mt isa to three ways
Monday, August 10, 2009 at 12:09AM
Well the day started with a bang, literally, the tv in the room we had blew up when we turned it on to see the news and it really stank, which made eating breakfast an outdoors event.
the smoking telly
our room in isa
After the excitement of the exploding telly, we packed up and headed off to get fuell and to find the lookout for a bit of a gander before we started to camooweel which was to be our first stop. We got to the lookout and had a wandered around and took some pictures but just as we were about to leave, the big fella bumps into his step mother's sister and husband, weird. We had a chat to them for a while then hit the road. The road out of isa is like the road in, really nice to ride and stunning to look at. It's not long though before you are once again riding through the seemingly endless flatness of the vast interior.
Sitting in the roadhouse at camooweel, i was approached by the guy sitting at the next table who asked me which direction we were headed. when we told him he asked if we could do the woman he was with a favour. It seems the van they were travelling in had developed engine trouble and her boyfriend was still with the car 150km away in 32 degree heat and she wondered if we could give him a message she had written. We said of course and off we went.
On the way we stopped at the border for a photo op. This is were we met the irish boys who would feature heavily in our, but in particular, my day. The car they were in was choc-a-block with beer and they were well tanked already. After the pics were taken we said goodbye to the irish boys and headed off to find simon, the stranded frenchman.
back on the borderline
We nearly rode right past simon because he was 50km closer than the guys at the roadhouse said he would be. After handing him the message we got to talking about what was wrong with the car and it sounded very much like fuel starvation. The big fella had the idea of removing the fuel cap and when he did there was a huge rush of air into the tank so it seems it had built up a lot of negative pressure and the fuel just wasn't getting through. With the cap off the van seemed to be ok so simon set off for avon downs police station the ring his girlfriend.
Our good deed for the day done we prepared to get going, but i remembered that i didn't have my ear plugs in and didn't want to ride without them, so the big fella took off and i was to catch up. As i was leaving i was checking for traffic, of which there was a very large truck, so i hit the brakes but had my weight all wrong and the bike over balanced and i put it down, which was very annoying on two levels; one, i broke my right side mirror; and two, i couldn't lift the bike on my own.
helping our fellow traveller
Enter the irish boys again. They were driving past andf i flagged them down so the pulled over. I turned around to do something and when i turned back they were out of the car but one of the was stark bollock naked holding only a can of beer. Apparently he had been like that for some time. They were well plastered by now but they helped pick up my bike and i was out of there before they could get into the car and get going.
i caught up with the big fella just outside of the berkley homestead where we stopped for a break and fix my mirror the best we could. There we met up with the irish boys again who apparently had been trying some nude hitchhiking along the way. e haven't seen them since then so let's hope they had the sense to pull over.
From barkley homestead it was straight on to the tree ways where we got a site and set up the tents for a well earned rest. Once again we have met really nice people who afre interested in what we afre doing.
Tomorrow is another big straight road day as we do the 600km to alice springs where we will have a couple of days rest and hoefully i can get some of this onto the blog so craig dosen't get upset.
our exact location: http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&geocode=&q=-19.4367,134.2093&ll=-19.4367,134.2093&ie=UTF8&z=12&om=1
Reader Comments (1)
Hi,
Sounds like you are having a great time.. Be careful of those Irish!!!
See you soon Andrew.
Wendy and Ken