Committed to Action

Well I have now committed myself to the action I was discussing in Wagon's East.

After speaking to a few guys I work with who have motorbikes I came to the conclusion that any 2nd hand bike from this area is going to have been thrashed and might not be reliable for a 7500km or more journey with about 2500 - 3000 on unsealed roads.

So I have done something I have never done before and purchased a brand new vehicle. I have also opted to trade my old cruiser in rather than go through the hassle of trying to sell privately.

So for the cost of my cruiser plus an extra $5200 I will have a new Suzuki DR650SE road / trail (dual sport) bike. The new bike is $8000 (inc on road costs) and I am getting $2800 for the old bike, which is less than it's worth but trade in price always is. I did however only pay $4000 for it over 20 months ago and I've done 10,000 kms on it since then. I have added new tyres, brakes and bearings but all in all I think I have definately had good value from it.

The DR650 has been ordered and will be shipped from Perth and should be in Broome by the end of the week, so next monday on my day off I will go into the bike shop and help assemble the bike to be more familiar with it. So by probably mid next week at the latest I will be on a brand new bike, registered and insured and ready for some off roading.

So I should have 3-4 weeks to get it all run in and any potential adjustments etc made before embarking on the adventure, departing Broome about the end of August.

Photos will be forthcoming once the bike is in my possession.

Unthinking unflexible people

I feel the need for a little rant, so my apologies to most who aren't really interested.

The caravan park I am staying in has a rule that you can't stay in the camping area for more than 2 weeks, and I can understand having a rule that allows you to get rid of obnoxious, noisy, messy or downright rude campers.

However all things should be flexible and when you have a situation that warrants it. We have a group of campers who have 'banded' together and are actually taking up a lot less space than any other people with the same numbers, eating meals together etc and basically enjoying eachother company. It mainly started when one of the girls who is in a van by herself was broken into and another girl by herself in a tent nearly had an unwelcome drunk visitor climb in with her at 2 in the morning. For security and peace of mind we started getting all in our group to move in next to us and everyone felt better about it.

When we came to renew our rent this week we were told that we had to leave the camping area. The fact that the camping caretaker wanted us to stay and that we were making a number of the campers feel safe and secure didn't matter. The only reson they could give us is that it lets others camp there too? In reality they couldn't, because we all knew and trusted eachother we were a lot closer together, and certainly a lot closer than you would be comfortable with a perfect stranger, and therefore everyone else has spread out a bit in our absense and the same area now holds 3 less people, while a site on the far end of the caravan park where we are now is no longer available to anyone else.

Enough ranting, some people simply don't have enough sense to see that occasionally thinking for themselves is much better than absolute adherence to unnecessary rules. It is just like being back in Vietnam.

WAGONS EAST

Well OK, a Land Rover and a dirt bike (once I get one).

Not that we are leaving yet, but I thought now that I have committed to it (at least to myself – which is the most important commitment in such decisions) I would share the planned path of advance.

From Broome we will take the Gibb River Rd to Kununurra, with a few sides trips to Tunnel Creek, El Questro etc and possibly the Mitchell Plateau, no certainty here as it will be a 3 day diversion and a tough road.

From Kununurra it will be south to the Bungle Bungles and then Wolfe Creek Meteor Crater – and no none of us has seen the movie, I think we should all watch it before we leave Broome.

Wolfe Creek is on the start of our next path, the Tanami Track to Alice Springs, with the obvious side tours to Uluru, Kings Canyon, Olgas etc.

From Alice our path again tackles the less beaten path and will be the Oodnadatta Track, which goes near (within a few hundred kms) Lake Eyre and might be worth a side trip, to the Flinders Ranges, and then through the Flinders Ranges and then a final run down to Adelaide, possibly through a few wineries in the Clare Valley, after all that travel on dusty tracks we will be a thirsty bunch.

I haven’t actually checked the details but estimate that from Broome to Adelaide via our planned path will involve probably 3500km of dirt, dust, gravel, sand and potholes and probably another 1500 of boring old tarmac. Then of course after a couple of weeks lay up in Adelaide it will be almost another 3000kms back across the Nullarbor to Perth. So the total trip including the 3500km already done from Perth to Broome will be in excess of 10,000km on a motorbike.

I’ve found what I have done so far and the fact that I am riding my motorbike every day my bike skills have gone up dramatically and the challenges to come will enhance them considerably more.

CABLE BEACH CAMEL TOURS

I have started working as a Camelier in Broome, which basically consists of catching and saddling a team of 16 camels, walking them to Cable Beach and then doing camel rides along cable beach. During the tour there will be a staff member leading the train and 2 walking along side talking to the passengers and taking photos for them etc. Then after the tour rides are done the process is reversed and once unsaddled the camels are fed and yards cleaned (aka raking out the poo).

There are generally 3 staff plus one of the managers Chris Hill who does as much of the work as anyone else during our work time and shit loads more behind the scenes. The workforce is mostly travellers and with the exclusion of the two managers and myself it is almost exclusively female, there are a couple of other guys that do help out occasionally. It seems in the past that the guys they have had work for them have struggled with taking orders from Jade who is Chris’s girlfriend. I don’t understand that, if you work for someone who has been doing the job for years and knows what to do then you do as they instruct even if it was a 14yr old girl, which Jade certainly isn’t. It seems a shame that there are still far too many people that have closed minds.

Your mind is a bit like a door, if it isn’t open, it’s just a wall.

I have found that my many years of owning horses certainly makes a big difference because I am used to working with big animals and understanding how to handle them and deal with their moods. I did however discover on my first morning when trying to catch an unwilling camel that they are indeed not horses and yet have the advantage of being trained to lie down on command, assuming compliance with the command when they are obviously in a less than compliant mood. On my first morning shift I spent probably 7 or 8 minutes helping one of the others trying to catch this camel by cornering it in the pen, and for a few minutes there were 3 of us and still no success. I suddenly had a brain wave and just walked straight at the camel and commanded it to “hoosh” and she lay down. So on only my second shift I was pretty chuffed with that effort.

I have two teams of 16 camel to learn and be able to recognise. I have the names and order in the team of all the camels memorised, and have all but 3 camels in one team pretty much figured out that I can walk up to a camel and know who it is, the 3 unknowns just look too bloody similar. The other team I have not worked with as much and can probably only figure out about half of them without assistance. There have also been a few fill in camels which are rotated in to give a sick injured or older camel a rest day, so I have actually had to try and learn 37 camels. After only just over a week I think I am doing well as I have also given the introduction talk which also consists of demonstrating how to get on a camel and the safety rules etc, and the thank you and dismounting talk at the end of the ride, something which a few of the girls who have been there a bit longer than me haven’t done yet. Though I mean a bit longer as in maybe 3-4 days.

I have to add how I got the job as it is a pretty funny story.

I had been told by some friends we’d met in Karajini weeks earlier that there was a notice in a café window about workers needed for camel tours. When I called however they had already put on a bunch of people and weren’t prepared to take on any more new people but some of them didn’t look to be right for the job and I should call back in a week or so. When I called back they said they had just been discussing that morning they needed someone else and I should come in to their shop the following morning, the address of which could be found on their brochure in any resort or touristy place. I went in to the shop that day just so I knew where it was and introduced myself to the ladies behind the counter not knowing one was the bosses wife (John not Chris). As I left I made a flippant remark that I would see them tomorrow morning and then no doubt quite frequently after that when John gave me the job, with an aside that ‘hey, I’m an optimist’.

Apparently calling back in the first place and then the visit to the shop had impressed them so much that by the time I had a meeting with the Managers Chris and John the next morning they had already decided to hire me, they had already put me on the following weeks roster and I started that afternoon.

Some times being a bit of a smart ass has got people off side, but sometimes it can land you the job too.

Anyway with Rupert and Alja working at Willie Creek Pearl farm and myself on the camel tours we look to be in Broome for a number of weeks to come.

UPGRADES

It is a shame to have to say it but my trusty Suzuki VL250cc Intruder Cruiser, which is my first and thus far only bike will not be leaving Broome in my possession, or more accurately under my posterior.

In about 20 months I have done almost 10,000 kms on the cruiser including the ride from Perth to Broome and it has been a marvellous bike. However I have made the decision finally to commit to the rest of the trip as it is too great an opportunity to pass up. Which does however mean I need a dirt bike as the cruiser could not handle the planned path from here.

To facilitate the upgrade to a more suitable bike to tackle the outback I have upgraded my motorbike licence for R-E (limited to 250cc) to an unrestricted motorbike licence. The test was unbelievably easy in Broome and the assessor could hardly fail me as he was following me in a car for the assessment (which I thought very strange until I found out why) because that morning he had fallen of his own motorbike.

The nature of the upgrade is yet to be determined, I am going to see what is available 2^nd hand but if I don’t find anything I have an agreement with the local bike shop to trade my bike in for $3000 on a new Suzuki DR650cc which will then cost me $5000. I will also have the cost of hiring a bike to do my licence test on reduced from the price.

As I have already tried to sell my cruiser with notices around town and had no interest I think this will end up being the best option. I was hoping for more than $3000 as it cost me $4000 and extra for new bearings, brakes and tyres in that time.

I’ve probably got about 3-4 weeks to try and sell my bike privately and also see if I can get a better deal on a bike either 2^nd hand or new.

Living in Paradise

I am currently living in Broome on the NW coast of WA.

Initially we were going to stop for a little while and have a look, but the roads we wanted to take beyond Broome were closed due to rain and my motorbike being a cruiser could not handle the gravel, the mud, the dust and the occasional river crossings.

With Alja needing a job during her travels in Australia and I wanted to hang around a few weeks for the Broome surf carnival, and Rupert with a previous offhanded comment from a tour guide that if he should be back in Broome and looking for a job to call the Willie Creek Pearl farm we decided to stay a bit longer and check it out.

After a few weeks I have had a number of different contract labour jobs involving moving furniture, monitoring the heating of a batch of bitumen, stocktaking in a hardware store, digging post holes, concreting in posts for shade sails, unpacking and packing up Grinspoons gear for a gig.
We are now approaching 3 weeks here and we are settled in for a while longer. We all have jobs in the tourism industry;
Rupert is a Tour Guide at Wille Creek getting paid for doing his favourite activity - talking his ass off.
Alja has two jobs, one in the Cafe at Willie Creek and one waitressing at Matso's a brewery / restaurant.
And I have a job with Red Sun Camels doing camel tours along Cable Beach.

So since it is winter everywhere else in the country and every day is high 20's and clear blue skies and we have beach front views from our campsite, we have decided to put up with living in Paradise just a little longer.

It is amazing how plans change and are recycled only to be changed again.
In original plan I would be backpacking in Europe right now, but when an opportunity came up to travel South America and onwards all the way to Alaska, starting next year and quite possibly a couple of years, I couldn't resist.

That decision led to a cancellation of the Europe and Nth America trip I was planning and in it's place I went to Cambodia, Vietnam and Laos for 6 weeks.

During that trip I decided to join Rupert on his jaunt up the west coast of Australia as I figured I was homeless and jobless and single so why the hell not.

A random encounter among many during our travels and we had a dutch girl "Alja" join us on the trip.

And it is this combination of events that has led us to being in Broome for the tourist season, Rupert and Alja working at Willie Creek Pearl farm and myself doing camel tours on Cable Beach.

After all, we could all use some income while travelling - Alja in particular needed a job while in Australia - and since it is winter in the rest of the country we have decided to stay in our little patch of paradise just a bit longer, maybe a couple of months worth.

And again a decision made changes the previous plans and so we can enjoy ourselves on this trip and give the next trip due care and consideration we have decided, well it is still under consideration, to start the South America trip a summer later, but go a couple of months earlier to give ourselves more time to explore and enjoy.