Statistics of the trip

This is going to be my final post, so I thought I would share some stats of my trip;

Motorbikes
# of km's 7,234
Hours of riding 73 hrs 56 min
449 ltrs of petrol used
30 petrol tank refills
Fuel usage - Avg 16.1 kms per ltr (at 100 - 110kms I was averaging well over 20 kms per ltr)
Moving average 104 km's (GPS)
Max speed 184 km's (GPS) 193 km's indicated (speed wobbles and had to back off - carrying unbalanced panniers etc, that was fast enough - allegedly of course)
Drops - Zero  (No drops at 2011 Tenere Tragics, 2011 Birdsville / Innamincka or Heading North) - perhaps I am not trying hard enough :)
Animals hit - Zero - closest was a Hawk eating road kill who flew away as I was passing. Missed my head by about a foot.
Traffic fines - None so far - Waved at a police car doing 126 kms (GPS) in 110 zone and he waved back - at least the police in the outback appear to book for unsafe driving rather than revenue raise!!


My bike - Triumph Explorers - no issues
KTM 990 (kiwi chap we met between Mt Isa and Tennant Creek) - buggered bike & uncertain if he continued his trip - I will be emailing him
Harley Davidson - broken speedo cable disc on return trip to Mt Isa (Sorry Mark - something broke :)

Longest / Hardest day riding
They say riding a motorbike is at least 150% more tiring than driving a car. Eg - 500kms on a bike is the equivalent toat least 750kms in a car.

So the hardest day(s) was the final run home from Uluru to Home - total of 4 days with no break.
Monday      750 kms          Uluru to Coober Pedy
Tuesday      650 kms          Coober Pedy to Laura
Wednesday 550 kms          Laura to Kaniva
Thursday     450 kms          Kaniva to Home
Approx      2,400 kms

Highlights 
West MacDonnell ranges
Olgas
Uluru (great Ranges tour - learnt a lot about aborigines)
Longreach Long distance learning tour - hats off to the parents at outback stations - they do it tough

Lowlights

• Voyages resort at Uluru. 
• $260 per night
• no working air con 
• attitude - couldn't car less
• Cost of everything at Yulara
• $2:17 per ltr petrol & diesel
• Concept of a resort - no one willing to mingle
• Bourke NSW - appears to be a violent place
• Alcoholism of aborigines - getting takeway six packs at 9-10am 

Special thanks
To Mark for joining me for 5 days. Touring Mt Isa, seeing the progress of the Harley 1942 WLA (looking fwd to seeing it running and maybe a ride), Tennant Creek and Alice Springs.
To Pete riding on day one riding to Shepparton. Coldest riding of the entire trip.

Visited 5 states - Vic, NSW, QLD, NT, SA

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Learnings

• Before the whiteman came to Aus, there was 250 nations in Aus, all with different laws, language etc (similar to Europe)
• Only 20 of the 250 nations (tribes) used a didjeridu (north area of Aus)
• The dot aboriginal art painting - orginated in 1970-1980's and came from red centre
• So a didjeridu presented with dot painting is a complete fraud
• Long distance learning - great to see how technology has made this easier, but as mentioned above, I respect the parents in outback stations for the hardship they go through and also the kids. Temptation on both fronts must be to ignore education
• I would love to see a real working mine (ie Mt Isa) - but doubt I could work in one.

Triumph = Perfect :)

Thanks for joining me on my trip.

The End.

Home

Mon 750kms Leaving the rock
Tues 650kms Coober Pedy
Wed 550kms Laura
Thurs 450kms Kaniva

Tired, knacked and glad to be home.

Wattle trees - everywhere and lining the hwy in SA. Very nice.

Truck parked at Marla SA

Just outside of Keith SA - Andy was a legendary rider who died in 2006 at the Paris to Dakar race.

Gotta feel sorry for this guy. At 3am, he collected a roo. A big one. The foto does not do it justice but his Pajero is destroyed. I offered help, water etc but he was waiting for a tow.

Home Sweet Home.

Washing done. Bike washed.

GO HAWKERS!!!!!

Homeward bound

Uluru was great but my fav is the Olgas. They will not conduct tours there by ranges as the Olgas is a place where the aborigine men did man stuff. As a result it is sacred and no white fella is allowed to talk about it.

I really did hate the Uluru resort. It is a couples haven, so if you are single or have gone with a group, good luck.

Most visiters are from OS and i just loved the Germans. The couples stayed with eachother and rarely said hi. Great listening to them in thier native tongue.

37-38 degrees and none of the air cons were working in the resort. @ $260 a night (cheapest) is robbery. I complained but they dont care. U cant go anywhere else. $2.18 for prem petrol & also diesel.


Pics of the Olgas

The rock

Mark introduced me to leaving at sparrow farts hr and i like it. The only issue is travelling east. Low morning sun on the horizon is a shocker. BUT i finally got to see a group of red kangaroos.

So far on the trip (knock wood) i have been lucky with animals. Mind you, the closest to a colision would be 1 group of red roos 2 cattle 3 brumbys (wild horses). All the biggies. Missing out on camels and buffalo.

Green & gold budgies, finches and wattle trees in full bloom all in the wild. If only ppl who have budgies in a small 1 foot by 1 foot cage see them in the wild, i would hope they would release them (perhaps not a great idea) or at least build an avary say 20 mtrs by 50 mtrs. That would be fair. Pictures or video of them flying is impossible due to their speed and agility.

Stayed in a dug out motel in Coober Pedy. I wasn't sure what i would feel. Do they have earth quakes? It was the best night sleeps.

Video of dug out room 175 mb

Alice Springs - Rest Day

Hi Everyone,

I woke up early to the sound of a rumbling Harley Davidson at 5:30am and then a knock on my window. Mark was ready to head home to Mt Isa. We said our goodbyes and off he went. Waking up everyone at the Lasseters Casino complex. I rec'd a text from him at 10:30am and he had already made Tennant Creek and I suspect he would have stayed at Barkly Station or Camoweel for the night, making Mt Isa before the heat of the following day.

Due to my early start, I was wrestless and having a free day, what was I going to do?? Off for a ride of course!! I rode about 80kms on the Tanami Desert road and returned (talk about isolation and boredom). Feeling confident, I took a 4wd track which presented itself after crossing a bridge. It was the first time I was challenged on my new bike, standing up and feeling how my big girl reacts. Several steep up and down rocky sections and I was conscious I had street biased tyres, no one to help if I dropped it (ie to help pick up the bike) and also no idea where I was heading. Plus is was hot!! At 10am it was already 34 degrees and getting hotter to a temp of 38 degrees. So after a few km's I turned back :( an did some shopping in Alice. 

Small 1 lane road. When a road train comes, YOU move over.

Check this out for a rig. Winnebago "Longreach" pls trailer with small 4wd and Stacer 440 Mtr boat.
Grey brigade  doing it in style.

I came back to the Casino about 1pm and decided to have a quick nannernap after cleaning my clothes. It was just too hot to do much outside. I was woken up at 4:45pm by a phone call. 

So the plans for tonight are, dinner and then packing everything ready for an early start in the morning. I am hoping all my bags will be on the bike before 6am tomorrow morning (can't put them on tonight due to theft), have breakie and then head off for Uluru at about 6:30am. Hopefully get to my SOOO over priced accommodation by about 1-3pm. I will be taking it easy and stopping, chatting and enjoying all the roadhouses on the way. I have been told there are very few (if any) highlights along the trip, unlike Tennant Creek to Alice.

I still have $20 worth of casino chips left. Off to win BIG :) 

Enjoy

RP 

West MacDonnell ranges

What a great day and is the highlight of the trip so far. 5 tourists, 2 from Melb, 2 from Canada (french) and myself with a tour guide going through the West MacDonnell ranges.

Obviously I have a stack of photos so I am only posting a few here.

In the heart of Alice Springs at 8:30am. "Interesting" place a few days ago.

Rather than leaving our bikes in the Casino car park, we rode them up to our little court yards. Nice and safe!

Mark has left this morning (Thursday) at 5:30am. Hope his Harley doesn't break down going back to Mt Isa :)

Alice Springs

We left Tennant Creek about 8am and stopped at Devils Marbles which was about 130kms south. In the middle of flat country for 100's of km's, you see mother nature at its best, unusual rock formations. We only stayed for about 45 min, which was sad, as I would have loved to camp here for a few days and explore.

Double click on the pics to get the full pic.

Mark's Harley only has  fuel range of approx 180-200kms but the trip from Tennant Creek to Alice had a roadhouse every 100-150kms. We stopped at each one and everyone was different. We had breakfast at the first one and it was for sale. Turnover of 2mill and for sale for 1.25mill. Isolation plus. They had a new french backpacker start only 4 days ago and she was learning the ropes. I felt sorry for her is the owner was a $%^.  The cockies will love her :)

One of the stops was Whycliffs. It is the UFO capital of Aus. I just think they have a special home brew and when it comes out, they see things.....

Yours truly with some aliens.

Can you spot the ugly one(s)?? :)

Blacksmiths building at a telegraph station

Barrow Creek roadhouse. $%^ hole.

As we got closer to Alice, the reds are redder and it looks like desert country.I started to get really excited as this is what I wanted to see.

$2.07 a litre - not the dearest but close.

Fires off in the distance. They burn off now before the wet season as new growth grass grow for the cattle/sheep. 

This road is on my bucket list.