race with him, not that any of us had much of a chance of keeping up with the slippery prick. 

Says he put on 8 kilo's on his last trip and cant understand why. Incidentally in every photo I have of him he was eating something.

Fred (Jerry can ), the support vehicle driver. Knows much more about Australia than the Australians. A fountain of knowledge on any subject. Always ready to help out everyone. One of the worlds true gentlemen.

Stuart ( tony's other half), At 6'3" made his poxy hire bike look like a child's toy. He could get it going though, and was always in the mix if there was a race on. Deserves a medal for sleeping with Tony the snore miller for 6 nights.

Tony ( the snore miller ), Snores so loud you would swear he was making furniture in his room. Says he has been married 43 years. His wife obviously lives in another house. At 63 years old the crusty old bugger rides like he is 20. He never seems to run out of puff and is always up for a bit of a race. He has a penchant for speech making and he is pretty good at it too. I think he might be the CEO of KTM. He was very interested in Rob's KTM underwear?

Steve ( racer boy ), Spent the whole trip riding around egging on anyone and everyone for a race. It was a 6 day special test for steve. His specialty was buzzing around Robbie's back wheel until he made hime fall off. He pulled it off many times each day. Ridiculously fast on open fire trail. His pox bucket hire bike will never be the same again. If I were robbie I would move it on real quick.

Steve ( BIG Steve ), A gentle giant who for my money was the most talented rider on the trip. He rode the big XR like he was sitting in an arm chair. He made everything look easy and effortless. He was seen sitting on top of one mountain pass watching a youtube movie of the very ride he was on while waiting for everyone to catch up with him.

Clearly needs bluetooth hands free fitted to his bike so he can take care of business while he is riding

Grant ( BIG unit ), larger then life, this man kept us all entertained through the trip. Has an amazing ability to use endless combinations of "F" and "C" bombs in a sentence but still sound eloquent and intelligent. The Aussies all wanted to take him home with them to run as the next prime minister. He could peddle his KTM 520 to devastating effect, although he only had narrow windows of speed before he needed to take a break and sit down for a rest. 

He had the best crash of the trip. It probably would have put a mere mortal in hospital, but Grant just brushed himself off and kept riding. And holy shit he can ride.

Rob (pretty boy), He rides like he dresses. Very neat and tidy. 

Has every item of kit the KTM makes worldwide and carries or wears it all when riding. Right down to the KTM underwear which Tony says you cant buy in Australiasia. Tony was caught taking photos of his arse crack. Im not sure what that was about. 
Rob could have copped a lot of criticism for pulling out of the ride with an unconfirmed injury, however when he kept following us in his magnificent Toyota LX40, all was forgiven. This guy is a gear freak, and has very good toys. Its fair to say we all want his life.

Clive ( Fastest farmer in NZ ), this guy was a constant barrel of laughs. Never stopped smiling and smacking the closest person on the back. Always in the mix on the KTM 350. Every item of clothing was scavenged from his kids cast offs.  
We were all horrified when his bike wouldn't start late on the 6th day. It looked like his ride was over with Robbie on the phone calling in the tow truck. Im pretty sure we all would have stayed with him in protest. Luckily a couple of the boys got the KTM going again. It just wouldn't have been right to finish without him. What a funny bastard and a top bloke.

Greg ( crash test dummy), how the hell did he survive the trip. The obstinate bugger just kept on getting up again and again and again. It was the gutsiest ride I have ever seen. What he clearly lacked in talent or ability, he more than made up for in true grit.

Not satisfied with being the slowest rider, he made sure he was the slowest at everything he did. In fact that was his real skill. Incredibly capable at fucking around constantly. The funny thing was, you couldn't actually get cranky with him. It was a great laugh.

I nearly ran him over twice. I fairly sure I would have torn his head off once if he hadn't been wearing a neck brace. I would like to make it clear that I didn't do it on purpose.

On day 6 when Robbie invited a bunch of cockheads to ride with us for the day, everyone was pissed off except greg. He was finally faster then someone.

Mike ( Lamb Hunter ), as a dirt bike rider I make a good Dairy farmer. 5 flat tyres and numerous crashes ( nearly all on flat ground ). Hated the hire bike with a passion but I didnt let it spoil the ride for me. I was pretty shocked at how technically difficult and relentless the riding was. If I hadnt spent the last 3 months riding my berg I would have been up shit creek.

What I enjoyed the most was the great company. You could not ask for a better bunch of blokes to spend a week with. They made the trip. I would definitely come and do it all again. Next time I would bring my own bike. The Kiwi's were definitely more at home on their own rides. The Aussies gave them a run for their money though.