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Day's 1 to 6 12/8/2014 to 17/8/2014
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- Day 1 - Wangaratta to Renmark
- Day 2 - Renmark to 30km's out of Port Augusta
- Day 3 - 37kms North of Port Augusta to Mabel Creek
- Day 4 - Mabel Creek- 60kms in to Anne B to Anne Beadell 25kms short of Emu 15-8-2014
- Day 5 -Anne Beadell near Emu to The Unamed Conservation Park 16-8-2014
- Day 6 - UCP to 25kms south of Vokes Corner 17-8-2014
- Day's 7 to 12 - 18/8/2014 to 23/8/2014 >
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Day 4 - Henri Freycinet Harbour to Sandy Bay - Thur 15 Oct 2015
Again the mood in the camp was nervous expectation; several reported not a lot of sleep as thoughts of this day went through their heads. The previous evening around the fire we had sought solace in the goon, finishing our first box in just three days. This was topped with a nice All Saints Muscat from a deceptive container. Hector picked up the Anything But Average award for his swimming and bag pipe playing; diverse skills both appreciated. We broke camp early again with the words of John Kennedy in our ears: “Don’t think, DO! Do something”. Sobering thoughts for this point in our adventure when we were just trying to get to the start.
We still had to cover around 80 kilometres to the Ranger Station and then another 10 to the Point. The hardest part of the trip is the last kilometres where you enter the park. We got to the gate and lowered our tyre pressures for the sand and hills. On the first hill we had difficulties with the riders struggling; some fell a couple of times. However they soldiered on and found their groove. The cars and trailers covered the sand ok, but disaster struck them first. A flat tyre on the Troopy and the discovery of water leaking from the tank under the bike trailer had the support team down and out on the sand. A few other travellers were encountered on the single lane track so we made way and gave way and continued on. Ranger Pam also came by and encouraged us that it was better track ahead; and it was. Although there were corrugations it got better and the bikes got well ahead. The Troopy and Max kept steady pace, stopping on the beach part of the track.
As the dunes rose and the track hardened we knew that we were near the end…of the start! Spectacular vistas of the ocean smashing into Dirk Hartog Island appeared and we reached the point of our journey: Steep Point, the westernmost point of Australia. We wandered around a bit and took in the views and plenty of air as there was a strong wind blowing. We took some photos and then a hardy crew of risk takers undertook the hazardous mission of getting water from the ocean. In May 1966, when the Leyland Brothers first completed this trip, they threw a bucket on a rope off the cliff to retrieve some Indian Ocean water, which they took with them to Byron Bay where they poured it into the Pacific. We wanted to re-create this feat. It took us a couple of goes with a dodgy Corona bucket that we had scrounged from the publican at Cervantes but we were successful. We poured the precious water into a Bundy bottle that Scotty had brought along especially for this task. The task now is to carry it across the country and not break it.
We had a trailer change at Steep Point as Scotty had now picked up a second flat tyre and had no spare. We moved a short distance to the cliff fishing spot for lunch and more watching of the water smashing the cliffs. We were surprised and delighted to see a couple of Humpback whales cruise past quite close to the cliff. After lunch we took few more moments to enjoy the spot and then moved off to our campsite, called ‘Easters’, in Sandy Bay, on the lee side of the Point. This was an idyllic spot that we took advantage of with some swimming, sans clothing, for cleaning purposes, and a nice meal of beef ragu, warmed up by Carlos. As we were in a National Park we could not light a fire, so we huddled around some fairy lights that Joc had provided; Joc also took the time to visit us with the silly string which we enjoyed.
In the end, the wind got the better of us and we hit the swags early. The journey had now begun.
Again the mood in the camp was nervous expectation; several reported not a lot of sleep as thoughts of this day went through their heads. The previous evening around the fire we had sought solace in the goon, finishing our first box in just three days. This was topped with a nice All Saints Muscat from a deceptive container. Hector picked up the Anything But Average award for his swimming and bag pipe playing; diverse skills both appreciated. We broke camp early again with the words of John Kennedy in our ears: “Don’t think, DO! Do something”. Sobering thoughts for this point in our adventure when we were just trying to get to the start.
We still had to cover around 80 kilometres to the Ranger Station and then another 10 to the Point. The hardest part of the trip is the last kilometres where you enter the park. We got to the gate and lowered our tyre pressures for the sand and hills. On the first hill we had difficulties with the riders struggling; some fell a couple of times. However they soldiered on and found their groove. The cars and trailers covered the sand ok, but disaster struck them first. A flat tyre on the Troopy and the discovery of water leaking from the tank under the bike trailer had the support team down and out on the sand. A few other travellers were encountered on the single lane track so we made way and gave way and continued on. Ranger Pam also came by and encouraged us that it was better track ahead; and it was. Although there were corrugations it got better and the bikes got well ahead. The Troopy and Max kept steady pace, stopping on the beach part of the track.
As the dunes rose and the track hardened we knew that we were near the end…of the start! Spectacular vistas of the ocean smashing into Dirk Hartog Island appeared and we reached the point of our journey: Steep Point, the westernmost point of Australia. We wandered around a bit and took in the views and plenty of air as there was a strong wind blowing. We took some photos and then a hardy crew of risk takers undertook the hazardous mission of getting water from the ocean. In May 1966, when the Leyland Brothers first completed this trip, they threw a bucket on a rope off the cliff to retrieve some Indian Ocean water, which they took with them to Byron Bay where they poured it into the Pacific. We wanted to re-create this feat. It took us a couple of goes with a dodgy Corona bucket that we had scrounged from the publican at Cervantes but we were successful. We poured the precious water into a Bundy bottle that Scotty had brought along especially for this task. The task now is to carry it across the country and not break it.
We had a trailer change at Steep Point as Scotty had now picked up a second flat tyre and had no spare. We moved a short distance to the cliff fishing spot for lunch and more watching of the water smashing the cliffs. We were surprised and delighted to see a couple of Humpback whales cruise past quite close to the cliff. After lunch we took few more moments to enjoy the spot and then moved off to our campsite, called ‘Easters’, in Sandy Bay, on the lee side of the Point. This was an idyllic spot that we took advantage of with some swimming, sans clothing, for cleaning purposes, and a nice meal of beef ragu, warmed up by Carlos. As we were in a National Park we could not light a fire, so we huddled around some fairy lights that Joc had provided; Joc also took the time to visit us with the silly string which we enjoyed.
In the end, the wind got the better of us and we hit the swags early. The journey had now begun.
