Day Three 26th Aug 2007:
Sunday, I leave Coolgardie at 6:50 am which is 10mins early, it’s still quite dark. I have had people say ‘aren’t you worried about roos in the dark?’ I say I am more worried about idiots running red lights and roundabouts plus a myriad of other dumb things car drivers do in built up areas. I am safer out here.
7:30am - Notes say ‘getting cold but sun will be up soon’ I really want the sun to come up NOW!
I also have problems with range on my mobile phone aerial, need to have my bigger one on not this short temporary one.
I have arranged to meet some of my GTR-AUS members at Merredin, they only have a bit of an idea of what I am doing so they may be surprised. Two 1400GTR's are there and a GTR1000 with two of the guys carrying their wives pillion, so a nice greeting at the servo. Pictures taken and a 20 min chat then off towards where we split at Northam.
Dianne phoned my wife to say ‘Davo looked relaxed and fresh when we saw him’. This may not have been what my wife would say as she gets to deal with my moods as I ride. 2 am phone calls are not recommend for happy family life. But she is the only one I talk to while doing these rides, I doubt I could do it without her.
Just coming near Northam it starts to rain, it’s very overcast and I pull under a bridge to get gear on. I am on my own again after a hour or so with the others, it’s cold, rainy and miserable but a great section of road up through Toodyay. I have been up through here before in the dry, last year, and I loved the road then as well. Beautiful countryside and reasonably good roads. I continue north.
1:50 pm and I am at Moora, its been raining since about 11 am. I have my GPS in a different location and I can't easily see it, plus its not connected to my coms gear so I get no voice directions. I take the wrong road.
4 pm and I am at Mingenew, I have ridden the whole way in rain on the wrong road. I knew this early on but decided it would take more time to backtrack. It’s not a big mistake, in fact its a better ride through the smaller villages than the run up the west coast. But it’s the hardest day I have on the trip. I feel I am getting nowhere and it’s wet and miserable. I am a bit down today.
A policeman waves me over at one small town, he comes over and I say ‘I was doing 80 that’s the limit, right?’. He says yes but I didn't slow down quite at the sign. But not to worry, it’s fine, just take it easy. We talk about the bike for a few minutes, he seems impressed. I ask him if he wants to move over to the east coast as we don't often get friendly police like him. He smiles.
Fuel at Dongara (pronounced the locals say as Dongra) and carry on to Geraldton where at 5:30 pm I take a picture looking over the water. The weather is still cold and miserable. North then to Overlander Roadhouse where at 8 pm I get my last fuel for this leg.
9:30pm, and I arrive at the end of leg one. I have made it to Denham and feel okay. I have looked after my body and hands this trip and feel great. The town is shut up for the night though, so no dinner tonight. I feel fine but just want to be off the bike for now.
I really had a bad day mentally today, I felt like I was getting nowhere as I mentioned.
The rain, cold and being one and a half hours behind schedule messed with my head a bit. I had been warned about roos on the ride into Denham but as usual with warnings like this I saw none at all. I would still rather people pass along information, but it’s often months or years out of date. The situation with roos can change from one week to the next.
Day Four 27th Aug 2007:
Monday 27th August, and after a good solid sleep of 5 hours I am rolling out of bed for the return trip. I feel good and have no problems getting geared up for the trek. It’s cool but not cold and it’s not raining today, which is good news.
4:50am and I head off while the campers sleep. It’s quite full here and I think most of them come either because its the most westerly point or for the fishing. I made a comment to my wife later about this part, ‘great to be on the road so early, there is a full moon at 2 o'clock and it’s good out here just the bike and I’.
No sign of roos again as I do the 129 km back to Overlander Roadhouse and arrive at 6 am. Hmm, they are supposed to be open at 5 am… But that’s 5 am WA time… and it’s now 4 am WA time! I goofed.
On the evening of the 26th I had fueled up at Overlander Road House for the 129 km into Denham. I do all my planning in MY time, AEST, and now I made an error. They were closed. I could not afford to lose an hour, so pushed on as I had by backup 5 litres in a pannier.
At 397 km I ran out completely, I put the 5 litres in and with a steady throttle at 100 km/h did 97 km on that. I rode into the Northhampton servo where I put 22.47 litres into a 22 litre tank… The bike CAN do good distance it you need it to and have a steady hand.
The plan was to get to Sun City Kawasaki in Geraldton at 7am their time (9 am mine), but because of the need to squeeze distance from the tank I am 20minutes late. No big deal. These guys were great and did a double tyre change in 40 minutes as well as feeding me and giving me a cuppa tea. Top marks, and a heart-felt thank you. I am feeling great, I don't think they quite believed that I had ridden so far. I was rather pumped and raring to go. I said to my wife just after I got going again ‘I almost feel too good!’
Steady run down the west coast this time and looking across to my left I see the rain filled hills where I rode yesterday. The low clouds are sitting along the ridge and I can see why I was in rain most of yesterday. But on reflection it was a pretty ride.
Bit drizzly down lower towards Perth and I take the turn to Northam via Toodyay. Very picturesque through here. A brief stop at Toodyay to confirm I went this way for the Iron Butt certification. You must show a track of where you went by getting a computer docket, time and date stamped. I use ATMs, checking my account balance!
At 4:35pm I called my wife to jot this down as I had been thinking about it a while.
Day 1 = Good.
Day 2 = Head messed up a bit.
Day 3 = Not good, rain and getting-nowhere feeling.
Day 4 = Great day, can go forever now.
I am running about an hour late but tell my wife I am getting to the ‘make up time area’. West of Northam heading towards Coolgardie and beyond is open country with few bends and 110 km/h limits until Cobar in NSW. I have thousands of km to relax now.
7:05 pm I leave Coolgardie to end day 4 at Norseman, just after 8:30 pm. It’s an easy day tomorrow, just a run across the bottom of Australia then duck up to Port Augusta.
I get a proper feed here at Norseman of schnitzel and chips with some salad. I have lost a bit more weight but have been keeping my fluids up. So far no upset tummy and feeling good overall. Into bed about 10ish for a 5 am departure which will be in the dark yet again. I seem to be arriving and leaving in the dark every day of this ride and it will continue.
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