Across The Nullarbor

Gordon River Road, Tasmania

Steve and I were both riding bikes when we first met. We got into marriage and out of bikes in 1982, a period of abstinence lasting more than 20 years! In 2004 Steve fell in love with a 2001 Kawasaki Vulcan 1500, and in 2005 I met the same fate with a Yamaha Vstar 650!

Our plan was to ride from Perth to Victoria in early April 2007, taking in the Ulysses AGM at Coffs Harbour, before returning home in June. It would be our first long road journey by bike. Everything was booked and paid for. But plans are made for mice and men. It all changed when Steve found out, at the end of January, that he would be starting work immediately after Easter. So we brought our camping trip forward, changed our destination to Tassi and Victoria and were on our way one week later. Here is our diary.

 

Loading Steve's bike & trailer on tilt-tray truck

Monday, 5^th February

Left home at 6:15am. I had imagined this day for some time. The one when we would leave behind, for a short while, the suburban life for a life on the road. The heavy peak hour traffic certainly took all the romance out of it for the first hour but we were soon on our way, heading east with not a care in the world, until 9:45am! Not bad, that was two and a half hours! Steve's bike said "sorry, better to punish you now than when you are half way across the Nullarbor," and died - 21km east of Cunderdin, 225km from home. Clutch gone. Thank goodness for RAC Ultimate. Once we had organised a tow, I rode home. Steve waited on the side of the road till 3:30pm for the tilt tray truck to arrive, but we aren't complaining. Steve didn't arrive home until 7:30pm. He was still smiling, just!

There is a lesson in everything that happens and we learnt that even though you feel that you are travelling as one, you are actually two independent vehicles. You must always have with you your wallet, change for a phone, reading glasses, water etc, and understand that at any moment you may be required to ride on alone.

 

Tuesday, 6^th February

Another tow was required the next day to get the Kwaka from home to Kim Britton's for repairs. The repairs were completed in a day and we were ready to leave once more. I couldn't believe it when someone asked me "has it beaten you?" "no" came the reply. "it would take more than a clutch failure to deter us from doing something we really wanted to do."

 

Wednesday, 7^th February

Take two! Up and away 40 minutes earlier this time and the traffic was much lighter. We didn't really start to relax until we had passed the "break down point" east of Cunderdin. After that, the miles ticked by easily as we relaxed into our riding pattern, taking plenty of breaks and keeping ourselves hydrated.

A thunderstorm cooled us down as we approached Norseman. The unique smell of the Aussie bush, wet after months of dryness, was aroma-therapy to us. We spent the night at the motel attached to the BP garage (next time we will try the Best Western), had a pizza and a pint at the pub in town and slept soundly, with a smile on our faces, the adventure just begun.

 

Seven months touring on a Postie bike!

Thursday, 8^th February

It wasn't fully light when we left Norseman at 6:40am so we rode cautiously for the first hour to avoid any Kangaroos that may be late going to bed. There is something magical about being on the road in that first light. Quiet and pristine before a new day is fully commissioned.

We passed six bikes heading west (a group of two and a group of four), and stopped to say hi to a Japanese biker who had been touring on his Postie bike (Honda CT110) for seven months. Made us feel like we were travelling in a Rolls Royce!

When we stopped at Madura it was 32^oC. The guy told us that three days before it had reached 49^oC. A sobering thought. However we continued to ride in pleasant conditions, one day ahead of some hot weather that was making its way east. We were at Border Village by 5:30pm, another 726km under our belts. We took a motel room and ate some very average food in the restaurant. Will stick to "truckie tucker" in future, nothing complex like a risotto! Eucla, just next door, will be the preferred place to stay next time around.

 

Only 340km of stray animals

Friday, 9^th February

An easier days riding lay ahead with only 486km to reach Ceduna. With plenty of time to spare we took the opportunity to take in the beautiful scenery of the Great Australian Bight. There is nothing quite like a jam sandwich and a fresh brew of coffee amongst the splendour of that amazing coast line.

While hanging out at Nullarbor Roadhouse, this truckie, heading west, pulls up and says "I guess it was you who did a clutch just outside Cunderdin?" "Well yes" came the reply, "and who the hell are you?" Turns out he was Dick, Dave's dad. Dave works for Kim Britton. A small world.

Ceduna made us welcome and we pitched our tent, which would become home for the next seven weeks, for the first time.

 

Great Australian Bight

Our first camp site, at Ceduna

Saturday, 10^th February

We cleaned and checked our bikes, attended to other domestic duties and spent much of the day "stroking the dog" and feeling pretty pleased with ourselves having made Ceduna in three days.

Our Polmac trailer contains a 25lt eski (which can keep ice for up to three days) and three storage boxes. The first box held the food, plates and cutlery, the second, tools, spares and paperwork, and the last,  cooking and cleaning facilities. Also in the trailer were sleeping bags, self inflating mattresses, pillows (our only luxury from home), microfibre towels, and on occasion a carton of beer (each can having to find its own little space). Tied to the top of the trailer are two folding chairs, a folding table and the tent. On the front of the trailer is 10lt of drinking water (with the capacity to take 20lt). We did not carry fuel.

Our tent is a four man dome with a vestibule. When we set up camp we placed the boxes and eski in the vestibule and the helmets and jackets were kept in the trailer. Clothes were carried in a tail bag on Steve's bike. In my saddlebags were wash-bag, day bag (tea, coffee, cups), two flasks and three litres of drinking water. In Steve's saddlebags were the bike covers, hats, camera, binoculars, etc.

Packing that lot up was a precise three dimensional jigsaw puzzle and when completed there wasn't an ounce of space any where!

 

Sunday, 11^th February

We left Ceduna in a howling sou'easter. We took local advice and went via Smokey and Streaky Bays. Pretty little spots but the road is quite straight and not as enjoyable as we were led to believe. Still, well worth the detour as it kept us away from the trucks and the Eyre Highway for a few kilometres. We rejoined the Eyre Highway at Poochera and trundled along arriving at Port Augusta by 3:30pm. Still time to go a little further before the Roos come out to play! We crossed the southern end of the Flinders Range via Horrocks Pass. It was getting a little late in the day to enjoy this fabulous ride but it is short and sweet and we made it easily. That night we camped under the watchful eye of Mount Remarkable in the Melrose caravan park. Delightful.

 

My Yamaha Vstar and the
Paddle Steamer Murray Princess

Monday, 12^th February

Packing up the tent was a procedure that took a long time, even at the end of seven weeks of setting up and taking down it still took us one and half hours to be ready to leave. It became a less arduous exercise as time went on, however it still took a long time. One thing we learnt very early on was don't close anything (not the storage boxes, not the trailer, not the saddle bags) until you are ready to turn the key in the ignition and pull away. In the early days the amount of times the saddle bags were done up and undone was nearly too much for a human to bear!

We reluctantly left Melrose, but with a night-time crossing to Tassi booked for Sunday 18th February we needed to keep moving. We took a moment to walk down the main street of Melrose, and pondered awhile at the monument in the park in the middle of town. This monument is a tribute to the pioneers of the area and there are details of ages and cause of death of some of the people. If seems 40 years of age was old back then!

We had built up quite an appetite by the time we arrived at the Stone Hut Bakery (40km). We stopped without hesitation, despite being only 10am, and had the best pie ever! Then we settled into a great ride through the Clare Valley, admiring the old buildings as we passed through the many towns on the route. We turned onto the Kapunda Road at Tarlee and enjoyed a great twisty ride up the hill. Then on through Kapunda, Nuriootpa, Angaston and Mt Pleasant to arrive at Mannum, on the Murray River at 3:45pm. We puffed and panted as we set up camp in the hot afternoon sun but felt pleasantly contented, it had been a good day.

 

Tuesday, 13^th February

Stayed the day to do the weekly domestics. Seemed too hot to go riding in the afternoon, so we took a leisurely walk along the banks of the Murray River and got sun burnt instead!

 

Wednesday, 14^th February

Although a hot day was forecast for Adelaide we decided to risk the "inland" route and rode through Keith and Naracoorte to Mt. Gambier. Riding through the Coonawarra wine growing region was pure pleasure - O the power of the imagination!

There is a bend around every corner on the road from Mt Gambier to Portland which was magic. Police became apparent when the speed limit changed from 110 to 100 at the SA/Vic border! We pushed on to Port Fairy, where a comfortable campsite awaited us together with pricey squid rings at the local fish and chip shop ($9.60 for six, and they were small too)! After reading so much about Port Fairy during our sailing days it was great to be there.

 

Port Fairy

Thursday, 15^th February

We stayed the day to check out the town and the harbour entrance for future reference! In the morning we enjoyed a walk around Griffiths Island, despite some discomfort from our clinging Draggin jeans, but hey we might have fallen over! In the afternoon we took a ride out to Tower Hill which is an extinct volcano. There was plenty of wildlife in the park at the visitors centre and we were fortunate to see a little Echidna busily preparing his nest for the night. The build up of thunder and storm clouds saw us make a hasty retreat back to basecamp for happy hour and a bbq tea.

 

London Bridge, Great Ocean Road

Friday, 16^th February

So it was Great Ocean Road here we come. It was going to be a scorcher but we had to leave. By morning tea we had thrown caution to the wind and neither of us were riding in Draggin Jeans. Later in the day Steve ditched his jacket too! Despite the steamy conditions, and tourist numbers not seen since travelling in Great Britain, we enjoyed ourselves. The scenery is so splendid,  just a shame about the people! We lost count of the number of times we parked at a lookout, locked up the helmets and jackets, undid the saddle bags to get the stuff you just can't leave behind and then did it all again, in reverse, when we were ready to leave. It made us tired and a little grumpy, but hey this was The Great Ocean Road and no matter how much you suffer you have to stop and take in the sights, right?

We copped a stretch of slippery road works going up and down a very steep pass as we approached Lavers Hill. It made a big mess of our bikes, the clay sticking like **** in some hard to reach places! I was leading and missed our lunch stop, which didn't impress Steve as he likes food, a lot! A delicious ice-cream in Apollo Bay quenched our thirst and our tempers. Not content to quit while we were ahead, we pushed on the extra hour to Lorne to arrive looking a little bedraggled. A wise man once said to me "don't do the same thing and expect the result to be different." We tried to learn from our mistake! Lucky for us there was a well equipped supermarket and bottle shop right next door to the caravan park. We were smiling within the hour!

 

Saturday, 17^th February

It was rub-a-dub-dub time for the bikes before we could allow ourselves the luxury of relaxing in town. The Arab Cafe lured us inside. A Yamaha R1 mounted high on the wall was a sure sign that we should take a seat and check out the menu. With my Rossi cap in tow I felt like part of the furniture! The cafe owners brother was killed on a motorcycle on the Great Ocean Road. The R1 was one of his brothers bikes. We enjoyed looking at all the bike orientated photographs which took up much of the wall space. O' I mustn't forget, the apparently famous apple strudel was fantastic.

In the afternoon some locals said "why don't you go play with the Koalas? You will find them about half way between Lorne and Apollo Bay," so we went. They are harder to find than you think, but once we had developed our Koala spotting eyes, they were everywhere. Some high in the trees and some only a few meters away. One little guy watched Steve walk all the way around his tree then promptly went back to sleep. The Great Ocean Road between Lorne and Apollo Bay is probably the best part and it was great to do some of it again.

 

Queuing in the rain

Sunday, 18^th February

We awoke feeling very excited. It had been a dream of mine for some time to revisit Tasmania. I had lived there as a child between the age of nine and fifteen years old. To turn up again, some 30 years later, on my own motor bike, was something out of fantasy land to me.

We packed up the tent slowly as we had a whole day to kill before catching the ferry, and it was going to be a scorcher, 39^oC! The Great Ocean Road was very busy, but generally the drivers are not aggressive like they are in the West and despite the heat we had a thoroughly enjoyable ride to Geelong.

For a while we joined the large number of locals that had turned out to watch the speed boat racing. When the heat got too much, we holed up in an air conditioned cafe on the town jetty and watched the spectacle from there.

We left Geelong at 2:30pm and were parked close to the ferry terminal by 3:30pm. Boarding time didn't start until 6:30pm which left us wondering what to do with ourselves! A cold shower in a beach side ablution block sounded like a good idea. Steve went on the "shower finding" mission only to return half an hour later and report "toilets yes, showers no!" So we had to stay grubby till the next day. The wise man also said "you get used to it." And he is right. Once you relax and except your circumstances, you feel just fine!

Late afternoon the clouds built up until they could hold on no more, and the rain came down. Soaking everything and leaving slippery on-ramps for unsuspecting riders! Boarding time is a long arduous process of stop, start and breathing in copious amounts of exhaust fumes from burnt out motors. At the last minute Steve and I were separated. I went onto deck three. Steve was told to wait. The word came back that deck three was now full and Steve was ushered to deck five. This would have been fine except I didn't have my ticket.

Leaving the mainland on the 
Spirit of Tasmania Ferry

After my bike had been secured I waited for Steve in one of the lounges. Time went on and he didn't show up so I presented my plight at the pursers office, showed my drivers licence, and they issued me with a new ticket. At least I could go and dump my stuff on my allocated seat. Of course Steve turned up five minutes later!

Once we settled down and had a light supper in the galley restaurant, I retired to my seat for the night. Steve tried to stay awake to see the ship go through the heads to Port Phillip Bay but he didn't make it. Before we knew where we were, it was 6am, we were up and about and watching Tasmania rise above the horizon. Our Tassie adventure just begun.