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

[GoneAgain]

so friday morning it was up early (ish), breakie, pack and back out onto the trail...



i was surprised by how nice the riding was out here...



smoko was up at Tipperary Hut...



then 'somehow' made our way around to Morgan Vale homestead...




ran into these guys there, who were on their way to Blinman for a Land Rover Jamboree...



Had a fair chat with them (and a great cuppa coffee and muffin ) before they headed off...

Phil and i had a look around..



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btw ...that sign.... bit missleading... but still...dont go in there... dead kangaroo and it sure smells funky!
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Phil was tempted to drive the rest of the way....




anyway, soon enough it was time to head off..




did i mention it was pretty dry out here?





anyway, off we went...heading out of the conservation park and heading north West for Yunta....







only 140 more KM's of high speed dirt to yunta...



another smoko break..



then time to fang it again...




quick stop to tie the jerry can back on again




soon Yunta was in view...




So we pulled into Yunta and filled up on fuel and Gatorade... and then this shiney new lady rolled in....



Ah the people you meet on odd places...

anyway, after a bit of a chat HumanOne was off again...



bloody hell that thing moved goin out of the servo.... lucky there wern't any cops in the main street

anywho, we'd sat around long enough and was time for us to head out and north..

300 km of open dirt to Arkaroola...



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country was opening up again..




past some ruins and decided we'd stop at the next tree for a late lunch...

of course then all the trees disapeared...

but we finally came across one and pulled off for lunch..




unfortunately every Fly in South Australia had the same idea and decided to join us....

so it was a quick lunch and back out on the road...




brought a little camera with me too so i could have a go at takin some pics while riding...



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out first signs of wildlife for the day




smoko for the arvo was at an empty road works camp...




but we still had about 100km to go to Arkaroola, and it was about 6pm... so we figured they 'may' be open till 7pm and if we 'hurried' we should be able to get there in an hour and get fuel and beer before heading out to camp...

the shadows were getting long..



we were soon edging into the hills... and it was getting darker...



we rode on, it was dark for the last 40 odd kms, which was a lot windier that the rest of the road up...and had lots of floodways which were great to speed thru..

the thought of getting a cold beer before 7pm kept us going....

we soon made Arkaroola, just on 7pm...

unfortunately the fuel shop shut at 5pm

but the restaurant/bar was still open

unfortunately it was "Good Friday" and so they were not allowed to sell take-aways, or have the bar open.. only way to get a beer was to eat in at their $30 per head buffet

we winged and (almost) cried..

and got chatting to just about anyone who walked by and eventually hit up one guy who was staying in the motel with the idea of buying a six pack off him

we followed him upto the motel, where his mates came out and gave us a beer each.. which was mid-strength and warm .. we had a chat, finished our beer, didnt bother about purchasing any warm mid strength beer off them, thanked them for their hospitality and headed off in the dark to find camp......


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[TerryK]

Good report, keep it coming

On another note I see your mate has a R Jays Dakar helmet, how does he find it. ? I have one & find it very noisy above 70kph

Cheers Terry

[Philmeup]

Originally Posted by TerryK

Good report, keep it coming

On another note I see your mate has a R Jays Dakar helmet, how does he find it. ? I have one & find it very noisy above 70kph

Cheers Terry

yeah it is, ear plugs the only solution. I tried no visor and goggles this trip, it's not any noisier just different. But it is cooler and in the dusty stuff easy too clean while riding. For the price $199 can't really complain.

[TerryK]

Originally Posted by Philmeup

yeah it is, ear plugs the only solution. I tried no visor and goggles this trip, it's not any noisier just different. But it is cooler and in the dusty stuff easy too clean while riding. For the price $199 can't really complain.

I can fit my goggles with the helmet but hav'nt bothered as yet, it is good in the rain & that's the main reason I bought it.
I took it up the Flinders the week before last but didn't need it, I guess that was you with "Gone again" outside the Blinman hotel on the Wed morning when we rode past...sorry we did't stop but were on a mission.

[Gravel Seeker]

wow, this is one of the better ones for sure

[GoneAgain]

Originally Posted by TerryK

Good report, keep it coming

On another note I see your mate has a R Jays Dakar helmet, how does he find it. ? I have one & find it very noisy above 70kph

Cheers Terry

Yep, he does.. I've also got one got it the weekend before this trip as my 'old' road style helmet wore thru the lining on my W.A. trip earlier in the year... meant the polystyrene was constantly digin into my forehead... nearly threw that thing so many times.. plus every time i took it of the indent across my forehead looked like a lobotomy scar


anyway, i found the dakar cumfy... but noisier than the road helmet...

also, i was surprised how much water ended up on the inside of the visor

like the peak, but cant for the life of me work out why the 'pull out extension' is clear... should be dark tinted or something...

the outside of the helmet looks good, the inside, if you poke around a bit lacks a bit of 'finishing'... which doesnt really matter...

as Phil said... not a bad helmut for $199.....




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[TerryK]

So GA when you going to finish the RR, Blinman & the PAR etc. ?

[GoneAgain]

Originally Posted by TerryK

So GA when you going to finish the RR, Blinman & the PAR etc. ?

hmmm...

not sure... might have a go now

although Blinman and the PAR are a fair way off yet

plus i've used all my bandwidth for the month so been slowed down...makes it a bit painful...

but i'll have a crack at a bit more now and see how i go.............. (got plenty of beer so doesnt really matter how slow it is..)



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[GoneAgain]

so we headed, slightly disheartened out of Arkaroola village, beerless

it was dark, and we didnt 'really' want to camp in Arkaroola, so we figured we'd hit the National Park and just bush camp... other option was only really Grindells Hut, but didnt want to go that far tonight so ruled that out.....

unfortunately, track running off the 'main road' werent that common... we ended up about 30 kms out of Arkaroola before taking a right into the Gammon Ranges National park...

hmmm... this pic is from a bit earlier (coming into Arkaroola..) but its nice..so you get it here )


(you can see some dust from Phils bike up ahead..)

anyway, back to 'now'....

we turned in, and came across an information bay... checked the map they had...and we were on the road into Grindells hut.. the map (apparently) wasnt to scale, but it looked like about 5kms in to the hut where there was a campground...

anyway, we rode on in the dark...the '4wd track' ended up running along river beds and all sorts of fun things to do in the dark... plus there was an over abundance of 'golden orb spiders' spinning their webs across the tracks....

after surviving the spiders, river beds, dirt tracks etc, and stopping a billion times to ask 'are we there yet', we finally came across the hut about 20 odd kms in

after finding a 'carpark' and deciding it was a shit campground, we decided to just 'go camp somewhere'...and rode 50 metres down the track to discover the proper 'campground'


so we setup in time to watch the moon rise over the hills...




cooked some dinner, took the obligatory "night-time bike shots" ...



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then off to bed...

next morning we were up in time to watch the sun come over the hills too



the view from my tent...




time to pack up camp...



sun hitting the hills around us....



then it was back out on the track to refuel at Arkaroola... my sums had me running out of fuel before we got there... maybe about 20 kms short (since we rode so far extra last night to find camp...) but i had the 5 litre jerry so wasnt worried... although i'd never run out of fuel on this bike before so wasnt really sure how she'd behave....

so it was back on the track...



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then the 'dash' across the grass flats to the 'main road' back to Arkaroola...



so i was leading the dash upto Arkaroola, surprised i was still going... and just starting to think....maybe i'll get there....

then coming thru a floodway, the engine cut out....


i was moving fast enough to roll up/out to a 'safe' spot to stop and refuel... 8kms from Arkaroola.....


so emptied the jerry, and hit the 'start' button...

not so much as a stutter...fired straight away

then on into Arkaroola to fuel up properly......


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[SauS TaR-TaR]

[TerryK]

True adventure riding, top stuff GA

[Philmeup]

Gday all, Philmeup here filling in some gaps before it gets too late.

So i left melbourne wednesday 31st april at 11.30am gunned it up to mildura(merbein) arrived about 7.30pm had a couple of pales and crashed excited for a new rear knobby in the morning. Got my TKC80 nice and early 1st customer 9.00am done by about 10.30 they fitted my front KAROO T as well. wanted some kneepads the shop had sold out, thats alright got plenty of time i'll go to another shop. 4 shops later no kneepads and nearly midday better get a move on got to be in renmark by 1.30.
So off to merbein to drop off my trailwings and 3kms later i'm on my way

this is the old renmark mail route west of merbein.
it was good riding and nice weather i was making good time.

until i got here about 40kms east of renmark.

Dont ask me why i didn't go down the middle i don't know myself.
any how time to press on was getting close to 1.30 and i didnt want to be too late.
Didn't get far about 10 meters maybe.

and my brand new TKC80 was looking a bit bald.

It was about now i received a text from GoneAgain saying he was late so i txt back saying same here have you got a shovel?

i do not have the stand down!

It was a messy job getting out, on my hands and knees digging with my hands, only salt bush twigs around and they weren't working. The clay was so fine you could make a Ming vase with it. But i got out.

Now it was a race to renmark me from the east greg from the west. fling the mud off the tyres stay away from the puddles and go.
I got to the renmark hotel with just enough time to grab a drink and lean against my my bike like i'd been there all day,

[Philmeup]

A few pics in the Dangalli, i love the red dirt the contrast with the green makes for sensory overload.

The sunsets on this ride were outstanding.



This ones cool

She looks sooo sexy from the rear.

Now were in the gamons nth of Arkaroola i think.

Action shot ZOOOOM!!

i'll stop here for now i think i'm getting ahead of greg's story.

[OZZY-GS]

Great ride guys, Enjoying this thread heaps.
Must get out that way for a ride one day.
Keep up the great updates.
Cheers

[GoneAgain]

So there were plenty of people around in Arkaroola.... including 5 guys on bikes with 3 4wd's and camping trailers with them... one of them had a stack coming in in the dark the night before and had spent the night in hospital in Leigh creek getting stitches in his arm (but was otherwise fine).... those 450's are a good lookin piece of kit



so after fueling up etc, we decided to head north on a day run up into the Arkaroola wilderness sanctury.....





great weather, great scennery




not bad company either..



time for morning smoko at a waterhole...



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then back out on the track and continue north...



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pretty bloody amazing countryside out here... quite often riding thru/along dry creek beds...



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next stop the ruins of an old smelter/foundry...



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anyway, the ride was more fun than loading in these photos.... my internet speed is absolute crap at the moment (each photo is taking about 4 mins to copy in...) so i'm gonna call it quits here for the night... hopefully i'll be back tomorrow for some more...thanks for your patience


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