30.5.10 Billabong Roadhouse to Perth 685km, total 11210km

Off early (ish) after a coffee made on the ever increasingly dodgy cooker, and a few biscuits for breakfast. We headed down the road with the trees gradually getting taller and taller. One emergency breaking episode due to an Emu being startled by the Toyota that I was following then running for the road straight at me. Turned off at the last minute,.. Phew. Half way to Geraldton we came across the first of the cultivated fields and it was huge, there must be some big equipment over here for turning this acreage of soil. The hills were rolling and there was a windmill pumping water periodically. It looked like a scene of McClouds Daughters. We came down into a town Northampton that has heaps of character. It looked like a real Wild West town, with old cottages, several pubs with roughcast walls and lots of deep verandas.

Arrived in Geraldton about 10am having covered about 250km so stopped for a coffee and breakfast. After a bit of a ride around casing the place out we stoped at a waterfront café that had a collection of bikes at the front and a restored Norton in the middle of the Café. Had a very nice breakfast of Pancakes and Dad had some Eggs and Toast. Very pleasant watching boats on the water, children playing on the promenade and several classic motorbikes riding by on this sunny Sunday morning. Geraldton as with so many Australian towns has a very nicely developed and maintained public area. There is a lot of civic pride here.

Rode on towards Perth. Ongoing rolling country and increased population. We were passed by a group of Bikies, all riding very close together in a rough formation. Not long after they passed us they pulled into a roadhouse. We had been going for another 250km or so and were due a stop and Dad who was out front pulled into the roadhouse behind them. I had mixed feelings, I was keen to stop as my concentration was fading, but the thought of interacting with these bikies was less than appealing. What did the kids advise me again, oh that’s right “Don’t let Granddad say anything inappropriate to any Bikies” OK this is not going to be easy. It works out they were a bunch of good guys and very friendly. Talked with a guy in another group first who was out riding with a couple of friends and their Wives? He called them Wenches but I think he meant Wives or Girlfriends. He was interested in our trip, and we got on to talking about travel speed. They were travelling at 150 – 170 km/hr apparently. He was telling me that they cover up there number plates and sure enough they were covered, which gets them out of being ID’d and he also mentioned that if you are caught at 170km/hr then the bike is confiscated, so you should just give running a go. It looked like he was riding a Suzuki Hayabusa, which is a 300km/hr superbike so I guess the police would need their supped up Commodore to catch him, if it came to that. I suspect he will not make old bones.

Continued into Perth after a pie and brew and the country changed again to vineyards in the Swan valley then the roads gradually got busier and busier as we came into Perth. The GPS has been very disappointing with its directions in Australian cities and it was taking us down minor roads so I stopped following it and started following the road signs. We ended up at a police checkpoint and my heart skipped a beat initially as my headlights are not working and it was getting dark (my fog lights are going so being seen is not an issue). It was a breath test and they pulled us in to be breathalysed. Pass, as no alcohol of course but he wanted to see my licence for some reason, perhaps I look too young to be riding a motorbike? I can’t think what else it could be. Anyway once he was satisfied we continued into central Perth.

It is Sunday night and the town was still very busy at about 5.30. We went straight to a motel that was recommended by a couple of Kiwi Moteliers that I met at the last roadhouse fuel up. They do relief motel management and said I should stay at the Kings Park Motel so this took the guess work out, I just put it into the GPS and rode there. Showered then walked down to the local Chinese restaurant for a feed, very nice.

29.5.10 Coral Bay to Billabong Roadhouse 561km, total 10525km

Packed up our gear after the three nights in the one spot, our longest stop yet. We had breakfast in the bakery waiting for the reception to open so we could get the key deposit back then were off. Rode out of Coral bay into the sand dune landscape and turned south. It feels like we had turned the corner and are now heading for home. We stopped at the sign for the Tropic of Capricorn for a photo crossing the line out of the tropics. It already feels cooler.

The terrain was a bit boring really, nothing but low grass on sand dunes. We rode down and joined the North west Coastal highway and shortly after this pulled into the Minilya roadhouse to fuel up. Meet another RT rider from Adelaide who has been on the road for 5 weeks going in the same direction as we are. He spent some time admiring our bikes, which are a newer model than his. He seemed impressed that we came from NZ to do this ride. Back into a steady ride along an unremarkable road through a desiccated landscape to Carnarvon. Carnarvon is like an oasis of vegetation in the dessert, where a lot of fruit is grown, presumably due to irrigation. We looked at stopping at Carnarvon for a coffee but the machine was broken so we just kept on riding to the next roadhouse at Wooramel. We pulled in here for a Coffee and short break. The family from the boat yesterday came in and we said a brief G’Day to them before saddling up again and heading on. Saw an Emu along the way, and then we stopped at a look out, which looked out to the sea at Shark Bay, but mostly looked at the scorched landscape. Turned right at the Overlander Road house and went to Hamelin Pond.

The purpose of stopping at Hamelin Pond was to see the oldest life form on Earth, the Stromatolites. Yesterday we failed to hunt down the biggest fish but today those Stromatolites were not getting away. We hunted them down on the foreshore at Hamlin pond. Stromatolites are made of single cell organisms Cyanobacterium that form rock like structures on the tidal line at Hamlin Pond. They were thought to be extinct until discovered here some time ago. They survive here as the water in Hamlin Pond has a high salinity due to the low flows of sea water in and out of this part of the bay and the high heat and evaporation. They are not that exciting to look at but they have been very important in the Earths ability to sustain life. They have been around for 3.5 billion years, and for 2.9 billion years they were the only life on Earth and spent their time making Oxygen which was scarce in the beginning, and eventually the bought the Oxygen levels up to 20% which allowed other life to get going, so while the Stromatolites look pretty dull they were so important to us that I felt we had to have a look. They are very fragile and slow growing that a walkway has been built over them to prevent people from walking on them. There are cart tracks through the Stromatolytes that were put there over 60 years ago, as this was a point that supplies were bought back and forward from boats. The Stromatolytes grow at about 1 cm per year and they have not recovered from the cart tracks yet. The tide was mostly in and so the Stromatolytes were under water, and with the eye of faith you could see bubbles of Oxygen coming off them, still working hard to oxygenate the planet.

This area has no tree or other building materials so the early settlers build the buildings with Sea shell aggregate that was cut from the rock at the beach, and the quarry is still very obvious although no more rock is cut other than for repair work. Interesting in that the small shells are bound together with the Calcium carbonate that leaches from the shells over time. The shell aggregate had been formed over about 6000 years, so this whole area is pretty old.

We had a Devonshire tea (with Coffee) at the shop, which was an old cottage, shop with shiplap construction, and lots of historic photos and nick knacks for sale. It was now after 3 so we headed back to the Overlander roadhouse and fuelled up and headed down the road for the last bit of safe riding. There are a huge number of dead Roos on the road around here so we are not too keen on riding close to dark.

We rolled into Billabong Roadhouse about 4.30 at it seemed like a good time to stop. Got a room at the Hotel/Motel and went for a halfhearted run as the sun went down. Went into the pub for a beer and dinner. The place is run by an elderly man who has written a book called "Cut the Bullshit (for men only)". Which is a book about his opinion on everything. I opened it up to read about the facts about women and menopause, crickey what is this book all about? I flicked through the pages a bit, there is his opinion about Justice, politics, work ethics everything. Might be an interesting read, no doubt a bit tainted by a life outback, and probably a bit red necked, but who knows. I did not by a copy to find out.

Spent the evening watching Toy Story movies on the one TV channel. Should have bought the book.

28.5.10 Whale shark dives in terror

Up and back into a second shot at seeing the Whale Shark. The day was looking good with an easterly breeze blowing and not a cloud in the sky. The prediction from the boat master was that the sea breeze would pick up and we would end up in a situation of no wind at the critical period. We motored out into the reef and slowly steamed for the open sea through a very convoluted cannel through the reef. We did not stop for the test snorkel today as pretty much everyone was returned from yesterday so straight into the whale search. We saw a Dugong on the way out but it was a pretty limited view as they are very shy creatures. At 10am the spotter plane was in the air and we were in open sea enjoying the lazy roll and pitch of a 2 – 3 metre swell and wind driven chop. Putt putt we went as the captain awaited the call from the spotter plane to give it full noise to where the Whale Shark had been spotted. We saw some turtles out at sea. Putt Putt Putt we went, pitch and roll, Putt Putt Putt, Pitch and roll. I have to admit I am a little prone to seasickness. I can visualise myself as an old sea dog loving the motion of the ocean for a while and using self-hypnosis techniques I can convince myself for a bit longer that I am enjoying it,… Putt Putt Putt, Pitch and Roll, Putt Putt putt, pitch and roll. After about two hours I was loosing the battle with my building nausea and lay down with my eyes closed which is the move of a man in desperation trying not to loose his breakfast. It worked, but eyes shut it was for the next 3 hours or so. Dad in the mean time did loose his breakfast and then looked pretty chirpy after this. Putt Putt Putt, Pitch and roll, Putt putt putt, pitch and Roll, Putt putt putt….

Sadly at about 2.30 the search was called off with a disappointed crew and group of passengers. The plane had been doing a grid search of a 10 X 50km area for four and a half hours and no sign of the Whale shark so clearly the sharks had heard of my intentions to get them in a headlock and show them who’s boss, and dived for deep water. This is the impressive thing about Whale Sharks in this area, that they hang around on the surface. Being fish they do not need to which makes them different to whales of course. They usually spend time in the deep and have been recorded going down to 1.5km deep prior to the monitor tag on them imploding due to the extreme pressure at that depth. They come to the surface at Ningaloo because of the upwelling of nutrients and the spawning of the coral, which gives them a really good feed. This is the only place that they can be predictably seen.

Since the whale shark hunt was cancelled we decided to have a snorkel in the reef, and this was great. The visibility was excellent despite the wind, which had now died right down. We jumped in and went for a swim through some excellent coral reef with the usual plethora of colourful fish active doing their thing. The noise of them crunching into the coral was loud and there was a wider variety of fish eating the coral than I have noticed before. We went for a swim out through a maize of coral outcrops and then floated back with the current to the boat. On the way back we connected with a massive shoal of Trevally? That was circling away. I dived down into them a couple of times and they initially scattered but then closed in and circled me. It was a great experience. Some of the others saw a turtle but I missed seeing it. There was a reef shark swimming along with the Trevally, probably 4 – 5 feet, and he went right beneath me. Of course a 4 – 5 foot shark looks like jaws with the magnification of the mask added to the magnification of my perception of sharks following watching Jaws as a child.

We came ashore and the staff were very apologetic about the failed attempt to find the big fish. They gave out vouchers to get a free outing in the future, valid for 3 years, I guess I will have to return. The thing about viewing wildlife is that if you want a guarantee to see it then you need to go to a Zoo and everyone seemed to accept this and I did not witness any bad feeling, just a mutual disappointment about the no show of the Whale Shark. Last time I challenge a Whale shark to an arm wrestle. The poor thing is still probably cowering in the depths wondering what an arm is!

Watched the sun set from a cloudless sky into the pristine ocean with only the burst of waves on the Reef intervening.

Phoned Di, as there was a message on the phone about the Tree Felling team knocking down the power lines at home. I showed the guys the lines and said “are you sure you won’t have a problem with these lines?” They assured me that there was no chance, and confirmed that they carry insurance if they do anyway. Somehow I knew that those big old trees would reach the lines if given the chance, but what do I know about these things. Unfortunately this type of event only builds my righteousness. Thankfully the power line guys had turned up and replaced the broken power pole and restored power to the house. Apparently it is very cold at home with snow all around, the heat pump has stopped working to boot, which does not help. It is hard to believe this really as we are still in very warm conditions. The temperature is no longer the uncomfortable humid type but a very comfortable dry, high twenties I would guess. The water temperature is about 25 degrees.

Had a couple of beers at the Backpackers and a hamburger that they were putting on. Watched a bunch of music videos from the 80’s, 90’s and naughties. A very happy atmosphere in this place with music videos, pool table and table tennis all beside an appealing looking swimming pool. Dad could not contain his Publican nature and had to tell off a couple of the young men sitting on the pool table, then to compensate went up and slapped a stranger on the shoulder saying something jolly to him, then proceeded to tell the barmaid off for pouring a Guinness can incorrectly. The poor old boy must be missing home.

27.5.10 Day off

What a cosy night in the sack. For the first time I slept under a thermal cover (my sleeping bag which was lovely and cosy, instead of a sheet in the unescapable heat. I have to admit that I am more of a cold weather person, which I have discovered in numerous environments now. It is the humidity really more than the heat that messes with my physiology, I sweat profusely at the best of times and add in the inability for that sweat to evaporate and the whole system has a short circuit and I go into meltdown mode. I can handle the dessert but the tropical humid heat and I am like a fish out of water, or a cat in water might be a better image.

Anyway a nice sleep in then up to meet the tour for the day to go out and try to catch a Whale Shark, I mean look at a Whale Shark (apparently they are too big to get your arms around). I got measured up for some flippers and wetsuit and Dad sat in the corner being a good boy. There was a hold up as the Captain of the boat was assessing the weather (now I do not know about you but when a Captain of a ship or the Pilot of a plane is not too sure whether it is safe to go, I get a bit concerned). After an hour or so they gave the thumbs up and we were off in a bus to meet the Boat, just around the corner at the harbour. It was quite windy and the Coral Bay wind turbines that provide between 50 – 90% of Coral bays power needs were happily spinning away. There were a few cloudbursts in the distance. The boat was a nice single hull boat of about 60feet I guess (I am not very good at guessing boat size, but it was a big one). We cruised out into the sheltered waters of the Ningaloo reef with waves crashing into the outer reef and looking a bit menacing in the context of the Captain taking an hour to decide to go. Out of the little harbour it got very windy and the staff put up wind shelter to keep some of the draft out.

The spotter plane went overhead after we had been on the go for half an hour or so. The plan is that we go out and have a practice snorkel in the sheltered water so they can assess if everyone floats or not, then the spotter plane finds a Whale Shark and off we motor flat out to get to where it has been spotted. The Ningaloo reef creates sheltered water for most of the trip and they duck out into open water to get to the big fish when in the rough vicinity, so even if it is rough off shore most of the trip is sheltered. A good plan. The spotter plane is an essential part of the equation as the sharks are under water and you would never see them from the boat.

We stopped and went for a snorkel, I was dead keen to get in and was first onto the platform at the back and as soon as the word was given in I went. As keen as mustard, I have really enjoyed getting back in the water and was keen to have a look at this reef. We swam around fairly fast following the lead swimmer and practicing looking along the first metre or so of water. This is important as the Whale sharks are swimming along fairly shallow around here and will be in the first 1-3 metres of water, but when snorkelling the natural tendency is to look down, which is usually where the action is on a reef etc. If you are not looking up then the Whale Shark could swim straight past you and you would never see it.

We saw lots of coral in good condition on this part of the reef and the usual variety of interesting and colourful tropical fish, clams, and starfish but the highlight for me was seeing a turtle. This turtle was probably about 1 metre long and was swimming along just in front of me. He or She was quite happy until I swam over the top and this lead to a burst of swimming to get away, obviously was a bit nervous that I might be looking for Turtle soup. It was a great to see a turtle in the flesh like that, and as with a lot of marine animals he was a graceful beast to observe in his natural habitat. Penelope would have loved it.

Once the staff were satisfied that we could all float and move forwards we climbed back on the boat and started motoring North where the Whale Shark had been yesterday, but just as we were getting the briefing about Whale Sharks and swimming with them the boat did a 180 degree turn and started heading back. Great I thought the Whale Shark has been spotting South today, but sadly no the Spotter plane had returned home as the weather was too rough for them to fly through to spot. No Spotter Plane no Whale Shark, no point in continuing so the trip was cancelled. Disappointing.

Back on shore we decided to stay another day as the company offered a free second trip or a voucher redeemable in the next three years for a repeat trip. Dear reader, this place is way out of the way and in the middle of nowhere, which I repeat is a big place in Australia. My initial thoughts were this would be a great place to bring the family for a holiday, and I know Nicky and Mac want to do this some time, we could all come together and have a wonderful family holiday, of course I will be back within three years, but then I remembered just how useless I am at playing Lotto, and how expensive it is travelling this far with 5 kids in tow, and the reality of the unlikely return in the near future dawned on me and hence we decided, there is no time like now, so we will stay for another day and go out again tomorrow.

Carpe Diem!

We headed down to the Hotel, had a coffee and Skyped home. Justin saw we were on line and dialled in, so had a catch up with him and heard about the extreme weather at home. Skyped Nelson with some frustrating drop outs with the Internet at home still playing up, gave up on Skyping the tavern so just phoned. Had lunch at the Hotel, a bit of a disappointing Caesar Salad.

I rented a mask and Snorkel and went for a swim off the beach. The coral reef starts within a few metres of the beach and there are large fish swimming right up at the beach edge. So it was very interesting. The coral was a bit beat up I guess from people standing on it, so it is not quite as good as the reef we snorkelled at this morning. I got a bit cold with the wind after getting out, so spent the rest of the day mooching around not doing very much at all. Did some washing, drank more coffee, then beer and ate some food then bed. Dad and I had a game of table tennis, involved a lot of chasing after the ball. A simple life we lead.

26.5.10 Tom Price to Coral Bay 632km, total 9964km

Went for a run this morning, man am I getting fit on this trip! I went for my first run at the start of the trip and it was a 50 metre run, then take a photo, walk for another 50 metres then take another photo, then realise that I have been going for 15 minute so better turn back as don’t want to push it and get an injury. This morning I went hard out and ran for about 7 minutes before noticing that the cattle were looking at me, got nervous turned around and headed back. Total run time 10 – 15 minutes, it’s a long road to fitness, but here I come.

We packed up and hit the road deciding to skip breakfast in Tom Price and just head to the next town of Paraburdoo, just 80km down the road. It was cold, breath test positive cold. You will be thinking will he never be happy about the temperature, days of whinging on about the heat, now it’s too cold. It was a nice change and had the grip heaters on full. Heaps of Mine four wheel drives on the road all with just one person in them. It is a mystery what they are doing. Surly in an open cast mine there is one or two diggers and a whole lot of trucks taking the ore away and that is about it, but clearly no there is an army of other people running around in shiny four-wheel drives doing something else. The four Wheel drives all have a pole with a flag, and a light at the top of the pole. I guess this is so that they do not get squashed by the oversized trucks running around that would drive over the top of a shiny four wheel drive without even noticing. There was a monument at the exit to Tom Price that is a retired Lectra Haul dump truck. It was massive. To give some idea it weighs 98 tonne, and carries 155 tonne, has a 1600HP motor that weighs 5 tonne, carries 2877l of fuel and burns it pretty quickly I guess. I am glade I don’t have to full that one up. It has tyres that are 3 metres diameter. This machine on display worked at Tom Price mine between 1980 and 1992 and moved about 23 million tonnes of Ore in that time, before it blew a fuse and was retired.

Fuelled up in Paraburton and found that there was no roadhouse for breakfast. The Woman said we might be able to get into the mess hall that serves breakfast for single men. Not sure if this was down and out single men or mine workers. We went to the dairy instead but there was a power cut so it was shut. The bakery was open though so we got a coffee milk and a donut and sandwich. It was quite nice. Listened to a lot of twittering from the collection of young mothers who obviously meet for a morning get together after dropping of kids at school, it was like white noise, couldn’t hear a word as there were so many simultaneous words coming from the group.

Went to leave and Dad had lost his key again. Learning from previous experience I went straight to it on the grass where his hanky had been pulled out of his pocket for a blast and hooked the key out. I was getting my helmet on when there was a grunt and an almighty crunching noise. Looked up and Dads bike with him on it had fallen over. Both were on the ground. A man was on the spot immediately to help and we got it back onto two wheels with petrol pouring out of the overflow pipe. The mirror had popped off and the indicator housing was broken, a few scratches to bike and rider, but no major damage otherwise. These bikes fully fuelled and loaded with gear are probably about 350kg and once they start to go in the wrong direction they are very hard to stop, Dad was standing on uneven ground and was trying to get something from his pocket when it got away on him.

Rode off down a very interesting road. Another Terex dump truck monument as he went out of town then we were into a minor road headed for Nanutarra Roadhouse. Sparse bush and red earth with interesting hills and rock outcrops down this road that had hardly any traffic. We came across a lizard sunning himself in the middle of the road, a real beauty, about 1 metre or more, and the same colour as the red earth. He stood out like a sore thumb in the grey road especially as he had his head up high as we approached. His head dropped to the ground as he tried to blend in to his surrounding as we passed, this didn’t work as red on grey, that stands out. I turned around to get a photo, but he was gone and was invisible, red on red, now that’s hard to see.

Two Emu were roadside further on, but they took off as we pulled up. So I was right this is Road Runner territory and there he goes with his girlfriend, I started scanning the horizon for Coyote. Saw a couple of Roos and another Lizard roadside.

A Robinson Helicopter was doing some work, then further on a Cessna was doing low level circling, so lots of activity.

After about 270km we arrived at Nanutarra Roadhouse, about midday so fuelled up on 91 unleaded, not ideal for these bikes but they were out of super. Ongoing discussion with strangers about the bikes and our trip, and hearing about their previous bikes and wishes to get another one. Had some lunch. This was the most expensive hamburger I have ever had. $14.50 for a hamburger that was only slightly larger than a McDonalds Cheese burger. Some of these roadhouses are brutal with their pricing as they have a captive audience. When it is 2-300km to the next fuel you are foolish to ride past them and they know it.

Rode back on the North West Coastal highway, taking some photos of the Ashburton River, which is dry, surprise surprise. Ongoing interesting rock outcrops every now and then but mostly just flat terrain with light scrub. After about 100km stopped as there was an information booth in the middle of nowhere, and I was fascinated to see what it was information for? It had a lot of info about the North West Cape and things to see and do before you get to Exmouth as the turnoff was just up the road. We decided to make a cuppa and have a little break.

A couple of road trains pulled in for a break. I was fascinated to discover that Humans got out of the cabs and were talking to each other. I have been waving out to these road trains but I have not seen the driver’s wave back, there is just an ominous darkness about the cab that is way up in the heavens. I had wondered if these trucks were in fact driven by unwaving robots or something. I now realised that I had probably been too focused on the final trailers wobbles to be looking at whether the drivers were waving or not. I thought I had better go and meet these drivers, and taking the approach that others have taken successfully with me walked up and said “ I see you have got a truck there?” “What?” comes the reply. I thought - poor thing he is deaf, so raised my voice and repeated “ I SEE YOU HAVE GOT A TRUCK THERE, I USED TO DRIVE A TRUCK?” ‘P--- off” he replies. A bit cold I thought but persistence usually pays off in this situation, so “Yes I used to drive an International, with a 40 foot hay rake, man did it cut the corners, I bet you know about trailers cutting the corners with one of these Road trains?” “Are you deaf you Tosser, I said P--- off!” “Yes that truck was a really tricky thing to drive, not like these modern machines that must be easy. I used to have to hold the old truck in gear and if travelling for a long time we used to jam a tool box between the dash and the gear stick to hold her in gear”, “Do you know how hard it is to eat steak without any F%@king teeth? You two wheeled tosser, because you are about to find out”. He’s not that friendly I thought. “Yes of course I stopped driving the truck and went onto driving tractors, but I guess you have a tractor unit on your road train then don’t you”. “Hold still you little b%#$&rd, so I can give you what you deserve”. Now running at a steady jog, in a zig zagging course I was wondering if he would actually warm up at all.” I stopped driving tractors and went onto Combined harvesters, now there is a tricky machine to operate, have you ever driven a Combine?” “ Stop running you piece of road kill?” he is not catching me, perhaps he is warming up after all, “I then drove a silage stack tractor, now that was exciting, especially as it was on a night shift and the tractors lights were pretty much nonexistent, so the edge of the stack was hard to see and a five metre drop is enough to get anyone worried?” “If I hadn’t Puff, just had a, Puff, puff, truckies breakfast, Puff, you would be, Puff, dead meat by now, puff puff” then he collapsed. So I went and had a look in the cab to see what it looked like, just like a big car really.

Actually that last paragraph might not have been entirely true. The truckies were actually very friendly and we had a good chat. They were on a compulsory break that they have to take every 5 hours. They can drive for 17 hours per day but the breaks are rigidly adhered to as a GPS tracking device tells head office if they have taken the legal breaks or not. They had delivered cars to Port Hedland and were returning to Perth for another load. It takes 600l less fuel on the return trip due to the lesser load. A good couple of guys to talk to.

We headed into the final phase of our ride out onto the road across the scrubby range. This was progressively more sandy ground as we approached the sea. Hanging a left at the final T intersection on our westward journey we rode along to Coral bay. This was very sandy looking ground with only low grass on the vegetation front, but interestingly the termite mounts were all standing out giving a stone henge type appearance to the landscape. It was quite windy and gusty.

We arrived into Coral bay and found the Backpackers that we were booked into. We organised a tour tomorrow to look at and swim with the Whale Sharks, these man-eaters are up to 18metres long and hang around off the coast here so I said I would be keen to see them and even give them an arm wrestle to show them who’s boss. Should be interesting.

I went for a run. Yes that’s right the second one for the day, whoa am I turning into some sort of elite athlete or what. We headed down to the local hotel to get onto the Internet and ended up having a beer and dinner here as the first State of Origin Game was on and there was a great atmosphere. Seemed to be an even split between Queensland and NSW supporters. Our ears were ringing at the end of the night.

Tom Price to Coral Bay 632km

Hello readers. We have been in the wilderness, the internet wilderness that is and we are now partially in the civilisation. Partial as I have updated the blog with 6 days but no photos, as it wonn't let me put them on, shame as they are real beuties, you'll have to use your imaginations until I can update it. so grab a coffee or a cool drink sit back and read on, it been an interesting few days. More on today later, but we are on the west coast, woah had to turn left and head south, just about hit the ocean.

Sandfire Roadhouse to Tom Price 737km, total 9332km

Up at 5.30 and went for a jog/walk with the camera to photograph the sun rising over the vast flatness around Sandfire. A few kangaroos jumping around and one that a road train hit right outside the roadhouse, so reconfirms the idea of not trying to start riding too soon. It was lovely and cool with a breeze blowing and we showered and packed up, coffee and biscuits in the motel room then we were off for the first few kms before breakfast proper. About 140km down the road we stopped at Pardoo roadhouse for a breafast. The water was a bit off as the Coffee there tasted very odd, I had some thoughts of the Wolfe Creek movie which made me a little light headed at the thought of poisoned water in the outback. Somehow maintained my consciousness though and we mounted the steeds again and headed into Port Headland. Big areas of not very much around here, although it was quite pretty in the early morning sun which was behind us and making the red earth really bright and the deep blue sky and the yellows of the bush and grass, really made it look like a picture so we stopped a couple of times to take photos. Heaps of Road trains as we came closer to Port Headland as there is obviously a big mine here.

Got into Port Headland mid morning and that was 290km for the morning so we stopped for a look and a brew. Port headland is a pretty little town (Not). There is no prize for guessing why Port Headland is here as you come into the town. There is a real industrial feel to the place with heaps of mining cars and four wheel drives around, a huge salt pile by the salt flats and row of Ore trucks on the railway line making an extremely long train. Further into the port there is a large and dirty port and heaps of ships mored of the coast. I guess this is a mining service town and salt is a sideline, but I could be wrong as I did not do any reading about this. We stopped in the town center which was nice and clean.

Dad is in full tourist mode. As we were riding down the main street, which had a bit of activity going on, Dad rolled to a stop in the middle of the road and got his camera out and took a photo, in no rush at all. The guy in a four wheel drive behind him said something with real passion about tourists, that began with the letter F, but I am no good at lip reading so not sure what he said. The jesture was an internationally recognisable sign though. Dad didn’t seem to notice and in his own time after taking his photo continued on his way allowing the town to return to its usual activity.

The Café could not serve the food on plates the woman told me. Because they can not find anyone to clean the plates, hence it is all disposable around here. I felt like giving her a slap and telling her to snap out of it, but being a sensitive new age guy I just said “Oh, that’s a shame”. She did tell me how great it was through the Karajini National park and the drive to Tom Price, which is the second local who had recommended this route so we decided to veer inland and take this route.

We fuelled up as the distance between fuel is getting further and further, then took a left and headed south for a bit. Within a few kms (well 100 or so) the scenery changed significantly. We started into a fairly vegetation free red earth area then this evolved into red boulders and rock outcrops. Coming into the first set of hills the scrub was very sparse and the rocky red earth lifted to escarpments. I t really was very striking and the type of terrain we have not seen yet. This really felt like the outback dessert that you expect Road runner to come screaming around the corner “Beep, Beep” then “clunk” Coyote drops a boulder on the road, which misses the Runner but makes the road crack like ice. I am living a childhood cartoon in this environment. We took lots of photos.

We pulled into Munjini Roadhouse about 3 and fuelled up. I was a bit distracted and ended up spilling petrol all over my tank. There was a group of 52 people in Mitsubishi Pajiros travelling as a variety club, with a fire truck full of beer, two of the women asked me if I had a sore Bum riding the bike. Interesting question that everyone asks me. Does my bum look sore? I don’t think so. The reality is that no, in fact non of my body is sore other than my knees which have been a bit gammy since I was in my early twenties anyway from cycling too hard on too little training, and I need to stretch them periodically but otherwise no the bum is good, as is the rest of the body, I reassured the ladies and thanked them for there interest.

Had a couple of pies and a coffee, then decided to carry on to Tom Price. Rode passed the Karijini National park and this had lots of cracked rock escarpments and gorges, very picturesque. I saw some small mouse like creature that was hoping across the road like a kangaroo. It is hard to look at this country as a Kiwi and think of it as a National park because it is so different to what we accotiate with a National park, that is Mountains and lush bush, however without a doubt it is an unspoiled natural area (apart from the roadside burning that adds a chared look to the scene every now and again). We seemed to be climbing and climbing and it was cooling down, which was great. Could see the mining operations in the distance which seems to be an integral part of a national park in this part of the country.

The light became difficult as we rode west into the setting sun. Eventually rode into Tom Price another mining town, and tried to find accommodation, but the hotel and Motel was booked up so rode around to the camping ground to take the last beds they had which was a back packers bunk. Pizza in town then a lie down.