Camping in Toowoomba foothills

We've just had another quick over-night camp to try more gear and get used to this camping idea before the big trip.
I made sure we had as much of our big trip gear loaded on the bike even though we definitely wouldn't need it, such as the 9 litres of desert emergency water was in the panniers. And yes the bike was very heavy, but not as heavy as its going to be when we load the 15 odd litres of extra fuel on the sides of the fuel tank (somehow).

The bike is still an absolute pleasure to ride above 40km but under that it is very heavy and awkward. But the more time I spend on the bike the more comfortable I'm getting with the weight (the bike minus the extra gear now actually feels light and fun).

 

Itinerary

 

An Adventure Tour of Central Australia

and Outback Queensland

 

6000km

Over 2500KM of desert roads.

Including; The Birdsville Track, The Oodnadatta Track, and The Plenty Highway

 26 days

 18 March TO April

 

Adventure Tour Route

The tour will begin from Brisbane and will proceed at a leisurely pace.  Stops will be made at the following places for a night, or longer.

 

Queensland – Birdsville Track

Day

1      Roma

2      Quilpie

3      Windorah

4      Birdsville / “Big Red”

 

South Australia – Oodnadatta Track

Day

5         Mungerannie

6         Marree

7        William Creek / Lake Eyre

8        Coober Pedy

 

Northern Territory – Plenty Highway

Day

9 /10/11          Yulara / Uluru / The Olgas

12/13/14         Alice Springs / Ormiston Gorge

15                     Bonya aboriginal settlement for fuel   ( Option B is Alice to Tenant Creek)

16                     Tobermoney

 

Queensland –  (option B is via Tenant Creek and Mt Isa to Winton)

Day

17               Boulia

18 & 19      Winton / Bladensburg NP- dinosaurs

20 & 21      Longreach / Stockman’s hall of fame

22               Emerald

23 & 24      Carnarvon Gorge

25                Miles

26                Brisbane

 

# Weather – All Tracks are impassable after heavy rain either locally or draining from the north (channel country). Therefore, different routes will need to be taken and places visited may change considerably.

 

Autumn Temperatures in central Australia can reach into the 40’s Celsius so a minimum of 3 litres per person per day will be carried on ALL days of the tour, random checks will be conducted..

 

## Accommodation; camping is available at all destinations.  Hotel or caravan accommodation is unknown and is the responsibility of the soft who may want to use their services to enquire as to their availability during this adventure.

 _______________________________________________________________________________

Just had the BMW checked over thoroughly by a super good mechanic and he found nothing wrong with the bike so we got the bike serviced good and proper while it was with him.

All good and going to plan!

 

Queen Mary Falls

 

 

We've had our first proper camping trip with the bike and it was quite good. We only forgot to take a box of matches to light our little cooker and the bike only fell over once!

We don't need anything too much more, the tent was excellent, we had room to spare in the tank bag and rear bag so all good in that department.



 

 

Donna putting up the tent.

Brown Falls in the Queen Mary Falls National Park

I booked my holidays from work for next year for the big trip -- 18th March is the date Donna and I will be leaving, heading for Alice Springs. Donna can only get two weeks off work at that time so she will be coming with me to Alice and then flying home while I keep going.

 

I will be continuing on, most likely, via the Plenty Highway -- 900km of absolute isolation and nasty corrigated, bulldust and more. The other option is to go home via Tenant Creek and Mt Isa, the money is on the dust at this point.

 

 

 

_____________________________________________________________

 

Jeff????? currently out of the country in New Zealand--

dunno, still hasn't got a license or bike so we will see.

 



Proposed Route

The proposed route has been tinkered with quite a lot since the first discussions and lot of ideas have been looked at and taken on or tossed in the bin.

The current route, to be discussed further with Jeff later as he's currently out of the country, is as follows.

QUEEENSLAND
Brisbane
Roma
Quilpie
Windorah
Birdsville

SOUTH AUSTRALIA
Mungeranie
Marree
William Creek
Coober Pedy

NORTHERN TERRITORY
Yulara (Uluru)
Alice Springs
Bonya
Tobermoney

QUEENSLAND
Tobermoney
Boulia
Winton
Longreach
Bacaldine
Blackall
Roma
Brisbane

6000km plus

2500km of dirt roads

28days to do it.

The current route is looking something like this!

Some of the highlights of the journey as I see them are;

Birdsville QLD- "Big Red", a sand dune that is very large and is the 'entry' point to the Simpson desert proper.
Birdsville Track - desert and ruins of stone buildings. 1000 odd km of dirt / desert highway. Stoney Desert area.

William Creek SA- "Lake Eyre" salt lake.
Oonadatta Track - to Lake Eyre. - 500 odd km of dirt / desert highway

Coober Pedy SA - Underground living and Opal Mining.

The Olgas and Uluru NT. - If I need to explain?

Plenty Highway NT to QLD. - 1000km of corrugated shitty dirt road back into QLD across very flat channel country that is interesting for its lack of features.

Winton QLD - A quiet town with a lot of dinosaur evidence. A dinosaur site is $30 entry 20km from Winton.

Longreach QLD - Stockman Hall of Fame and the Qantas birthplace.

Roma QLD - Cattle country, Oil and Gas Museum and Winery

Bike Delivery

On Friday afternoon I flew from Brisbane to Sydney.  I flew to Sydney to take delivery of our new Bike the BMW 1100GS. Jeff had kindly made payment to the previous owner and had stored the bike for a couple of days while awaiting my arrival Friday night.
With a quick look on Friday night to see that the bike did in fact exist it was back upstarts for a bit of a chat and some much needed sleep as it was midnight by this stage and the plan was to get up early and start heading for home on the first long distance ride I had ever been on with a bike.

Thankfully Saturday morning dawned clear and sunny for my 6.30am off. The ride itself was uneventful and I didn't come across a single idiot on the road of my 1000 km ride until I was within a 100 km of home and the idiots were manageable.

I originally planned on stopping somewhere and camping for the night as I didn't think I would be up to a ride right through in one go ( I had my sleeping bag, mattress and pillow with me), I was wrong.

The BMW is truly a joy to ride and is very comfortable while remaining quite responsive and firm on the road which inspires confidence.
I road straight through to Brisbane in ten and a half hours and not feeling too bad, a sore butt which is too be expected on any trip of that duration in any type of vehicle.

Sydney - about to leave for Brisbane.

Kawasaki V BMW

Well a lot has happened since the last post. We purchased a lot of parts for the KLR such as, pannier mounts and ammo boxes, new engine skid plate and raising links for the rear end and had the rear shock re-gassed.

Panniers added

Then weekend before last we went for a long ride together, round trip of about 350km. The trip started well with a lot of short skips between little nice country towns. We were going well and the bike seemed well balanced (heavy but happy) and we were enjoying ourselves. This was the test run to see if we could do a long distance ride with this bike. We turned for home with a 100 odd kilometre ride down the highway. Oh no, this is when we truly discovered that our bike is an absolute PIG on the highway, wandering in the lane and being seriously buffeted by the dirty air produced by the other road traffic. I actually had quiet sore shoulders the next day from having to really 'ride' the bike home. On top of this we both got seriously sore bottoms from the movement of the bike and the narrow seat.
With 2000+km of dirt road and 4-5000km of bitumen planned for the big trip, well this bike just wont do.

The KLR is currently for sale!!!!!!





Just today we have purchased another bike. We have a lot of confidence the new bike will be up to the tasks required for the big trip. The bike has been paid for and has been taken into storage by our partner  in crime, Jeff, who is in Sydney where the bike is. Jeff will be getting his bike license this week--finally and getting his planned BMW sometime in November (maybe?).
I decided the best bike for us would be a 'big bore' tourer designed to take a bit of offroad/dirt and still be very capable and happy on the highway  and also be happy loaded up with gear. The only smart option with this brief is the BMW GS. In our case an oldie but a goodie, the 1100 GS 1997model.

New bike at Jeff's place in Sydney

I fly to Sydney this Friday night to catch up with Jeff and then start heading back for Brisbane with the bike on Saturday morning. If I can't get back to Brisbane by Sunday lunch happy and problem free then we have serious issues for the big trip-- I don't think for a second there will be any issues other than being a little tired we I get back.




We have also been busy buying our camping gear and are now pretty happy we have everything. We have mattresses, pillows, towels etc etc

New tent being checked out in the backyard

Getting started

I have had the idea of touring around Australia in the back of my mind for over 20 years. The original idea was to use a four wheel drive but with the passing of time fuel has become more expensive and as I get older I seem to have less and less time to get away.

Donna at Sandgate for fish & chips

A month or so ago a friend of ours stated he was going to go around Australia on a motorcycle. He, Jeff, has no license and no experience on a motorcycle. I thought, hey thats a great idea with the price of fuel and the entry price for purchasing a bike being pretty low. So a few weeks ago my wife Donna and I purchased a bike for ourselves for a whopping $3100 and have now got to 'set it up' with panniers and a tank bag for travelling.
Our friend Jeff is yet to get his license or a bike but he assures us he will be getting both. The planned departure date for our first true adventure is March/April 2013. We will be travelling to Birdsville from Brisbane via Quilpie. From there we plan to ride the length of the Birdsville Track  through the Sturt Stoney Desert to Coober Pedy and up to Uluru and Alice Springs. From there Donna and I will return home after approximately a month on the road and Jeff will continue on the rest of his adventure.

So far, apart from purchasing a Kawasaki KLR650 2005, we have been buying some good safe jackets and pants as we had both sold our gear after selling both our previous bikes about 5 odd years ago. We now have padded leather pants, padded jackets and riding boots. The bike has a Gearsac top-bag and will shortly receive soft panniers as we believe soft is better than hard as when we drop the bike the soft panniers will be able to be re-mounted on the bike if ripped from their mounts. We believe hard panniers, once ripped from their mounts after an accident could be much more difficult if not down right impossible to re-mount on the bike in the middle of nowhere.

We chose the KLR650 for a number of reasons

• affordable 
• good long range fuel tank standard
• same engine used from 87-07 --lots of spares available at reasonable prices
• all reviews were positive
• Good aftermarket parts available

Near Kilcoy

We went for our first 'test ride' of over a 150km today. The bike runs beautifully but needs to be 'ridden'  at over 90km as the bike does tend to move around quite a bit due to any breeze. The seat is nice and comfortable and the suspension felt very good and in control. I did think the rear suspension was sitting too low with our combined weight of 125kg without any extra travelling gear aboard. This thought was confirmed when we rode past a shop and could see our reflexion. The bike must have been only a few inches from bottoming out but hadn't misbehaving during our ride surprisingly. After returning home I re-set the preload on the rear suspension and we both got back on the bike for a look. It made a big difference with the rear sitting a good 6 inches higher with us both aboard. On our next ride I will get to see/feel if the bike still behaves well.

Mt Mee near Dayboro