Almanac Road Trips: ‘The Long Ride to Esperance’ – a charity ride.

 

The Long Ride to Esperance

 

It’s probably every Australian motorcycle rider’s dream or right of passage to ride across the Nullarbor to Western Australia.

 

Marlene and I finally got that chance when The Long Ride to Esperance was advertised for October of this year.  This is a biennial charity ride. The money raised goes towards prostate cancer research.

 

 

This ride was started by Chris and Gail Dunne in 2004.

 

Over the years, every ride has had a different destination, and riders from every state take part to reach  the destination.    This year the destination was Esperance on the south west coast of Western Australia.   The route to Esperance was different for each State’s participants, but most riders converged at Port Augusta to continue the ride to Esperance.   The Eyre Highway is really the only way for the participants from the eastern States.  Riders rode either individually or in small groups.

 

The culmination would be a gathering of all motorcyclist and bikes at the Esperance Showgrounds for lunch, where the general public could view and listen to speeches.  This was then followed by a dinner that evening for all participants.

 

I had always wanted to see this part of Australia, so we both registered for the ride.  The ride also asks you to raise money through donations, so we also registered online for that, hoping to receive donations from supporters.

 

Practically all the people who ride in this event, have some connection to prostate cancer, if not directly, be it a relative or friend.

 

The two of us set out from Colac, with motorcycles ‘loaded to the gunnels’ on Sunday October 12^th.    Our group started off as two, then three riders at Naracoorte, but turned into eight once we met some friends at Port Augusta.

 

 

Marlene’s BMW F700GS

Stan’s Triumph Tiger Explorer 1200

 

On the morning of October 15^th, we headed west for Ceduna, our next overnight stop.  All motorcyclists will know that the biggest priority when riding long distance is fuel.   You are always on the lookout for the next service station.  Usually, you are looking for 98 Octane fuel, but as you get further west you have to take what you can get.  I made a note of every service station and the type of fuel they had, so I would have prior knowledge of distances and types of fuel, for the return journey.

 

The next most important priority is taking on fluids for yourself.  Temperatures can vary, so much and you can perspire without realising it.  We also made a habit of stopping every hundred or so kilometres to have a drink.

 

 

Kimba and its iconic Galah

 

Our first stop for these essentials, was the beautiful little town of Kimba, where the local community association were there to greet us, with food, refreshments, stubby holders, and hats.   Such a nice way to acknowledge what the riders were doing.  Thank you, Kimba.

 

The first mechanical / electrical problem would remain a mystery until late in our return trip. Marlene was having trouble with her headlight going off. The lights would be okay for about twenty to thirty kilometres.  Then they would go off.   This comes up as a warning on the dash, and probably takes precedence over any other issues, so it can be a little disconcerting out in remote places. She limped into Ceduna, with her anxiety sky high, not sure if she would get any further, as she had stopped along the way with what appeared a fuel issue.  At Ceduna, we checked the light connections, refueled and retired to our motel.

 

The quality of accommodation would vary across the Nullarbor, and our motel room at Ceduna had an awful smell of sewerage backing up.   Overwhelmed by the smell, we asked for another room.  Of course, there were no other rooms because of the ride.

 

 

Ceduna foreshore at dusk

 

We compensated ourselves by attending a large ‘official’ group dinner at the Ceduna Foreshore Hotel.

 

The next morning, the eight of us gathered to head for the South Australian – Western Australian border. Marlene was still worried about her bike.  At Penong she made some adjustments to her motorcycle, but the light issue persisted.  Very puzzling and annoying.

 

 

Windmills and bikes at Penong

 

Penong seems to be the windmill capital of Australia, so we stopped for a photo opportunity at their display of windmills.

 

Although the distances are vast, there is nothing boring about travelling the Eyre Highway.  We constantly were riding into a south to south-west wind, which was expected, but we thought that’s okay, we should have the wind behind us coming home. Now on the Nullarbor Plain, we had opportunities to view the amazing clifftops of the Great Australian Bight.

 

 

 

Bikes and riders at the edge of the world.

 

Our little group of eight spent the night split between two places, Border Village and Eucla.   The two locations are about twelve kilometres apart.   Both places work on their own unique time zone that boggles the mind. For the sake of departure in the morning, we all decided to use Western Australian time.

 

Old Eucla Telegraph Station

 

After tea, I went for a ride down to the old Eucla Telegraph station, now covered in sand and graffiti.  I wanted to walk to the beach to see if the old jetty was still there, but it was just on dusk, and I did not want to have a search party looking for me among the sand dunes and thick salt bush.

 

As the journey went on, we all became aware, and maybe a little disturbed about the lack of native wildlife.  So far, we had only seen a couple of dingoes skulking around the Nullarbor Roadhouse.

 

The next leg was massive in distance.  Seven hundred and twenty-two kilometres from the border to Norseman, including the famous 90 mile absolutely straight east west part of the Eyre Highway.  Australia’s longest straight road.

 

I had taken on the role of Tail End Charlie (the last rider in our little group).  Marlene wasn’t sure of her tyre pressures, given that the motorcycle consul could not show this, because of the lamp fail indicator.  We checked the pressures at Balladonia (home of bits of Skylab) and continued onto Norseman.

 

 

 

At Balladonia with bits of Skylab. There are also remnants inside.

 

Everyone was pretty tired from this part of the ride, and as usual we were in bed pretty early for our ride into Esperance two hundred kilometres away.  Just a short ride.

 

In the morning, there was a breakfast fundraiser hosted by the Bassendean RSL (laying claim to the greatest RSL in the known universe) at the local caravan park.  A lot of riders attended this, and it raised more money for our cause. One fellow, a Vietnam veteran, was a colourful character, but I wondered what scars he hid.

 

 

 

 

Meet and greet at the Esperance Showgrounds

 

In Esperance, everyone gathered for a very short ride through town to the showgrounds. About five hundred riders and bikes gathered on the arena to listen to speeches from organisers, city dignitaries, and cancer survivors.   We spent about two hours there wandering around and talking to people.

 

The Great Eight taking in the Esperance Coastline

 

One of our riders, Val, was familiar with the spectacular Esperance coastline, and took us for a ten-kilometre ride to a fabulous lookout, over the bay and islands.  From there we went to our accommodation which was a shared house between the eight of us.

 

That evening, we attended the formal dinner at the Esperance Civic Centre.  There was lots of laughter, chatter, good food and drinks.  There were also speeches and presentations.  Representatives of each state were recognised for their contributions and ride co-ordination.  Andrew Holman was our Victorian Rep. A very nice fellow.

 

 

 

Esperance Stonehenge and a sacrifice.

 

The official ride and meet and greet was over.   We had taken a week to get to Esperance.  Now it was time to do our own thing.  Val had booked our house for one more night so we had time to all do different things around Esperance that day.  Marlene and I had morning tea and walked the long jetty.  We then went twenty kilometres east to visit the Esperance Stonehenge.  True to size and in its entirety, it is very impressive.  Much better than I expected.

 

Plans that evening were being formulated for the rest of the time in south west Western Australia.  Two of our group were heading straight back home, and were booking their accommodation.  The remaining riders were going to have a look around the south west.

 

 

 

Surfing at Wave Rock and other formations

 

The next day we both headed for Hyden, where Wave Rock is.  Four hundred kilometres away.   This has been formed over millions of years through quiet constant erosion.  The colours and shapes are just so amazing. We got to walk above the wave and that too was very interesting, with rock formations created so long ago.

 

A night at the friendly little town of Hyden, another quick visit to Wave Rock, and then the journey to Albany.  Marlene’s headlight persisted with its problem despite remedial intervention.  We now noticed high beam was also cutting out!  What could be causing the problem?

 

We were constantly keeping in touch with the others that remained.   It seemed we were never far from each other during this time.  One of the other travellers had to go to Perth to get a new tyre for his bike.  He was livid as he had put new tyres on before the journey.  A spacer had been left out of the rear wheel axle, causing the tyre to scrub out.  Lucky no further damage was found.

 

 

Mt Clarence lookout

 

We had booked two nights in Albany, to give us some down time and a chance to look around Albany.  There was plenty to see in the short time we were there, thanks to helpful people at the Tourist Information Centre.  We visited Mt Clarence, Mt Melville and The Gap.  The Whale Station Museum did not appeal to us.   What a horrendous era this was for the whale population.

 

I was determined to visit Cape Leeuwin. It is the most south-westerly point in this area of Western Australia, and boast the tallest lighthouse in Australia.  It is also where the Southern Ocean meets the Indian Ocean. We had booked two nights at Augusta which is the town close by.

 

The trip from Albany to Augusta is beautiful. You travel through forest of karri trees, the second tallest hardwood tree in the world. You get the chance to stop for a break at beautiful little towns like Walpole and Pemberton, where the locals obviously take pride in their little towns.  Augusta is just a lovely place to relax in for a couple of days.

 

 

Cape Leeuwin

 

At the edge of the world where the Southern Ocean meets the Indian Ocean.

 

On arrival in Augusta, we had a lunch at our hotel.  After lunch we rode down to the Cape and spent the afternoon at the lighthouse and surrounding buildings.   To do the lighthouse tour, you have to book well in advance, and prior to our visit, we did not know exactly our movements to be able to lock in a visit to the top.

 

I can highly recommend a visit to this part of the world.

 

The next day we rode up the west coast from Augusta to Jewel Cave for a 10:30am tour.  The limestone cave was spectacular.  It had been discovered in 1959.  Not even the indigenous people of the region knew it existed until then.  The only living thing that had been found in the cave was a thylacine.  The fossil remains of one estimated to be 3300 years old was found while the cave was being explored.

 

 

 

Jewel Cave and Thylacine fossil

 

There are a number of other limestone caves along this road, which we were unaware of, and are similarly spectacular.

 

Our ride took us to a little place called Hamelin Bay.   The skies were a little threatening, giving the seashore a wild yet inviting appearance.  Today it is purely a tourist village, but in its heyday was used to export timber.  Very little remains of the jetty now, but it was once big enough to service three ships at a time.

 

We were not far away from Margaret River, so we headed that way.   But the skies opened up with heavy rain and hail.  By the time we got to the outskirts of Margaret River we were drenched.  We took shelter in a service station, refilled our bikes, and headed back to Augusta.  The rain had ceased, but we were over our abortive trip into Margaret River.  Fortunately, out fantastic hotel at Augusta had a clothes drier, so all our wet motorcycle gear went in that for an hour.

 

The next day our journey was a reverse of our journey to Augusta.  The roads were still wet, and it started to rain at Pemberton, where we stopped for a hot drink.  We donned our wet weather clothes and headed for Albany where we would stay the night, before making our way to Esperance.

 

Many of the towns’ names in Western Australia end in the suffix “up”. The suffix means “place of” in Noongar language.

 

In Esperance, we were booked into the Bayview Motel. This motel is high on our list of places we stayed.  We used the motel’s camp kitchen to have our first home cooked meal in ages.

 

We were now truly heading home via the same highway.  We were not going to do the return journey as intense as we had coming over.  Booking accommodation in advance was now the priority.  I had petrol stops anticipated using prior knowledge.  There seemed to be a lot going on the Eyre Peninsula as it took some ringing around to find places to stay.

 

 

The cliffs of the Great Australian Bight

 

After we left Border Village, we took the opportunity to have a look at the cliffs of the Bight at Scenic Lookout Number One.  Then our next diversion was literarily at the Head of the Bight.  If you are lucky and there at the right time of the year, you can see the Southern Right Whales on their journey across the southern coastline.  The cliffs of Bight on their own are worth viewing.  This time, no whales to be seen.

 

 

At the head of the Bight

 

Our myth about having the wind behind us on the way home, was quickly dispelled, experiencing north winds, north-east winds, south east-winds and just nuisance winds. The buffering from road trains added an extra challenge to our long-distance rides.

 

After staying overnight at Ceduna, we rode down to Streaky Bay, a little fishing village I remember visiting over twenty years ago.  A very nice spot to have a break and morning tea.

 

The journey continued.  The winds persisted. Marlene’s headlights dimmed.

 

Murphy’s Haystacks is an interesting rock formation, about twenty kilometres south of Streaky Bay.  So called because that is what it looks like – haystacks.

 

Two emus ducked across the road in front of me not long after. Emus can be tricky, as we have found on other trips.  So, we were a bit wary for a while.  Live animal count for the trip had just doubled.  Besides a slightly less than expected amount of road kill, other riders too commented on the lack of sighting native animals.

 

An overnight at Kimba, and then through Port Augusta onto Horrocks Pass.  This is a winding road through the Southern Flinders Ranges, that motorcycle riders delight doing, after days of straight roads.  A refreshing stop at Laura, the home of C J Dennis, and onto the beautiful town of Clare.   As we rode towards Clare I literally had a lightbulb moment.   You have a lot of think time on these journeys.  Why hadn’t I thought of this earlier?   Prior to going away, Marlene had had her bike serviced and had LED globes installed in her headlights.   As we approached Clare I thought “What if it’s her BMW that does not agree with LED globes?”   In Clare we went to an AutoPro shop and bought two halogen globes.  It was only a hunch, but nothing else had worked.

 

We booked into our motel room.   The nicest accommodation we had for the trip.  I changed the globes and started her bike.   All good, but the real test would be to see if they remained on over distance.

 

For tea a nice meal at an Italian restaurant five minute’s walk from the motel.

 

We both agreed that we must come back to this beautiful town, and have a tour through the Southern Flinders Ranges.

 

The next day we rode a backroad through Gawler and the hills into Adelaide.  Not a recommended journey by far, as Gawler on a Saturday morning was superbusy.  And the road through the hills was narrow with challenging traffic to negotiate.

 

I wanted to visit my sister who lives in Adelaide.  It was great to catch up with her and her family.  We stayed overnight with her.

 

It looked like we would encounter rain on our next leg to Penola, the Coonawarra area wine region.  The weather was a lot cooler, and the rain held off until Penola.  We arrived in time for lunch, and booked in for overnight   After lunch we went for a walk around the town.  Penola is a little hidden gem with a lot of history.  It boasts a saint, and has an old Cobb and Co. depot.  Many of the buildings throughout South Australia are timeless and beautiful because they are built from the abundance of sandstone the State has.

 

 

Sculpture at Penola – Generosity of Spirit

 

Cobb and Co Booking O?ce at Penola

 

The next day would be the last leg home. A short three hundred kilometres.  The weather forecast was for rain and cooler temperatures.  We both have very good heated clothing, so it was not an issue.

 

 

Wannon Falls

 

Morning tea was at Wannon Falls just west of Hamilton.  Check it out.

 

The future of technology advances and staff rationalisation was the self-service fuel station at Hamilton.  We had already encountered it at the beginning of our journey.   To access the bowser, you have to plug in your credit card and select the correct bowser. Fine if it works, but on this occasion, they had to enlist an attendant to assist customers, because all was not so simple.   I predict that supermarkets will soon employ a similar system at the self-service checkout counters, where you will have to submit your credit card before you start scanning your groceries.

 

A bite to eat at Mortlake, and then closing in on home.   Our concentration between Pirron Yallock and Colac (fifteen kilometres) was surely tested.  The traffic had banked up behind some slow-moving trucks.  So close to home, yet so tricky.  I really found it one of the most challenging parts of the journey.  Maybe the state government should find money for more duplication of the Prince’s Highway. Our regional roads are a current disgrace.  Even when we were interstate, we had people joking about our roads.

 

We made it home at about 2:30pm.  I checked the odometer and GPS distances.  Our total distance was just over eight thousand kilometres over twenty-three days.   Would I do it again?  You bet I would.

 

And what about Marlene’s motorcycle headlights?  Yes, they did not miss a beat after we left Clare!

 

 

Read more from Stan Kluzek Here.

 

 

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