Day 4 Marree

4wd coach tour operator. There are heaps working in this area

Staying in the centre of the road

Wilpena Pound Resort

Flinders Ranges - Glass Gorge heading towards Parachilner

Minor water crossing

2 cyclists doing a Flinders Ranges trek on pushies. Amazing effort if not slightly mad.

Farina Ruins

Early road grader

Day 4 - Maree

As we were packing in the morning at Hawker caravan park, a lady walked by and she kinda did not want to chat and I noticed a german accent. So I spoke german to her and she lit up and we had a quick chat. She left and about 10 min later her husband rocked up and said in german - I hear you know German and then we had a chat for about 20 min. I could understand almost 100% and made myself understood. Was awesome. He rides Harleys with his son and wife throughout Europe and USA. He regaled us on a few trips he had done it realy did make me jealous. 132 cities / towns from lower USA up to Alaska. Nice!!!

What a long ride. I forget the milage, but just over 300kms. After breaky left Hawker just after 10am. Travelled through to Wipena Pound and had a quick look at the resort but not the famous crater. We were warned about emus and boy did we see A LOT. Due to the abundant food, we saw many groups and a heap of little chickies. Thankfully no near misses but I did go around a corner and there on my left was mummy emu with a couple of littlies. Thankfully by the time we saw eachother I was almost past them but my heart did skip a beat or two.

Finally saw my first true honest red kangaroo. Took photo's of him but using the little camera on digital zoom, the pics came out ordinary :(  So what other animals have we seen - Grey Kanga's, Stumpy lizards and those lizards that arch up on their front legs to make themselves look big (don't know their name), goannas (heap of them) - a small one only about mtr in length, tried his luck and ran from left to right in front of me. His luck was with him but soo many lizards and a few snakes are dead on the road which  is a shame. Emus, horses, sheep and cattle all loose on the roads up here makes for some interesting riding. You will see a pic below of the vegetation on the side of the road and both Pete and I ride right in the middle of the road - just incase a stupid emu or kanga decides to jump our way. 

We had a quick drink at Blinman pub and then went via Glass Gorge to Parachilna. I was disapointed. I have seen a lot of Flinders and this did no rock my boat. View was OK and riding was not a challenge.

Taking a leak at Farina ruins, off the track in the middle of nowhere and just as I was finishing, an outback tour bus rocks up behind me. Red faced me :)

Drovers Rest caravan park at Marree is closed - re open soon :( , so we went to the one in town. What a #@$%^ hole. Worst so far. 

Day 3 - Hawker

315km's today through some lovely country. Look at all the green fields in the Flinders Ranges. When it rains the vegetation really does know what to do with the water. Looks beautiful.

As we packed up this morning, an aboriginal came over and chatted to us. Originally from Bundaberg and goes to small towns on the east coast and plays for the local cricket, tennis or football team for a season. He loves the lifestyle and meets heaps of interesting  ppl every season. Nice bloke. 

The first 200km's was pretty hard going. We had very strong head winds which made the riding very tiring. I had taken some photos of the runner / sneaker tree and the  underpants tree (pics below). Very rare trees indeed. (I think the locals get bored easily) I then had to catch up to Pete and I had the throttle full open (WOT) and I could hardly get over 110-115km's. It was very frustrating and became a little bit of an issue when I filled up. My fuel consumption was 14.5 km's per ltr. The whole trip I have been running at around 18-19 km's per ltr. Birdsville to Innmaincka will require a minimum of 16 - 16.5kms just to make it and that includes carting 5 ltrs and filling up during the trip (Pete taking 10 ltrs). We shall see. Pete's milage has been a lot better than me :(

You will see on the pics below, we past about +150 wind mills generating clean electric power. Mountain range after mountain range had the wind mills on. As we passed old homesteads which are now ruins but were houses for the great frontier farmers of 100-200 yers ago, I just wonder if they ever thought such hi tech equipment would be on top of their mountains. Wonder what the next few generations will do . What will they do to make the clean energy wind mills old hat tech??

It's mid 30's. Not too bad when riding, but when you stop, it becomes hot very quickly wearing boots, pants, helmet etc. So we are currently in the Hawker pub having a quiet ale (well maybe a few pints) and relaxing.  Tenting tonight again.

Till tomorrow - Richard

Peter's Bit

Birdsville or Bust - the No No No Tour - No Off's, No Punctures and No Problems.  Great riding so far - Mr Puffe certainly plots a very interesting route.  Not sure about that many windmills 'cos I only counted 32 but they certainly looked impressive.

At Morgan we were warned about Roo's and Emu's along the route and the recommendation was not to travel before 9 ~ 9:30 in the morning or after 4:30 ~ 5 in the afternoon and keep a good look out giving any animals a WIDE berth.  The Morgan Caravan Park operator told us a Big Roo had shot out of no where and landed right on the bonnet of his Corolla - we saw it this morning and well what a mess.  No real damage to the rest of the car other than a huge dent in the middle of the bonnet and each side was sitting up about 150 mm above the mudguards !!!  Another camping ground resident had hit an Emu in his  Jeep 4 WD  and made quite a mess to his left front.

We tend to ride with me up front and Richard behind - Richard will say this is because he can simply adjust his speed to suit my more leisurely riding style (or as I prefer to call it "slow and safe").  But I know it's just so that I get to the road hazards first :-)

My speed wobbles seem to be a combination of head wind and smooth road surface - I think that when the front unloads the knobbies tramline and induce the dreaded wobble.  So far I've only needed one quick change of unddies and today was much better - I've learned that a quick dab on the rear brake or just leaning right-forward to shift the balance seems to fix it.  Sure that the dirt won't be a problem.  Sorry Dave the Barfoot Family Mooto of "More Power" doesn't work.

Talking about dirt - we get a little bit tomorrow as a precusor to Birdsville.  We can hardly wait.

Cheers - Pete

Day 2 - Morgan

It has been a great day riding. A little on the warm side but it is really only a precursor of weather to come.

Went past Angove and Banrock Station wineries - both around the Renmak SA area. Both Pete and I are amazed of this area. The dirt is red desert type sand, but add a little water and they are producing oranges and vineyards for miles.

Morgan is a real surprise. The road ends at the river and you need to wait for the ferry to take you across the Murray River (Pic below). So picturesque here. Camping for the first night (pic below). Campers catching fish  from the river banks and there is a pit for fisherman to throw their carp in. It is a feral pest and an offense by law of throwing them back in the river. If only the aussies knew carp smoked is lovely!!

Morgan was in its hey day, the largest inland port in Aus. It worked 24/7 moving wool, wheat etc down / up the Murray. The town has two pubs (one which we ate dinner) and chatting with the owner, he said his pub (well probably 50-100 years ago) would serve 400 meals a night. This was the working class pub and the one across the road was for the paddle steamer captains and gentrys.

Had someone poke around our camp site as we rode back from the pub. We caught him but all OK. Nothing missing. (Bloody tourists who think they can mozeee around). 2 Bikers I am pretty certain scared the crap out of him.

Enjoy work. Having another beer at the campsite outside in shorts :)

Day 2 - Morgan (almost)

Howdy,

We changed our tyres this morning and left Mildura at around midday. We have just stopped into Macca's at Renmark SA for free wifi and late lunch and will be heading off shortly to Morgan. Not certain if Morgan has 3G, so thought I would say hi and BOY it is hot. The new tyres are full on knobbies and are very skatey on the road. Pete had speed wobbles and had to slow down..... No comittment I say :) 

Moh'd- More picks to come once we are go through Flinders Ranges and then hit the Birdsville Track. Saw our first red kangaroo but sadly it was road kill - was massive. Such a gorgeous animal - hope to see many more bouncing around up north.

Enjoy work all. 

Day 1 Mildura

We left Melb at around 9am and hit the tail end of peak hour which was cool. 595 kms makes  for a long day. The chills hit us with temps at 12 degrees but now in Mildura is a nice low 20's. Boring trip as we have done it a few times but it should be great moving fwds. We are getting new tyres tomorrow morning - knobbies and then following the Murray River to Morgan.

The pic above of the car (look mum no hands) was really funny but made your think. It was a work ute for the an outback co (probably mining) and the sign had radio active. Oh Joy - I backed off after reading that.

Just checked the roads up north and now more roads a closed due to bush fire.

Tis Beer O'Clock.

Almost there - 4 days until we leave... Stalk me via SPOT

The crash bars all repaired and were installed today. They look brand new :) Final wash and add some tank extra protection and its ready to go.

I will have my SPOT GPS on during the trip, so if you want to stalk us, try the following url;

http://share.findmespot.com/shared/faces/viewspots.jsp?glId=0o0xDgABuDSDRWfFP1HRfVv3iI3PIbdiZ

Itinerary for Trip

Below is the intended route. Even though the weather will be hot - aka 35-40 degrees hot, we will mostly be sleeping in tents. We have booked accommodation in Mildura and Birdsville. Birdsville was booked as the Rugby World Cup is on and hopefully Wallabies or dare I say it, All Blacks are in the final and we needed TV access.  If it gets too hot at night, I may book cabins or hotel rooms with air con :)

Date	From	To	Road	Comments
Mon 17	Home	Mildura	Road
Tues 18	Mildura	Morgan	Road	Tyre change  - Knobbies at Mildura Yamaha
Wed 19	Morgan	Hawker	Dirt / Road	Flinders Ranges  - via Cradock
Thurs 20	Hawker	Marree	Dirt / Road	Wilpena Pound, Blinman, Parachilna, Parachilna Gorge, Beltana, Farina, Maybe our old hunting prty - Warraweena – Sliding Rock
Fri 21	Marree	Mungerannie Roadhouse	Dirt	1st half of Birdsville Track
Sat 22	Mungerannie Roadhouse	Birdsville	Dirt	2nd half of Birdsville Track
Sun 23	Birdsville	Birdsville	Dirt	Big Red sand dune, Birdsville attractions, Simpson desert
Mon 24	Birdsville	Innamincka	Dirt	via Cordillo Downs–Very hard riding rocks & sand -Sturt Stony desert
Tues 25	Innamincka	Innamincka	Dirt	Cooper Creek, Burke & Wills Dig Tree
Wed 26	Innamincka	Innamincka	Dirt	Fishing on Cooper Creek, Canoe adventure in the desert
Thurs 27	Innamincka	Tibooburra	Dirt	Strzelecki Track via Cameron Corner – Very hard riding – sand L
Fri 28	Tibooburra	White Cliffs	Dirt	Darling River, White Cliffs is an opal mining town
Sat 29	White Cliffs	White Cliffs	Dirt	White Cliffs attractions and relaxation
Sun 30	White Cliffs	Hay	Road	Almost home
Mon 1	Hay	Home	Road	Home sweet home