Last friday I set out on my first ever border run. It may have been running for forty or so years but the first I heard of it was when it was posted on here two months ago. Most of my packing was done the previous day so after a cup of coffee it was time to load it on to the kwaka. I departed at 0400 hours. Like all my road trips I departed in the dark. My belief is there is no use wasting good daylight on streets you already know.
My first stop was at Dublin. I almost always stop here as it is between two point to point speed cameras, not that I speed but nevertherless adding a few extra minutes acts as an insurance. I'd always assumed the roadhouse at Dublin was twenty four hours so was a tad surprised to find it closed. I guess I had never been this early before. I put the gopros into action and reset my gps tracker. The latter is for Mrs Glimt's benefit. If it's moving she knows I am moving. Either that or someone has stolen my tablet.
My next stop was a Snowtown. This was the first time I had actually gone into town and discovered they had a blade like the Mount Bryan one I posted in the "where is this?" thread earlier in the year. I don't think this is as big.
After refuelling at Warnertown just on sunrise I cruised on through Port Augusta and passed the "out of districts" sign I first saw in 2015. There is a similar one on the Whyalla Iron Knob road but I have never seen any others on previous rides around Eyre Peninsula or north of Peterborough. I didn't see any either side of Ceduna on this trip either. I pulled into Iron Knob to change the sd cards in my gopros and reset my gps tracker. Both need to be done every four hours. The wind was icy cold at Iron Knob although I only felt it in my hands when I took my gloves off.
From there is was a short ride to Kimba where I refuelled and had brunch. I met another rider who was making his way across from Victoria. I would meet him again at the Village. There was some conjecture as how much licence was used in Kimba's claim to being halfway across Australia so upon my return home I researched the west and east extremities and calculated I would have passed the real half way mark in a place called Watraba just east of Penong. I don't recall seeing a locality sign for that let alone any claims to being the halfway mark but gopro footage may show something when I get around to viewing it.
The weather had been kind to me for most of the day but hit strong head winds for the last 200km before arriving in my destination for day one at Ceduna. After I unpacked the bike, put some of my battery devices to recharge I went for a ride into town and Thevenard, did a bit of shopping and the local supermarket before returning to my room. I didn't see the big oyster but did bag the big galah earlier in the day. I met another rider who was staying in the room next door but when I asked him if he was attending the border run told me he was heading the other way and just come from the border that morning.
Day two saw me heading off at first light. I must have missed Stinky Pete and Langers by minutes. I may have passed them when they were photographing the big oyster. Who knows? I did bag the big windmill at Penong before refuelling and moving on.
Somewhere along the way I passed a guy standing in the middle of the road in the middle of nowhere. He didn't try to get my attention nor look like he was hitchhiking or anything so I slowed down, passed him and went on my merry way.
Prior to my departure I told Mrs Glimt I would be heading into camel territory but she didn't believe me so I just had to snap the camel road sign and got one of the grid for good measure. Walking across the grid was a bit of a challenge as the gaps are bigger than your average cattle grid.
Next fuel stop was at the Nullabor roadhouse where I bagged the whale. I popped into various lookout points along the way before arriving at the Village at about 1400 hours.
After unloading my bike and a quick hello to Langers, Stinky Pete and Alan I went for a ride to Eucla just to say I have ridden the kwaka in Western Australia. I had planned to have a feed there but couldn't find anything. I did however notice my odometer was on 39992km so decided to ride on through Eucla pass for a bit before returning to Eucla and having the odometer tick over to 40000km just so I could say I also crossed that landmark in Western Australia.
All that mucking around meant I was missed the Ozstoc photo but such is life.
Back at Border Village for the night I was a tad surprised they had Guinness. I was even more surprised it was cheaper than my local, even cheaper than what my local was before they bumped the price by 25% last week. Up early for breakfast... I have become accustomed to eating my breakfast cereal out of cups and mugs due to many places not having bowls but I took on a whole new challenge due to the lack of spoons.
Day three saw the long trek home. I tried to swap my work to get monday off without success which meant I had to do it all in one day. That didn't stop me from riding back to Eucla just to say I departed from Western Australia. Thank god for tailwinds. Most of the trip was a doddle bar a bit of turbulence either side of Ceduna and a the odd pocket on the latter stages of the Eyre Highway, but the worst was between just north of Snowtown and Port Wakefield. After Port Wakefield if just died and I cruised home. I did encounter a detour at Iron Knob. It would have been nice if the Lucky Bay to Wallaroo ferry was running but given conditions that may not have sailed so maybe it was blessing in disguise it not running.
All in all I had a great time. Will I do it again? Absolutely. I'll want to carry on to Perth though. Will it be next year? Probably not.
