Gone, Again... ( Random Adventures in Oz )

wish i had you blokes story telling skills,i do remember the king fish camp(thanks matty)was a pleasant ride from Oodna to there via a short chat with a coupla station dudes ,tony caught me at dalhousie hotspring i think (we were lucky we got do that section twice)great photos greg,keep chiming in with you narrative & pics sundowner its great lots of local knowlege .cheers aub.

Love it

Is Julia Gillard cancelling this thread?

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good stuff mate, now in WA with the boat doing support for Nazza and having a ball. we have done 70 km. in the last week.!!!
hope !!! to be back in lincoln by feb/march next year to go to angorichna together.
then planning on doing the anne beadell hwy. with Aub and "others" with Naz and Ani doing support in the Landy.
I will then get to RIDE......
I have just downloaded the Finke race photos and will add to your RR.....with your permission.???

cheers matty (Ani's boss)

Matty!

Yeah get into it mate... Just don't get ahead of me

Oh and doesn't look like I can get back to this for about a week... Hang in there fellas!

so after such a jovial night,,,, the next morning was a bit slow...



understandably...

anyway... a theory that Aub was leakin a bit of fuel became a reality.... which
meant the Keeps Takin Money 950 was put on blocks and striped down to reveal a fuel leak...

but to be fair,.. it was more of an issue with the aftermarket tank than the Katoom..




anyway...there was a whole lot of chefs in the kitchen so i went for a mosey...

and found...

some real weird hairy trees...



and some bush tomatoes.... not quite ripe.....



moon was still up as everyone had a bit of a laugh at the broken down kato...

('cept the Kato owners of course...)




still... even though it was desolate.... it wasnt a bad place to be...



mind you... this guy figured we were all doomed and would soon be a good feed...:eek1




anyway... he had to go hungry... a bit of silicon on the outlet of Aub's long range
tank seemed to be holding... so we were off into the Simpson Desert National Park...



dunno what you'd do with a chainsaw anyway...
not much out here....


well..... maybe the odd post...





so it was on up to Dalhousie Springs Homestead...



not too hard to believe that this end of the world couldnt sustain life long term



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i'd left King Fish Camp a bit earlier than the other lads, as i knew there was
some spped freaks amongst them... and i would stop and smell the ro... i mean take
some pics here and there......

UncleGra arrived at the ruins just as i was wrapping up...



wasnt far past the ruins and there was a bit of an unexpected step-down....



and then it was on to the glorious Dalhousie Springs!



lordy me... it was great to get into some water after so many dry days....




amazing to come across such a big hot spring out here...

there was maybe 10 or so 4wd's camped nearby.... plenty of birds circling... and a few swiming....

all the lads (except the old desrt dog!) were in... must have liked the smell of his own company....



so after a magically refreshing swim....

it was of out into 'bugger all' again...



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another chapter,well done greg! yes well that night i had smelt fuel near the bike so put it away from the camp abit ,woke up next morning and checked it out......seemed to be missing a bit of fuel?? oh well off with the left side tank to find the problem was the second hand fuel tap gasket i used had let go,any way no biggie sundowner,gra and desert dog all had some sort of gasketgoo in their mobile workshops .
With a fair bit of help from sundowner(thanks again dick)we were soon on the way to dalhousie hot spring(where i had to borrow some shorts from gra) a nice refreshing dip does wonders after a few to many at king fish camp,theres little fish in there that nibble on ya :eek1:eek1
i think matty had a beer that morning(for breaky)

Just popped in...almost forgot about this RR....Nice work Glen...this was a fabulous ride with the "A"crew....

Uncle Graham is old... he forgets lots of stuff... like peoples names!

Hi Gra! :fyyff

hope your well...

cheers
Greg.


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so after a refreshing dip, it was out again into the bugger-all-ness of central Australia...




and when you did come across something... you stopped... and took a photo... and had lunch...




anyway, from Dalhousie Springs we were headed on to Mt Dare.... Sundowner was keen for some Canoodling...



the last 20 kms saw us back onto a 'minor' track (from nothingness) and as much as it
was an 'upgrade' on maps, the track was actually shitter...:eek1


anyway... thru deep sand, riverbeds full of rocks and rutted out tracks we ploughed...
and arrived at Mt Dare...



so we spent a good coulple of hours at Mt Dare...

mind you it took probably close to an hour for everyone to arive...

then there was re-fueling...

then there was eating...

then there was beer-ing...

then there was planing...

then there was.... all sorts of stuff..

in the end, i think a mini rebelion had to occur to get the show back on the road/track...

it was getting on, and we just had to go...:ddog

we headed off, leaving sundowner behind...

there was a bit of confusion as to where the track went from the homestead... and before long, Aub and Tony up ahead took a right hand turn...

the Landy with Matty and Ani inside clicked onto this and before i knew it, off to
my right i had a landy takin a shortcut, cutting the corner....

nothin like a bit of extra motivation to squeeze the trigger a bit harder...

cant remember who beat who... but since i'm typing this....

Matty gunned it cross country... but i saw him go and rolled the throttle..

he never stood a chance... and i got around the 90 degree right hander and along the straight ..

leaving him to pop out onto the track...still behind...

anyway the track was real nice... it got a bit scrubby and fairly twisty..

i new we were gonna cross the South Australian / Northern Territory border.. and figured i'd stop get a pick of the sign...

but it just flew past...

was a shame...but we were hookin along nicely...

then a gate... on dusk..

and then a camp....




Aub's tank looked like it was now holding...



those with a keen eye might have noticed in the camp photo 2 pics back... only 5 bikes....

there was a theory as to why Sundowner was late leaving...and what her name was...


but he arrived...

well after UncleGra had done his washing...



and after i'd headed back out to the track to point him in...








anyway... the plan was for Matty to stock up on ice and Mt Dare... hmmm.. was really the only thing he had to
do all day... we didnt even make him go for a swim... even though it seemed like he needed it more than the rest of us...:huh

so anyway... no ice...

oddly enough... Sundowner volunteerd real quick to gun it the 30 odd kms back to Mt Dare in the dark to get some...



i went opened the gate..



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and he was gone...



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and i headed back down the sandy track to camp....



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where the important stuff took place..

like getting some extra firewood...




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many beers were had... and lots of wondering as to what Sundowner was upto...

the sun set..

it got dark..

we began to figure we'd not be seeing the big fella till the morning...

and then the the faint roar of the 750 could be hear...

shit he's not goin easy on the old girl in the dark was all we could say...
i legging it back out to the gate, just making it in time to get the gate open...




she must have fallen off.... oh well she missed out on a great end to another great day...



and another kick-ass camp...

Matty, what you cook tonight, i forget... it was bloody good but!





with many more beers etc to be had before bed...




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yep mt dare,got there with bugga all fuel in the tank (leaked a bit out:eek1)filled up and it took 50litres?? a few beers at the pub and off up the binns track to camp near the nt/sa border and help unc with his washingmore beers here i think .that track was a blast ,i missed the sign as well greg(musta been all the dust).

I might reserve this post for a GoPro video of the run back to the pub for ice on the howling old Super Tenere....once I actually sort the video.

hey merry xmas dude.

come-on Sundowner... get your shit together.... that ride was over 6 months ago...you should be sorted by now!






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next day was another beauty...

that Sundowners Taj-Mahal...



breakfast done, camp packed and it was back out onto Binns track... the plan was to head up
to Old Andado homestead for a look then back over to Finke to make camp out on the track for the race tomorrow..



the first bit of track from camp was a fairly sandy encounter... with a sharp left hander at the end of a
particularly sandy stretch... Sundowner was up the front, and waited for us to all get thru..

i think from memory Unclegra was the only one who took the scenic route at the bend....

the track then headed off into dune country... but largely ran parallel with the dunes...

Uncle Gra coning past as i stopped to shake some life back into a carpel tunneled hand...



more sand...
note the tyre track!



UncleGra stops for a chat to an old mate...



another re-group stop...



and hitting the Finke-Old Andado road...





the road was a bit 'better'... and it started to cross a few of the dunes...



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Old Andado in the distance....




the final dune before the homestead...




we all regrouped at Old andado for lunch... Sandwiches under the
Marquee i believe....

and a bit of a look around the old homestead...

The old lady who used to live here (Molly) only recently moved into a nursing home in Alice Springs...

The place has been left as a bit of a living museum of how things were out here...



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the bikes waiting for lunch..



so after lunch ther was about 25kms of back-tracking...



before a final run in to Finke...



which was thru the odd gate...



and thru the odd dry river-bed..




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if you look closely, in front of the tree, coming in from the left... is a bicycle track....



and then we hit Finke... like all Aboriginal communities, photos are frowned upon....

so not many of them.... this is the petrol bowser...



there was plenty of activity in Finke... and it was the 'turn around' point, and overnight stop
for the desert race... lots of bikes and 4wd's coming thru..

and the odd local trying to sell camping in their front yards..

anyway, we fuelled up and headed out the race track a few kms... just over the Finke river...

and set camp a few hundred metres off the track to avoid a bit of dust..



it wasnt long before the sun set on another magic day.....



and the usual fire, feed n beers ...

oh and Ani collecting us lots of firewood....




it was a big night... we'd made it... and the anticipation of what was to happen tomorrow was up there...

but, after a big night (hell we were here now... nowhere to go tomorrow!) it seemed like no one had any trouble sleeping...

(oh except for the generator at 'next doors' camp....... ):eek1

next morning was race day....

...

i woke up the next morning to the sound of chatter...

at first i thought it was my teeth...

but on poking my head out the tent i saw a few of the lads were up and had the billy on...



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so i climbed out of bed and stumbled about the campsite ...




and then, just on sunrise headed over to the fire for a cuppa...and some warmth.... bloody cold out here!




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the 950 enjoying the sunrise...



the 800 being frosty.....



morning color...



and UncleGra's setup.... shhhhhhh... he's still asleep...




so we wased up after tea last night... but didnt dry up, or put away....

did i mention it was cold out here!!




anyway, the fire and cups of coffee kept us warm for a few hours round the fire...



then the time was getting close...

we moseyed out to the track with some beers.... and it wasnt long before the
light buzz that could have been shrugged of as a bee or a wasp or some other insect...got louder and louder...

and then it became a roar...

and then the dust was visible on the horizon..

and then it was on!!




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Happy New Year, lads. Hope we get to ride together again soon.

But I'm not young enough to work it out myself. I'll get there, eventually. Bought a new laptop recently - yet to transfer the raw GoPro video files. Had a go at editing the video ages ago on my touring netbook and gave up - N.F. Idea what I'm meant to do. Netbook didn't respond to swearing so I gave up.

you think you got problems...:eek1

my next 650-odd photos wont open.....


something like a corupt header record...

gotta find me a hex-editor me thinks...

might be a slight delay on the next post... nothin new there i guess...

on a positive note... the corruption is only on race photos... the first 4 race photos are ok,,, and so are the last 4... everything in-between.... poopy...

bear with me... oh and hints on a decent free hex editor welcome


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oh and hey.... Happy New year!!..

heres to some good , safe ridin in 2013...

i know i've got a few plans for a few goosd rides in the new year... heres to you gettin out there too !

thanks for watchin!


GA.


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Have a safe new year all youse blokes...I have a short vid of Toby Price coming in at the end of day 1...I dont know how to post it..sumbody who knows how send me ya email and I'll send it to ya.....

I've just found this report. It is fantastic, although I'm only up to page 10. You've got some great riding out there. I've got a suggestion. You should have some 'Gone Again' stickers made up. I think you'd sell a bunch. Thanks again for your continuing report.