I Ride With Chloe Blog

Chloe’s ride to Barmera and Oodnadatta 2018

Planned to be a nice running in trip for our new BMW GS1200. It was to be a bit different!

What bike shall we use?

It was planned to be a nice running in trip for our new BMW GS1200. A sedate ride across the paddock (that’s the Nullarbor) to the Riverland’s Ulysses AGM in South Australia and then a ride north to Oodnadatta for a bit of adventure riding. Unfortunately, daddy is a bit short in the legs and the delivery date for the specially lowered GS kept stretching out until no time would be left to prepare the new bike for the trip.

Two options were available, we fly to Melbourne and hire a bike or get daddy’s old Suzuki DRZ400e ready for the trip, and after all, he could spend the cost of hire, air fares and accommodation on a new “Safari” 28 Litre fuel tank, a comfortable seat and racks for the panniers and fit new off road tyres. One slight problem was that he also had to travel to Ireland prior to the ride and would only have one day between returning home and leaving for destination Barmera. Luckily all the new gear arrived before his overseas departure and daddy was only left with a couple of tank mods and packing on the pre ride day.

Daddy returned from Ireland on a Thursday afternoon and spent the Friday last minute fitting and packing. We did not even have time to test the ride with a full tank of fuel and were to realize on the morning of departure, the little old bike was overloaded and culling was needed. Luxury items like the camp chair and table as well as extra jumpers, tee shirts, undies and food, all gone. Daddy and I refused to give up our special Helinox camp stretcher though. My wardrobe was reduced to only two jumpers and a minimum of tools packed with spare front and rear tubes in case we got a puncture. It was ten thirty when we finally left the building 5th May.

The ride to Barmera – Will we actually make it?

Three hours behind schedule and dad learning how the bike handled with 28 litres of fuel on board, I was soon to discover that the rear suspension was set way to soft and with load, the rear tyre was to bounce up on road bumps and hit the rear guard right under me. Two stud bolts holding the rear rack were also gouging into the knobs on the tyre. We camped at Coolgardie that night and ran into Kalgoorlie early to buy a small hacksaw to trim the offending bolts. We refueled and were again on our way, tyre still hitting the guard but at least not being gouged. Just past Widgiemootha I heard the first of what was to be many backfires, daddy assuming, as you do, we had got a tank full of dirty fuel at Kalgoorlie.

 By throttling on and off he was able to maintain reasonable speed between bouts of heavy backfires every thirty or so seconds and we managed to reach Norseman. Daddy reasoned that it would take a fair time to flush the dirty fuel with clean so off to Balladonia we went, throttle on, throttle off. After Balladonia it was the great Ninety Mile Straight, passing Caiguna and stopping for the night at Cocklebiddy. Throttle on, throttle off as we travelled along, but it was improving, I think.

Day three and we needed to make it to Ceduna if we were to have any hope of reaching Barmera late Tuesday. Off we went, throttle on, throttle off. At the Nullarbor Roadhouse daddy used the old trick of adding mentholated sprites to the fuel and we progressed to Ceduna, still doing throttle on, throttle off. Actually, when you travel at 120kph, to cover 10km takes five minutes. By this time, daddy Ken had worked out that he was covering each 100km in 50 minutes or less, but any slower and the backfiring would become excessive. I wonder if that would have been a good excuse for the law.

Ceduna, in record time and enough light left to drain the tank and check the filters. Clean as a whistle daddy said. Next day it was to get to Port Augusta and Northern Motorcycles to check the carburetor jets. Northern Motorcycles had helped out our ride group four years before and luckily dad knew their location. Throttle on, throttle off, Mr Miyagi would have been pleased. We reached Port Augusta just before lunch and stopped outside Northern Motorcycles. They did mentioned they had heard us coming. Little bike had done its job, for here it would not start again. It was not a fuel problem at all, but a failed stator, (that’s an electrical thingy) and how it kept going 2000km left the experts shaking their heads and daddy with a very strong right wrist.

Luckily, a new stator was in stock and mechanic available for fitting plus give a tweak to the rear shocker and away we went to spend the night at Melrose. Throttle on, throttle off, not!

Wednesday, and a quick dash via Burra to Barmera, with the plan to get there about 10am. Plan may be the operative word, but 6km out of Morgan with the motor purring away, the bike was slowing. Slowing to a stop! The chain had broken. It may have been a good idea to replace the chain with the bike hire saving scheme Dad, but, at least he had taken out recovery insurance three weeks before the trip and although a longish wait on the side of the Goyder Highway, daddy and I reached the Barmera camping site at 5.00pm that day.

Thursday morning, Loxton Honda fitted a new chain. Daddy Ken was absolutely overwhelmed by the service from both Northern Motorcycles and Loxton Honda and their staff. My sister Kylee did ask what did it all cost but he told her cheaper than putting the bike on a truck and flying home. Well, almost. New stator, new chain, what else could go wrong!

Daddy Ken and I enjoyed the rest of the week in the Riverlands of South Oz, catching up with old friends and making new. We love the Ulysses. Next year Mornington but for now, was daddy game to tackle the Oodnadatta Track?

Fun in Barmera

Shall we or Shan’t we?

We left Barmera early on Monday 14^th May and headed toward Hawker passing through Peterborough and Orroroo. Dependent on the time we got to Hawker, dad had tentatively planned to reach and camp at Parachilna or the Angorichina Tourist Village. By Hawker, time was against us so it looked like a Hawker stay until I made friends with a nice group of eight touring the Flinders and staying at Merna Mora Station 50km North of Hawker. Dad asked if he could follow them out for a bit of protection against the Skippy’s and emus, the silly things being extremely prolific in this area lately.

The station stay was a very astute choice by me with my new friends providing us a lovely corn-beef and veggie dinner, wine and a port,(for daddy) and great conversation with station owner Don, plus breakfast in the morning before we headed on to Parachilna and Leigh Creek. At the Prairie Hotel in Parachilna, four Ulysses on BMW GS1200’s gave a bit of updated information on the track, having ridden down it the day before. This gave dad a bit of confidence that perhaps we should do it.

Daddy Ken was disappointed with Leigh Creek as the observation area over the mine is currently closed with the mine still working in care and maintenance. The town-site is now like so many other mining towns we have passed through. Apart from the tourist park, all services are now very limited. Just north of Leigh Creek, the old town of Copley showed a lot more life. The ride this day progressed to Lyndhurst, a location where you start the Strzelecki Track, the Ochre Pits, and a look over the historic Farina town-site. Farina has lots of old tumbled down buildings and dad said a place to come back and camp one day. From Lyndhurst, 75km of gravel road takes you to Marree, the start of the Oodnadatta Track. Poor daddy still had to make up his mind if we should do it.

The Ride to Marree

Marree was once a major railhead for the cattle industry and the rail line, known as The Ghan, that extended to Alice Springs. Both the Oodnadatta Track and Birdsville Track start at Marree. Arriving late afternoon, dad and I had an opportunity to walk around the historic town, which has the Lake Eyre Yacht, (Lake Eyre is a big salt lake in the middle of Australia), the Ghan Railway Museum and the wonderful Marree Hotel with a museum to Tom Kruse, the Birdsville Mailman. I met up with a group of rally “car bashers” that were coming in from Williams Creek. Their description of the road was so contradictory that dad slept that night still undecided on whether to do the track or not.

On our day of reckoning, the bike chain was oiled, bolts and fittings checked and tyre pressure set. Was it to be a coin toss to decide yay or nay? Daddy pressed the starter and the little bike jumped into life so enthusiastically, his mind was made up, we go!  YAY!

The Ride to William Creek

Our first goal was to stand beside Lake Eyre, 83 km from Marree that passed the Mutonia Sculpture Park, remote Aboriginal Art that we have now seen. The road to the Lake Eyre South view point was a mixture of good and bad. Graders had in some parts made the track very rocky with windrows of loose rock. Lake Eyre South to Coward Springs was a bit more challenging. As we bumped along Dad have to make choices to stop at what may be interesting places or keep momentum and push on. We bypassed Curdimurka Siding but stopped at Margret Siding. A friendly caravaner there told us to look out for a bull dust hole 5km ahead, (that’s a big deep dusty pot hole in the middle of the road), advice well received as it was a beastie. We had a look around the Coward Springs campsite which would have made an excellent overnight spot to stay but it was still early afternoon and just 73km to William Creek. The road on this section was good and bad as before and deteriorated with lots of corrugations the closer we got to William Creek. We arrived mid-afternoon around 3pm and I made good friends with the hotel staff and we obtained a nice camping ground room and daddy spent a lovely night with several of the other tourist in the town at the pub while I had a very nice sleep dreaming I was in a bouncy castle.

 

On We Go to Oodnadatta

With the first part of the challenge competed it was with more confidence we approached the next 200km to Oodnadatta, especially with fairly positive reports on the road ahead. What 4WD users consider freeways in the bush is a bit different for us bikers, but apart from a very sandy Duff Creek flood-way crossing the road was fairly easy. In two locations several kilometres of the road are under quality construction and the last 50km from the Algebuckina Bridge to Oodnadatta is in top condition. Daddy had been looking forward to visiting the historic bridge because he is an engineer and he was not disappointed with what we saw. Built in 1896 in that location, it is a great achievement. About half way along the track that day we had met up with the CEO of the Aboriginal Organization that run the area hotels and invited us to drop in when we reached Oodnadatta. We arrived in town just on 2pm and once again I stole the hearts of the hotel managers Warren and Toni and we had a great room and very enjoyable night with fantastic people. It was great to spend the afternoon walking and exploring the history of town with dad and looking through the old museum. Everyone should try and explore outback Australia. We are so lucky to have seen Oodnadatta and it’s now crossed off daddy’s bucket list!

 

Time to Head Home

The options from Oodnadatta were to ride north to Marla or cut back to Coober Pedy. Having achieved what we set out to do, and needing to get home and unfortunately daddy Ken having to return to work, (that thing that we need to do to pay for things like rides in the outback), dad decided on the latter.

Friday morning 18^th May we left the old historic town behind and headed for Coober Pedy. We were to bypass the Painted Desert, leaving that for an another adventure and found the road to the Opal town relatively good, so we maintained a modest speed as we  passed through the stark landscapes that area is renowned for. A fuel stop in Coober Pedy and it was back on the bitumen and homeward bound, reaching Glendambo before the light faded. The best steak we had all trip was at the Glendambo Hotel. (Daddy always cuts a big bit off for me.) An early start the next day took us through to Ceduna for our Saturday night sleep. Two weeks before I was wondering if we were going to make it to Port Augusta.

Sunday took us to Cocklebiddy for the night and Monday we progressed to Norseman, hoping with the time difference we would be there before 12 noon WA time. Near Caiguna Roadhouse we had the closest meeting with a large kangaroo that you ever want. It was scary but luckily dad was travelling fairly slow and just passed by its tail. Norseman was reached by 11.30pm leaving time for one last adventure, the Norseman to Hyden Road. A quick chat with a lovely lady at the information centre reassured daddy that the road was easy gravel and well maintained. That proved to be correct and apart from some loose gravel and corrugations near Forrestania due to mining trucks, the ride was easy. We rode into Hyden as the last sunset of our trip slowly darkened the sky. Tomorrow it would be back to our own beds and daddy telling all his friends about our big adventure.

The trip was a total of 6,917kms over eighteen days and after our initial troubles with little bike, she did not miss a beat. Daddy Ken once again proved himself as a true adventurer, and I used my charms to our advantage. Daddy says his regrets were perhaps not taking a plane flight over Lake Eyre to see the water coming in from the rivers and due to packing space, not being able to use out best camera for photographs along most of the trip. Well, we still have plenty of Australia to see and I can’t wait until our next adventure. Where will that be too, I wonder.