Скиппи And The Waiting Game 8-)

At 24242km and time on my hands, I did some Скиппи work and got my writing up to date, I checked the valves, left side needed adjusting a smidge and the right hand side perfectly in spec, checked my pre-filter which was pretty dirty with red dust…dunno where that came from.

The K&N filter still very very clean the pre-filter is doing its job very well.

Checked the alignment and made some a small adjustment and just checked the tightness of bolts etc, our Avon tyres not lasting very well at all, the pusher tyre evaporating quickly, at this point it would appear the Heidenau knobs will last longer so will have a swap around at Darwin.

Our left hand sidecar indicator had stopped working so a quick inspection of that revealed a broken wire so an easy fix.

All other visuals looking good, at some stage will give Скиппи a wash.

Now waiting one more day for the team sidecar monkey to grace the chair and we are off like a robbers dog.

 

Barn Hill To Broome To Dampier Pennisula

Barn Hill, the camp site was pretty nice and they had a café so Ellen scoffed an iced coffee and scoffed a vanilla milkshake with icecream which was a godsend from the moto gods.

For a change we could swim here as crocs lined the rest of the coastline, given the temps were very nice even I got in several times thoroughly enjoying it.

We did have a wee visitor on the beach...not welcoming

The pinnacle rock formations were very cool.

Two nights here before making it into Broome, the tourist trap, we had booked a site and the Broome Bird Observatory for two nights, tanking up, fooding up and grogging up in Broome we headed out, the road pretty corrugated and making skippy work for her money.

On arrival we realized we had stepped on a gem, the place was excellent and secure and so quiet.

We managed to squeeze an extra night so we didn’t have to go back to town before Ellens flight out, being very accommodating the camp hosts were excellent, something of a common theme here.

Time to drop Ellen to the airport as she had to take care of some family business then I was home alone with a Ural Sidecar, some gin, fud and wine so I could cry myself to sleep.

We yet again, we had met others along the way including Brittany from Perth, Francois and Christine from Brisbane, Mark and then met Steve an ex Kiwi with all the others that had past us…then me along the way.

A very social group of travellers so I was in good hands, never a dull moment and plenty of fishing (no catching tho) and social chats, coffees and drinkies, even tho I met a whole lot of new faces they ALL knew me as “the Kiwi on the sidecar”.

I started near the top of the Dampier Peninsula with the view of working my way back but camp jumping every second night (ish), I spent the time pretty quick and before I knew it I was running short, I literally had no internet/4G for most of it until I got to Lambodina where I managed to squeeze out 3 ride reports as loading pics was still very slow.

All the people that had come from the south of the Dampier had bitterly complained of bad mozzies, sandflies and midges so I am not sure if I missed something based on that.

Fishing, drinking, sunsets, coffees, mates …and cold can of Coke I have managed to exist my way through Ellens absence.

Time to say goodbye to said friends on this leg and head back to the Bird Sanctuary, my mission here is to volunteer for a couple of days around the sanctuary and Скиппиs valves are due a check.

South Hedland And Enormous

Getting out of South Hedland with our supplies it was a ginless wineless trip as we were done by 9.00am and the grog shops do not open till 12 noon due to alcohol laws here in WA, couldn’t be bothered waiting for that.

With only two days dry it was no worries, we decided to make tracks a bit so we bolted to Eighty Mile camp as there is nothing much in between.

Eighty mile camp was awesome, a little more spendie than std but very very well worth it and they had $5 buck icecreams which kept Ellen quiet in the heat.

With fishing on the agenda again I was desperate to break my 007 status (0 fish, 0 talent, 7 hours) and have my status revoked.

On the beach we walked out into the crowd, the beach was busy with fisherman, I went down and talked to a despondent looking guy and another despondent guy, both said pile in and welcome to fish….good luck.

With a bit of a yarn, larfs and chats 15 minutes of trying suddenly my line went tight, the handbrake on my reel started fizzing backwards, as I only have a $30 5 foot telescopic rod it bent very sharply very quickly so I very quickly lowered it down to inline with the line and kept the tension on, ol mate on my left saw this going on and reeled in straight away...good bloke.

I walked past two more guys under and over then back towards where I came from, walking backwards up the beach to keep tension on the line, handbrake fizzing flat stick then relaxing I kept the line as tort as possible to avoid a shock on the line and snapping.

This had a good feel to it and I was only about 10 minutes into it, the guy beside me giving big advice, my arms were tiring despite my improved strength from riding the sidecar.

Still tight lined and still the reel was fizzing out then relaxing, repeat, I kept my mind on the job expecting the line to go limp any second as I lost my nearly catch.

Ellen had gone for a walk along the beach so was nowhere in sight for the big moment unfortunately.

By this time the focus from the beach was on me..or more to the point watch I was trying to reel in…no pressure eh, I continued walking backwards, reeling in, walking backwards reeling in then suddenly it appeared on the surf scooting along the top on the edge of the waves which gave me the advantage as it had lost traction however now more than ever my line could just snap.

I was flat stick reeling in all the time trying to keep the line tort, ol mate next to me said keep it going mate so I picked up my pace walking backwards and reeling in….gezz I didn’t have a lot left then and it was about 30 degrees so getting a sweat on.

He walked in nearly to his nuts (lucky he was tall) when it got in close enough and he grabbed it dragging/lifting it from the water, again I am still reeling in with the catch landed, ol mate walking towards with my blue whale with a massive grin.

First thing I asked, is it edible?, he just looked at me and said fuck yeah!!   

It was a Threadfin King Salmon, 10 kg or 22lb and a little over 1200 mm long.

Could not believe it…nor could either of the guys either side of me.

I was absolutely fizzed, about a 15 minute fight to land it and my arms quite tired.

Taking my blue whale back to fish cleaning area I was asked “what bait did you use”?, me..some shit a guy gave us yesterday…

What size line do you have?, me..blue stuff

What rod are you using?, me..this one, 5 foot telescopic

What …that one?, me…yeah…

Dude..”fuckoff”.. sounding surprised, my apparent lack of skill and inadequate/inappropriate gear apparently not up to spec for the big boys.

Another fisherman who was worthy was laughing saying you don’t need exy stuff to land a hungry fish.

Now, he said do you have a knife?, me yeah pulling out my pocket knife, laughing at me he said nah, then he said have you filleted one of these before, me…nup never caught one before.

OK, he said, I will be back in a minute with a friend and some gear, they returned and filleted the fish and cut in into the portions, as we did not have a fridge so we gave him the other half of the fish which he wouldn’t accept till we said we have no way of keeping it chilled, he accepted with a huge grin on his face and extremely thankful.

The evening drew in and we took all the trimmings, tail, fins, back of the head meat which covered the entire bar b q which was about 1200 long x 600 wide and everyone who came past had a feed and we still had all our fillets which we froze overnight.

In between hauling in the blue whale we had met other travellers, Francois and Christine, they had a leaking water tank which helped him seal, ultimately he got it sorted but we swapped numbers as we are all headed in the same direction.

The stunning beach making a perfect sunset viewing platform.

Heading north again after having my 007 status revoked in style Barn Hill station was next on the list, it was a very warm trip nudging 37 degrees, we were stopping every 60-70km to re-hydrate with me just about drinking more than Скиппи per 100 km.

Marble Bar And Welding

Off out into the outback Marble Bar was our next point of interest claimed to be the hottest place in Oz, was certainly warm enough and dry which was very nice for me, not so much for my dedicated sidecar monkey who prefer cool.

Our trip was uneventful with only 70km of good nic gravel and some epic hills looking like mid Argentinian altiplano.

A few points of interest including a coolas pub to nail a G&T.

Skippy had cracked her sidecar guard and broken the bracket completely off so while at camp I asked the people if they knew where I could get a welding job done, she said follow me and takes me to a caravan …an elderly dude comes out and yells “yeah I got one just use mine”

He pulls out an awesome wee Caddy welder and some 2.5mm sticks, a brand new helmet but no gloves…he yells again “can ya do stick”, me hell yeah no worries….I think he was slightly deaf.

Job was on, I took the sidecar wheel off and got into it, some other people pulled in to the camp and the guy interested in what I am doing comes over and says, you need a gusset in there, I replied yeah I do but nothing to cut it with, within a minute he was back with a cordless grinder with 1mm cutting disc….couldn’t believe it, then the camp owner comes over to clean the kitchen where we were working and said no stress I will come back after to clean up.

So with full workshop facilities I custom built new brackets, gussets etc and made a larger long plate to spread the load a bit.

We did actually see the make believe marble which led to the towns name.

Our next mission was to go to Port Hedland to see if we could get our cooker sorta fixed.

It has been pretty good but has now failed, can’t get anything up this way but we managed to get it soldered together to work but the unintended brutalizing of one of the legs was a side effect of the success, no stress the flames go so coffee is on again.

As we ran late in the day we were forced to stay at a shithouse campground for the cost of an exquisite apartment…them’s the breaks.

 

Tom Price, Kaijini National Park And COLD water

Showered, shaved bla bla bla we continued East towards Cheela Plains Station, stopping just shy of this we hit a free camp which turned out to be a gem, probably a dozen of us in there, so quiet, sky TV from our table and felt safe.

Having had a series of not so quiet camps we had the best sleep for probably close to 2 months, it was $44 cheaper than the station stay and superior in every way… “Silence Is Golden” and that night we were billionaires.

Tom Price, this is actually the name of the town, nice place and a mining based place, setting up at the caravan park then off into town to tank up on fud.

Icecream was in order so in the carpark before the 30 degree heat could melt them we had a scoff, two dudes came along and looking at the bike.

One guy said, are you from NZ?, we said yeap, he said…whats ya name?, I  told him and he said “you are from Wanaka”, me…yeap, it was Steve Trevathen ex fireman of 29 years in Wanaka.

We had a great yarn about life for both sides of the ditch which was really cool and great to catch up on things and where life had taken us.

Our two nights over here we were getting set to leave however on getting out of bed we discovered the pusher tyre on the bike all the air had gone to the top which was less than ideal.

Up on the centrestand and rotating the wheel I couldn’t see any intruders, using our new pump I inflated the tyre then checked the valve, it was blowing bubbles, same problem we had had on the other wheels.

Behind us at the camp a Landy driver and Harley rider who we had chatted too (UDF), he said no worries got some spare valves so we put a new one in the tyre and he have us a spare, our faith in Ozzie for good bastids back on deck again.            

Not having to remove the pusher wheel is an epic saving of time and swearing so I thanked the moto Gods for the shitty valve and said don’t do it again please now we have replaced all three.

Karijini National Park…the place to see in the Pilbara region, again we couldn’t get a booking so we stayed in a free camp just shy of the park.

Camp fire, flat camp on red dirt (all red here) and a quiet space with our closest neighbour maybe 100m away, awesome spot again, we were supposed to stay at the Eco retreat but with nothing available….the bush camp pattern of quiet, fire, sky and safe becoming more apparent to the expensive caravan parks etc.

The day saw us go up and into the NP with gorges and view points showing us some of Ozzies top scenery.

Dales camp for the next round, we piled outa bed for our coffee only to have our cooker shit itself and blow fuel out from around a joint, luckily we were on red dirt which doesn’t burn that well…lucky….FFS…always something.

Some more cool stuff.

Dales camp this time we were in, got two nights. Again, stunning gorges with swimming holes and lookouts and we again bumped into Brittany who we had met on several occasions prior.

Swimming is not really my thing and I hate cold water as it makes my joints ache but I had to get in as an American Lady had got in and said I must or I would be beaten…gezz I hate peer pressure …so I did, wasn’t too bad, only six broken ribs and my nuts hidden in the back of throat…next time I go for a wizz I will need a magnifying glass.

Karijini is probably now one of our more favourite spots, excellent all round, tops of the gorges to finish off.

 

Bullara Station And Some Mist

Bullara Station, highly recommended, impending bad weather so we decided to stay there two days.

On arrival we got site 29, the weather till looking pretty good, the forecast predicting up to 15mm.

Although everyone was skeptical as no rain had fallen in 14 months the BOM showed a thick rain band over 2000km long, we did put our tarp on the sidecar to keep any rain out.

Great move, at little o’clock in the night down it came and with a backbone, the morning dawned with lakes all around us, our tent was fine from the top but the rain tide had come up enough to cover our tent footprint and go beneath the tub, we were dry …but not by much.

You are welcome guys, only takes a moto to turn up to bring on the rain…around 30 – 40 mm in the end they (we) had so worthy. 

At one of the kitchens there is a cool as sculpture covered in bottles, every year people add to the collection, once yearly it get cleaned off for new bottles...except this one which stays.

Message in a bottle, read this, simple but moving.

Some other interesting things in a groovy place

With Exmouth on our list we hit it not realizing what we were in for, only 90km so an easy day, getting to Exmouth we discovered we had just hit peak season, no unpowered camps sites available, only powered sites and $70 north.

Also an extremely touristy town it became apparent that if you have not booked EVERYTHING (including a fart) then it wasn’t happening.

Supermarket, grog shop and servo we decide to wing it in the National Park.

At a camp which we will not name we pulled in, the camp host asked for our booking, we explained that we did not have one and were hoping for a cancelled spot etc.

After a few minutes chatting she says, (off the record) you can always ask the guys down in the camp if someone will share their site (on the record) as you are visiting your friend and your friend has said no problem.

Off we tootled to find a new friend, a Swedish fello by the name of Ely said hey no worries, we said we only have a small tent and moto which was cool by him…we were in thanks to some rule bending and sensible thinking.

Happy hour at 5pm, we were there at 4.59 so as not to miss the action of a stunning sunset and good bastids to sit and yarn with.

Our torch was dead from not having a charge cable after some legend stole it, I asked Ely if he had one we could borrow…he did…wohhoh lighting again.

The following day we got onto our site that we managed to book and bag so we were there 100% kosher, after our morning walk up to the gorge we came back to a surprise at the tent, a cable with a note on it saying a gift from Ely as he had a spare, this absolutely made our day, shit being given to us rather than shit being stolen from us.

After our two nights here we headed back to Exmouth, all the snorkeling trips etc fully booked and with rough/high seas not many had been out so a waiting list was forming, we decided we could do this elsewhere anyway so headed back to Bullara station which again made for a good midpoint stop.

Clocking in we got exactly the same camp site so we knew exactly where to go and where to position the tent, new neighbours and no rain being the only difference.

Just the one night we watched the sunset from …well Sunset Hill.