Well I have now ticket the Official Border Run off my bucket list (I had done one before to swap bikes when Steve, a mate from Victor Harbor who purchased my first GL1500).
With a reasonably early start on my GL1800 Friday afternoon saw me at Balladonia after about 950 kms with a lot of wet road and road spray but little rain.
My first fuel stop was at Southern Cross where I put 23.98 litres into a 25 litre tank, maybe I should have got petrol at Merredin.
When I pulled into the Southern Cross petrol station there was a BMW K1200LT with a trailer already there. On chatting with the owner, Lefty, we discovered we only lived about 1 km from each other.
After settling into my room at Balladonia I caught site of a black ST pulling in for petrol, and said hello to Lindsay who headed off to down the road towards Caiguna to be sure he had covered his 1,000 kms for the day
550 kms on Saturday had me at Border Village early afternoon local time.
I quickly recognised the white STs belonging to Pezzz, Wombat and Hoffy as well as Yorkies red one. You can see the 3 white ones in the middle of this photo:-
I then found Steve who had come from Victor Harbor on his GL1500 (he also has a new Triumph Tiger 800 XRx)
After checking in we did the walk around of the many bikes there. Lots and lots of BMWs.
The owner of the beautifully kept red HD on the left of this photo was from Melbourne and planned to continue around the block for his second lap of Australia.
You can see from the photo above and the next two that almost all of the motel rooms were booked out by BR riders.
The sidecar to the left in this photo was one of about 10 Suzuki GSX 1400s at the Border with sidecars. The BR was a start of a 3 week trip for them.
In the centre of this photo the trailer with the blue 200 litre drum as the storage compartment was being pulled by a 500 Royal Enfield which got Pezzz's attention
Besides at the motel units there were bikes out the back in the back packers area and the camping ground. A few had also elected to camp in the bush across across the road.
Steve had a useful chat with Pezzz as he is doing the similar Royal Enfield trip in India next year that Pezzz has just done.
Steve and I had an early start on Sunday morning courtesy of our neighbours who were up and about at about 3.30. I headed for Norseman, and Steve headed for home planning on stopping some where when it suited him, that ended up being home in Victor Harbor at after 9 pm, well over 1,300 kms.
My 750 kms to Norseman saw some wet roads with patches of rain and some fabulous clouds.
First stop was Cocklebiddy and just before I left this Holden Ute pulling a trailer arrived with a broken windscreen and passengers window as well as the lefthand mirror missing thanks to hitting kangaroo in mid flight. The driver was happy there was at least no panel damage but not really impressed. I had only seen one kangaroo crossing the road well ahead of me.
Another 750 kms today had me at home by 3pm. Again a real mixture of conditions, dry roads, wet roads and a few showers the heaviest of which was passing through York. I turned off the Great Eastern Highway at Tammin to take the old Goldfields Hway through York and was rewarded with vast paddocks of both green and yellow fields highlighted by the afternoon sun.
All up 188 litres of petrol ($300) and according to my trip meter 3,000.2 kms door to door. Was it a great trip, yes, will I go next year, only time will tell, it maybe used as a starter to the OzSTOC rally.