Flinders Ranges Trip 2025 - The Ride Day 6

 

I was going to get up early this morning and go for a walk along one of the hiking trails…..but it was bloody cold and staying in bed seemed like the better option.😊

When we eventually did get up we wandered around to the restaurant for some breakfast. We were a bit later today so it was quite busy.

There was no great rush to get going. We were heading back to Broken Hill (and reality) today so we had 300km of dirt then ~200km of sealed road to tackle. While our biggest day, it would be easy going.

Once loaded we rolled off and immediately my bike felt funny. It felt like the steering damper was wound right up or the front tyre was flat. I stopped to check - nope, damper is wound off and the front is pumped up - but the rear tyre is looking pretty flat! 

Bugger!

I must have flatted not far from Arkaroola yesterday afternoon and it went down overnight. Riding around to the fuel pumps where the air hose was I pumped the tyre up and went hunting for the puncture. It didn’t take long to find as it was hissing fairly loudly. Don’t know how I didn’t hear it yesterday?

Anyway, I shoved a plug in, pumped it up and was good to go. Tubeless is the way to go when it is this easy to fix.😉

Rolling, take two, we stopped numerous times to get photos in the morning light. 

We overtook a couple on a KLX 230 and an MT450 not far out of Arkaroola, trying not to dust them too much.

We were on the lookout for the sandy creek crossing and it was indeed hard to spot when coming from this direction. It caused no problems for us this morning though.

This morning consisted of just blatting along at 90-100km/h. No need to go too fast and once we took the turn to the south at Frome Downs, toward Yunta the road became covered in a 50mm deep sand/ gravel which made for some "loose" moments.  We stopped along here for a short rest to give our concentration levels a break. 

A while later we came to the mining ruins at Waukaringa. I missed out on checking them out closely in 2022 so I followed some bush tracks over to the old kiln and chimney for a quick look around.  Steve wasn't keen so stayed over near the main road.

 We then wandered down to the couple of derelict buildings only to find a group of adventure bike parked out the front. The riders were all hiding around the corner,  out of the wind, cooking sausages on the bbq that their support car had supplied.  Talk about doing it in style!

We chatted for a bit and they offered us a snag which we politely declined. We would be in Yunta soon and would refuel there. 

We tried the other service station in Yunta this time.  A sandwich and an iced coffee worked to avoid the hot coffee disappointment of our last visit. 

As we were fueling up a van with Jemma Wilson splashed on the side pulled in for fuel.  Jemma was/is a high level Moto Crosser and now does ladies coaching.  She must have been down in Adelaide for some coaching.  We would leapfrog  the van for the next two hundred odd kilometres back to Broken Hill.

Arriving into Broken Hill I suggested to Steve that as it was still relatively early we ride the thirty or so kilometres out to the historic Silverton. We were riding into a settling sun along a road lined with kangaroos so we took it gingerly. 

Stopping into the iconic Silverton Hotel it looked pretty deserted but entering the bar there was actually quite a few people. 

We grabbed a couple of Tooheys Olds and sat out the front watching the shadows grow longer. 

That done it was into Broken Hill to find some accommodation.  We weren't that chuffed with the caravan park unit from last week so we found a nice clean, warm motel room - briefly checking that my car was in fact still OK at the caravan park.  I'll go get it tomorrow morning. 

All up,  a pretty easy day but we were a bit tired from the concentration required on the looser dirt roads into Yunta.

Dinner was at The Broken Hill Pub which was very clean and modern. 

I didn't take much rocking to sleep tonight! It had been a solid week on the bike.  Not huge kilometres but quality stuff that demanded concentration. Tomorrow would be an easy day in the car back to Dubbo..... and as we both still had all the next week off we would need to come up with a plan for some more riding...... stay tuned! 😎

Cheers.

What happened next HERE.

Flinders Ranges Trip 2025 - The Ride Day 5

As it had been an early night I was up early and went for a walk around.  It was bloody chilly so I was rugged up in the puffy jacket and beanie.  A bit of a novelty for a sub-tropical dweller. I wandered past the reception/bar/restaurant building,  around some of the fancier cabins then up to the old observatory. It wasn't much of a walk but it was nice to get some exercise in. 

 Following on from the breakfast theme at Blinman, a free continental breakfast was laid on in the reception/ dining area. We made good use of this as did plenty of the other guests. 

The plan for today..... was..... ummm......I wasn’t actually sure what to do today.  There are some pretty technical tracks around Arkaroola but even unloaded I didn't want to expose Steve to anything too difficult.  He has never ridden a dirt bike on dirt bike trails so I didn't want to expose him to anything too tough on a 230kg bike with a hair throttle. (We had swapped bikes two days ago and the first things I noticed about the Africa Twin was its huge, wide tank making it hard to lock on, its narrow a.f. footpegs and its very, very light throttle. This combined with it’s huge power made it tricky to control precise throttle application.  The Desert X has a much more docile throttle feel which is enhanced by being able to dial the power level back in three steps when in Enduro mode.  I run it at a mid power setting when on the dirt ~ 80 h.p. I think - still plenty to light up the rear wheel on dirt)

So, where to go? When looking for options I had found a .gpx file on the South Australian ADV Bike riders Facebook page that seemed to go from Arkaroola across to Leigh Creek. I had always wanted to visit Leigh Creek since I was a kid  so owing to the lack of a better idea, decided on that route for today. 😉

There was no rush so I think we were on the road at about 9am. Riding out past the camping area we spotted where Adam (the crashed GS1250 rider) was camped up.  It was a cool morning so he was probably still tucked up in bed. 

The track was in pretty good condition with nothing difficult about it.  Soon we came to the remnants of the Bolla Bollana copper mine.  There was a very cool little round house with the remains of a smelter just up the hill.  

The craftsmanship on the round house and the remains of the smelter was impressive.  I can't fathom the suffering that cold climate Europeans must have endured trying to eek a living out of a marginal copper deposit waaaaaay up here in the ninety-percent-of-the-time oppressive heat of the driest state on the driest continent.  

Tough bastards.🫡

We continued on West and the trail very rapidly became a lot more rugged. Clearly,  the "Bob and Marges" (Adam Rieman description of outback caravaners) only came as far as the smelter,  then went back to Arkaroola. 

The hills progressively became rockier..... and steeper... both up and down.  I was beginning to worry about my track selection, especially as Steve had gone quiet in the comms. This meant he was getting worried. 

We came to a downhill that was a mess of loose, large rock. On the big bikes we decided it was safest to switch off and clutch it down,  which we both did.  That hill took us ten minutes to get down. 

Shit. 

Would this be too hard....?

The track moderated somewhat after this for a while.... luring us in.

  After a few more loose and rocky climbs we came to an intersection.  We needed to go left.  Left led to a long,  steep,  rocky climb.  

Gulp!

The beauty of having the helmet comms was that I could give Steve a running commentary of what the traction was like and which side of the track was best. 

This climb has me a bit doubtful about how he would go.  My advice was "give it heaps”,  keep your momentum and don't stall ". Stopping would have seen him unable to start without going back down and probably dropping the bike. 

He dutifully gave it heaps and came up over the crest in a cloud of roosting dust!😆

 

We stopped here on this barren hilltop to catch our breath and calm down.  While it was a cool day we were both sweating pretty hard.  🤫

It was blowing hard up here, my buff was flying like a flag on the mirror stem, and we were soon quite cold. 

Pressing on carefully it soon became apparent we were past the difficult climbs and descents.

The track now was a twisting red dirt delight.  We passed the edge of a pastoral station, opening and closing the gate Steve pointed to the location of his sphincter clenching  moment. 😆

We blatted along for what felt like ages until we came to the main road.  There were some amazing views along here and I was so glad we did this back track. 

The colours were simply stunning!

The main road was super highway dirt and we buzzed along until we hit the sealed road at Copley. 

We did a lap up the main street of Copley and unimpressed, pushed on the 5km to Leigh Creek. 

Leigh Creek had a very "government " planned town look about it.  Like a mini Canberra or Roxby Downs with lots of roundabouts and curved roads.  All the houses looked the same and it was actually tricky to find our lunch destination, the pub, as it didn't really stand out in the traditional style. 

Parking up at the pub we wandered in. It was a huge room with only one other couple playing pool. We ordered a burger to share (we weren’t that hungry) and a beer - because why not?

The share burger was a good idea because it was a MONSTER. 😬 Half was fine for us mere motorcyclists. We weren't hard working miners. 

We rode back to the service station where we bumped into the ADV bike group we had seen in Blinman and Arkaroola.  They had been to the old Beltana township and recommended the 30km ride down there to take a look.  

Steve was worried about getting back to Arkaroola to iron some blouses so we didn't go look at Beltana. No worries,  it's only 2100 kilometres from home to go back and have a look.....🙄

The 144km of road home was all easy super highway back to Arkaroola.  

We mostly just powered along but we did stop at some gorge along the way where we "chased" some Emu along the road.

Emu losing traction. 

Dropping off the higher ground gave us amazing views to the east towards Lake Frome. The last 33km into Arkaroola was the same road we did yesterday afternoon. 

We were home well before dark and took a walk around,  looking at the colours of the hills during the sunset. 

Dinner in the restaurant turned into BBQ by the pool area as they give the chef the night off on Thursday nights. It wasn't what we were expecting but the food was tasty and plentiful and was washed down with another bottle of red. We were joined by Adam (the crashed dude) and we chatted all things motorcycling, retirement and life in general.  It was a very nice night..... if a tad chilly. 🥶

Another relatively short day kilometres wise but it was action packed.  Riding dirt is very demanding on one's attention. 

Cheers. 

Day 6 here.

Flinders Ranges Trip 2025 - The Ride Day 4

 We weren't the first up for breakfast this morning so by the time we arrived all the milk was gone. Toast and black coffee it is then!

We packed up quickly and had the bikes loaded before the dew had time to evaporate off the seats, so it must have been early still. We were heading for Arkaroola today where we would be staying for the next two nights. This basing ourselves in one place for a few days and looping out of there was working well and I had some ideas for a ride out of Arkaroola.

Initially we headed west, out Parachilna Gorge road as we needed to fuel up and the only fuel around Blinman is 15km to the west at Angorachina Village. Those fifiteen kilometres were pretty twisty so we went slowly. 

Angorachina Village is a small fuel and convenience store that also has accomodation options for small to large groups in various cabins. I did initially look at accommodation here instead of Blinman but Blinman won out in the end. We filled up the bikes and as we did a group of ADV bikes rolled in.

 They had stayed at the Blinman Hotel last night as well (you can see them at a table in one of my beer garden photos from last night). We had a quick chat and were off heading west to find Glass Gorge road again.

We passed the northern trailhead for the 1200km Heysen Trail and stopped for a quick look. It was much fancier than it had been in 2022. 

A couple more stops to marvel at the huge red cliffs along the dry creekbed here were in order. I think Steve got some good photos along here as he had his real camera out.

We turned right into Glass Gorge road again and found that the initial sandy bit was just as loose as yesterday. I wanted to duck up to the little lookout again today but Steve wasn't interested in the steep climb. So, I left him to iron blouses* at the bottom and shot up for a morning light photo.

We continued on along Glass Gorge rd, passing the Mt Franklin track off to the left. I was keen to do this loop track as I had seen it on plenty of ADV ride You Tube videos and it looked spectacular. Steve wasn't keen so we kept going, turning left into Moolooloo Station road. This station has some Public Access Roads (P.A.R.) that seem to be a South Australian thing. We were going to do PAR 4 through the station to the old Artimore ruins, then out onto the Blinman/Arkaroola road. We had wanted to do the Nuccaleena Copper Mine PAR which branched off Moolooloo Station road but it was closed for some reason.

The track to Moolooloo Station was pretty well used but after we passed this sign it degenerated somewhat - which made it interesting. Nothing difficult, just interesting.

Moolooloo Station homestead. 

We tootled along for a while, taking in the scenery. We decided to stop on one of the many dry creek crossings to get off and stretch our legs. We munched museli bars as we strolled around and checked out the gorge. The first part of PAR 4 was all like this

It was just us out here. We didn't see another soul the whole PAR 4 ride.

But we did see plenty of Emus. They have big feet.

We traversed more creek beds, weaving in and out of the big old gum trees that lined them.

We even 'chased" a huge mob of Emu down one of them for quite a while as the track followed the dry creek bed. We only lost them when the track peeled off, up the bank.

Look closely and you can see the two straggling Emu from the flock further up the creekbed. 

Popping up onto the bank we stopped briefly at the old car wreck.

We next stopped at the old Artimore Station ruins. Established in the 1850s as a sheep grazing enterprise it lasted about fifty years before the dry conditions and hungry wildlife made it unprofitable to continue.

We stopped here for a good look around the three remaining ruins. It would have been a bloody tough existence out here nearly 170 years ago.

 

PAR 4 had quite a bit further to go and we really enjoyed riding along, side by side on the narrow track. I was pleased to see that Steve was starting to loosen up and trust his tyres. We were flowing along very nicely.

Even on some of the sketchier off camber stuff we kept the pace up.

When it opened right up I goaded him into really giving it some stick now that we could see what was in front of us for a ways. I was trying to help Steve grow his dirt confidence and it looked to be working.

Giving it some stick! 

All too soon we were back to the intersection on the Blinman-Arkaroola road. It was about 140km to Arkaroola and it was nearly lunch time. Knowing that there isn't much in the way of midday food up there I suggested we ride the 13km back into Blinman and have lunch at the little store. Steve reckoned it sounded ok, so back we went. Lunch consisted of a pie and a chocolate milk while we overlooked the busy goings on of downtown Blinman.

We hit the road again, heading for Arkaroola. The main road is like a well, a main road. It is wide and quite smooth for the most part. We did find a grader working his "magic" all through the Wearing Gorge section. This made the road loose and soft, which caused a few pucker moments, but we came through ok.

Popping out of Wearing Gorge we were on the flat plains, heading toward Lake Frome. This is where Andy and I got our dusty drone shot in 2022. I decided to try to replicate it today with Steve but the drone wasn't playing nicely and even though the road seemed dusty it didn't produce as good of a shot. Maybe the ludicrous speed we did in 2022 helped?

Yeah, its flat out here!

Stopping to launch the drone I couldn't get my beast off it's side stand with the slope of the road. The little drone captured my hero saving me.....😄

It was another 39km to the next turn near Balcanoona Station, where we turn in for Arkaroola. 

Behind us is the way to Arkaroola, to the left of photo is the way we would be coming back tomorrow.

There is an amazing rock outcrop called Balcanoona Bluff with Balcanoona Creek (dry. of course) running in front of it immediately as you take the turn into Arkaroola. Pictures don't do it justice...and we didn't stop to try harder to make it better. This is off the chin mount DJI Action 4.

Arriving in Arkaroola Village we went straight for a fuel top - up. It has always been our policy to fuel up immediately in case something goes pear shaped over night. Prices were in line with what you would expect in such a remote location and honestly, not that much more than we pay in Brisbane when fuel is at the top of the price cycle.

We found our room and got changed for a walk around the resort village. There are some stunning rock formations and perhaps we could have done a tour to learn more about what we were seeing.

But we sort of gravitated to the bar after a bit of a stroll around. Here we found friendly backpackers staffing the place and one older gent watching HJC helmet reviews via You Tube on the big screen television. Once he left I snavelled the remote and tuned in a couple of Moto GP races to watch while we had a cold one. 😎

It turns out Adam, they guy watching the reviews, was a fellow adventure rider on a BMW 1250GS and had come off doing about 80km/h in the only bit of deepish sand on the whole road from Blinman to here. It was in a creek bed and Steve and I slowed for it but it wasn't too bad. Unfortunately Adam was going the other way and didn't see it coming as it was over a slight rise into the creek bed. It seems his head took the brunt of the crash and he now needed a new helmet. Luckily, he was otherwise unhurt but was stuck in Arkaroola for a few days until the new helmet arrived. 

Heading back to our room to clean up for dinner we spied the lads from Angorachina this morning. They were in the room around the corner from us!

Dinner was booked for six thirty and lucky we did book. The restaurant was busy and while the menu was sparse, the food was gourmet!

"Bugger the garlic bread" I told Steve, "lets get the cob loaf".

It came out hot, crusty and accomapnied by olive oil and dukkah. 

Delicious!

For the main I decided on the "beef". It didn't specify what beef the cut was but I took a leap of faith. I was rewarded with the best piece of steak I think I have eaten in years!! It was cooked to my specification exactly AND it was sooo tender. I can't believe I could get such an awesome meal at what was actually normal city prices waaay out here in the actual outback. Steve was pretty chuffed with his T-bone staek too....or was it the Pepperjack....? 😋

We were having such an unexpectedly good time that we decided on some desert - rare for me. I asked Steve to trust me on the affogato order. The waitress had to go check to see if they had Frangellico as our spirit of choice, which they did, so we polished off the night with this little number.

This was a fantastic (and unexpected) end to another great day on the bikes. The Flinders just keeps getting better and better!

As we were staying two nights we were planning a loop ride for tomorrow. It didn't need a crazy early start but the light is better for photography if one gets away early. Either way, we were stuffed and hit the hay quite early. Like a kid at Christmas, we couldn't wait for tomorrows riding!

Cheers.

Day 5 here.

*"Ironing blouses" is the piss take expression used by the group Steve rides with in Sydney to describe when someone is being soft or not riding.