I was averaging around 300 to 400 km per day, and after a couple of days I made it into Coober Pedy.Ĭoober Pedy is an interesting place. Problem was they were a size too small so they cut off my circulation and my hands became cold again. To overcome this, I had the cunning plan of wearing dishwashing gloves under my gloves. I was feeling it because I packed light and only brought summer gloves. Now that it is heading into winter the mornings are starting to get colder. Earlier in the morning, one couple had invited me into their caravan and fed me porridge and toast. When I rode out the next morning, I had a swarm of grey nomads gathered around me checking out the machine. I rocked up, and before I had got off the bike, he’d already taken a photo of me for his wall of assorted bike pics. The fella who owned the caravan park was right into Postie bikes. My first night was in a small town called Peterborough.
I eventually made it into Adelaide and had a bit of a chuckle when I looked down thinking a few days ago this little bike was in Melbourne.Ī few days later I set off on the big trip - up the middle of Australia to Darwin, across the West Coast down to Perth, then across the Nullarbor and back to Adelaide. I couldn’t see much so I just followed a truck down doing about 20 km/h. The water-proofing qualities of my old bike gear aren’t the best so it was a wet ride.įinally, got into the Adelaide Hills with B-Double trucks passing me in the dark and rain - exciting stuff!Īs luck would have it, there was an accident on the freeway so traffic was diverted via the notorious Devil’s Elbow. To make matters worse, the rain came in around midday. At one point a kangaroo jumped out in front of me, laughed, then actually hopped off faster than I was going. In some stages this wind knocked me down to a cruising speed of a whopping 50 km/h.
As it hit the ground, the peak and visor smashed off, so the old cable ties came out and worked a treat. The wind had really picked up and even blew my helmet off my handlebars when I was at a rest stop. The weather changed for the last big day of riding from Mount Gambier into Adelaide. The bike would flex pretty bad in the windy bits and it felt like the back half was going in a different direction than the front, but I still managed to catch a few cars to my amazement. Going down the other side was a different story. The bike didn’t like going up the hills and I would often be in second gear doing a huge 30 km/h with a heap of cars in my mirrors. I hit the Great Ocean Road which was great fun. I even have a little camping towel that is no longer than my forearm. The toiletries - cut down shaver, cut down tooth brush, shaving stick, soap, and shampoo - I managed to cram into a little soap holder.
Breakfast the next morning was powdered milk and Weetbix lunch is a couple of peanut butter sandwiches and an apple. Whipped out my little old metho cooker on the first night and cooked up the staple diet of two-minute noddles and then an orange. My maximum cruising speed is 70 km/h so I had a bit of a laugh coming into towns that had signs to reduce speed to 80 km/h. The first three-day stage from Melbourne to Adelaide - I decided on the longer 1100 km route via the Great Ocean Road and Coorong rather than the quicker ride straight over - was a test ride to see if the bike went okay, and also to see whether I wanted to continue doing another 13,000 km. Well, the day had come to start the journey. All up, the bike and tweaks cost me around $2300. This included fitting an old XR250 tank to increase the range to 500 km, saddle bags, PVC storage pipes, digital bicycle computer, rear storage box, map holder, and even a 240V invertor to charge my camera and phone, etc. Over the next few weeks I tweaked the bike for the trip. Did a quick speed test and was shocked it only hit 80 km/h later I found out that’s the norm. I had a ball and the speed humps were great. Gee, it felt funny, especially with me being 6’ 3”. I got a roadworthy then rode out of the shop for my first ride. Picked one up with 22,000 km on the clock for $1200. I went to an auction where they were getting rid of 40 of them. I thought between jobs I might go on a bit of an adventure. AFTER WORKING for the same company for a long time, I finally pulled the pin.
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