Border Run 2015

nev

Super Térrarist
Back in the 70s, the Border Run started as an unofficial rally with little or no organisation where riders from both sides of the continent meet at the SA-WA border pub on the first saturday in August. Back in 2010, I left Melbourne with the intention of riding to the Border Run, but by the time I was halfway there it was apparent that my tyre wouldn't last the entire trip and I turned around at Kimba, which was about 60% of the way there.

This year I decided to give it another crack. I had taken a week's leave from work, giving me time to make it a bit of a leisurely journey (although your definition of leisurely may differ). Although it is generally regarded as a BMW event, the FarRiders have it on their calendar too, and these days more than 50% of the attendees are from the FarRiders forum. One of the very few "rules" of FarRiders is that to be given credit for the FarRide, you must ride at least 1000km during 24 hours at some time on your way to or from a FarRide meetup.

Having just bought the Super Tenere, and running it on on the Openroad Tourers Frosty Frolic ride two weekends before, the bike had it's 1000km service after that ride and I had spent some time preparing it for this ride (which means electrical work wiring up odds and ends that I want). The SuperTen comes with a GPS mount, but it's inconveniently located, so I mounted a crossbar on the bike and mounted the GPS on that. Also my autocom was wedged under the pillion seat, wired to the battery, and the bluetooth module on that wired in as well. As well, I only just completed mounting and wiring an LED light bar on the bike the day before I took off.

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My alarm was set and I was all ready for a 5:30am start. As usual I woke up early and couldn't get back to sleep so I was on the road at 5:15 Thursday morning. I just headed up the Calder Hwy to Mildura, out to Renmark and then north to Terowie. It was only 950km so I had to do a bit of a loop out of my way out to Spalding and Jamestown then a couple of laps around the town of Terowie to make the GPS measurement click over 1000km for the day.

I was near Inglewood when the sun rose.

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A cairn near Sea Lake marks the spot where a dog fence was erected which runs 145 km from Tyntynder on the Murray, north of Swan Hill, to the SA border in 1885

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On the SA side of the Murray I stopped at one of the locks

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The pelicans would watch the water coming over the spillways, and when they spotted a fish falling down they'd swoop in and get their lunch. In the few minutes I was here I spotted 2 pelicans going in for a catch.

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Almost every time I have travelled through this area I have seen crazy cloud formations like this

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There's a lot going on in Terowie. First there's the petrol station with a couple of motel rooms.

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and then there... a petrol station with a couple of motel rooms. That's about it. The rest of the town is pretty sad and dead.

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There's an old mechanics yard which is still filled with post WW2 era cars for parts and wrecking.

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The railway station has seen better days. In the 1890s this was a booming place, where 150 people worked on the railway yards alone. Today the population of the town is barely that. Different railway gauges used to run north and south out of here.

If you know your WWII history, you'll know that after the Japanese invaded the Philippines, General Macarthur and his family escaped and headed south to Australia where he assumed command of all allied forces in the Pacific. He gave a famous speech to the press at the time now known as the "I shall return" speech, where he promised that he would return to liberate the Philippines, and the 90,000 American and Filipino troops who remained there. This is the railway platform on which he stood when he gave this speech. The stone marker here commemorates the occasion.

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Some of the buildings of Terowie

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Even this old pub which looks like it was only recently retired as a hotel is now a private residence. There is no pub in town. The nearest pub is now 10km down the road.

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nev

Super Térrarist
Friday morning was foggy for a while

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On the homepage of the FarRiders website, there is a photo which Davo Jones (FarRiders' founder) took when he stopped on his way through Horrocks pass). It was a place that he particularly liked. After posting the photo on the forum, he challenged other forum members to replicate the photo when they were in the area. After his death after hitting a deer in USA, some of the FarRiders commissioned a plaque in his memory which was set in concrete a few metres off the road at the place where he took that photo. It is now customary for any FarRiders in the area to stop here and take a photo whenever in the area.

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Out past Port Augusta the scenery changes
from this
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to this
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Got to Kimba with plenty of meat on the tyre :)

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Australian Farmer memorial in Wudinna

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and some Sturt Desert Peas growing on the side of the road

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Arrived in Ceduna that afternoon. It’s halfway between Port Augusta and the WA border. I stopped here for the night.

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nev

Super Térrarist
Saturday morning 6:30am I was on the road again. Not a lot to stop for on this road. I didn’t see any of the real things.

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more of this

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The start of the RFDS runway on the Hwy. Between Ceduna and Norseman there are several sections of road which are signposted as being emergency runways.

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View from one of the lookouts over the Great Australian Bight. Although it wasn’t raining, it was a pretty miserable day. On some sections the cloud was down to about 20 metres off the road.

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It started raining about 20km before I got to the WA border. Just light drizzle. Nothing too bad. There’s a quarantine checkpoint here where all vehicles travelling west are pretty thoroughly searched for fruit and vegetables. The South Australians also have a quarantine checkpoint, but it’s 500km back at Ceduna. These are usually a quick affair when you’re on a motorbike. People on motorcycles usually only stop for pies and sausage rolls and don’t eat frut or vegetables. Plenty of people have stopped here for a photo over the years.

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At the border is a petrol station which sells takeaway, has a restaurant area, a couple of pokie machines, and a bar. The petrol station also runs the motel and caravan park. There are 20 odd motel units and some more cabins around the back and some very basic dongas at the back for the cheapskates like me. Practically all of the accommodation available this day was booked by motorcyclists. More were camped in the scrub across the road from the roadhouse.

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After an afternoon of beers, and banter, most people started heading off to bed fairly early.
 

nev

Super Térrarist
This is one place where everyone has a long ride home and like an early start. I was packed and collecting the deposit for the room key at 4:45am and on the road heading back east. It was 200km back to the Nullarbor Roadhouse, the next petrol station, and it didn’t open till 7am, so I set the cruise control on 80kph for the entire distance, arriving a few minutes after 7am.

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The landscape out here is so flat, and the scrub is so low that the lights of the roadhouse were visible from 25km away.

I ate breakfast in Ceduna with a couple of other FarRiders, and then turned off to the south.

Stopped at Streaky Bay for a few mins

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Stopped at this store for a few minutes just to close my eyes and have a power nap. I think I was only here for 10 minutes, but felt much better for the stop.

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In Mt Hope they liked their soldiers memorial hall so much, they built another one right next door.

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I rolled into Port Lincoln around 3pm.

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Stopped here for the night to visit a former work colleague who got his redundancy 18 months ago and used it to buy a fishing and outdoors shop

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nev

Super Térrarist
Next morning I started heading home again. Stopped in Cowell for a few minutes

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These fish on poles are on rotating mounts and change direction with the wind

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The scenery around Whyalla reminded me a lot of southern Wyoming

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I stopped at Horrocks Pass again. I wasn’t the only one here stopped for a photo. Another FarRider from Melbourne was here.

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A monument to mark Goyder’s line. In 1865 Goyder surveyed southern South Australia and drew a line on the map which became known as Goyder’s line. He declared that the land south of this line was suitable for crop growing, but north of it was too arid and not suitable. Although he only spent 2 months gathering the information required to determine where to position the line, in the 150 years since, it has proved remarkably accurate and crop growers to the north who established themselves after periods of good rainfall have invariably gone bust when the weather regressed back to the mean.

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A bit further south in Laura, there is a statue of the poet CJ Dennis. He grew up in this area.

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Most wildlife signs in Australia are to protect motorists from wildlife. This is probably the only sign I have seen anywhere warning of echidnas. I’m not sure if this is for the benefit of the echidnas or the motorists who will have to pull their spines out of their tyres.

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Occasional showers were rolling through but the sun shone in between and the roads were magical

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This section of road was particularly nice. I haven’t ridden these roads before.

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Once I got down to the Hwy I rode about an hour to Keith.
 

nev

Super Térrarist
Tuesday morning was a 500km run straight down the hwy to home.

4425km all up for the 6 days I was on the road.
 

dougman1

Part of the furniture
Fantastic Nev. Some of those old towns are pitiful eh!
Looks like a great trip all the same.
Well done! :clap:
 

dunc

Getting the hang of it
thanks for sharing the pics on the trip
love the older towns but a pity there dying so badly
 
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