Around Australia with 8yo son

John_Johnny

Long Timer

Binnu between Geraldton and Monkey Mia


Binnu cops showing Trev the handcuffs.

After our speeding fine on the Nullabor I've been sticking to the limit, but I've got a new technique. I start the day at 100kph and wait until a car passes then sit in behind. Then sooner or later another car passes and I sit in behind that one. Doesn't take long to get up to 130 and I figure the car in front is going to get nabbed before me. No, we didn't get booked, the cops in the photo liked the bike and took the photo, then I took a photo of them. As mentioned in my previous post, the bike is handling well now after Trevor stopped leaning back.
We stayed in a very old hotel in Geraldton with cast iron beds and wire bases, pitcher of water for hand washing and pot under the bed. It was pretty neat really! The West coast is nothing like I expected. I thought the desert finished at Kalgoorlie and we were headed for palm trees, sun surf and sand. Well the sand is abundant! Geraldton was more like Hay or Dubbo when I was thinking Merimbula or Maroochydore. Next stop is Monkey Mia. The locals tell me there's dolphins there.
 

John_Johnny

Long Timer

Trevor talking to the dolphins at Monkey Mia.



We setup our little dome tent at Monkey Mia and Trevor immediately found some friends from Germany. I think the boy's name was Matthius. They were a lovely family staying in one of the luxury beach houses. All the kids had to line up on the beach hoping to be selected by the ranger for the dolphin feeding. Amongst the cacophony of "Me me me!" Trev was delighted to be chosen and got to touch one of these beautiful creatures. Later on the beach I noticed a hippy type girl offering massages, tarot card reading and all types of herbs, balms and exotic fragrances. Her name was Sally and she was known as the woman who lives in a tree. And indeed she did! There was a huge tree near the beach with limbs hanging down to the ground. You couldn't see inside without leaning in and looking through the branches, but it was full of furniture, oven/stove, couch and chairs. Delightful!
The German family invited us to their beach house for prawns and lobster. On the way back to our tent at bedtime I saw most of the other beach houses were empty and unlocked so I borrowed a couple of pillows. We were planning to only stay one night before pushing on to Carnarvon, but the German family are going to another luxury resort nearby in Nanga and they said we should tag along. OK. Fine by me, the lobster was free! :)
 

Williamson

Part of the furniture
.... a hippy type girl offering massages .... and all types of herbs, balms and exotic fragrances. Her name was Sally ..... limbs hanging down to the ground.... Delightful!

Mmmmmm ....... a very steep learning curve for Trevor, I think we need to hear the young fella's version of this part of the story.

What next, introducing Trevor to cigarettes, cigars? A joint?? Some of those pics Rex was talking about at today's lunch??? (Ya know, the ones in the Bambi-on-Bike file.)

.... prawns and lobster .... the lobster was free! :)

Free pillows, free prawns and lobster! Can it get any better?
 

John_Johnny

Long Timer

Nanga Bay Resort


Denham. The most Westerly town in Australia

Packed up the tent and loaded the bike for the upteenth time. Today we are going to follow the Germans to the Nanga Bay Resort. Trevor went in the car and I gave his little friend a ride on the bike. We stopped for petrol at Denham which is as far west as you can get. As our big adventure progresses we are planning on going through Byron Bay which is the most Easterly point so it certainly feels isolated here and a long long way from home. I have mixed feelings. I feel a bit lonely and vulnerable, I miss my wife and family but it's exhilarating looking out to sea and thinking that this is land's end. It's also somewhat comforting to have another family to talk to. They checked in to their luxury villa while Johnny and I set up our tent. The ground was just rocks. You can see our tent on the stoney ground in the photo above. I managed to get a few pegs in...just. Fortunately our little dome tent stays up without them but unfortunately our blowup mattress has a slow leak. I woke up at 3am on a flat mattress and the rocks were most uncomfortable. At first light I pumped it up again with the air compressor (it plugs into the cigarette lighter...who would have thought of a cigarette lighter on a motorbike!), and we jumped in the pool with the matress looking for air bubbles. There were a few, but not from the mattress! :D Oh well, time to load the bike again and head off to Carnarvon. The Germans are staying another week before driving their rented Range Rover back to Perth and flying to Noosa for a couple of weeks.
 

John_Johnny

Long Timer

Port Headland

We stayed in our tent at the Star Trek caravan park in Carnarvon. Had a quick look around and bought a couple of salad rolls at the bakery then spent the evening staring at the stars. Chatted to a lot of backpacker type banana pickers before a good night's sleep then headed off for Port Headland at first light. As we were approaching Port Headland in the hot dry desert, there was a long long train approaching in the distance. The lights weren't flashing yet, but I stopped anyway because I just love trains and this one had several locos and so many goods cars, they disappeared over the horizon. Sitting in the sand beside the bike listening to the click clack of all those iron ore laden carriages was fun....for the first 15 minutes but it went on for over half and hour as there were hundreds of them and the procession was slowing. Then the awful truth dawned on me. We were on the South side of the tracks and we weren't going anywhere until the train passed. And now it stopped!!!
Bugger. I think we sat there for over an hour! Lucky I carry a bottle of soda water in the pannier. I think there was a bag of twisties in there as well.
Finally we got to Port Headland and checked into a cabin on the port. We sat and watched the conveyor belts loading the ore onto ships, walked around town, but there wasn't much there, so we went to bed and tried to sleep over the incessant noise. In the morning I mentioned the noise and the owner told me that's why everyone lives in South Headland. As we departed for Broome, I rode over to South Headland and discovered a whole city with shopping malls, cinemas, pubs etc. Doh!
I've heard Broome has pearl diving so I hope to find some and send them home to my beautiful wife. I'll let you know how we go.
 

Williamson

Part of the furniture
..... it went on for over half and hour as there were hundreds of them and the procession was slowing. Then the awful truth dawned on me. We were on the South side of the tracks and we weren't going anywhere until the train passed. And now it stopped!!!
Bugger. I think we sat there for over an hour!

Note to self, and others: In Oz outback, cross the track and then view the train.
 

John_Johnny

Long Timer


It's really heating up with all this desert riding. We came across this bloke on a K series BMW somewhere between Sandfire roadhouse and Broome.. He was stuck at a small parking area wondering if he should continue on with little fuel. It's a long way between refueling points up here. I knew I was good for at least 500k so I slung him a litre. He sucked it out of my bike into my empty soda water bottle with a bit of hose he had scrounged. He had come from Perth and his K series was getting hot, running rough and struggled to cover large distances between fuel stops, whereas my R series was purring along and even after 4 hours non stop hard riding I could still put my bare hand on the rocker cover. My love affair with this beautifully crafted piece of German engineering seems to be well founded.
 

twowheeler

two wheels are best
It's really heating up with all this desert riding. We came across this bloke on a K series BMW somewhere between Sandfire roadhouse and Broome.. He had come from Perth and his K series was getting hot, running rough . . . . .

Not much has changed there then. I've learned the hard way to not attempt peak-hour CBD commuting on the K13R if the temp is anywhere north of about 28deg, as it heats up & signs off :mad: .
 

nev

Super Térrarist
They tore down the Berlin wall, but that wall between the K and R riders stands just as tall and solid as ever !


It's a great ride report John. Keep it coming.
 
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