Big Push to Perth…!!

After yet another loooooong day in the saddle, I have arrived in Perth…!! In cold and overcast conditions, I made the 935 km ride in just under ten hours…

GiGi told me when next to adjust my steering, and then promptly went back to sleep until we reached Geraldton...!!

I managed to leave Carnarvon at 6.00 am, an early start considering that it was still dark out, and I was nervous about an encounter with the Wallabies that might still be out and about at that time of the morning…!!

I needn’t have worried…!! Despite scanning the roadside for the first hour, and riding a little slower than I would have liked, by the time the sun came up, I had still not seen hide or hair of the bouncing marsupials…

As usual, the landscape around me, and for the next few hundred kilometres, remained flat and empty… It reminded me of the Northern Cape all over again, except there, our farmers actually make use of fences to mark their boundaries… Out here in north Western Australia, they are yet to discover this amazing invention…!!

Not that it matters I guess, as I never saw a single head of livestock on my ride to the Overlander Roadhouse, over 200 kilometres south of Carnarvon…!! Wallaby carcasses and their attendant flocks of crows and Kites, and the occasional much larger raptor which I assume was an eagle of some sort, were all that broke the monotony of this long stretch…

More wide open spaces than you can shake a stick at... If you can find a decent sized stick to shake, that is...!!

The Overlander Roadhouse sits on the intersection of the North West Coastal Highway, and the road that takes one to Denham and Monkey Mia, where selected tourists are allowed to enter the shallow waters of the bay and frolic with wild dolphins… Originally, I had planned to visit this area, but was told not to bother going there if I had not booked lodgings well in advance…!! It was also 150 kilometres off the main highway, which meant an additional 300 kilometres in total for the off chance of being selected to enter the water to feed the dolphins…

The Overlander... A warm and inviting place, and final stopover for people visiting Monkey Mia...

After refueling, I stood poring over my map to make sure I had enough fuel to get me to Dongara, 350 km to the south, where I intended to refuel again before the final run in to Perth…

On the outskirts of Northampton, wheat fields carpeted the land...

By the time I had ridden through Binnu, Ogilvie and Bowes, I was happy to note that the scenery had finally begun to change… I began passing large fields of wheat and what looked like lucerne, confirming that I was entering an area where people clearly believed that sticking a plough in the ground could yield profitable results…!!

Well fed cattle grazed in fenced off paddocks, and large flocks of sheep clustered together to keep warm…

For the most part, I had ridden under a thick layer of cloud, which thankfully never allowed their contents to spoil my ride…

Even so, at times I considered pulling over to add another layer of clothing under my riding jacket… Optimism always got the better of me though, and I pushed on hoping to ride into a patch of warmer weather, or at least find some sunshine…

With a fuel stop still ahead, I figured that I had another five hours left in the saddle, to go with the five I had already made...!!

I reached Geraldton just after midday, tired and sore, my shoulders and lower back aching… The combination of distance and the cold weather were getting to me, and the next road sign I saw, did not help matters much…

Perth was still a long way away…!!

I put my head down and rode hard for Dongara, promising myself a decent rest stop…

Scraggly clumps of Eucalyptus trees lined the route, and behind them I caught glimpses of neatly laid out farms… Small dams held water for irrigation, and grain silos stood close to solid looking farmhouses…

This was a huge change to what I had become used to since setting out from Darwin…

Not that the Northern parts of Australia are without a certain beauty, it was just the endlessness of it all that got to me after hours riding through there…

There is beauty to be found in any landscape, but I think if you had to stare at the roof of the Sistine Chapel for 10 hours at a stretch, you’d also begin to wonder what the fuss was about…!!

I limped into Dongara with barely a drop of fuel in my tanks, having been pummeled by a headwind ever since leaving Geraldton… I eventually found a filling station, which was attached to a camping good store and refueled for what I hoped was the last time today… I then set about demolishing a Super Size Snickers bar and two bottles of Gatorade, while strolling around a stately old Ficus Tree that stood across the road from the pumps…

Large trees row my boat, and this one was no exception...!!

Just over 200 km to go, with 735 km behind me...

These little yellow flowers were much in evidence all the way from Carnarvon...

I stopped again at the Badgingarra Roadhouse, to stretch my legs and empty the contents of one bottle of spare fuel into the Big Fellas tank…

The filling station was a few hundred metres off the road, and stood behind a large and well maintained sports complex, with netball courts, a hockey field and an athletics track, yet there was not a single soul about…!!

I then remembered that it was now the school holidays in Australia, and I guessed there was a school somewhere off behind the trees that formed a barrier between the road and the village behind them…

I tried to call Michelle van Eyk in Perth, to let her know that I was about two hours away, but could not get a signal on my mobile… This was another thing that irked me about Australia…!! Cell Phone signals were far and few between, and I had on occasion ridden for hundreds of kilometres without getting a signal…!!

Pour me a Gin-Gin Michelle, I'm almost there...!! "Almost" being the operative word, if you consider how far I had ridden already...!!

Even in darkest Africa, this was unheard of…!! More and more I have come to realise that Australia is not exactly the 1st World country we take it to be…!!

In many aspects it lags far behind many 3 rd World countries I have visited, and in the case of telecommunications, this is especially evident…!!

I stopped again about 100 kilometres north of Perth, and finally was able to confirm my imminent arrival…

An hour later I was cruising through the streets of the northern suburbs of this sprawling city, that so many former South Africans called home…I had heard that over 100 000 of emigrated here in the past few decades, and looked forward to meeting some them…

But the main thing on my mind was that I had completed the first leg of my Australian tour… I had ridden from Darwin to Perth in just 5 rides, covering 4740 kilometres in total…!! (This IS a country for old men, after all, Paul…!!)

Tired but still smiling at the prospect of another long day almost at an end...!! And yeah, that's a two handed camera shot... Doing another "no hands" stint...!!

1st Leg... Darwin to Perth... (4740 km) Done and Dusted...!!

With GiGi’s assistance, I found my way without any problems to the driveway of the van Eyk’s home in Kallaroo, and was welcomed by Michelle and John… Even though I was exhausted, I found it very difficult to refuse John’s offer of a shot of Black Label, and with a glass of Mr. Walker’s finest in hand, we retired to the sitting room to get acquainted…

The beautiful home of the van Eyks in Kallaroo, Perth...

As you can see, my "office" in Perth HQ, has all the amenities a man could ever need...!! I might be here for a while...!!

At 8.00am the following morning,  the Big Fella was due to go in to Perth BMW for a long overdue bit of TLC…

And I needed to get a new passport…!!

Another busy day lay ahead…!!

©GBWT 2011