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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
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- Day 5 -Anne Beadell near Emu to The Unamed Conservation Park 16-8-2014
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Day 5 - Sandy Bay to Geraldton - Fri 16 Oct 2015
The day started sunny; everyone was up and about. Our trek had started in earnest, and we were on the way to Byron Bay. In May 1966 the Leyland Brothers had started this same journey. They had a couple of Landrovers, a motorbike and a trailer. Their trip took 111 days. We had much the same, bikes, trailers, cars, but a lot more modern, with modern equipment like GPS, smart phones, etc. We hoped to do it in around 26. Nothing would stop us now!
After Steve Larke was presented with the Anything But Average award for his perseverance the previous day (it was his first day on sand on a particularly hard track and he battled away all day to get to the end) and we handed out a few fines, we had a visit from Ranger Pam who we interviewed. The area we were in is known as Edel Land, named after one of the ships that had visited in the early days. She also pointed out that next year, 2016, will be the 400th anniversary of the visit of Dirk Hartog to these coasts, arguably the first European to set foot in Australia, long before any pom. Armed with this information we set out with steel in our hearts, determined to complete our mission as these early explorers and pioneers had done.
Of course dickheads that we are, we thought it would be happy days all the way. Less than 40 kilometres on, just as we got out of the national park we discovered a broken spring on the bike trailer, disabling it. The team jumped in, led by the Mechanical Genius and Brad, and jerry-rigged the axle to the springs with tie-down straps and shackles. It was a work of art and would help us limp out to the Overland Roadhouse. Further down the road just near a previous campsite the call came again that the second spring had broken. The bikes had gone ahead and just the road crew were pottering along. An inspection showed that fortuitously when the spring broke it pushed back into itself and jammed in place. We wrapped a bit of wire round it more for our own assurance and limped along, getting back to where Joc had run out of petrol and then to the Overland Roadhouse for a re-group and repair.
Although the situation looked grim there were a few options. As Scotty needed two tyres repaired we had previously considered going to Carnarvon to get these. Phone calls were made to that location to see if we could get trailer springs; none were available. The next option was Geraldton; again the calls were made and luckily springs were available. The call was made: Geraldton tonight, repairs tomorrow, then on the road again. While this side of things was sorted out the broken springs were welded up by the Mechanical Genius with a welder we borrowed from the grumpy prick who ran the roadhouse. These would suffice until replaced in Geraldton.
Easy decision but it meant some hard miles. It was past 3.00pm at this stage and the wind was rising. On the ABC Country Hour weather forecast we heard that a gale warning had been issued for the area we were riding in. This made it very hard for the bikes, with the distance to travel being 280kms, on top of the slog in the morning on the sand. As we got to the Belair Gardens Caravan Park on dark everyone was pretty shagged out and looking for a shower and a bed. Quoting Larkey, “We were very sore and fatigued from the sand work and the buffeting winds”. A man of few words our Steve; everyone’s faces told the story of the day, but our spirits were not broken. In fact some of our stronger men were visited by the good fairy as they wiled the evening away watching raw footage from the adventures in the sand.
The day started sunny; everyone was up and about. Our trek had started in earnest, and we were on the way to Byron Bay. In May 1966 the Leyland Brothers had started this same journey. They had a couple of Landrovers, a motorbike and a trailer. Their trip took 111 days. We had much the same, bikes, trailers, cars, but a lot more modern, with modern equipment like GPS, smart phones, etc. We hoped to do it in around 26. Nothing would stop us now!
After Steve Larke was presented with the Anything But Average award for his perseverance the previous day (it was his first day on sand on a particularly hard track and he battled away all day to get to the end) and we handed out a few fines, we had a visit from Ranger Pam who we interviewed. The area we were in is known as Edel Land, named after one of the ships that had visited in the early days. She also pointed out that next year, 2016, will be the 400th anniversary of the visit of Dirk Hartog to these coasts, arguably the first European to set foot in Australia, long before any pom. Armed with this information we set out with steel in our hearts, determined to complete our mission as these early explorers and pioneers had done.
Of course dickheads that we are, we thought it would be happy days all the way. Less than 40 kilometres on, just as we got out of the national park we discovered a broken spring on the bike trailer, disabling it. The team jumped in, led by the Mechanical Genius and Brad, and jerry-rigged the axle to the springs with tie-down straps and shackles. It was a work of art and would help us limp out to the Overland Roadhouse. Further down the road just near a previous campsite the call came again that the second spring had broken. The bikes had gone ahead and just the road crew were pottering along. An inspection showed that fortuitously when the spring broke it pushed back into itself and jammed in place. We wrapped a bit of wire round it more for our own assurance and limped along, getting back to where Joc had run out of petrol and then to the Overland Roadhouse for a re-group and repair.
Although the situation looked grim there were a few options. As Scotty needed two tyres repaired we had previously considered going to Carnarvon to get these. Phone calls were made to that location to see if we could get trailer springs; none were available. The next option was Geraldton; again the calls were made and luckily springs were available. The call was made: Geraldton tonight, repairs tomorrow, then on the road again. While this side of things was sorted out the broken springs were welded up by the Mechanical Genius with a welder we borrowed from the grumpy prick who ran the roadhouse. These would suffice until replaced in Geraldton.
Easy decision but it meant some hard miles. It was past 3.00pm at this stage and the wind was rising. On the ABC Country Hour weather forecast we heard that a gale warning had been issued for the area we were riding in. This made it very hard for the bikes, with the distance to travel being 280kms, on top of the slog in the morning on the sand. As we got to the Belair Gardens Caravan Park on dark everyone was pretty shagged out and looking for a shower and a bed. Quoting Larkey, “We were very sore and fatigued from the sand work and the buffeting winds”. A man of few words our Steve; everyone’s faces told the story of the day, but our spirits were not broken. In fact some of our stronger men were visited by the good fairy as they wiled the evening away watching raw footage from the adventures in the sand.
