OzSTOC Ride Reports, Pictures & Videos > National Rally 2012 Ride Reports & Photos
Mitches trip home
Mitch:
Hi all.
First off I had a great time and I would like to add my thanks and congrats to Diesel and Streak for organising such a wonderful event. :-++ :-++
DAY 1 - 589 Klm From blackheath to Bathurst for a couple of laps of Mt Panorama ( which seemed to be a popular location for Ozstoc members ), glad there was no :cop right Diesel. :fp After riding around the circuit you can really appreciate the speeds the V8s circulate at. :eek
After taking my leave I headed for Griffith via Crookwell, Boorowa, Murringo, Young and Temora. Thanks again Dick :-++ for advising me to take this Route, I really enjoyed the winding roads, lack of traffic and Great scenery, a very relaxing ride where I could wear the sides of the tyres a bit. :thumbsup Arrived in Griffith early afternoon and booked into a motel for the night.
DAY 2 - 966 Klm Left Griffith just before sunrise, used the Led lights, they worked well combined with Hi Beam and gave a good spread of light on the sides of the road. :thumb Headed for Hay and got passed by 2 young ladies in a new celica doing well above the speed limit, :law not wanting to let a chance go by I just kept the Woodducks in sight so they would draw the :cop, good fast trip all the way to hay across the plain. :runyay This section I got the wost economy of the Trip, 15.4 KLM/LT. The price was worth it.
From Hay it was on to Mildura then Renmark, the interesting thing about this part of the trip was all the Hot Rods I passed going the other way. There must of been a show in Adelaide that weekend , I've never seen so many rods on the open road before.
Left Renmark and headed for Port Augusta via Burra, the sat nav sent me on some really nice back roads and I ended up crossing the Murray river twice on FREE ferries (a new experience for me). After some nice well maintained winding hi speed roads I ended up on the Augusta road late afternoon and cruised into town to find a motel for the night.
DAY 3 - 1299 Klm Woke up just on dawn, packed the ST and headed off with the sun rising behind me for a nice steady ride to Kimba for a egg and bacon sandwich for breakfast then on to Ceduna and the start of the Nullabore. Fuel up and take off planning to reach Border village for the night.
Lots of Grey Nomads and Road Trains but I only passed 3 bikes heading East. Most of the road kills have been pulled off the road since my trip over, but still the odd fresh kill with associated crows and occasional eagle on the road. When I reached Border Village there was still plenty of daylight so I decided to keep going.
About 3 PM 30 klm before Madura a Scrub Turkey decides he wants to take on the ST and takes off out of the long grass beside the road straight into the center of my windscreen. >:( Result, one smashed screen, one dead Turkey and one shaken Mitch with a dead Turkey jammed against his chest, covered in feathers, blood and shit (not mine, the turkey's). :well I very quickly push the turkey off me (in case it wasn't dead) and pull up to check the damage. Good news the only damage seemed to be the busted screen, even the screen raising mechanism seems to still work OK. Oh well could of been a lot worse, glad the ST is a lot tougher than the turkey, and so is the Zumo which took a really hard hit.
Back on the road again and keep going, the temp today is around 35o 36o it's great to be back in the West. A few clouds are starting to build up in front of me but the silver lining is that they are blocking the sun as it gets lower, Cocklebiddy is coming up but still a bit of daylight left so I decide to go on to Caiguna. About 40 klm to go and the whole horizion was black with storm clouds and alight with lightning. :|||| Just what I needed a storm with no screen, with the light starting to fade I manage to sneak between the storms and arrive into Caiguna still dry. :eat :beer
DAY 4 - 1151 Klm Leave Ciaguna at daylight heading for Norseman, about 40 klm into the 146 klm straight I pull over and don my wet weather gear (first time on the trip) as I can see rain ahead. After about another 100 klm the rain and showers finally stop and the road is dry again, I am really missing the screen. :well
I pull into Norseman to refuel and have a quick breakfast, as it has cleared right up I take off the wet weather gear and prepare for another warm day. On the bike again and off towards Perth, just out of Northam on with the wet weather gear again as more rain ahead and only 120 klm to go to home. Picked a bad time to reach Perth, peak hour on the Roe Highway and still raining. :fp :fp
I end up filtering through about 5 klm of bumper to bumper traffic to arrive at the Kwinana freeway which is flowing pretty well, 40 klm to go, the rain has stopped, it's now dark and the traffic flow is good :hatwave as I pull into the driveway the garage door goes up and Jake (our staffy) comes flying out and there's Marg waiting for me, the universe is in balance once again.
What a great trip, it was a treat to meet all you guys and I'll definitly try to make it again next year :grin :grin :grin
:blk13
Some Stats from the trip :think1
Round trip 8038 Klm
Fuel Used 455 Lts
Fuel Cost $787
Avg Klm/Lt 17.6 ( Headwinds most of the way there and back )
Avg Fuel Price $1.72 Per Lt
Best economy 20.85 Klm/Lt ( Ceduna to Port Augusta at 110Kph with tail wind )
Worst economy 15.44 Klm/lt ( Hay plain with head wind and following celica )
Dick B "Yewie":
Great writeup Mitch. Surely your ride qualifies for one of these farrider/ironbutt things. Glad you got home almost in one piece. The turkey prang must have been a heart stopper. Ros and I are planning to ride over to the west next year on our trip around Oz so we will use your report in our trip planning.
We are glad you made the significant effort to come to Blackheath.
Cheers
Dick & Ros
saaz:
Glad you had a great run, turkey aside. On the bright side, you can try a different screen :thumbsup
Turtle:
Good read Mitch and to just have a broken screen
Shaun:
Just..wow...what a ride!
So glad you came off a winner with that brush turkey.
It was great to meet you too.
Cheers, Shaun
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