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 1

 

We were up early this morning to get a jump on today as it was going to be one of the bigger days on this ride at just on 450 kilometres. Not a huge day but with some dirt roads and plenty of stops for photos it would take long enough.

We departed under gloomy skies that threatened rain but thankfully it held out. There was a strong, cold wind blowing from the south that made the first few hours riding a little less enjoyable, especially as the first three hundred kilometres was straight sealed road. The boredom let one's mind exaggerate the cold so we stopped a few times to take photos. The first was at the New South Wales/South Australia border crossing in the little hamlet of  Cockburn. This was probably once an important railway/border crossing town but now the world simply blows by it.

At least the sun was shining in South Australia. 

A little further into South Australia we stopped at the next railway platform town, Manna Hill. Where the hill was, we were not sure but there was a cute little railway station that we took a quick look at.

A further 44km down the road was our first fuel stop at Yunta. There isn't much at Yunta but it is bigger than any other town we had ridden through so far. We stopped for fuel, a sandwich and a pretty average coffee. Thats two for two shit coffees in Yunta - three years apart - even though we were at the other service station this time!

After a break in Yunta we pushed on westwards to Peterborough. The countryside slowly began to change from the flat plains to some rolling hills.

Arriving in Peterborough we were just too early for the pub to be open. So we had a look at the steam train in the park, then pressed on. Rail was obviously a big part of the lifeline to these small towns a century or so ago.

The pub with no beer (for us 'cause we were too early!)

Gladstone was the next stop on our journey. 

We skirted the edge of Jamestown, well, we were going to but the main street looked so inviting we took a quick ride down one side and back out the other, onto the Gladstone road. Rolling into Gladstone we noticed the very imposing Gladstone Goal off to our right and had to take a look. It's huge compound walls were all made out of sandstone - very well made in fact, but the goal itself had been closed for decades. It would have been interesting to have a walk around inside but unfortunately it was closed.

A quick scoot around the town centre and we ascertained that there was only one pub open, so we parked up for beer. Probably not a well earned one for we hadn't done anything to earn it but stuff it - we were on holidays!

It was nice to sit in the sun for a while as it was still blowing a stiff, cold wind from the south. Watching the numpties negotiate the roundabout/monument in front of us was good entertainment as well! We wondered how many times it had been knocked over in the past....

We crossed the very southern end of the Flinders Ranges now to get across to the Spencer Gulf, bypassing Port Pirie and calling into the little seaside town of Port Germain for a look around. There wasn't much happening here so after a quick look at the old lighthouse and pier we were off again.

We would be hitting our first bit of dirt just out of Port Germain as we made our way to the Bridle Track. I had ridden this fun little bit of dirt a couple of times in 2022 and now I wanted Steve to enjoy the challenge and the views.

Steve hasn't done much off road riding so he was a bit nervous as we hit the dirt (not literally!) but having the helmet comms I was able to annoy the shit out of him errr.....coach him along but it wasn't really necessary as this entrance track was in much better condition than it was three years ago. The trickier bit was about to come.

We stopped part way up the climb as I wanted to get a couple of drone shots as the view slowly expanded and to give Steve some time to adjust to the slightly more challenging riding.

There is a short, steep rocky pinch climb that goes for maybe eighty metres that I worded Steve up for. He waited at the base while I climbed it and with the comms I was able to let him know it was in excellent condition. He shouldn't have any problem....and he didn't because as you can see in the next photo he was strolling around at the top taking photos in no time at all! 

The steep pinch pops up where you can see the track above Steve's head. 

We stopped at the top for quite a while, taking in the three hundred and sixty degree views over the Spencer Gulf and the farm lands to the north, east and south. (I apologise for the quality of some of these photos - they are screen grabs from the drone video that I hope to edit into something in the future)

One thing that was abundantly clear this trip was how dry it was. South Australia is in the grip of drought. It was a very different scene when I was here with Andy three years ago....it is hard to beleive this is the same spot as the three photos above!

Time to get going again. It wasn't very far to our overnight stay though so we rode quite slowly, taking in the views.

There were a few gates to open so we took it in turns.

All too soon we were at our accommodation for the night, the Mt Remarkable Hotel in Melrose. It was only around 3pm and our rooms weren't ready so the publican shouted us a beer and we sat in the afternoon sun letting the awesome day's riding soak in.

Pirate Life Stout on tap here.....mmmmmm

Once we were able to get into our rooms and get changed we went for a stroll around Melrose which is a very pretty little town, nestled under the imposing shadow of Mt Remarkable.

We had the first of several chicken parmigana dinners for the trip and turned in pretty early. It had been a great first day on the bikes and it was only going to get betttererer!

Cheers.

Day 2 here.

Not A Mid Life Crisis, Just An Extended Tour (Part XXV) - The Adelaide/Flinders Ranges Exploration Continues

 DAY 34

I was back in Adelaide for another tilt at the Flinders Ranges. This time Andy and I actually had five days off that lined up with each other perfectly! We had planned Willow Springs, Blinman and Arkaroola overnights and were hoping the weather would play the game for us.

First order of business for me was to get my front wheel back in the Twin. Andy had picked it up from the wheel builder at GC Motorcycles and having it trued only cost me $50 which included tyres removal and refitting. Oh, how sweet it felt not having the ‘bars shake constantly as it has done for the last 30 000 kilometres!

We loaded up and.... waited for some showers to pass. Didn't want to get wet right out of the gate, did we? 🙄