Dj & ducatijoolz head north- 2 darwin!

**NordieBoy** · 22nd June 2009, 15:04

Originally Posted by Bass

I don't think so, but then that was the whole point of the discussion and the major item of contention.

**Bass** · 23rd June 2009, 08:19

Another blurry pic for you.
Had me puzzled, this one. It shows the DJ's accomodation in Newman and unless they are travelling in circles, then it's for the night before the previous pic.
Took me a while but finally discovered that Telstra actually got the first pic to me 2 days AFTER the second one.
How does that work???

Jamie tells me that they ran out of fuel 13 km short of town. Not a happy lad. Hope he didn't run the fuel pump dry as that could cause more drama further down the line.

**ducatijim** · 25th June 2009, 01:30

Originally Posted by shafty

Minus 3 Celcuis here this mornin Matey, - ENJOY that climate!

ps Did you mean: Gascoyne junction ?

Yeah Pete, I did. Good onya for careing m8!!

Oh, bugger, I forgot where I left off....amuse ur selves awhile while I goes and backtracks......

Ok, got it now, was in Exmouth and planning to do a circumnavigation of the peninsular right? Well, that did not happen

. Got to a think called Yardie creek, in itself no great problem, but it was salt water and the sand approaches left me feeling decidedly unwell!

So, 120km of backtracking and we were back in Exmouth in time for lunch now! Bugger!

Put the hammer down now, got to Nannutarra roadhouse and it was of the most dubious type,not stayn here we are....so a quick 'splash and dash' and we were away to Tom Price, but will we make it before dark?

Checked in at 1 roadside overniter stop but it was a very rocky location so decided to keep the hammer down and try to get in before dark. That went well enough until the seal ran out about 80km short, oh and that was the time the daylite ran out too

At first the dirt road was very good ( always a BAD sign....it always gets worse!) and it did. To top it off, I had lowered the Kt's headlite sometime earlier as I did not want to annoy folk with it too high with my load, and we would NEVER ride after dark in Oz, right?

It was a real good thing the herd of cows(?) saw me before I saw them, they were only 5km out of Tom Price and bedding down on the road for the nite. Found the only digs in town and forked out $161 for a really below average motel room( least they had cold beer in the bar!!)
.................don't worry dear, 2moro can only get better.........................

**NordieBoy** · 25th June 2009, 08:37

It's tomorrow here already so hurry up...

Need my "breakfast time RR fix".

**Bass** · 25th June 2009, 09:28

More of same but with a variation - Jamie's comments
Pic 1
Shay gap- on shay gap rd between marble bar and boreline rd off northen hiway near sandfire roadhouse. Great ride,stayed @ 80mile beach,great park!

Pic 2
This is the 'marble bar' that town named after-jasper actualy! Met 2 adv ridas here and 1 @ 80mile beach also!

**ducatijim** · 26th June 2009, 02:36

......no time to waste on this computer!
2 good things happened 2day-, 1) I got a data cable here in Broome for my camera, and-
2) we spent a memorable hour getting well aquainted with a rather nice 'boy' camel named 'tiny'( same reason a good mate is named tiny back in NZ!!).

Anyways, enough of my fun, down to the 'hardcore' eh?

Tom Price? much like any other mine town...forgettable if you are not the ones earning $60/hr + everything! It did not look any better in daylite-except there was 1 rather large rock called Mt Nameless( u gotta love the Ozzis, right!!) that just begged to be mounted via its '4wd only' track....count us in!
The views from up there would be right back to taranaki( perth?), so after an overpriced and very ordinary breakfast, we load up, fill up and head off in search of 'adventure'( all 500 kilos of us!!). At first the track was plain, then it became,well, ok....then.....it was a little 'interesting'...( the ozzis always plow their tracks/roads right up/down whatever is in their way...a lack of engineers and too much beer has prevented them finding that it is easier to make a road/track follow the contours around and up/down any given obstacle you see....), so off went MrsDj as the going got more interesting...in the name of 'investigation' you know, so I might find if indeed we could get all 500kgs to the top in 1 go.
I couldn't, sorry chaps, I let the side down I have to confess...the kitchen sink was wot scuttled us. The Pirelli Scorp was 'scrabbling' for bite and it was getting steeper when I bailed and made an about turn, and scooped MrsDj up on the way past.....too bad, down but not out, we hoist our skirts and head out to Karajini NP to peer down a few gorges( national pastime here of the older and infirm...and backpackers too).
Typical NP here, the tracks are FAR worse than the roads around the area, but we percivered and made it, albeit a few fillings short, to Oxers lookout where we could be 'economical' Kiwis and take in the meeting of 4 gorges in 1 viewing....wow, thought we had 'christoper coloumbused' a new pastime untill we found 1/2 the population of WA, some of most other states and a few real foriengers too had thought like us...

.
Thats ok, we are doing the real deal here and going to camp in the bloody park...so there you poofters!! Another 60km of washboard riding brings us to Dales gorge( no, never looked) and its campground...oh, my mistake.....read camp-quarry. Rocks for the bloody moon....not for these 2 softies mate.
We rattle our way outta there and set course to Newman where I know a nice campground and bet I can find a feed too.
Fuel....have I mentioned fuel and KTM990's?
Have I mentioned their 'economy'?
Have I also maybe touched upon their 'generous'( In Austria maybe) fuel capacity?
NO?.....well, bloody listen up. 21L in the tank and 3 in cans, ok? Well at about 330km it was all gone, that was ok. The problem was that Newman was still 13km away,that was not so ok,ok! And it was about 430, about an hour till dark. We get the black bugger off the road so as a roadtrain doesn't do me a favour, then I abandon MrsDj and start walking to Newman( I could tell a 'real' good story of great hardship and suffering here now.....but......) only got 200m when a grey nomad did a fast about turn and delivered my good lady 5L of petrol.....it must have been the leg she showed eh?
So we duely made it into yet another mine town on dark and got a bed in an old bus for $60...it looked like shit but was a nice abode really

I am seriously regretting now my decision not to fit a 40L Safari tank before we set out from Moora, but I had 3 good reasons-
1) nz$2100 + sundries, would buy a whole lotta touring time
2) I really had no facilitys to install it myself and KTM in Perth was 200km away( every day I was on the farm, work or no, cost me rent and board, and now I was also paying for MrsDj to stay in the shithole as well)....and....
3) I had NO desire to have a 40L tank back in NZ, and no reasonable means to get my stock tanks home from Moora....so.....................................

.............I didn't do it.

Still, 2moro will be better, right? Tooright mate

.................................................. .............................tbc

**young1** · 26th June 2009, 07:48

Great thread, thanks for keeping us updated, in the cold of winter back here I for one am envious!

**ducatijim** · 26th June 2009, 18:39

Just like a lizard drinking M8.....bloody flat out here.

Carhnt find time to relax, adventureing is all go over here

**ducatijim** · 27th June 2009, 01:22

......and as we will be 'truely' outback, on the Gibb river road, for the next 4-5 days and out of reach of anything bar HF radio and satfone, I 'spose I should make a wee effort for my adoreing public.....................................

We were well over Newman by morning, just did a quick visit to the radio hill lookout to show D-joolz the town and then we headed north on the gravel thru Nullegine out to Marble bar. At last, we had Darkie in her proper enviroment- good fast hard pack, some bulldust patches but she takes them well considering the loading! Played 'hopscotch' with a roadtrain a few times;we would pass him then a while later while we did nature walks or kodax he would thunder by in a huge cloud of dust!! He was very tolerant of the irritating motorcyclist! Lunch stop at the pub in Nullegine and for half an hour we doubled the population...they looked glum as the little kiwi goldmine motored out of town( I thought I could catch a hint of banjo on the wind.....)
Was a bit sad to hit the seal again at the Ripon hills road about 18km from bustling Marble bar, but it had been a neat ride and good to be covered in red dust again( it is however playing havoc with D-joolz hair...she singlehandedly trys to run each small town we stay in out of their precious water....) Pub was full, had really wanted to stay in the histioric old Ironclad....the motel also was full, and wasn't going to do takeaways either as they were so busy with feeding their own guests....so off down to the van park, it was very nice and had shadey sites, an outdoor kitchen and quite a bit of company, wot more could we want? I relived the pub of a bottle of wine to go with dinner( Beef patties and noodles!), and relived myself against the fence later as a consequence.
Next morning we motored out to see the haleys comet mine, underground tour my map says...$3? yeah right....it was a selling exercise for the woman who crafted some cheap crap to stop herself going nuts out in the desert waiting for the next sucker to come along and pay her $3. If you ever go there, don't bother with the comet mine tour, put the $3 toward a beer in the next town! Did see the 'marble' bar in the river that gave the town the name, just it turned out to be jasper on closer inspection!! While there we met 2 fellow adventurers, on those wee kawasaki things, you know, the klr650 is it? They so reminded my of Bass and I last year with all their gear and even spare tyres too-they had done Perth, to the center, up the middle and then down the west thru the best of the Pilbara and back to perth in due course....they were having fun....brought back some memorys! They did impart 2 very good bits of information thou-
1) the Gibb is prolly the best it has been for a while( That was a week ago now)...and...
2) We should take the track thru Shay gap and out to Boreline rd....I had considered it but with the benefit of previous experience over here decided it prolly would be well cut up. It was great, just like the boys said....real isolated stuff, never saw another person or vehicle along the whole distance( about 150km). Shay Gap, is a gap in the ranges, quite extensive it is too, and once was the site of a mine town, of the same name, which was dismantled and taken away when the mine was dry, just leaving some power poles, and sealed streets....nothing else! Random!
Weighed anchor at a beautiful spot-80 mile beach,off the northern hiway between Pardoo r/h and Sandfire r/h, wow, what a hidden gem this is( just don't swim anywhere along the 80 pristine miles of it- know one knows whats in the water, that is appart from the numerous threadfin salmond that was the reason everyone, bar us 2, where there!)
Met Daryl, a Taffy from Adelaide, on a BMW 1150gsa, who is sponsered by the kiwi brewery that owns xxxx to ride around the continent and take pix of their wares in some unusual places. He was a great guy. Had some fun and shared some fish and beer with each other( don't ask-its a long story who had wot and where it came from.....).
We enjoyed the camp so much that we stayed another day, as did Daryl also, it was kinda catching the laid-back nature of the place and its many 100s of inhabitants. Made some new friends there.
Then, it happend again....you know......IT.
This time at 287km for 21L.......and just 8km short of the next roadhouse.
I AM GETTING WELL OVER KTM!!!!!
But.....I was rescued by a BMW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!( he has 33L and does 20km to each 1 of them!!) Actually, this is a wee lie, you see as Daryl was grinning his way to the roadhouse with a can for me, along came some other folk we befriended at 80 mile and they dumped their 5L in my tank so we passed Daryl coming back the other way with my fuel!!!
Did I mention I am getting tired of the KTM's lack of fuel range......................

Broome........

Pix; 2 Djs leaving Farm at Moora at start of trip and 1 Dj hard at it 'planning' in Broome.

**Waihou Thumper** · 27th June 2009, 06:11

Originally Posted by ducatijim

Did I mention I am getting tired of the KTM's lack of fuel range......................

Hey there, liking the report matey, thanks.
Makes the morning cuppa go down well...
I guess when I got the 990A, I really never knew what to think until I went for a few good rides, hard, slow, hilly, flat etc...

Yep, we know about the range, it is a pity.
I did see the fuel cell you can get for the back of the bike. It is much much cheaper than the 40 litre versions and you do have to do the two into one thing with the muffler too.
The guys sell the whole she-bang and apparently it looks okay and some are using it out there for those meandering long rides across Alaska etc...
It fits onto the left side, you lose one of those big heavy cans and away you go....

Hey, enjoy it out there despite the walks at the end of the day with a fuel can...I bet you are constantly looking down at your odometer after 250Km and waiting for a little cough!

http://www.justgastanks.com/store/in...cPath=1_17_162

You might have already seen this, about $660 give or take with postage from USA, it would give you extended range of 60-70 miles. I know it isn't practicle now though and there is the added price of two new cans on the end. BUT, I guess it is still cheaper than the 40 litre tank which is good but.... as you quoted earlier...etc. $1400 USD for that alone...hmm
For the next big journey, like going to the end of your driveway or checking your boundary back 'ome!

**Bass** · 1st July 2009, 11:42

More cellphone pics - from along the Gibb River Road this time

Jamie's comments (relating to when we were there, last year): -

Recognise this? Cockburn range just above pentecost xing. Stayn at home vally station. Standn here right now!