Mid Life Crisis On A Budget: Safe and sound in Yulara

Hi all

Sorry this post will have no pictures. The Yulara internet cafe doesn't have a computer I can plug the camera into.You'll just have to put up with a bit of a speal about the last few days

Day 1 Perth - Mt Magnet.

Great days ride in overcast conditions. Rod was late to the starting line but we took off and made our first stop the Booragoon Bakery for a pie and coffee. From there we headed north but we kept getting stuck behind two groups of wide loads taking new Cat Dump trucks and what looked like half a mill up to the Pilbara.We finally made Mt Magnet about 5pm and settled in for a few beers and some pizza. I hit the wall around 8pm though and had to sook off to bed while Rod and Tony carried on.

Day 2 Mt Magnet - Wiluna

Sadly we had to say goodbye to Tony this morning. We all had breakfast together at the roadhouse and then he took for Perth while we headed east down the Sandstone road. We had to fight a cold easterly the whole way! We stopped in Sandstone for a coffee and met up with the weirdest bunch of Gen Y's . They were all stuck in the town not quite knowing what to do.

The Sandstone Road

Finally got the Leinster about 2pm, quickly fueled up and headed north to Wiluna. Once we got there we filled our fuel bladders for the first time. The only drama was where to put them. Rod had to wedge his between his big rear bag and himself, not to comfortable. I managed to squeeze mine into my left pannier, something I was very glad of two days later. We ended up spending the night just out town at the old Wiluna Vineyard. I was really apprehensive about what the next few days would bring and didn't sleep well.

Wiluna Camp

Day 3 Wiluna - Carnegie Station

We got an early start and hit the road the next morning. The road through to Carneige is all dirt and rutted in places but really it was a highway.

Mick Cooking Up Lunch

We were averaging 80km/hr and riding really well, so well we missed the Carnegie turnoff. We didn't realise our mistake until an hour later when we found Woongol Station and had to ask for directions. This meant an extra 70km to Carnegie along a very rough and washed track. Still we made the station by 4pm and set up camp and fueled the bikes.

Just About There

We paid $15 a head to camp and all we got was a spot of grass, a lukewarm shower and.....that it. No cooking facilities but they sell you beer and then tell after you've drunk it that they have no rubbish bins, we have to carry all of our waste out. That nights sleep was also not good. We had a generator going all night outside of the tents, ahhhh.

Day 4 Carnegie to Warburton, oops, Beddle Camp

So yeah I got to ambitious with the schedule. We had planned to ride almost 500km that day. The first 180km were a dream. The road was okay and we were averaging 90km/hr ON DIRT.

WCG

The "good" Gunbarrel Higway

The scorebard at the Gunarrel Footy Ground Right in the middle of the Track in the middle of no-where!

Then we saw the you are leaving the shire of Wiluna sign and sure enough the track went from a highway to two very badly rutted tyre tracks. Rod had the first (and his only) off of the day travelling at 1km/hr. We had a laugh about it but then I had my first off, a bad one at 60km/hr. I bruised my right leg, knocked off a pannier and bend my crash bars badly.

Bent Crash Bar

Bruise Coming Up

My Right Pannier held on by cable ties

Still the bike kept going magnificently. I had two more offs that day but not so bad. Th terrain was killing us though. It wasn't the ruts you could fit a coke can into, it was big washouts and rocks. Quite frankly the worst track I've ever been on. We were nearing our limit and had only covered 280km when we met up with 8 4wd's on a tag along tour.