Fowlers Bay SA & Great Australian Bight

I have spent 2 nights at Fowlers Bays. It's 140km west of Ceduna and is on the coast. The aim was to have a day here, fish off the jetty, beach and relax. However, Fowlers Bay has lived up to it's name. The foul weather is windy and the clouds look like they are about to burst at any moment. At least it is around 20 degrees C. Fowlers has a very long jetty that is basically used to pick up tourists duiring whale season (May to Oct) and fishing charters. It's in good nick and I suspect without the jetty, there would be no Fowlers Bay. The fishing here is awesome with king george whiting, squid, leather jackets and Aus salmon being taken from the jetty in the past 2 days. However these are die hard fisherman/ladies. In fact, more ladies than blokes and great to see they are so passionate.

One lady stated, hey - it's slack tied and we will not catch anything for a few hours, but I rather be here than back at the camp ground reading a book. I so agree!!! and ventured back to my camp site, got my fishing gear out, created a paternoster rig, rescued my last beer in the esky and am enjoying it way too much :) If the wind dies down a little, I might give it  go later this arvo / evening. However it's been so long, that I had to refer to my knot tying book to refresh my memory about how to tie 4 different knots.

This place reminds me of a poor version of Eden, NSW. Like Eden, Fowlers Bay has an historical past in the whaling industry with whaling stations and whale bones to be seen, but only if you have a 4wd. My sporty Golf GTD coped well on the 11km dirt road into town, but I don't want to make a habbit of driving it over such rough corrugations.

The caravan park is pretty basic. At 5pm, management lites a small fire and everyone drops into the camp kitchen area and I had a good yarn with some of the old folk.

Fowlers Bay is effectively surrounded by sand dunes which are open to 4wd's. I walked up one of the tracks and took these photo's of the town.  Pete - 660 motorbikes - we could have had a ball!!!! Very soft sand and most 4wd's were dropping tyre pressures to about 15 psi but once you got up, a firm crust made it soo much easier.

Made a friend. "Buster" as I called him, joined me for my morning walk. Reminded me of the film - Red.

For electricity power, the town uses solar, wind turbines and gensets. The caravan has a huge Genset (diesel generator) and for some reason only operates at night. It's housed in a shiping container that is about 10 mtrs from my camp site. When it started, boy did it piss off the grass campers. For $25 a night (unpowered), it's pretty poor.

This is the second time in a month I have traversed the Nullabour. However the difference this time, is I'm taking my time. The scenery does change, but it can be a little on the boring side, especially in a car. The road effectively goes over / down sand dunes or put another way, is a continuos undulating landscape. To remove some of the boredom, I have been guessing the elevation of the forth coming hill. My GPS displays the elevation changes and I have become pretty good :). Take my word for it.

Stumpy lizards and snakes on the road today. You can see them moving in the distance and if safe, move over lanes or take them in the middle to let them live. Thankfully, the snake slid off the road to the left, which left me plenty of room in the right lane. I HATE snakes!!

Today was predominantly a transport section and taking photo at the various Great Australia Bite photo points. Can you spot the whales in these photos?

Alice Springs

It's the second time sleeping in a dug out motel room in Coober Pedy and it is such a tranquil place to sleep. It's more than no noise, it's deafening silence which just makes sleeping a breeze.

My clothes were dried out, except for the bike pant pocket where I forgot to take a hanky out - doh!!!  It's amazing how much water, road trains pick up behind them. We've all seen pics of road trains and the plume of dust following them. Imagine that plume as water. On the last leg to Coober Pedy my first road train I encountered on the wet roads looked pretty as it was coming towards me. Big long truck with plumes of white and the glowing sun in the background. But when the truck passes you, that nice plume of water is about 3 bath loads of water. It hits you at 200 km per hr in the chest, head, arms and bike and it's force tries to push you out of your seat. After the 1-2 seconds of  shear terror you come through the other side feeling like you had done 1 round with Ali. In fact my first word was F#%%^. The many road trains that followed, I ducked very low under the windscreen. The bike received the pressure wave of water which was just a matter of moving the bike to the left hand side of my lane, aiming it to the centre as the pressure wave hits (as you don't want the wave to push you left, off the road) and when it comes, duck and hold on tight and hope there is not another road train following with another drenching.

As I passed the NT border, I got excited as I passed the 130km speed sign. So 154 km is not a loss of license and I upped the cruise control. To be honet, the first few minutes at that speed is quite nerve racking. Higher engine noise curtesy of a higher RPM, those white lines in the middle really do speed past and your level of concentration goes through the roof. But after awhile, the senses seem to get acustomed to the change in speed and it's business as usual. Whilst cruising, I noticed a car on the left, off the shoulder of the road and two people standing just off the right hand side of the road. Cruise off, slowing down to 104 km and via hand gestures, asking the couple if everything is OK. I got the thumbs up and then a highway patrol car came the other direction with the radar gun on the side window. Relief that I slowed down for the car and I must admit a sly grin on my dial. From then on, I cruised at 140-145 km.  The last 200km into Alice Springs city took 1.5 hrs. Gave me enough time to visit the motorcycle shop to organise fitting of new tyres the following morning.

Alice was the place that Pete and I would catch up. He left Darwin as I flew home and he visited Kakadu, Katherine, Daly Waters and Devils Marbles. Pete had already booked us into a caravan park and all I had to do was set up tent.

On Sat, the Alice had the famous Henly on Todd races. It's bascially a weekend where the locals, near and far, get together and have some fun. ie Yacht racing on the dry Todd River, Filling 44 Gal drums with sand and more. Great atmosphere and everyone joined in, barracking for their favourtire team.

The local college placed 1st and 2nd in the finals of "Make your own boat"

Maxi Yachts racing - with 8-9 crewmen running hard.

Navy had a great cheer quad.  :)

Kids bashing their mates into the water

Best presented - Make you own Boat - a crew from QLD created a submarine. It dived during the races and came last.

Hard work. First to fill up a 44 Gal drum with sand.

On Sat we noticed that a police car and police man was outside every liquor outlet we passed in Alice. In the evening, I purchased a bottle of Sthrn Comfort and asked the policeman why are they doing this today? It came as a shock, but over the past 3 months, everyday at every liquor outlet, a policeman would be there from open to closing time. According to the police bosses, crime incidents have decreased from 300 per day to 100 and the violent crimes around the liquor outlets dropped significantly. Speaking with the attendant in the shop, she was really happy to see the police there and confirmed a reduction in violent crime. Seems like a complete waste of resources, ie just standing there for 8-10 hrs, but the stats indicate it's working. Bravo for the police and other agencies trying different things. Note - the liquor outlet I went into, was a grocery store with a cage on the side. Padlocked and blacked out. I asked - "Where's the grog?" and the attendant opened the cage and allowed me to browse beer. But as I was after a spirit, they had to unlock other cabinets. Quite sad it has come to this.

We left early and I took Pete to some of the spots on the West MacDonnell ranges. Below is a pic of Simpsons Gap.

Final days in Darwin

As mentioned in a previous post, Crocodylus  visited the Hidden Valley Caravan park and presented us with a baby croc and snake and passed on some valuable education about these predators.

Below are some pics of the Crocodylus employee and the Irish couple I made friends with, whilst in the caravan park. They have been in Aus for 1.5 years with the sole purpose of touring. They have another 6 mths before they have to leave. They have seen more of Aus than I think I will. If they like a place they stay for a month or so and get a job to top up the money balance. They decided on Fri to stay in Darwin and by Sat, hubby had a construction job. He is a .net developer. So if you want a short term job in Darwin, it won't take long.

Hidden Valley pub is trading off it's famous motorsports park just 1 km's away. Great memorabilia on the walls of our motor sporting legends. It's a blokey pub!! They had strippers, topless barmaids and 1 on 1 acts. We had dinner in the bistro and then had a quick drink in the bar being served by a topless waitress. Sorry guys, no pics of her here. Best beer I had so far on this trip :)

Pete arrived Friday morning and after spending some time on both bikes, we had lunch on the docks, checked out the WWII fuel tunnels and then Pete earned a well deserved sleep as he had been up for effectively 2 days.

On Sat we went to Parap markets, similar to Mindil Market, just better food, less buskers less crowded and a smaller. Mindil market Thurs / Sun gets my vote as the variety of people attending is great to stop and just watch and listen.

We went to Crocodylus on Sat. It's a zoo which specialises in crocs. Now I'm not a fan of zoo and I feel for the animals who roamed the lands now have a 10 mtr by 10 mtr fenced off area to live the rest of the miserable life. I remember at Melb or Syd zoo watching a giant panda  completing laps and laps and laps. His / Her mind was gone. Seeing such a majestic animal with a lost mind put me off Zoos.

They had a couple of water buffalo. Check out the vast room they had to roam....

Below is the croc mating area. Most of the crocs were taken out of the wild as they were causing issues for humans. ie eating stock, eating humans and the like. Isn't that what they do naturally? For me it's like shark  culls. If you don't want to be Great White dinner, don't go into their territory. They are the kings of their domain and killing or relocating them into a 10 * 15 mtrs (approx) concrete pens is just so wrong.

The majority of the males here are about 40 years old, approx 4 mtrs long and when you are standing 2 mtrs above, them are awe inspiring. Unfortunately, they will have another 30-40 years to live in such a cramped environment.  

I had a very good chat with the ostriches and emus. Explained to the them, that as an emu, you are the most dangerous road kill animal on the road due to their lack of intelligence. Great chat and we'll have a safe trip from now on. Seriously tho, I stopped and chatted with them, with Pete looking at me strangely :) thinking I'd gone nuts.  But I know emus are very inquisitive and as I was lecturing them, they hung around looking at me, 1 mtr away, giving me whoop whoop sounds. I knew they were listening.

Close up of Ostrich. The male ostrich loved hats and used his height to reach over the barrier and grab tourists hats.  He never got mine :)

Do you want to try croc meat? Click on to enlarge and see the prices.  Reasonable I think.

They have pens with fresh and saltwater crocs. 498 salties in the one huge swimming pool. With so many crocs in the pool, the smell was unique, strong and off putting.

These crocs would be allowed to grow for 5 years and are then killed for meat, leather etc.

Darwin - Got some news.......

Yesterday arvo, we had an influx of french campers arrive. It typically gets busy with new arrivals at a ccaravan park from 3-6pm.The 2 couples who have been here longer than I, (travelling together) loved it and all the frenchies ignored everyone and chatted until 12:30am. When the male came back to his GF, the fighting began. Yelling for a about 45 min,slapping and 1 tent demolished. This was about 10-13 metres away from my tent. The real sucky bit, EVERYTHING was in french, so I have no idea what it was about or what was said. So frustrating!!!

Most of the campers in the area cracked the sads for some quiet which came about almost 2am (after fixing tent). I was almost asleep and after that I was up most of the night. Up early to get the news I have been waiting for....

The bike will take over a month to fix as parts need to be sourced from Japan. Apparently this was an issue when they built bike over 5 years ago. Extremely slim chance Yamaha will cover the cost, but it will be something I'll try when I get back. You will notice a lot of rust on the crankshaft. They asked had I drowned it? ie dropped it in a river crossing- Nope. They then showed me worn parts which they advised should never get worn if fitted correctly and it's the first they have seen of this.

See the rust?

This means no Kimberleys for me with Pete and our plans will change. Pete is arriving tomorrow in Darwin and I'll chauffeur him around town. RACV have been great. I am booked on the 2am Sun flight for Melb (with extra luggage pre-paid). My Triumph is booked in for service on Tues and I plan to leave Melb for Alice Springs on Wed or Thurs. Being the big Triumph 1200cc, I should be able to make Alice in 3 - 3.5 days to meet up with Pete and we will do another adventure, albeit a shorter one.

As I am off on the Triumph next week, I had to ask Yamaha Darwin for access to the workshop so I could unbolt certain bits and pieces I needed (as I swap them from bike to bike). It wasn't a problem and gave me an opportunity to take photos and speak to the mechanic who pulled my bike apart. That was followed up with buying 2 x 150 ltr bags so I transport all my gear, including my pannier bags. RACV have paid for the max 40kg plus carry on for  Jetstar flight.

Crocodylus (croc / wildlife park in Darwin) came by the caravan park last night and brought around a 16 week old crocodile and snake for us to play with and also learn more about the do's and don'ts. Hint - see a snake - DON'T move!! and with Crocs - run straight not a zig zag. Their eye sight straight ahead is very poor. She advised a Taipan was more scared of me than I of it - I DON'T THINK SO!!! My bite will not kill.

Tonight I am off to the Mindil Beach market again. Grab a feed, check out the local wares and of course the locals and tourists. Darwin / Northern Territory is the multicultural capital of Aus, in the dry season. This will be followed by a quiet ale in the casino. I'm not so interested in gambilng myself, I just love watching the gamblers play,wonder how / where did you get all that money and see their reaction on wins / loses.  

Darwin

Tues was an interesting day. My bike was towed to the Yamaha dealer early in the morning. The head mechanic had a quick listen to the bike and said at worst it sounds like a camshaft failure or maybe something as simple as a broken oil pump.

Fingers crossed it's a oil pump or something smallish. If it's a camshaft, it will cost $3K and take a month to complete as the parts will need to be shipped from Japan. (Everything in Darwin is costly). In this case, we'll need to re-evaulate the trip. Pete's bike has arrived in Darwin and he'll be here Friday morning. It's not all too bad.  I have already planned a few contingency routes.

You know it's 9am as the fighter jets start taking off. When at the outskirts of the city, it' great seeing 4-5 jets in the sky flying around in what appears a hap-hazard style. Reminded me of some of the shots in Top Gun.

Fighter jet coming in for landing.

Sitting next to my tent, enjoying the last of my southern and the fantastic weather and our caravan park is the "Turning For Base" location for the planes to land today. ie the last turn before they straighten up for the runway.

Today was a beach day. Visited the Casuarina beach area which is a little east of Darwin city. Before I even hit the beach I see throug the trees green / blue water and great beach. It looks amazing and then I read the box jelly fish sign. Can't go in the water.

The sea litter is plentiful walking on the beach. Coral and shells are abundant.

Closer to Darwin city is another beach area. It's low - mid 30's and total fire ban and no one is in the water. If it doesn't sting you, it will eat you!

Still awaiting news of my bike.