Touring Australia

Follow me as I blog my way around Australia.

The motorcycle leg of this journey started in Darwin. I had the bike trucked there and flew to meet it from Sydney. I rode solo through The Kimberley, The Pilbara, Shark Bay, Monkey Mia, Kalbarri, New Norcia, Perth, Fremantle, Margaret River, Esperance, The Nullarbor Plain and back to Sydney via the Adelaide Region and The Great Ocean Road.

As you might imagine the whole trip was an incredible experience .... I'm ready to do it again!

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Wednesday, August 12, 2009
The bike... a BMW K1200Rs was crated up yesterday by BMW in Wollongong and is on the truck as we speak heading to Darwin!

I'll fly to Darwin to meet it on 21 August, take it out of the crate and ride off. First leg of the Journey is Darwin to Katherine only about 325 KLM's.

I'll no doubt need to acclimatise during this leg after spending the last few months in the cold of the Southern Highlands... the temp in Darwin today was 31C. the temp in Bowral today was 12C but it felt much colder!!

Last year I trucked the bike and flew to Darwin and shot straight down from Darwin to Adelaide after a few weeks in the Kimberley. I made the mistake of leaving in late September so by the time I was hit the center of NT it was already over 40C!

It was so hot that I bought bags of ice cubes at the some of the Roadhouse's on the route (they are usually a few hundred KLM's apart). I dumped half the bag into the hydra pack on my back, covered it with my jacket and then stuffed the remaining plastic bag of ice cubes down the front of my jacket so I could reach in while riding, grab a few cubes to stick in my mouth to stay hydrated!

My next little brain storm came along... I ripped off the corners of the bag so as the ice melted it drained out into my lap! Talk about cool and soothing! I was smiling for miles!

It did get a bit comedic when I stopped to fill the gas tank and found myself standing in a pool of water!

You can imagine the looks and laughs from locals and tourists as I stood there smiling and dripping!

3 comments:

Karen Francis said...

It sounds like your roadtrip is so delightful! Hope you are having a wonderful time. Makes me wish I was riding along side you!
Karen Francis, Tampa FL

Anonymous said...

Good to see mate . thanks for the email reply enjoy Craig

Alan said...

Hey Steve,
thanks for blogging your trip, your old friends here on Long Island NY still look foward th your adventures "down under ".
Enjoy that neat BMW we remember you on big twin Harleys ..