To Albany

I’m pleased with my little tent. It rained hard last night and I remained dry. Hurrah. It was a cheapish tent - $90.00 - but still double skinned, light weight and very compact which is essential because it has to fit on the bike. The compromise with it is that it only has a nylon bottom instead of that heavier waterproof base that most tents have. So I put the folded tarp under it and it was as good as.

I was ready early this morning and on the road by 0906 hours. It was windy, but that dried out the puddles and water dripping off the leaves. However, I got top curse the very same during the course of the day as it was head on most of the way, keeping my top speed to a hardly stately 50 kph with the odd burst of 60 kph.

It was 289 kms to Albany, down on the coast, past more pasture and mallee scrub. A few odd things to see on the way, like the T tree. 

But mostly it was just riding and trying to survive road train turbulence. It doesn’t usually hit me much but today it did, probably because the air was already swirling. But only those going in the opposite direction; as usual those overtaking me were easy. I watch my mirrors and when they’re about 100m behind me, I flick the right indicator and then move over as much as I can, slowing a bit if I can see solid white lines ahead. They always toot or flash thanks, so it works well. And I get to coast on their wheels. But this was the biggest thing I saw all day; massive! I had to pull off the road so as he could pass.

I stopped for fuel at a place called Jerramungup at about 1130 only to find a collection of bikes and vehicles on the forecourt and their respective drivers/riders standing around aimlessly. There was no power, which meant no fuel could be pumped, and worse still no coffee could be made. Neither is what you want to hear when you’re cold and running low on petrol! But then this little fella trotted up. One horsepower.

But we were all stuck, the garage bloke reckoning it would be back on by 12 noon but then 1530. The nearest fuel was 60 kms away at Boxwood Hill, fortunately in the direction I was heading. Only trouble was, what if there was no power there either? But if the worst came to the worst, I had food and water plus somewhere to sleep until it got put back on, probably on Monday morning. A quick look in Gerty’s tanks revealed that I still had about 100 kms of fuel left, but would that distance still be achievable in the strong headwind? I decided to give it a go, but the bigger bikes and vehicles were all stuck, not having enough to get them to Boxwood Hill.  

But I made it, and the headwind became a sidewind as I turned off south towards Albany. More roadtrains, more mallee scrub, more pasture, and more Roman roads, then it rained and became quite cold. But I reached Albany OK and was very glad to be staying in the YHA again tonight.

We even passed the Stirling Ranges on the way, albeit from a distance. I would have liked to have ridden through them on way to Albany but there was no fuel that way.

Gerty is all tucked up under a waterproof cover that somebody gave me a few thousand kms ago, and parked at the back of the carpark. We’ll go off exploring again tomorrow, unloaded, to see what we can see in the area. But I think its going to tip it down.

Staying in youth hostels is good sport because its mostly all kids here and first time travellers. Then I come along and don't fit the template of what they expect. For a start, I'm usually 100 years older than the eldest and they don't quite know what to make of me and can't quite understand why I'm here.

" Shouldn't she be in a 5 star hotel or on a cruise or something?". " What about if we smoke weed; will she disapprove?". " Is she a management spy or something?" 

No people, none of the above. I've been travelling since before most of you were born, I've done the weed/drink/ other naughty stuff thing and grown out of it, I'm not a spy or a nark and I don't really care what you do, but if you piss me off, I will tell you upfront; none of that getting a third person to do it for me. to soften the blow. Yes I do travel by motorbike, yes I can ( and do) ride bigger bikes and have a full unlimited licence to do so. And I also drove lorries for several years, including road trains across the Nullarbor between Freemantle and Adelaide. No I have never been on a cruise nor do I want to, and the 5 star thing is not my thing. And yes, I can understand French, quite well as it happens, so I know what you're saying, particularly when it comes to me, which lets face it, is how I know all this stuff. So leave me alone please unless you have something interesting to say. I'm happy to chat to anybody about most things but understand that many people have already done what you're now doing, long before you did it, and without the aid of gap year companies, mobile phones, email, twitter, Facebook, digital cameras and wifi. And before we did it, people did it before us so it's not new. Get over yourselves.