05.09.2014
After a quick brekkie at McDonalds and we were off along the coast road to Port Augusta.
The Port Augusta Gas Station
Parked up and ready to split up
Lefty and River
The road West
It was at this point the two groups split, they headed north and we turned and headed west. From here on it was just JR, Leanne, Steve and Jicki across Australia.
JR had a mate who had passed through Port Augusta who had taken a great photo with his M109 in front of a particular sign showing the distance to Perth. We found the sign but we concluded he must have taken his photo ridiculously early in the morning, because the traffic was so heavy there was no way we were going to be able to stop safely and wheel the bikes to the sign. So there was a photo op we missed!.
Weird Moment: Heading west out of Port Augusta towards Iron Knob. The landscape is really desolate and bare. It was at this point I began to realize just how big what we were attempting really was and just how far we had to go. The size of the country and the emptiness of Australia really hit me at that moment.
The plains stretched away to distant hills on the horizon.
Weird Moment: Doing tech support for a user at my work in Sydney, on the bike at 130km going past the Iron Knob.
We continued on, heading west until we pulled in to Kimba. Now this was a place I had no idea existed. Kimba is apparently the halfway point of Australia, or at least if you drew a line down the middle of Aussie, Kimba is on that line!.
We saw the big “halfway “ sign and decided we absolutely had to pull over for photos. I also got a “halfway” picture of the speedo showing the current distance we had traveled. We got our pics and got all saddled up for the next section of road. About 200 meters along the road was the Big Galah!, obviously another required pic to take, so it was off the bikes again and pics of the Galah. Once again we saddled up and headed west, the gas station we were looking for was about a kilometer down the road, so off the bikes again. At this point I was beginning to feel like all I was doing was getting off and on the bike over and over. This time we decided to stop for a bit of lunch and a rest after fueling up.
A Beemer and a 9 halfway
The halfway mark of the trip taken at Kimba
A Beemer and a Galah!
The rest of the day was just a constant drone of the engine and watching the bush go by.
Weird Moment: Stop for gas and bit of lunch at a truck stop. The lady behind the counter is getting smashed by customers and there was only one of her. So after sitting for 20 minutes waiting for food and not seeing her move from the counter JR offers to help. She takes him up on his offer and very quickly he is out the back, getting chips and food ready for the deep fryer! The lady finally managed to get out the back and work on our food but by then JR had practically finished it!
JR doing the cooking!
Leanne made us stop and pull over at Wirrulla, a nice little town just off the motorway. It’s a sleepy little place and the pub is very country old school.
Mid Afternoon break at Wirrulla
We found this flyer in the pub for Watto’s Bucks night. Starts Saturday finishes Thursday, these country people know how to party!.
Mid Arvo Saturday start, Thursday finish!
At the end of the day we made it to Ceduna. This was a big milestone as the true Nullarbor is regarded as being book-ended by Ceduna in the East and Norseman in the West. This was really the start of the journey, this was roads nobody had ever been on before. We pulled into the Big 4 in Ceduna, dropped our stuff in the cabin and walked down to the waterfront. The nice man in the office had recommended the pub as a good place for a beer and some eats so we headed towards there.
Who knew that Ceduna is the heart of Oyster breeding in Australia? and its pub is famous for oysters?, I could just about hear JR salivating.
Who knew that Ceduna is the heart of Oyster breeding in Australia? and its pub is famous for oysters?, I could just about hear JR salivating.
Ceduna, the beginning of the Nullarbor
Just out in front of the pub is a really long pier so we walked out to the end, turned and looked back. It’s a really spectacular part of the country and really stunning view.
The Ceduna pier
Norfolk Pines along the waterfront
The Pier from the water end
Sunset from the pub
Sticky date pudding!
Leaving Ceduna, A Beemer in front of an Oyster!
06.09.2014
The day dawned bright and clear and we were up early and decided to put some miles under our wheels before we had break fast. We decided that Penong was going to be a good place to stop for breakfast. We also decided that this was going to be the start of our "stop every time you see fuel" policy. A lot of people had told us a lot of things about crossing the Nullarbor but this was one of the rules that everyone agreed on. You may not need it, but stop and top up anyway, cause you never now if the guy 200km up the road is open or has received a fuel shipment this week.Penong is a beautiful little place and is known as the windmill town due to the many windmills that are actively used to draw water from the various bores around the town.
The Penong Hotel
George Chick started it all in Penong
Penong Cafe
Believe it or not this sign actually freaked me out.
Nundroo was the next stop. We met a guy who had just finished the "Straight Across" ride. This is a ride where a bunch of guys meet at the widest eastern part of Australia and ride in a direct line to the widest western part of Australia. Awesome! He had done the ride and was on his way back. He was on a dual sport with big knobbly tyres, or at least the tyres had started big and knobbly, after 2000km across the Nullarbor they looked like someone had shaved them down almost completely flat.
According to the lady in the Pub, Nundroo has a population of 4 people and 8,000,000 Kangaroos!
At this point we were also told that the Yalata roadhouse had been closed for a decade but was still on the maps. Very useful to know!.
Nundroo map
Jick forced us to pull over just past Yalata to get this pic. She was fascinated by the Camel on the sign!. We got several shots of a much better one when we reached the Nullarbor roadhouse slightly further along.
The roads we had been on for the last 2 days
About 11 0 clock we reached the area known as the Head of the Bight. This is the huge bit that looks like a bite taken out of the bottom of Australia. Just at the beginning of the bight is a viewing platform, I was really impressed with this facility, its beautifully put together, cheap and gets you the best view of the whales. Apparently its newly built and its really well worth the visit.
The viewing platforms take you right to the cliffs edge and let you look down on the antics of the whales below.
The best time to visit is August/Sept. This is the period when the whales return to mate and to give birth. The day was crystal clear, the sea was sapphire blue and there must have been 30-40 whales in the bay below us. This is one of those moments I didn't expect. The day was perfect and we had the most amazing view of families of whales frolicking in the bay below.
Head of the Bight facility
Jick and I looking west
Really, just go and see it, its stunning
Whales playing!
We jumped back on the bikes and about another 50 km along, we stopped at the Nullarbor roadhouse for lunch. This is a must stop, mainly because you will need fuel, but its also a great spot for food. The roadhouse kitchen here is actually really good and I can highly recommend the works burger, we also got our signed "we crossed the Nullarbor on a Motorcycle" certificate which is now hanging in the hallway!
This was the most expensive fuel so far!
So on we carried on. We crossed the border at Eucla, there is a really nice sweeping down hill curve that opens out the whole horizon. it is just past the Eucla road house heading West. Now we knew that the 140 mile straight was ahead of us, and all of us at some point during this part of the ride had wondered if we had accidentally done it and not seen the sign. This section of the journey is when my ass started to go flat. We had done quite a lot of long straight roads, but west of Eucla is when it seriously starts to put the strain on and you begin to understand that the people who planned these roads, had created them just to torture motorcyclists.
A note for the Young Un's: Get your fuel at Eucla NOT at the border town. The border is a lot more expensive.
You think you have done long straight roads?, unless you live in WA and you have made the run to the border you have no idea. The only road I can think of that is similar is the Barrier highway east of Broken hill. But that's only a couple of hundred kilometers, the WA roads go on for DAYS!
Finally we made it to the first hill we had seen in hours and pulled in to the Madura Roadhouse. This place really made me realize how fucking remote we were. They truck in their water, coffee was 4.50$ for instant coffee. The only place you can get phone reception is on the Nullarbor links golf course.
A Beemer in front of a pool
An M109
A truck, no story, just looks cool
It was as we stopped for fuel at the Madura roadhouse that I checked my tires for the first time in a couple of days and realized I was wearing a dangerously flat and wide section in both the front and rear. At this point I was getting seriously concerned as to whether my tires would make it to Kalgoorlie. I knew we had the 90 mile straight and a several days of equally long flat roads before we got to anything like a major town at Kalgoorlie. I set the front and rear to 42/42. I though this was the correct setting, it wasn't until I got to the tire guy at Kalgoorlie that I got told any different.
Another little trick for the unwary, make VERY sure that you know what PSI settings you should be running your tires at. Getting this wrong cost me a replacement set of tires that I probably wouldn't have needed with the right pressures.
07.09.2014
Up the hill from Madura is a little turn off. Make sure you stop here, turn around and take photos back to the coast. It is one of the most remote and spectacular views in Australia. Taking our usual approach of "get a couple of hundred km under the belt before breakfast", our first stop was Cocklebiddy. I don't know why but I really liked Cocklebiddy, it was the same as 1000 other road stops we passed through but it just seemed like a nice friendly place.They are rescuing a Wedge Tailed eagle which had been hit by a truck. It lives outside in a huge cage where its is being looked after while it is healing. The Wedge tails are huge, with wingspans up to 6 feet, and definitely one of the things you need to watch out for on the roads. They are so big that they take quite a bit of time to get airborne. So when you see one take off from road kill, you can be on top of it while it is still the height of your saddle if you are not really careful.
A healing Eagle
The rest of the day was again a drone of engines and the endless long straight roads. It actually begins to get a bit disheartening when you come over a rise to see a road to the horizon in front of you, then you go over the horizon and there is another one, and another and another...
Stopped for a break from the endless straight roads
The last stop before Norseman is Balladonia. This is also the longest ride between gas stations being about 190km between stops. The Balladonia road house was also the most expensive fuel we saw across the Nullarbor at $2.12 flat.
Balladonia Gas
Leanne decided she had had enough of truck stop food and wanted something healthy, so she ordered a salad sandwich. The salad sandwich arrived all nice and toasty from the toasty machine!. We couldn't stop laughing!.
Healthy Balladonia Sandwhich
The Legend of the Nullarbor Nymph
We had another 120 km to go to reach Norseman,but by the end of this day we were getting pretty tired of sitting on long straight roads for hours. So we took a break at a road stop about 60 km out from Norseman. The road stop was on the edge of a dried out lake, so JR decided to take his 9 down into the lake bed for a bit of a run. I walked down to the lake bed and just as I realized that the bed was just a thin crust and oily sludge underneath, JR cruised past me on his 9.
What I had realized and he figured out a bit too late was that it wasn't as dry as it looked. The crust on top was dry, but underneath was squidgy, oily mud. JR immediately started to sink into the mud and it took some careful acceleration and a bit of luck that he managed to make it back on to firm ground. He was also lucky he was on a car tire. If he had been on a normal motorbike tire which curved up the sides he never would have got out, the road tire saved him.
We made it to Norseman!, we had officially crossed the Nullarbor!
The Railway hotel
Parking behind the Railway hotel
The night we stayed at Norseman there was a massive storm. We could feel it building in the evening and we were hearing weather warnings from the TV and from locals. It hit about 230 in the morning and was so powerful it woke everyone up. We were very happy we had parked the bikes in behind the little red wall you can see in the photo, as they were well protected from what turned out to be 120 km winds.
Built in the 20's the hotel is full of Art Deco
The horse that discovered the gold nugget that gave Norseman its name and reason for existing
Norseman got its first beer delivery about 1870 and its first water in 1950, I like a town with its priorities straight!
Stunning views from the mine tailing hill above the gold mine
A Beemer, a 9 and Camels!
...unfortunately the only Camels we actually saw
Big respect brother we had a great time!
We had to stop at Widgiemooltha for no other reason than to take a photo of the dunnie!
Leeane wondering what the fuck we are doing here!
After fighting some nasty gusty winds and some more of the long, straight fucking roads we made it to Kalgoorlie with the prospect of 2 nights off the bikes!. We were all very happy to stay away from two wheels for a while
Kalgoorlie
