Dj & ducatijoolz head north- 2 darwin!

**ducatijim** · 4th July 2009, 00:08

Originally Posted by Bass

Was there any water in the Pentecost this time around?

Fark yes, did all the research, asked all the right questions, hit it at low tide-0630- water was over my knees as I walked Ducatijoolz over!

Must have been over 400 and that made the crossing interestng, but I did not drop it this time!

**ducatijim** · 4th July 2009, 23:19

Broome, well it was a favorite destination last time i was up here, but nothing stays the same and it was quite good the morning i saw it diminish in my mirrors!
However it did provide a change of scene for a while and a chance to do some important stuff-
Like, I got the local Honda shop( only bike shop) to do an oil change on Darkie, its a hell of a job and to do it myself would have voided the warranty( having anyone except a KTM dealer voids the warranty...so there that goes eh! I was taking it to the nearest dealer, NT motorcycles in Darwin( Bass will remember them), but that would have put another 2-3000km on the already overdue oil....wot do you do?)
They were most accomadating and charged like a near dead bull. But its done and I feel better with an overheating engine under me that I know at least has new oil to cook!!

Did I mention overheating? these things can't stand the heat up here, its around 34' and when crawling along a sand track the fan is howling and the guage climbs....I would never take a bike like this on a real adventure; it would die!( I think Ewan and Charlie did make the best choice...and oh by the way....apparantly they are up here somewheres doing a filming.....) And all that heat...guess where it goes? Yup, right around the legs and crutch-the frame gets so hot it burns the lower leg thru your pants! The other evening I rode solo 6k up the road to look at the Drysdale river, second gear sandy track and the heat was near unbearable around the legs and feet before I had gone 4km!

I digress, we also did a nice wee camel ride along Cable beach 1 evening, it was a great experience actually that both of us really enjoyed; 1 of the better 'tourist' things we have done! All the other tourist traps were booked into July so we kept our cash! I got a new data cable for the camera so I can post pix.....and we went grocery shopping at a proper supermarket to provision for the next leg which has some camping where we will get to do the whole rub-2-boyscouts-together thing!
And, I got a bigger fuel container, I bought a nice 5L plastic jobbie with a spout and a breather, and guess wot? the bonus is it holds 6.5L!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!
I even got stuck in not 1 but 2 traffic jams...yes I know....hard to belive, they don't have our right hand rule here so if you are waiting to turn right onto a major road you can wait a while as no-one has to give way to you, I got so sick of overheating 1 arvo that I just mounted the kerb and went left!!!

The hiway thru to Derby is boring like most of the main road scenery up in WA, had a quick bite and refuelled everything I could find as we were off onto the Gibb River road next and more k's than I care to count to next fuel at Mt Barnett R/H. Well bugger me if its not sealed almost to the Windjana gorge turnoff now...progress! here was a broken 4x4 bus just off the seal...the corrogations had broken an axle.....ha-bloody-ha....its these bastards hooning thru that bugger the road to start with! Camp was like Mt Maunganui at New Years....brimming! I thought we were getting away from it all not bringing it with us?
Pot noodles was ok, but neither of us liked the 'mattress' that nite and we have not used the tent since.....................................Even the crox are overwhelmed with the bloody tourists and refused to show, so this was a bit of disappointment( there was even a 45 seater coach in there for the nite, 1 of 2 we saw on the GRR)
On the track about 7 next morning, 370 km to Drysdale river station today, turned out that 365km of that was severly corrugated! Must give both Darkie and Ducatijoolz top marks here as neither of them had anything fall off or break! Bloody amazing...when we dragged ourselves in thru their front gate, a wee voice comes in my ear ' wonder wot price a donga is?'....being a loooong suffering husband, I was immediatly able to translate that into; 'you better spring for hard digs if you know wots good for you M8', so I did! And scored a nice cold beer for the gesture!
I didn't exactly get off to such a good start with the old boiler manning the counter;
O/B; and how are you today.....
Me; hot tired and dusty, but....
O/B I don't really care!
Me; so, why did you ask?
O/B; I was just being polite..
Me ; so why stop now?
Julie rescued me...whew, or I would still be there! ( we got to just scowling at each other by the end of day 2, good progress I thought!)
We really enjoyed our donga, and cold beers, did I mention they had heaps of cold beers?............................................ .................................................. ...............?

Now this is my kinda place, I don't really know wot it is but it just feels 'right'.
So good in fact that we did 2 nites in their fine donga, had a couple of great home cooked meals( without CHIPS) for a change, took numerous cold beers on board, oh yes. we also did a flight over Mitchell falls in between! Now that was a high lite! 2 hours worth in a Ozzi built GA8 Airvan complete with 2 pilots...felt like royalty! I have to commit ADV riding 'blasphomy' here now and say this beat riding out there for a miserable wee glimpse of a rocky gorge and some trickle running over it....from the air we saw 1/2 of all Oarstruckingfailure( we thought!).
Last time up here we didn't even see the Drysdale river, so I made a special effort and rode down to it just before 'beer-o-clock' and did a couple of fast passes thru the water just to get cool, that was nice but the sand track I followed for a few Km ended up scorching my boots and pant bottoms from the engine heat.

Met a guy and his travel companion( a nice russian beauty!) who turned out to be a bit of a celeb here- he is known as the bush tucker man and does a tv show about wot and where to find wot you can survive on out here ( think Gordon Ramsey crossed with Steve Irwin). Anyway, his wee Landrover freelander had dropped its ( diesel) fuel filter up at the Mitchell plateau 3 days previously- had to send message for help via bush telegraph- and camped at the roadside till it arrived. Now said help was an elderly Isuzu tilt deck all the way from Broome ( 10 hrs solid) that also broke down as it arrived to rescue Norm! They all limped back to Drysdale river( about 150km) where the mechanic was able to 'jerry-rig' the fuel filter on the Isuzu but couldn't fix the Freelander, so at least the truck could now get the Freelander and its camper trailer back to an agent in Broome....bit of a bugger as Les and the Siberian beauty were headed out to Arnham land( opposite direction!).
I guess that may be the attraction of these remote places, the folk you meet and how friendly and outgoing everyone is- you cannot be lonely, unless you chose it so.
We had been told the rest of the Gibb on to Wyndham is much better than wot we had done to get here, only, we did have to do the 60km of corrugated sand back down Kulumburu road to the Gibb.

They were wrong.

It was shite all the way!

But picture this- 120km into the mornings ride, we spy a wee sign at the side of the road threatening 'scones with jam and cream' at Ellanbrae station ahead......Really?

Yeah, really.....5km down their rough homestead track we find a bit of an oasis out in the bush....tropical gardens with the most humongous Boab tree centerplace, a nice shadey area and scones with cream and jam!!! Wow.

Made the rest of the trip, another 120km, into Homevalley Station, a breeze!!!( I exagerate!!) ....least we were in a good frame of mind!

**tri boy** · 5th July 2009, 09:45

I think the bush tucker mans name is Les, (Les Hiddens).
Ex Oz, army. (was on a survival w/end with him in the early 90's).
Nice bloke.
More pics please.

**Bass** · 5th July 2009, 11:50

Had some more texts from "Our Man in Oz". Has arranged storage for the bike in Darwin and they fly out 0200 Tuesday - last leg on Emirates A380 as well. I'm looking forward to pumping him for some details when they get back - (probably not a great choice of words there).

**Waihou Thumper** · 5th July 2009, 15:23

Originally Posted by ducatijim

I think Ewan and Charlie did make the best choice...and oh by the way....apparantly they are up here somewheres doing a filming.....)

Funny you should say that matey, I was watching Wimbledon the other day and Ewan was in the crowd as the camera panned around between games.
He had his arm around some luscious wench...
So, maybe he popped on down before or after...He has enough dough to do anything I suppose...

Nice reading mate and interesting to hear about the great performance of the big Wilderbeast....

**ducatijim** · 5th July 2009, 16:59

Originally Posted by NZKTM

Funny you should say that matey, I was watching Wimbledon the other day and Ewan was in the crowd as the camera panned around between games.:

Yeah, I did wonder if he had better things to do! Bullshit travels faster than bushfire up here!

Was a nice story while it lasted!

**ducatijim** · 5th July 2009, 17:02

Originally Posted by Bass

out 0200 Tuesday - last leg on Emirates A380 as well...

Bum steer here m8....Emirates did not want us and from our booking being accepted in Broome, it was not for 4 more days that I found out they had dumped us!

Still on the very same Qantas ex Darwin thou, and climb on another big red for the last hop now!

**ducatijim** · 5th July 2009, 17:05

Originally Posted by tri boy

I think the bush tucker mans name is Les, (Les Hiddens).
Ex Oz, army. (was on a survival w/end with him in the early 90's).
Nice bloke.
More pics please.

Well spotted Kimusabi! ( every bloke over here is either Norm, Les or Mick!)

Spot on re other comments!

I will post up some more pix later 2day once beer-o-clock comes round, off now for more 'hunter/gathering'

**Highlander** · 5th July 2009, 17:21

And so another Ozzy adventure draws to an end.

**ducatijim** · 5th July 2009, 22:53

Heres a few;

Me choosing a fast camel!

Ducatijoolz being harranged by a faster camel

Im not sure..oh yes, we thought NZ had a nanny state?

Joolz first Boab tree

**ducatijim** · 5th July 2009, 23:04

Umm, digs at Drysdale river station

Ummmm...scone stop at Ellendale

Um.....Darkie posing with Cockburn ranges in background, just above the notorious Pentecoste Xing

Uh, just down the track from above at our cheap digs at Home valley station!!

( I think the tent will be staying home next time...these old bodies don't much like stone matresses!!)

**ducatijim** · 6th July 2009, 23:11

Just filling in time now till our flight outta Darwin in 6 hours time,0145 local.

Bike serviced. Packed into storage. Done.

Wots that I hear......reality calling?

Will spend flight writing up some more stories!!!