BMW R1200GSA vs Moto Guzzi Stelvio NTX

Friday 17 October 2014

Eucla to Streaky Bay. We're finally out of Western Australia. 

13/10/14

We had a big night for snoring in our room last night, and for once I wasn't the main protagonist. Mark pumped out some serious volume, and sounded like he was fighting some sort of angry beast in his bed. Uncle G was so impressed that he was up videoing Mark at two am.


In the morning, with snoring sounds still ringing in our ears, we bolted for Border Village which is about twenty kilometres down the road in South Australia. After two days, we'd finally made it out of Western Australia.

After a healthy breakfast of bacon and eggs we were ready to head east and put another 600 kilometres of straight road behind us.


I suggested we skip Phillip Island and head to Auckland. I was overruled and there were many comments about not being able to hold our breath etc.

Just as we were mounting up, a guy came over and asked if I was the rider who slowed to check if he was OK when he was on the side of the day yesterday. I was, and he proceeded to tell me his story. He was riding a Honda Valkyrie towing a trailer and sadly he suffered transmission problems, which was why he was on the side of the road. He ended up being towed into Border Village by a four wheel drive. The sad thing is that as he was being towed, the tow rope went slack, he ran over it with his front wheel, the four wheel drive took up the slack, and pulled his front wheel out from underneath him. As a result he went down the road. The poor guy now has a crash damaged bike, a buggard gearbox, and a few grazes as well. Not the sort of ride he was planning.

Leaving Border Village it was a short ride to our first stop on the Eyre Highway. It was here that we witnessed an attempted murder!

Attempted murder.

After we sorted that our we did the usual Great Australia Bight tourist stuff, taking photos of the coast.




The obligatory tourists on a cliff shot.
Uncle G, me, Mark, Uncle R, Rex, and Uncle D.

The cliffs on the coast are spectacular and photos just don't do them any justice. It's a long way down and if you went over the edge I don't think there would be any coming back.

The clock was ticking and we still had some ground to cover so after the photo session we were Eastward bound again. We had a quick fuel and food replenishment stop at Nullabor Roadhouse. It was eerily quiet here, and the wind had died right down so the place had a sort of surreal feel to it. I could imagine Mad Max rolling up in his Police Interceptor.

In Australia we get used to seeing dead kangaroos on the side of the road, but it was really sad to see a lot of Wombats on the stretch of road heading into Ceduna. These poor little buggars wander onto the road and get cleaned up by vehicles.

Our next stop was Ceduna for more fuel, then it was a final blast into Streaky Bay. After 600 kilometres were checking in to our accommodation for the night. While we were at reception I spied this notice...

We didn't see any. I wonder what they were.

Uncle D had booked the accommodation at the Streaky Bay Motel and Villas and he'd done really well here. We had a luxury cabin in the middle of town. I'm happy to recommend this place if you are ever in Streaky bay. Here's the web address: 
http://www.streakybaymotelandvillas.com.au/

We feasted at the Streaky bay Hotel and I have to say my $17 porterhouse steak with Kilpatrick and cheese topping, with a huge side plate of tasty vegetables was delectable, and the beer wasn't bad either.

Talking about beer, as we're settling into the trip our beer consumption each night is increasing. We accounted for most of a carton tonight. 

As I was a late starter for this trip Uncle D had only booked accommodation for five, so I scored the lounge. It's funny, but after a long day on the bike you can sleep pretty much anywhere. Luckily this was a very soft, comfortable, leather lounge, long enough for me to stretch out on. With my sleeping bag to keep me toasty warm I drifted off to sleep thinking about our easy 500 kilometre ride tomorrow with a backing track of Mark's snoring in the other room.

We were all in the land of nod in no time.

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