Nev's Border Run 2010

nev

Super Térrarist
The Border Run, a meeting at the SA/WA border village has been held in August for the past 33 years. I decided that this year was going to be the year I would do it. Almost 2000km on the nose from Melbourne, and 2000km back. I booked time off work, enough for a 5 day weekend and planned an early start on the Friday morning. Bike all prepped and a route planned. I'd have a bash at an Iron Butt 1600km/24hrs ride on the way over if the weather was good and I felt good. Just over 1600km from Melbourne to Penong, that'd leave an easy 400km to the border on Saturday, and split the return trip across two days.

Ok so that was the plan. My plans changed about sunset on Day 1, halfway between Pt Augusta and Kimba. I had a "WTF am i doing out here" moment and by the time I reached Kimba I had made up my mind. Refueled, had a sandwich and rang Jo to tell her I was turning around and I'd be home tomorrow. Arrived back home Saturday afternoon. Here's a brief ride report..

Left home just before 4:30am Friday,
had to wait about 15mins for the Wycheproof petrol station to open at 7:30, then ran out of fuel about 10km short of Pinnaroo .. fortunately for me I was carrying 5 litres of premium in my pannier.


The pub in Murrayville

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Some pumpkins for sale near Loxton

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Lagoons which form part of the Murray River

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Orange Groves

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Waiting for the punt across the Murray
at Cadell

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nev

Super Térrarist
A unique tree


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odd cloud formations

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A missile in Wilmington

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The road out of Horrock's Pass

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The geographical Halfway mark across Australia ! Kimba

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The photos stop here because it got dark. Was dark when I left Kimba and almost collected a roo within 20km of town. Fortunately that was the first and last bit of wildlife I saw in the dark.

Headed back up to Pt Augusta then down the other side of Spencer gulf to Adelaide. Rolled into the northern suburbs just after 11pm having achieved my goal of 1000 miles for the day. I rode through Adelaide and out the other side on the Freeway to Melbourne. I actually didn't feel tired. I was quite alert and felt I could have gone on, but figured that the further I went without sleeping, the more difficult it would be to sleep, or to find somewhere quiet and dark enough to sleep
.
Just on midnight I stopped at a truck stop on the side of the freeway at Mt Barker. The GPS showed 1739km for the day.



Rolled out the new swag and hopped inside, boots and all. Despite the cold and the noise of trucks on the freeway which was only about 20 metres away I slept pretty much immediately and solidly through the night.

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Not long after 6am some kookaburras signalled my wakeup. After packing my bed and plugging a few numbers into the GPS I was on my way again. The GPS showed 7am, and 699km to home.

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There are no photos from Saturday because I only stopped the bike 4 times, for fuel or food. The rest of the day I kept motoring towards home, though not by the most direct route. Turned off the freeway and headed back up to Pinnaroo, Ouyen, refuelled in SeaLake, a quick break in Wycheproof for a snack and to let Jo know I'd be home around 4pm. Followed the Calder to Bendigo, then into town there and out the other side on the Northern Hwy, detour again past the Puckapunyal army base, more fuel in Seymour, and straight down the Hume to home. At about 5 minutes to 4 I was refueling at the servo where i'd started on friday morning, and by 4pm I was home and unloading the bike.

My goals for the weekend were not met as planned, but new goals set enroute were. I hadn't made the Border by Saturday night for a beer with the other riders heading there, but I had on the friday collected enough fuel dockets to document my 1684km within 24 hours to send off to the Iron Butt Association in USA for certification of my ride known as the Saddle Sore 1600 (SS1600K for short). Additionally, I had collected all the receipts I'd need to send off for certification of another Iron Butt Ride, the "Bun Burner 2500" (BB2500K) for riding 2500km in less than 36 hours (my GPS measured 2563km).

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Hytram

<-- now went that way
Congrats on the SS1600K and BB2500K...

nice little RR too

now the important stuff, what sort of Swag is that, how much and where did you get it?

recommend it?
 

Christo

Tractor Pilot
Good one Nev, I hope the IBA, get yer stuff sorted and certified nice and quick, looks like an absolute monster of a ride!

Next year for the Border Run?
 

nev

Super Térrarist
now the important stuff, what sort of Swag is that, how much and where did you get it?

You've gotta pay more attention to your own forum! Farawayman was selling a couple a few weeks ago on behalf of his work (stock that wasn't moving I think.., i never did ask). It's a "BushSkins" brand "Tregger Swag" made from 15oz Canvas and with a PVC base. I'm not sure what the pros and cons of a pvc vs canvas base are... I'm guessing it's just a cost saving exercise? I think retail is about $175 but Dave's price was $125 which is about the price of a motel room so it's paid for itself in one night, but probably owes me a bit of petrol money for all the air it was interfering. I ran out of petrol between Wycheproof and Pinnaroo, which is only 289km, although I guess running 10% faster than usual on 110kph roads I should expect to reduce my range by 10% so I probably hadn't factored that in well. And just for the record the 22litre tank on the Vstrom is probably closer to 21.5 litres... after putting a few litres in the tank from my can, then riding 10km to the petrol station, when I filled the tank and the can I still only managed to get 21.8 litres till it was overflowing, and I expect I would have used about half a litre riding those 10km.

recommend it?

Well I guess I could recommend it because it kept me off the asphalt and I really did sleep well despite the conditions.. but then I was probably so exhausted I would have slept just as well if I'd been lying on the road, I must have been pretty exhausted. I had a good sleeping bag in the swag but because I kept all my gear on, only took my helmet and gloves off, the sleeping bag couldn't really work because it wasn't getting any warmth from me. I did feel pretty cold in it when I woke up, but then i realised I'd just pulled the cover over and hadn't done the zip for the inner fly up, so if I'd faced the other way I'd have seen that there was a clear view of the road, and that was the direction any wind was blowing from too I think.
 

nev

Super Térrarist
Good one Nev, I hope the IBA, get yer stuff sorted and certified nice and quick, looks like an absolute monster of a ride!

Next year for the Border Run?

Yeah, next year I think I'll allocate 6 days rather than 4, and drag Jo along with me, and get new tyres on the bike before I leave, and...
 
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