The Longest Friday

24/MAY/2010

Its such a pleasure to know that folks have a sense of humor and are willing to share it!  I’ll be keeping an extra sharp look out for the lethal outback moth…or the notoriously dangerous kiwi.   And you’d best not ride at night lest you collide with shark…or an elephant.  This sign is what it should look like -

Its been with some regret that I haven’t updated the blog in a while,..  I’ve got about 3 ride reports to catch up on…just didn’t want to half ass it..so I’ve been holding off til I had the chance to do it right..  Exmouth, Perth…these were really good times…clearly..seeing as how I’ve been here so long.  But I haven’t been laying around..been pretty busy actually.

I thought I just throw in an update to keep in contact until I can write up another proper blog posting.  Just to catch everyone up that’s wondering why I’ve been in Perth so long.  In a nutshell,..I came down to Perth, spent a couple weeks researching my next move,..which was originally planned for India.  At the last moment..even after I’d purchased an Indian Visa..I pulled the plug on it.

It just didn’t seem right,…monsoons rolling in,..no passage to Europe(Tajikistan wont accept my amended passport..Iran is off limits for me, and the whole Indian Subcontinent would be blown out for paragliding…. That was the final touch.  Paragliding India and Nepal is on the bucket list…no sense going there to ride,..just so I’d have to return and fly it later…might as well do it right and put it off for the right season(OCT-FEB).

So I had two revelations…I needed to get farther north for summer riding,…and I also wasn’t ready to leave Australia.  The solution was to shoot for Russia,…and sneak in one more month of Ozzy adventure riding.  The crux being collateral…having taken a severe budget hit in Australia…I needed a little more dough to make it all come together.  Its amazing to think that two years ago my American dollar would be worth almost twice as much here…which would be handy in cases like buying TKC80 tires in Perth…which ran me about 700$…you would think I was putting rubber on a Ferrari.

saving the knobbies for the real deal-  (just looking for a campsite off the road here,..not really desert riding at this point.)

I’ve spent all my dough on her(Oz) customs and taxes,…bled across her roads..and sweated dearly across the outback…I invested a lot in the Australian experience..and it was worth it,..so worth it,..that I had to get back in the red dirt for just one more run!

I picked the mother of all 4wheel drive routes in the world…. how could I not have a look..while I was in country.  The Canning Stock Route,  the name has haunted me long before I ever thought to come to Australia.  I knew it was serious, expedition grade stuff,..crossing something like five deserts.  About 1,000 miles,..with one fuel depot,…long, remote, exotic, the real Mccoy.

For a proper intro to the Canning Stock Route (CSR) see this link

http://www.exploroz.com/TrekNotes/WDeserts/Canning_Stock_Route.aspx

The route is steeped in some hardcore Aussie history, much of it reading like a Louis Lamour novel…except the windswept graves along the route remind the traveler that this is no fiction novel, but historic evidence of real ,….pathfinders,..gold prospectors,…cattle drives,..and lethal engagements with aboriginals. -blows my mind that most Australians have never even heard of the Canning.  (that being said, I’ve met Americans that didn’t know BMW made motorcycles…and I never knew that a previous American President made is fortunes in the Australian Gold fields …guess it just shows where you’re interests lie.

It crosses some of the last untouched stretches of wilderness in the world.  In the late 1970s there were still nomadic bands of aboriginals roaming this part of the country.. living exactly as they had for thousands of years. Others argue there are still bands roaming Gibson and Great Sandy Desert.

Aside from the obvious,. fuel, water, food, and safety logistics…which I’ve worked out…the crux is 995 sand dunes that need to be scaled.  I’ve seen video clips of 4wheel drive vehicles failing to climb these dunes….I’m worried about that.  The right way to do this on a motorcycle is to procure a 250 cc dirt bike, and a support 4wheel drive to haul fuel and cold beer.

Of course there is another way to do it.

I gained a great deal of motivation from an old news clipping of two Aussie bikers who pulled it off in the late 70s on modified R80s unsupported by using fuel drops.  Since then I believe some bikers have pulled it off with out fuel drops, by tapping into the aboriginal community of Kuniwartji for fuel.

So here’s an idea… why not take a big bike out there…”have a go” as they say down here.   It’s a huge bike,..it can take a huge load…easier than the standard dirt bikes. Yeah..it can be f* handful in deep sand fully loaded….its not as much fun as a small bike.  With the exception of a few friends…everyone has said its not going to work…and I think they are probably right…that’s why I’ve set up a serous mitigation plan to minimize risk and enable my extraction if things go “pear shaped”.   My goal is to set out on Tomorrow ..with a ton of fuel food and water…and check it out.  I wanna lay tread on the CSR …if it gets nasty…I’ll back off.  I’ve done a lot of research..so I believe I know where the toughest sections are..and I should have enough fuel to back off before or at any point during those tough sections.  My only concern at this point is mechanical failure and getting the pig stuck in the dunes…but that’s what back up plans are for.  If there was ever a time to have a look at the spot tracker updates…this is it..  use the “where I am” tab at the top of this page.,…then follow direction to link to SPOT page,..click on satalite imagery and zoom in to see some wicked far out campsites.

I’m currently writing from ….umm…I forgot the name of this place..Willare or something…about 200k east of Broom in the Kimberly,..its humid, but pleasantly so at night.  It was a long tarmac ride up here…but not at all boring…check these pics.

most would trailer their bikes or quads to the desert,…but this guy has outdone himself with the mother of all desert vehicles…check out the camel.

and check out the size of these trucks

when they pull a you turn…the truck will actually pass its own trailer

this tree may have more character than I do

outback school bus

24/MAY/2010

*now sending from Halls Creek,..refitting for a day,..then having a go, current conditions look wet,..access road(Tanimi) is currently closed, but I can score a permit to get in,…CSR could be dry enough…today looks hot and dry,..hopefully enough to get me around the salt lake lowlands on the CSR tomorrow.

27/MAY2010

back in Halls creek,..defeated by the mighty termite! forced into retreat with busted oil cooler..  more to follow