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.