AUSTRALIA PART 2

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The boys that fixed our bikes in Brisbane 2003

Trish, Chris, Steve and Jarrad who serviced our bikes in Brisbane 2003

curtinsprings

Curtin Springs
Cairns

Cairns


Cairns2

Cairns2
cairns3

Cairns3

Visit here for more pictures of Sydney and the Opera House


We had decided in the States that we would leave our bike servicing to Brisbane so our first priority when we got there was to see to that. We were lucky in that while getting our tires put on in the local Tyres for Bikes Shop, we met two very helpful people. Firstly there was John Petrie who was actually born in Dungiven but who has effectively spent his life in Brisbane. John who is a university lecturer as well as an avid bike enthusiast was also getting tires done and went out of his way to help us regarding servicing, and where to go in town .Like so many of the Australians we've met he also offered to put us up though neither John nor Ii like imposing on people but we appreciated the offer very much. The other exceptionally helpful person we met that morning was Ron Durkin. Ron who is the editor of the Queensland B.M.W. Journal had walked into the shop and on spotting our bikes made us out. Again he couldn't have been more helpful in offering advise and help in our trip around this country and underlined again our impression of these people as the best we've come across as a whole. The place where we got our bikes done was Christoph's BM Shop in the Stafford district of the city and they struck us as a very competent outfit. Owned by Chris, the staff includes Trish, who as well as being a true bike enthusiast is also an exceptionally knowledgeable woman on BeeMs. The mechanics along with Chris are Steve and Jarrad and like with Trefco in Cape Town, it is a place we would recommend to anyone passing this way and in need of a service.


cairns4

Cairns4
ayresrock2003

Ayres Rock 2003


The degree to which our bikes needed servicing surprised us. Obviously we knew about the leaking oil seal in my gear box and the head gaskets but were not expecting the other problems which arose. When we decided on the 80 Basics for this trip, one thing we felt confident about was that were we to get them serviced at regular intervals and not withstanding accidents that they would last the journey without any thing going wrong. The most surprising of these unexpected problems was on John's bike and when we checked mine there was evidence of it beginning there also. What had happened was that the cam followers were hitting off the cam shaft and were badly pitted. There is a small jet that oils the cam and this had got clogged resulting in the subsequent damage. While the heads were off I got new rings put on as there was a fair degree of oil consumption. Other problems that surfaced were worn bearings in my paralever and the needle roller bearings falling out in the rockers. All in all it was a very expensive but necessary service and we left more assured of the trip ahead, though due to Chris fitting the jobs in at such short notice they could not get around to looking at the carb problem that has been haunting me intermittently since northern Chile. As it was the work they did took four days so while we waited we wandered around Brisbane and once again met another couple who epitomise this Australian hospitality. Working next door to the B.M.Shop was a biker named Michael, who happened to be a neighbour of Ken and Carol Duvall who are well known world travelers as seen on the Horizons Unlimited site. Ken wasn't long in contacting us again going out of his way to call to our hotel and bring us up to their home for a meal and a chat about our common experiences. Virtually every world traveler passing through Brisbane seems to have stayed with them, a courtesy they also offered us, and only recently Ted Simons had been staying with them. Inveterate world tourer's they are presently working towards yet another world tour which they will have financed by 2006 and their enthusiasm puts John and myself in the shade. When we finally left Brisbane Chris advised us that Hervey Bay would make a good first day stop so on his advise we pulled into this seaside resort and were not disappointed as we strolled out the mile long pier in the balmy night air. This region north of Brisbane gives way from the endless eucalyptus forests south of here to more open country of sugar cane fields. It was as a port along this shallow coastline in from Frazer Island that the pier had been built to take the sugar and was once two miles long but even still at a mile it was fabulous to stroll in the late evening. Being both diving instructors, albeit only in name these days,we couldn't pass this way without diving the Great Barrier Reef. We based ourselves in Airlie Beach which is in from the Whitsunday Islands and went out from there. The Whitsundays themselves are stunning with Hamilton Island being a world famous resort while the beach on Whitsunday is one of the best anywhere. Out on Hardy Reef where we went for our dive it was very hot but the permanently moored facility there is an excellent location where you can snorkel, swim dive, go in the semi-submersible or just laze about in the restaurant or sun decks. As it happened John hadn't got his diving certificate with him so they wouldn't let him in. He didn't miss too much , however as you see as much snorkeling as you do diving on reefs and the visibility underwater was very poor that day due to tides. I had been looking forward to diving this mythical location so it was anti-climactic and poor in comparison to dives i've done in the Red Sea and the Adaman etc. but visibility is a moving feast and it was a glorious if little too hot day to be out there. Threading our way thru coastal stops up this eastern seaboard we finally reached Cairns. Like Airlie and Darwin from where I'm writing this report now there is a great laid back atmosphere in these places and they are all full of young backpackers doing world trips of one kind or another. In Cairns I took time out to get the carb problem looked at. Chris had given us the name of Terry Scanlan to torque the heads and adjust the tappets when we got here so I asked him to look at the carbs also. Though having to go to work later that day he still spent hours cleaning them out thoroughly as well as doing the aforementioned tightening. Again both he and his wife Silvia were as welcoming a couple as you could meet. As with Brisbane if you are in trouble in the Cairns area make for Terry in Edmonton because he is as good as you'll come across. It must seem contradictory to report in light of my praise of both Terry and the B.M.Shop that I'm still having problems with the high speed running but in fairness it has been a lack of time factor that prevented either of them from solving it.


ayresrock


When we left Terry and Silvia that morning,we headed back down the Bruce Highway to Townsville where the Flinders highway heads west into the outback. Nearing Townsville the bike started running poorly again and was fine once I filled it with petrol. On calling Terry the next morning he suggested that the problem might be the float heights especially in light of the problem only occurring as the fuel consumption became low. Lowering them has helped greatly though they would seem to need even further adjustment as I got a hint of it again yesterday. At any rate it is only an irritation as opposed to a problem since filling up every 300 kilometers eradicates the problem and your posterior and self need a rest by that distance anyway. Coming into the centre of the country has been a very interesting part of the trip. Here you cover vast distances with no place in between and the landscape stretches forever all around. Again as with Patagonia John finds it boring while I think it is epic crossing such vast wilderness and to pull into some small village each evening with only a solitary roadhouse to justify it being named on the map. Australia has been hot and dry since we arrived and in here in the interior the temperature has risen considerably and especially so up here in the Northern Territory. Nonetheless I would maintain that it is a great place to travel and experience. You meet many bikers on the roads in here and the Australian friendliness is evident here also as irrespective of the type of bike been ridden, they all wave, a thing that is absent in Europe where a sort of exclusive attitude among various biking types prevails to the extent that certain types feel others are beneath them to be even acknowledged. There is a sense of camaraderie among all travelers here in the outback for we are constantly passing each other out, depending on the roadhouse chosen to have a break at but invariably the day's destination sees us all staying in the same roadhouse that evening. There is a charming aspect to these little towns, though not for one second am I under any illusions about having to live there permanently as it would drive me around the twist and there are no twists in the roads here either. Towns like Camooweal stick in the mind though for pulling into it late one evening we were lucky to get accommodation since there was a race on that day and there was just three places to stay in this town, though hamlet is a more correct description. The locals had come from up to 500 kilometers and more away as that's local. I was strolling down in the only street in the evening sunshine when this man sitting on the veranda of the hotel put chat on me. He had spent time in Ireland in the 40s as his father was the high commissioner and now managed his 16000 square kilometer place here. He was really looking forward to the local dance that night and invited me as he reckoned the girls were really spunky as he put it. They were just great little places to pass through with their red sunsets in the desert sky. Ayers Rock, which lies in the heart of the continent is now managed by the Aboriginal people and it has a complex some miles distance where accommodation for all pockets is catered for. Sitting in the huge bars here at night listening to music you would not think it was such a genuinely remote location such is the cosmopolitan atmosphere of the place. The rock itself is a magical place and it glows red in the setting sun as all the cars line up in the viewing park like some 1950s American picture show. We both liked Alice Springs. It also is full of tourists and is an oasis of modern conveniences in this vast outback. Lingering there a few days we caught up on emails as there are no internet cafes in the other stopovers and we enjoyed the luxury of cafe society though I'm not sure the girls were quite as spunky.


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