Not A Mid Life Crisis, Just An Extended Tour (Part XXVIX) - The West Coast Exploration

 DAY 41

It had rained pretty heavily at times overnight. I was hoping to incorporate some dirt roads today after advice from the ranger at the Head of The Bight visitors centre and the gent I chatted to last night. But what would the roads be like? 

Well, there was only one way to find out!

I headed out Sceale By road with the intention of having a look at Point Labatt sealion colony. Initially I was warm and dry but as I approached Sceale Bay a heavy shower blew across my path (it was massively windy this morning). I slowed to a stop to let it pass, then thought "bugger it, I've got all the good gear" and pressed on. It only TEEEEEMED down on me for a few minutes. 🙄 I got through the pishing deluge and looked back on it at the Point Labatt turnoff. Did I really want to go down there for 17 kilometres? That would be 34 kilometres of unknown, wet dirt.....

How bad can it be? Initially, not bad at all.

But then came the low lying clay bits.... and there was much seat cushion sucking....

I was glad it was mostly straight road through the clay sections as they were pretty slippery. I just tried to hold a constant throttle and looked well ahead to hold my line. Seemed to work....

(Almost) Soon enough I was at Point Labatt. It was BLOWING dogs off chains out here! I had to park the bike so the wind blew it onto the sidestand as I wasn't confident it would stay upright if I parked it the other way around. 

I decided to leave my helmet on because it was like I was doing 100km/h just standing still and I didn't want my hair messed up. There was one other car in the car park with a woman sitting in it. She smiled as I walked past. Out at the lookout I met her partner who was leaning over the railing, looking cold. I figured she was the smart one.

Initially I only saw one sealion on the sand but after watching carefully for a few minutes I could see quite a few swimming around in the rock pools. I was secretly hoping to see a Great White gobble one up but alas, it wasn't to be. 😕 

I noticed some funny looking track marks on the wet slope, below the crusty edged drop-off below us and wondered how they got there. A few minutes later I learned how, when a scruffy looking bloke with only 2 teeth in his head swung a black plastic bag up, over the edge. In his other hand was a long filleting knife. He seemed a smidge surprised to see me as he clambered up. It was then that I realised that the pair of blokes were together and were doing something that they weren't meant to. What they had in the bag, I don't know but they went to the car, put it in the back and drove off. Wished I'd got a photo of the car now.

Dodge.Eee.

I survived the mud fest on the way out ok and back at the intersection looked at the sign. I had intended to go back Sceale Bay way but the sign said Port Kenny was 39 kilometres to the right. Well, I needed to go through Port Kenny today, so, how bad can it be, right?

It started out ok...

Point Labatt was off to the left of frame.

Then it got "interesting" in the hollows. The council had even put out some of those "slippery" roadsigns along here and YES, it was slippery in places. I didn't stop for any photos as I just wanted it to be done. Eventually it was and I was upright still!

I hit the sealed road and turned right into Port Kenny, stopping briefly for a photo outside the pub. So many of these coastal communities were on the coast, just off the highway so I didn't go into (m)any as it just takes too much time.

I cut inland from Port Kenny, heading for Wudinna and the Eyre Highway. I didn't want to go back the same way as I had come out. The countryside here was again, very much like central NSW. Not surprising once you think about it as the latitude is almost identical to home (32-33 degrees south), even though it feels much further south.

There aren't many hills out here and those that are, well, they are definitely molehills.

I rolled into Wudinna hoping for a little cafe' but found nothing but a small roadhouse. I just took a photo of the "Australian Farmers" tribute statue and kept going. TICK.

Rolling into the next town, Kimba, the roadhouse looked much more inviting. After filling up I pushed the bike aside, ordered some food and enjoyed not wearing a helmet for a while.

That clay had made a bit of a mess this morning but at least the Twin looked the part now.

Before I left Kimba I had a couple of "big things" to check out. First was the Big Galah at the other roadhouse in town (a two roadhouse town?!! Whoa, I'm back in the big smoke!)

The other "big thing" was the painted silo. This one looked amazing! It was quite touching with the young girl looking off wistfully toward the distant clouds. A must see!

Wiping that tear away, I powered on toward Iron Knob. Along here I got to pass the same large truck carrying a huge mining loader for the third time this morning. I waved. We were almost on first name terms!

The old Iron Knob mine was right by the side of the highway so I stopped for a photo (and the truck with the loader went past again 😆)

Iron Knob, Iron Baron and Iron Dutchess were all names from a board game Chiller and I played as children. The game (I can't remember what it was called) involved sailing around a map of Australia and stopping in at various locations. First one around the country won. Thinking back, it was a great way to learn Australian geography and this is why the above names are seared into my memory. Also, for a poor kid growing up in 1970s country NSW, these names seemed to be from a faraway land. I knew they were in the same country but at the time I couldn't comprehend ever going to see them. No, growing up, the furthest from home we were ever taken was 120 kilometres to the nearest big town, Orange and THAT seemed to be an ordeal. 10 year old me couldn't imagine coming here.

 I took a spin through the township. It was very run down and I just couldn't bring myself to take any photos. Instead, I pressed on for Port Augusta just up the road.

A fence ran alongside the road and thousands of these signs were hung from it. This was the boundary of the Cultana Range again.

In Port Augusta I fuelled up and got going as quickly as I could. I was only 300 kilomtres or so from Adelaide now and could probably make it back before dark. I did have a few more days off though so thought I might head east of the ranges again. A great way of doing this is by turning off onto the Wilmington road, which goes through Horrocks Pass. 

I had last ridden Horrocks Pass in early 1992 on my way back to the Kimberley from wet season holidays. Yeah, it had been a while!

Approaching the pass, the road is lined with wind farms these days.

I stopped just before entering the gorge...but there are no photos from within. I was enjoying the ride too much!

So much so, that I turned around and went back through. Exiting to the west I saw a heavy shower coming across the Gulf. Shit! I had better get going if I wanted to beat that into my intended destination for tonight of Melrose.

Across through Wilmington, then south towards Melrose and the sky was getting darker and darker! I kept twisting the speed lever on the Twin and managed to just beat the rain into town! This photo doesn't really show it but it was very dark and windy as the storm hit.

I left the bike under the petrol station awning and wandered into the pub next door, looking for a room. They weren't sure if they would have one as they can't get a cleaner to clean it (due to illness). I was thinking that it would be ludicrous not to be able to get a clean room for the night because it can't be cleaned tomorrow. Fortunately sanity prevailed and I didn't have to head back out into the wet, cold evening as they could get the room cleaned tomorrow! (I was going to offer to clean it if that would have made the difference between getting one or not)

After a nice hot shower I wandered back to the pub and sat down to enjoy the warmth of the fire and watch snippets of the Commonwealth Games on the big screen. The publican and his wife turned out to be super hosts and I enjoyed a long afternoon in there! Dinner was what I would class as one of THE BEST lamb shanks I have ever had  - and full disclosure, my missus does a bloody good lamb shank but this was sensational! 

The Mt Remarkable Hotel in Melrose. Go there. 😎

Just 530 kilometres for the day. That seemed to be a good balance though considering the weather and road conditions earlier today.

Cheers.