On Wednesday we first of all went to Mildura Homestead. Gerhard has now taken photos of the homestead for the 4. time (1986, 1990, 2007, 2012).
Shopped, fuelled up and drove in direction Broken Hill. Almost the whole time wilst riding, we drove at 110 km/h, which is very exhausting with the strong sidewinds.
We arrived in Broken Hill at about 3 o'clock and put our tent up immediately. Drove back to town quickly and tried to capture the sunset. We wanted to take some photos of the sunset on the "actual" Broken Hill. We didn't find the right entry though and had to take an about 8 km long other way until we finally reached the top of the hill after another 2 km.
On Thursday 19. April we rode from Broken Hill to Orroroo.
After a short walk through Broken Hill we rode in direction South Australia. In Orroroo we quickly made contact to Alois and Inge. Both are Germans who've been living in Australia for many years. Alois is a passionate motorcyclist. He lost his right arm in a collision with a roobar. Although he has this disability, he drove around Australia 2 years ago on the same bike as we have, the Kawasaki KLR 650. He has a special set-up for his left arm on his bike. He has to accelerate, brake and use the clutch with his left hand. After dinner we were invited over to Alois and Inge for a glass of wine. It was really nice to have a good conversation in German again
20. April Orroroo to Wilpena
Alois and Inge invited us over in the morning for a cup of coffee. Alois helped us after that with making the bikes ready to go.
From Orroroo we continued our journey to Hawker. There we checked out the road conditions. All roads we had picked for riding, were open.
Arrived in the afternoon at Wilpena in the Filders Ranges. In order to capture the sunset we went on a 7km walk to a lookout. But it was very cloudy that evening.
21.April Wilpena to Parachilna
Because we wanted to get started early to climb the St.Mary Peak, the highest mountain in Wilpena Pound, we got up at 6:15. Before the sunrise we started walking on the 7.6 km long walk up to the St.Mary Peak. The path isn't flat though, you have to overcome a lot of steep passages until you reach the top at 1177 m above sea level. After arriving at the top we didn't have such a good view, because there was a thick layer of clouds around us.
On the road again, many kangaroos jumped over the streets and 2 kangaroos almost jumped into
Geoffrey's bike. Luckily nothing happened and he could avoid a collision after performing a full brake.
After Blinman we had to ride a fairly difficult dirt track to Parachilna. This about 25 km long track took about one hour to ride.
22.April Parachilna to Marree
Got to Leigh Creek pretty quickly. Leigh Creek is interesting in the respect that it was shifted from it's original location, because cole was found there. Leaving Leigh Creek we drove on about 30km of sealed road after we continued on dirt track to Marree.
About 2 km after Marree Gerhard's bike just suddenly went out. We figured out quickly that it must be an electrical issue. We just didn't know what caused it. Luckily an Australian could help us. Daron is an Australian who was traveling with his wife Carol and his 2 kids. He gave us some fuses and checked the battery if it was still alright. The battery was ok, but the main fuse was burnt thru.
Then we had to take off all luggage, take off the fuel tank and check all the cables. Luckily Daron found the cause for the problem after 1 hour. A cable had rubbed on the frame and produced a short circuit. Then we assembled the bike again and got all luggage back on the bike. But then we noticed that we had forgotten the rubber protection of the fuel tank, so we had to take everything off again, take the tank off and put in the rubber protection. All in all we spent 2,5 hours fixing the bike. This time loss meant we couldn't get very far. We planned to reach Williams Creek on that day, but only managed to ride another 40 km until sunset. We camped in the bush that night.
23.April Maree to Coober Pedy
As there has been a lot of rain west of the Dividing Range in Queensland, Lake Eyre was full of water. This can only be seen about every 10 years. Luckily we saw Lake Eyre South full of water, and Gerhard walked to the shore of the lake.
On difficult tracks we drove on to Williams Creek. We fuelled up there. The price per litre of ULP was 2,30 $, the highest price we've paid for petrol.
In Williams Creek we had something to drink and then made our way to Coober Pedy. The first 30 km section was very difficult, and torture for bike and rider.
There were sandbanks and sand dunes constantly. We both almost fell off our bike a few times.
After about 60 km the track got better. We really wanted to get to Coober Pedy in daylight, but didn't make it. We rode the last 20 km to Coober Pedy in the dark. There we fell tired and exhausted into bed.
24. April Coober Pedy
We first had long showers ( 4 min ) , had some breakfast , washed our dirty washing and started on the bikes.
The bikes had to be serviced at many parts. All screws had to be tightened, the air filters had to be washed, cleaned and oiled. The chain also had to he cleaned and greased. We adjusted some cables and checked all parts.
In the afternoon we had a tour of an Opal mine. We got a tour in German there.
Because we wanted to find some Opal, we went to some poured out hills and noddled for some opal. We even found some small Opals.
