Kevin Withnall

In lots of the bushes on the sides of the road, bearing in mind that thats all there is out here mostly and they are about 1m tall, there are lots of spiders webs or white birds nests. I’m not sure exactly but they look like spiders webs. I vaguely remember reading/seeing/hearing something about spiders that catch small birds, this would explain how these things look. They look like there something in them that is quite heavy in comparason to the branch. Until I learn otherwise, I’ll believe its spiders catching small birds. I’ll have to look into it later.

This place (check it out on google earth) is quite simple. Its just an intersection off the stuart highway that also has a road to Uluru. Fuel is just over $2/L.

While I think about it, I think the days of the explorers were a bit overrated. Aparently he took months to get here (I did it in 2 days, including photos of rockets) and had cross winds to deal with. He did it over months and drowned a horse. I’m not saying I’m better than they were but the facts are hard to ignore.

Tomorrow we will be goig to uluru (244km according to the sign) and have 3 nights there, then 2 nights ar Kings canyon. All these days are only about 250km/day days between places so its a nice and easy break.
My bike has now gone about 6500k and my rear tyre is wearing a big flat spot. I know bikers say theres some cause for embarasement when the tyre, when removed, stands up by itself. It means you haven’t done enough corners. Well, there aren’t enough corners here and the tyre will most definately stand up by itself. Its down to the little rubbery nobbly bits that should tell me to change it (after 6500k !) but I’ll leave it another 1000 (till I get to Alice next week). I have decided to not go to darwin on this trip so the plan at the moment is
* Three ways
* Mt Isa
* cloncurry
* Mostly the way to Longreach (qantas museum)
* head towards townsville, maybe via Cloncurry if required
* townsville, maybe some diving
* then down the coast road back home

Darwin would have been interesting but 4 days riding to do a 1/2 day tour seems a little disproportionate.

from PA to CP, there was a serious cross wind (from the left) so the technique was refined a bit.
As soon as you are within about 30m from any vehicle, of 50m from road trains, the bufetting starts. This is very short bursts of wind from the sides that wabbly youy but don’t generally push you off course. Moving to the right hand lane (the oncoming lane) fixes this immediately. IF theres no one coming the other direction, its even better.
Now, Accellerate past the other vehicle. Normally I sit on about 120kph so this means getting to 130-140 to pass them. This is all fine as by sitting on their RHS, you are protected from the crosswind and its quite peaceful. Any gaps, between trailers for example, the wind hits you again and you have to go back to a 20-30 degree lean to stay heading the the right direction. This is not bad as if you don’t react fast enough, you just slip to the right and its all fine (theres normally some spare lane available).
Now, When you get to the front of the truck, theres a SERIOUS bow wave of air happening. The first few times I wasn’t expecting this to be as big as it was and ended up about 100cm too far to the right. Again, this is not bad as theres always spare lane. At the front, you have to prepare for the bow wave and re-lean the bike to the left. This has the effect of turning you, quite sharply, into the front of the truck. Not altogether a good idea BUT then the wave of air comes and you end up going straigit ahead again. When the rest of the wind comes (remember the crosswind) you are probably far enough

in front of the truck to head the right direction and as its less then the bow wave, you end up in the left hand lane again with a sense of a job well done.
The first few times I did this, theres less of a sense of ‘making it in the big world of touring bikers’ than a sense of ‘making it in your pants’.

I was up and awake about 6am (with everyone else) and was dressed and ready to go by about 7:15. Sitting there dressed there seemed to be little point in continuing to sit there dressed and it was either get undressed or leave.
I left.

About 210k later, I arrived at Mulba (sp?) It was a standard roadhouse style place and I decided to get the Lighter fluid out of the panier to start the pocket warmer. You see, Leaving CP at 7:30 it was a little chilly. I now know that at 2 degrees, the bike warns of black ice, the hand/seat warmers are not enough, and m little fingers hurt when they freeze in place.

This was also the time I started my obsession with working out once and for all the waving protocol.
You see, Bikers have certain rules you must follow when you see another bike.

Rules are
If Harley (or similar) bike is coming the other direction, make no eye contact, simply pretend they are not there and soon

enough they won’t be.
If its not a Harley, you can
a) head dip (like a nod)
b) head tilt (sideways tilting) mostly from sports bike riders
c) head raise (like an upwards nod) Not sure if this is valid, I made it up today to see what happens.
If its the same brand bike as yours, you wave.

In cities, it doesn’t happen often, It seems to happen more the further you are away from populated places.
On these highways, being a long way from town, cars (and mostly people towing vans) seems to get involved also.

If its a long way freom a city, these seem to be the rules.
If its a person with a van
they will – probably life a few fingers.
you should – nod you head. I have tried many other options, but this seems to get the best response.
If its a Truck driver
they will – not even see you
you should – keep out of the way, try to keep the rubbery bits on the road as their bow wave hits you.
If its another bike
they will – wave, nod of both
you should – wave, nod and try not to enter their lane as you lose control of the bike by waving too much
If its another BMW
they will – wave, sometimes stand up
you should – wave wildly get ready to stop for a chat.
If its another BMW and they are going your way AND they are doing the same trip as you
they will – go with you until you stop, and have a chat
you should – immediatly proceed to chatting, picking out curtains and raising a family.
If its a cop
they will – either ignore you (hopefully)
you should – roll off the throttle and look like you weren’t going fast
If its a cop and they pull you over but don’t five you a ticket
they will – tell you that going fast is bad and they used to have a similar bike but not anymore
you should – feel grateful you are not getting demerit points and offer a polite reach around
If its a cop and you get booked
Dunno really, havent been booked (yet).

Leaving about 8:30 I arrived without much drama to woomera. On getting there, I quickly did the 2 parks full of missiles

and planes. Theres a ‘technical’ museum ($3) that seems to be just setup by HAM radio people and is not really that

interesting. Across the other side of town (about 50m) theres the information centre and a better museum ($6). This one has

some videos and a coherent set of displays.
Leaving there, I proceeded to Coober peedy. Not much to see there but we did go to the ‘old timers mine’ and had a short

walk around. It was an old mine (started about 1916) and parts were converted to a house. I can imagine being an opal miner

and living in the mine. Diring dinner I would probably grab the salad form and start scratching at the walls. You would

either find some opals or make a new cupboard. Aparently I was the only one who had asked them about how they ran the cat 5

throughout the house without making them visible. It would appear that there are some parts of the world without saturation

cabling.

In the morning, I had an interesting discussion while getting some fuel.
Me: Pump 2 and 2 dim sims please.
Grumpy Dude: right. [proceeds to get food slowly]
Me: [notices credit card machine says Ready. Please swipe card]
Me: [swipes card]
GD: Which pump was it ?
Me: Pump 2
GD: [looking at machine] You already swiped!
Me: Yes, It said please swipe card
GD: Well theres nothing on it, you can’t swipe without something on it
Me: Aparently I can.
GD: But theres nothing on it What will I do now ?
Me: Well, Put something on it?
GD: But theres nothing on it
Me: Can we complete the transation with nothing on it and start again ?
GD: But theres nothing on it
Me: Yes, but the good thing about there being nothing on it, is there’s nothing on it. When you complete the transaction,

there will be nothing on it.
GD: [stunned silence]
Me: [chances tack, tries staring at him in silence]
…long pause…
GD: Maybe I can cancel it
ME: [not knowing weather it would be helpful] Yeah, maybe
GD: Look, pressing the big red cancel button cancels it. You can swipe your card now.
Me: But you haven’t put anything on it yet
GD: Oh, [ presses buttons ] there you go
Me: [swipes card]
Anyway, you get the idea. I eventually rode away with fuel and 2 free dim sims.
I didn’t think it would be worth getting into with him.