12-10-08

Broken Hill to Port Agusta 

I got a fairly early start and was very pleased to find the land way open and I could see long distances. It was sort of like in Nevada or Wyoming, other than the distant hills are just that, and not mountains.

I had to stop as, many people do, to take photos of this weird arrangement out is the middle of nowhere. It has sort of Christmas flair. Not sure what it is all about but someone had fun making it.

I walked around and found this sitting on one of the tables. This is what they drink down here for mixed drinks. I met a guy in the dining room last night named Neil. He was drinking something similar to this. He said they cost $28 a six-pack and the police thought that the kids wouldn’t be able to afford that so they wouldn’t get drunk. Now the kids just buy a liter bottle and get smashed for real. Ya gotta love the government mentality and deep thought when they make laws. Same old shit everywhere with government dudes.

I was following along the railroad and every sixty km’s or so was one of these water towers. Those old steam engines used a lot of water and needed to be refilled every so often.

Nice fancy station here that is slowly falling to ruin. It is in a little town and I doubt if they will have enough money to save it. maybe the government will droop a few mill on them for a work project.

I met this guy at a gas station. Hi name is Zoli and he is from Hungry. He is studying in Sydney at a school. He took one year of English and now is taking Tourism. We rode a ways but soon parted as we had different eating plans.

I finally did see a train on the tracks. There had been several crews working in the track but this is the first train. It was hauling containers.

I stopped in at a restaurant and had a meal of fish and chips. Yummm, that was good. After I had ordered, I noticed this sign on the wall and wish I had seen it first. I sure do want to try some of that Roo meat.

A nifty little anti-aircraft gun.

This is train heaven and they put up a nice shelter for this old one.

This town had a big round house that they were supposed to be rebuilding. It was full of train cars and engines but I have had enough of trains for a while. Sorry guys…..

It is getting a little droughty around here. I saw quite a few fields of wheat that the farmer didn’t even try to harvest. They grain was up maybe five or six inches. I did see fields that were harvested that were cut down almost to the ground for stubble.

The sign said Giant Gum tree and I  had to take the little dirt road down to see it.

They had this little rest area set up. Notice the rain water collection for water source.

Inside was another of those grills that are very common. This one has a cover on it. I didn’t try it but most I have seen have a place to put a dollar to turn on the gas for fifteen or twenty minutes.

With a sign like that I just had to take that road. It was a nice climb up the mountain.

Except for these dips that I had to slow down to about fifteen miles an hour. If it wasn’t for these dips in the last two kilometers or so, it would have been a fantastic road. Met a guy at the end of the road that was from Newfoundland. He is in the country for ten years on a visa to work. The damn little flies were really bad here. He had several on them walking around all over his face. I was flailing my hands in front of my face to keep the little bastards away. He said you get used to them after a while. He said they never say anything about the flies but they are everywhere. He sure is right. About the only place I have not had them bothering me is in a big town. They are totally rude little guys and don’t give up when swatted at.

It gave me a nice over view of the region. I didn’t take the walk down to see crocodile gorge as I wasn’t in the mood to take off my gear, leave it in the parking area and charge off on an hour walk.

More train stuff.

Zoli and I met up again and we went in on a little cabin for the night. It has an air conditioner, which makes it very nice because it has been really hot and humid the last few miles. Zoli’s bike is a 1989 Honda American Classic. He got a good deal on it and has put on about 20,000 km on it in the last year. It is good transportation and cheap for a student to get around.

This painted egg was in the reception office of the caravan park. Caravan must mean trailer in Australian lingo.

In the morning we split trails, as I wanted to go along the coast and Zoli wanted to blast on over to Perth where he wanted to check around for jobs in the tourist industry. I would just as soon take my time and check things out along the coast. I finally saw a train sitting along a sidetrack and thought I would get a photo of the different kind of engines they use. Also in the foreground is a big water pipe that I have seen several places to bring water to either a town or mine.

I am along the coast now and this nice boat was in the town of Whyalla and so named.

This is the entrance to a huge iron mine. The sign said no admittance otherwise I would have loved to go on up and see the operation.

I am coming into big wheat country. This was a nice looking field from a distance.

Here is the field in close up….

Nice town sign. You can see by the grain towers that wheat is a major product as well as being on the ocean, oysters.

I think this was Cowell where they had this nice agriculture display. A lot of these plows were made here buy the local backsmiths.

A Dam Scoop.

A stone rake.

I couldn’t find a name on this tractor.

Nice train.

A Fordson!!!

I finally got to stop and watch a game of Bowling. I talked with one of the women here and she said that when the boys go play rugby they come out and bowl. This is just a summer sport. It was odd to see some in red uniforms. I have only seen the white dress before. They are really good at rolling that ball. The ball is not round but sort of squashed down. They roll it on the big diameter and when it gets down at the end it falls over on its ‘side’.

Boat being towed out from the loading dock.

I had to ask one guy what the things were on the boat. He said they were oyster traps. They seem to be some sort of mesh wire or punched metal.

I had been seeing these POKIES signs and wondered what they were. I finally found out.. they are slot machines.

A very unusual butter churn.

This is a school desk that sits six children.

I really liked this sign with the cutout for viewing the town.

The wind here off the coast has blown this tree into a nice shape. Some of the eucalyptus trees have the leaves only on the tip of the branches.

There are several of these nice little paths on down to the beach. Nice beaches here.

I am in grape country (Port Lincoln) now or at least I have seen a few small vineyards. There was a blurb on the TV about corks in wine bottles. They said in the United States almost all the really good wine was corked but in Australia they use screw tops because it gives better control. Nice that you don’t have to carry a darn corkscrew. The guy was saying that a cork would let in air and give the wine a taste of cork and all cork is different. I sure don’t know but he said there was almost no corks used in Australia. So if you are buying Australian wine, don’t look for a cork to be the high quality stuff.

Here is a nice stand of wheat. Unfortunately it has been raining and it sure might not be good for this crop. I saw a little pickup with a farm logo on the door and stopped to ask the guy how farming was doing. He said that up north they were in severe drought but down here it was spotty but not too bad. He said they had a farm up in irrigated country that was not getting the water that it needed and mostly Australia was not doing that well but ‘doing’.

I was in the grocery and asked a store clerk if they had any Roo meat. He pointed me down to the end of the case and I found several packages of roo meat. It sure looks good. I don’t have cooking facilities now or I would have tried some. All the packages had really lean meat and no fat. I’m not sure if they cut it off or if it isn’t good for cooking and eating.

I am staying in a caravan park north of Port Lincoln in a little cabin. I rode in yesterday in the rain and was just cold all the way through. I spent about a half hour in the shower with hot water. That brought me up to temperature. My old Aerostitch riding gear doesn’t keep my dry anymore. I am wearing my old suit that has been down a couple of times so I can’t blame it on the gear. It really isn’t that cold down here but when wet and riding it sure can take the heat out of ya.

This little car is in the Caravan Park where I am staying. It is a Holden ‘special’ and you might notice the cool little fins on the rear fenders. It must be a mid 70’s?

I stopped by a nautical museum but it is closed on Friday. I will be out on the road Saturday but I am sure on the cost I will find others.

I got out of Port Lincoln early morning in a light drizzle. I watched the weather channel and it was going to be shitty again here but it looked like it would be nice and sunny further west. It was not too cold but those little drizzles on and off were not the best traveling weather.
I had to stop and see what this field was growing. I had seen several fields of this stuff cut and windrowed but hand no clue what it was.

The little round pea shaped seed in the pods were all moldy from the rain. I would imagine that those in the windrows were moldy too with all the rain they have had. From what I gather from the weather channel people it is a hundred year drought but now it is the heaviest rain fall in over twenty years. They were showing pictures on the TV of flooded streams with people driving through these streams in there little four wheel drive trucks with the snorkel sticking up above the water. That doesn’t look good for motorcycle travel. I bet it is going to be muddy and rutty out in the outback for a while.

I actually saw a Roo today. It was standing out in a field but too far away to take its picture. They say if I want to see a Roo just go driving at night. I should see plenty and probably run into one or two as well.

A little side trip to see the ocean.

Along the highway was this nice building.

I stopped to get a cup of coffee and petrol at a little gas station and liked this display of rams skulls.

The big sign on the highway called it Eyre’s hole and I think they call this peninsula Eyre’s Peninsula.

The sign said they used this plow to make the road. It sure is a heavy duty plow that I think you would need in this rocky country.

I stopped I the little town of Streaky Bay and looked up the little library. Most of the computers were full but the lady said I could use her computer. I answered one email and shut it down in maybe five minutes. As I was getting ready to leave she came over and said I needed to pay $3 for the time. Jeez, this is a public library and she charged me for five minutes? What a rip off a lot of this stuff is down here. It is a lot cheaper and better down in South America, hell, even in Central America. The rooms are better, cheaper, and they have linen on the beds. Here a room is usually over $50 and there is no towel, sheet, pillow, soap, or blanket. I hope no bed bugs although I read before I got down here that there was a major outbreak of bed bugs in Australia.

The country I am riding through is sure nice though. It alternates between large fields of wheat, some harvested and other fields with combines in the field and only half harvested. Other places it is rather rocky fields with sheep grazing and then there are lots of stretches of scrub forest. This stretch is along the coast and there are several little roads going over to the coast. I took a nice little dirt road over to the Woolshed Cave. It is funny how I have been traveling about 100 km/hr on the highway, but when I got on the dirt I cranked it up to 120-130 km/hr. Man that little Ozdog likes the dirt roads and at speed. What fun to be back on some dirt. On pavement I just plod along and let them pass me. When I meet a cop I don’t have to worry either. Someone told me that it cost two hundred bucks for a speeding ticket. I don’t need one of those.

Ahh, my favorite thing, a sheep chute…..

This sure isn’t a good photo of the cave, but then the cave wasn’t much to look at. What surprised me was how clean the ocean water was. I will have to say, that from the little walks I have taken on the shore, I have not come across any plastic flotsam or other trash. I wonder where this water come from that it gets here clean?