Updated  10-9-2007                Back to Main Page

Journey Account - On motorbikes through the Outback of Australia

NOTE: Pictures are in thumbnail format. Clicking on them will give a full scale version. Their sizes vary from approx. 25 Kb up till approx. 90 Kb.

Except this one!

Introduction

  Australia compared with Europe

After almost 18 months of preparations we left Amsterdam Schiphol looking like desperados in our (heavy) motor gear. Lugging along with us our motor attire, spare parts, tools, tents, sleeping bags, some clothing, etc. we all were pretty much exceeding the regulation 20 kg luggage tolerance. Oh well.

The CSR group leaving Schiphol

Leaving Amsterdam we headed off for London, Dubai, Singapore, Bandar and finally Perth. Compliments to Royal Brunei, good service. If you don't mind stopping and stretching your legs every few hours then this is good value.

Well this is then the account of our project and the ups and downs Down Under.

Journey Account per Week

Week1       Perth - preparations

We were picked up at the airport in Perth by Gary and Helen (love 'm) and our all important friend and liaison officer Hank. Gary and Helen had arranged a place to stay near their place for Fried, Cees and Annemarie. Mirjam, Willem and Harry were able to stay at Gary and Helen's.

Sunday was a nice day to go the market and do some heavy shopping. Fruit, vegetables, nuts and the like were purchased. Later on in the week the rest of the supplies were purchased to sustain us for at least three weeks.
The next day (very early) we went to pick up Willem's bike. A Yamaha XT 600, very good indeed. After that, various activities took place. One of which was picking up the Toyota Land Cruiser. Just what we expected. Perfect for our needs. A sturdy 4-wheel drive with a lot of guts and a tray to stash all of our equipment, food, water, fuel, camping gear and personal belongings

On Tuesday we reassembled the bikes and tested them. The transportation had no negative effect what so ever. Just a few good kicks and off they went. After that to Shannon's to get them insured (this wasn't necessary with hind sight, the bikes are automatically insured for third party coverage when they are licensed).

The warthog... ready for action

After a few days travelling around in Perth one realises just how big Perth actually is. It's huge, especially when you have to travel all over the city (and suburbs) to get what you need. Even finding the Salvation Army to buy camping utensils (pots and pans) wasn't that easy.

By Thursday we had most of our gear together. Just pick up the two-way radio and that should just about be all...oh yes we had to have the three Dutch bikes inspected and registered. There were some minor adjustments needed and some little parts like mirrors, lightbulbs, etc. and that was all. Friday off to the licensing office. We had some delay due to the fact that one of the bikes blew it's blinker-relais and the other one a tail-light (How is it possible?). So the bikes were really in tip-top shape although we had our hestitations. Expecting a pretty stiff inspection we placed our bikes out front. All in all a very civil inspector who only checked the overal appearance and the chassis and engine numbers. All clear to go.

Western Australian motorbike registration label

Instead of leaving on Wednesday we were able to leave on Saturday, four days later than planned.

We're off

Week 2   On our way ... to Wiluna

Saturday, rain or rather drizzle and rain on leaving Perth. Gary and Helen escorted us to the Great Northern Highway. First sign of trouble. Fried's machine wasn't working correctly. Could be the carbureteurs? Fried cleaned them and we started off again. After about 50 km's the same problem, hmmm...

Some problems with the XST

After about 200km's from Perth we stopped for the night and made camp near a roadhouse.  The next day we decided not to go on to Meekathara via the Great Northern Highway but to leave this highway at Paynes Find and head of towards Wiluna by way of Sandstone. This was an unpaved and graded road so a nice beginning to our off-road tour-de-force. As it had rained heavily the previous weeks the road was in various conditions.

Nice stretch of track

Dry and dusty with some corrugation and further on baked mud with ruts made by the occassional truck or car. It was in one of these ruts that Harry lost control over his bike and was catapulted at a speed of approx 70 km/h. Not very pleasant to say the least. Damage to the bike wasn't bad (broken handlebar and some extremities such as mirrors and blinkers). Harry dislocated his shoulder (it popped back by itself) and a dislocated middle finger left hand (it kept on popping in and out until it was taped). We had to see if we could get a handlebar in Mount Magnet. This meant driving back towards the Great Northern Highway with Harry's bike mounted on the (kanga)roo-bar in front of the truck. Pretty operational approach towards transportation. It must have caused some strange faces when entering the town.

Harry's bike on the roo bar getting a wash

Mount Magnet is not a very large town and did not have a motorbike shop (strange eh?). Luckily one of the petrol station hands had one or two he could spare. We were very lucky indeed, chances are that otherwise we would have had to drive a few hundred km's if we hadn't been able to find one there. Although this handlebar was much smaller we were very happy to mount it and be on our way. Mirjam took Harry's place and we headed off to Meekatharra. In Meekathara we went due east to Wiluna. Approx. 40 km's before Wiluna Fried heard this awful noise coming from his engine. This was very bad news indeed. The engine was inspected and partially dismantled. Alas no clue as to the origin of the noise.  Fried set of again only to stop again after 10 km's. Engine had blown and locked up. Willem towed him to Wiluna.
Once on the "camping" in Wiluna Fried called his friend Dick in Holland and asked him to go to his place and dismount another engine, crate it and bring it to Schiphol airport. Dick (great guy to have as a friend) went to work straight away and that evening (local Dutch time) the spare engine was at Schiphol waiting transportation to Perth. In the meanwhile Fried called the Dutch automobile association (ANWB) and seeing he was member and had international coverage they said they would arrange transportation (three cheers for the Dutch ANWB).

It was still Tuesday evening and we were glad that we finally arrived in Wiluna. Wiluna itself is not your run of the mill holiday resort even though the hotel/pub is adorned with a large billboard reading "Welcome to Paradise". The Australians sure do have a strange sense of humour. We were forced to stay in Wiluna for the next 6 days. The weather was fine except for the very cold nights (near freezing). There was ample wood so we kept warm by the fire. During the daytime we mainly read, walked around, fidgeted with our bikes etc. Annemarie learned to ride a motorbike and proved an excellent offroad rider later on. During our stay in Wiluna we had the priviledge to meet some very nice people. Sjef and Trudy (the local dutch physician and his wife), Graham and Jill from EPE (please visit Graham when you're there, you won't regret it) were some of the nice things about Wiluna. Otherwise one really does need to get accustomed to the locals and the couleur local.
After a few days we were all dying to get underway. These were trying times for us. We were very eager to leave and start our mission. Fried's engine would be in Perth on saturday and in Wiluna on Tuesday. Tuesday..., no way Tuesday. Fried agreed with Gary and Helen that they would pick up the block and drive to Mount Magnet. Fried and Willem would join up with them there. Saturday morning they left after unpacking the truck. That evening they arrived again tired and having driven more than a 1000 km's. We were all glad to see each other. After these trials and tribulations we left the next morning. At last!

Week 3    Finally...the CSR, here we come

Due to an unfortunate accident in Wiluna Cees was not able to ride his bike so Mirjam took his place. Cees sat with Annemarie in the 4-wheel drive.
Because of the heavy rainfall the past weeks Well 1 up till 5 were not accessible. A pity. This meant we had take the Gunbarrel highway until Granite Peak Station.

Willem at the Gunbarrel highway

Fried had to stop beforehand. The same problem with his bike. Oh no, it's not possible. A good engine in it now what could it be? The electrics maybe. Actually at that point we didn't know and dismay was the most appropriate state of affairs at that point. After taking off his tankbag a taking a test ride the solution presented itself....his tankbag suppressed the air vent tube thus creating a vacuum in the tank. This in return lead to a far too lean mixture for one of the cilinders. How is it possible?? Fried has used this tankbag all the time on all his (offroad) adventure trips. 
About 50 km's before Granite Peak station we made camp. It was f....... cold as soon as the sun set. This meant that we had to huddle around the fire and go to bed pretty early (sometimes even as early as eight o'clock!). Waking up to find out that frost was everywhere was strange in the beginning but as soon as the sun came out this disappeared rapidly.
On Tuesday the 28th of July we turned off to Granite Peak station. After paying our contribution towards the maintenance of the throughway (maintenance?) we finally arrived at Well 5 on the CSR.
Yes, we were actually there. After many months of preparations we had reached the actual beginning of our mission. Well number 5, well, well (excuse the pun). Not much of a well as wells go but never the less.
After drooling for about half an hour we continued on towards Well 6. Fried and Willem are very experienced off-road riders, Harry (and Cees) had comparatively little heavy terrain time under their butts. The track was abominable. It had all the nasty components compressed in the 20 odd km's to Well 6, at least for the two wheeled variety of transportation. It had heavy ruts, deep sanded ruts, rocky stretches and to top it off, gravel filled tracks (it was like riding in ruts filled with marbles!)

Cruisin' along the Boulevard?

Finally we reached Well 6 (Pierre Springs). What a lovely spot. The well had been rebuilt and we finally had a chance to have a bit of a wash. We made camp under the shade of gum trees. It was still fairly early, about two o'clock in the afternoon. The temperature was about 18 degrees celcius and a few of us decided to take a hike to a viewpoint a few km's further away.
The routine late that afternoon was the same as always. Searching wood for a fire, cooking a hearty meal, Harry played his didgeridoo and we generally had a good time and eventually (mainly due to the onsetting cold) turned in for the night. Fried decided to sleep under the stars that night (his second time). It would turn out to be the coldest night of the trip. We registered minus 7 degrees celcius just before dawn. Due to the temperature we could not leave too early. It was too cold to ride and stay alert. Up till about Well 15 we left only after it had warmed up a bit. This was generally between 8 and  9 o'clock. Besides that it took a fair amount of time to get the gear together in the morning and load it into the ute again. In this case we had a special treat too. We enjoyed listening to the black-beaked cuckoo strike. (How did we know that?? Fried being a biologist had brought along a number of books regarding the wild life in Outback Australia. They proved very handy every now and then. I think Redmond O'Hanlon had a strange abberation like that too). Mirjam also had the opportunity to record the beautiful surroundings and sounds on video tape.
It was now Tuesday the 28th of July when we left for Well 7. What was today to bring. Harry was a bit apprehensive due to the difficult progression yesterday. The truck was doing okay and Annemarie was getting the hang of driving through this kind of terrain. Willem and Fried were having a great time and enjoying every minute. Cees enjoyed the scenery.  The track itself changed quite frequently and we encountered corrugation for the first time on the CSR. The occupants in the truck bounced around and the others were contemplating whether to ride with their mouths open or closed (just to save the fillings!). We encountered a trial-like stretch of track which lead through recently dried up creek beddings. This was great fun. The XT500's were really made for this.
Cees was able to ride again and took over from Mirjam.
We also encountered our first dunes here. Not especially high but difficult enough. There is a certain technique of attacking these but Cees and Harry had yet to understand the implemenations of these. Fried and Willem were eager to show how  and soon enough Cees and Harry were able to traverse these too without too much trouble. Actually they turned out to be quite fun. Those of you familar with alpine skiing can compare this to descending a black piste. These too get a bit of getting used to.

One of the many dunes

Cees and Willem scaling a dune

It was now the 29th of July and we were getting a bit concerned if we were able to reach Darwin in time. Fried reinsured us that we had ample time. We had planned on a 100km's a day but we were no where near that. Travelling the CSR by bike is totally different than travelling in a 4-wheel drive. That much was clear. You couldn't leave too early and you had to stop in time. We agreed on around 3 pm. Riding longer increases the likelihood of accidents due to fatigue and lack of concentration. Both concentration and physical exertion were heavily relied on factors when riding motorbikes through this kind of terrain.
At our last stop we encountered a Japanese party consisting of one motorbike rider (he seemed to be a rather well known person in Japan) and his crew of photographers, filmers, mechanics, driver and most likely a cook too. Not bad especially in comparison with us. Six "Mad Dutchmen" (as we were know up and down the CSR) with their primitive utensils and machines. This guy had a brand new Honda (what ever) and it was in immaculate condition. We encountered him a few times the next day but he was gone after that.
We travelled on, tyre pressure was still as low as 12 psi (under 1 bar) on the bikes. We had agreed on travelling 10km's and then re-grouping. This worked out fine although it didn't speed things up but at least it was safe and allowed a certain amount of freedom. Mirjam took heaps of video's and Fried stopped quite regularly to take photo's (in total Mirjam shot about 17 hours of digital videotape and Fried about 700 slides!)
Mirjam and Harry exchanged places for a while so that Mirjam could have a taste of the CSR on motorbike and so that Harry could have a look around for a change.

On the track

Up till now we had encountered some kangaroos and emu's. One or two of us had even seen dingo's. Suddenly on our way to Well 17 we saw a feral camel. Yep, a real camel on the CSR. It didn't want to get of the track either (probably because of the spinifex). Eventually it disappeared into the bushes and was gone. We travelled on. The bike riders trying to stay on the track (which was not always possible, sometimes a diversion had to be taken through the bush) and trying to avoid getting knocked off by branches and twigs of trees and shrubs directly on either side of the track.
Every now and then we did encounter other travellers (no other motorbike riders after our Japanese friend) and were generally greeted with "So you're the Dutch group travelling on motorcycles" or, as mentioned earlier, "The mad Dutchmen". So that's how the bush telegraph works! (probably aided with CB or HF radio!!)

Thursday 30th of July. A nice ride to Well 17 and Durba Springs. What a pleasant surprise. An oasis in the vast desert. Durba Springs has a natural camping (with an ecological dunny). It wasn't to busy when we arrived but late in the afternoon it started to fill up. We counted about 35 vehicles (how about that for one of the remotest tracks on earth!). Cees was going to cook that evening. Cees' speciality was making a kind of stew or chili con/sin carne. Somehow onions where always a substantial part of the ingredients. Good on ya Cees. Onions in that quantity and frequency do take some getting used to...
The next day we took a day off and cleaned up, washed our clothes, checked the bikes and did other menial chores. Of course we hiked around in the area. Really beautiful with breath-taking views. Great spot.

  This is it!

Week 4    Shit hits the fan

Saturday, July the 30th we left Durba Springs in the rain. Bummer. We hadn't actually counted on rain in the desert but there you are, unseasonal rains. We had to top off our water supply, so on to well 17 (or what we thought was well 17) and filled up our tanks and jerry cans.
We passed well 18 and carried on. The dunes were moist and that made it some what easier for us on the bikes. The ruts were deeper but this didn't make it more difficult.

Coffee break in the rain

Rain, however did cause large mudpools and treacherous stretches of track. We had to deviate through the bush and spinifex to avoid nasty situations.
Between well 19 and well 20 we had to cross Savory Creek. We were warned not to cross at the usual CSR crossing point but to back track the creek for about 7 km's and cross there.

Willem stuck in mud at the Savory Creek crossing

Just out of curiosity Willem decided to have a try a crossing the creek at the CSR crosssing. Not bad Willem: he made it although, be it with some luck and good motor control. Hmmmm... could we...perhaps...nahh. We were told that some bloke was stuck here for days before he finally managed to get out. Nope it's not worth the risk, lets just go down the track a bit. Willem decided he would like to travel with us and started to cross back through the creek, alas. The luck he had on the going he did not have coming back. Stuck (see photo). One thing we didn't feel like was wading through grimy mud and salinated water to retrieve a motor, we were wet enough as it was (it was still raining...). Can't leave him there can we? Can we? Na. We got Willem back on to the track. The division line between track and seething mud was centimetres. Off the track and you're bogged down.
Willem took the track on the opposite side and the rest of us started back down the south side. After about 5 km's Harry saw Willem on the other side waving. Interpreting this as a go ahead he ventured across. It looked okay but that was deception. About 5 metres from the track, just when you think you made it, you're dead still with mud up to your cilinder. Willem, quite confused, "Why did you cross, I was waving you to turn back". Oops. Sorry Willem, bad eyesight. The engine was still running and that made it easier. Just a little heave and we were on terra firma. Willem was stuck again too so we got him out. The others drove on further and we met up after about 25 minutes. Willems bike was leaking oil from his chain sprocket seal. Oh no. He looked like a sea lion all covered in mud and lying on the ground trying to fix the damage. We cleaned the mud off his bike with our "spinifex fire extinguishers cum plant sprays". Leak stopped, no problem. It continued to rain and it was about 5 pm. We couldn't stay here, who knows what the creek will do with all this rain. Let's move. So we travelled the 5 or so km's back to the official crossing point, just riding hard and trusting that somebody up there was watching.
Finally we arrived and took to some higher ground. We had had it. It kept drizzling, we were very tired and most of us just want to sleep. Who cares about food or about a tent for that matter. We'll creep under the truck and sleep there. Common sense prevailed, we had to eat. The pasta tasted great and it stopped raining. We got our tents up and not to long afterwards we hit the sack.
The next morning we cleaned our bikes as well as possible and greased the chains then packed our stuff and we were all set to leave. Willem couldn't get his bike going. What was wrong? After some experiments it appeared that the sparkplug had blown due to the salt water. In fact the salt water had acted as a catalyst. The sparkplug stilled sparked although it was terminally damaged. Replacing the sparkplug did the trick. We were well behind on schedule by now and some of us were in anticipation of aborting the mission at well 33 and taking the Kidman track further on. We'll see.

We carried on with our trip stopping off at certain points along lake Disappointment. It was a great day. Very varying track conditions. From very comfortable mud flats to very tricky muddy stretches. There was still corrugation, dunes and dry creek crossings to traverse but it was fun. All of us were enjoying the trip thoroughly. Obstacles were getting to be less of a challenge.
We arrived at well 22 in the late afternoon. It was a very pleasant spot and even kindling wood was present. Allright, same procedure as usual. Cleaning out the air filters had to happen every now and then (you knew when by the presence of a black exhaust deposition).

  Cleaning the air filters

The next morning we were all in good spirits. It was a going to be a lovely day, not a cloud to be seen. Okay, filters back in place, chains lubed, nuts and bolts tightened.....
Cees approached, "I think we have a major problem". When Cees says he has a major problem then we do have a MAJOR problem. "What's the matter?", was the reply. Uptill now we had been able to solve any problems we encountered, why not now?
"I don't think we'll be able to solve this one", Cees said and he was very downhearted. He had snapped his fork mount while tightening the bolts (metal fatigue it appeared). No way we could repair it out here.

Broken fork mount...disaster

We had a look, yep that was BAD. Cees was devastated, he understood that we could not go on with a bike in this condition. "Yes we can, we can go on, no problem", he attempted. On an even road maybe but when your bike is subjected to such exotic forces no way it will survive. But more important it's not worth the risk of crashing and having something maybe really serious happing to Cees out here in the bush. The RFDS can't land here so don't rely on them in trouble. We realised on leaving that something very nasty could happen on a trip like this, maybe even catastrophic but being prepared as we were those were the risks we wanted to take. But when something like this happens (and it could have happened to any one of us) it would be foolish to go on.

We rode very carefully to the fuel dump to pick up our fuel and there we would decide what course of action we will take. Obviously Cees rode very cautiously and after 30 km's of mainly corrugated track we arrived at the fuel dump after passing well 23.

  Well 23 - the fuel dump....

Okay now what? First of all we figured out what our options were.
A. We would carry on as planned and see how things would go and we always could turn off at well 32 (Kidman track). This would mean endangering Cees. Cees saw this as a feasible option, trusting that he would be okay even in event of having an accident. Trashing his bike was calculated into this option (this was always one of the possiblities we reckoned with when we shipped our bikes over). But driving the rest of the CSR with three people in the cabin of the Ute was one more obstacle in this option.
B. Cees and Annemarie would leave on two bikes and meet up with the rest in Darwin (don't forget Annemarie had only ridden on a motorbike for a few hours up till now!).
C. We would abort our mission here at Well 23 and take the Talawana track to Newman.

All of us went into retreat for about half an hour and then came together to vote on the options presented.  We would divide 1, 2 and 3 points between each option per person and the option with the most points would be accepted.
As it turned out it was a complete unanimous decision for option 3. End of the mission, the end of the CSR for us. Back to civilisation. But what then? It was still approx. 2400 km's to Darwin over paved highways. We wouldn't have enough time to do otherwise. Or we could head back to Perth which was approx. 1400 km's. We'll decide on that in Newman.

Week 5   Mission aborted. Back to civilisation

Spirits were low. We did our best to overcome the disappointment and focus on the rest of the trip. Even if we didn't achieve our planned goal we were still in the Outback, we were still in Australia, we were still in one of the best places on earth to be (at least for us). We were still riding the bikes and we were definitely aimed at making the most of it. It was especially hard on Mirjam who had put so much effort into making a documentary. She had taken great shots on her video and what we had seen of it, was great. One of her main goals was to make this CSR film. Well maybe if we just changed the title to Ouback Australia Offroad on Motorbikes or something like that. That should sell too.
So the Talawana track it was to be. We figured it would take about one and a half days to reach Newman (approx. 450 km's). It took us the best part of three.

The first stretch wasn't bad although there was a lot of corrugation but we could keep up good pace. Around 4 pm we set up camp and Harry made some fresh bread. These were rare occasions so that when a loaf was ready it was given a name. Little Tempestra had seen light....

Tuesday the 4th of August. We noticed that we had passed the tropic of Capricorn. During the daytime it was warmer and even the evenings and nights weren't that cold anymore. This also (in combination with moisture and the presence of cattle) presented flies during the day and mosquito's at night. In the morning, when you left the security of camp with, in your hand a little spade and some toilet paper, you were confronted with both of these irritating species and both were in dire need of nurishment. And you were it. Not pleasant.

Due to the heavy rainfall the past weeks stretches of track were flooded or at least muddy. This made travelling difficult at times to say the least. The lighter bikes were allright but Fried's XST was not made for mud, as he found out a few times.

  How about a nice cooling down?

The XT's were used as scout bikes to find out what the best bypass would be for the 4-wheel drive. This made the track very interesting and was generally good fun. At one point the 4-wheel drive really got stuck. It was just before a creek crossing. Nothing spectacular but if you didn't stick to the middle of the track it got very boggy. This happened to us.

  Just park it in the verge....

Yep, stuck allright. Oh well, we'll just get it out then won't we? Sure. Fortunately we had a high jack on board so there ya go, no problem. It was quite that easy in fact (hmmm...). Trying to lift a 2.5 ton truck in mud with the jack going down instead of the truck going up wasn't what we wanted. All hands on deck, gathering wood, branches and the like. Others digging and trying to lift the truck to make clearance for the traction support. After two attempts we decided to empty the truck. It was hot, the flies were a nuisance and we had to man lift all of our water, fuel, food, personal belongings off the truck. We then used one of the spare tires to support the jack and used the little jack to lift the rear wheel (it stayed pretty well put because of the suspension). Finally it was high enough. We cleared the track in front of the vehicle as much as possible (due to the nature of mud it's terribly difficult to make way besides standing up to your thighs in the bog yourself). Still more bush, branches and the like were placed under the wheels. It was now or never (at least that was the spirit of the moment). Willem got in and being an experienced lorry driver we placed our "fate" in his hands. "Come on, you can do it..., come on, come on" (I've left out the more colourful expressions used -HL) And yes there it went, slowly but surely it came loose and was free. The feeling afterwards was well worth the work we put into it!

Willem drove back and we loaded up the truck again and made camp some 2 or 3 km's further on. The next day we encountered more mud, a piece of wire got entangled in Frieds front brake, Willems carbs got flooded with water etc. etc. Finally we reached the North-South Highway and ...the paved (yuck) civilisation. This was to be the end of our unpaved Outback experience. The tyres were inflated to normal street pressure and we continued on to Newman. Arriving at the camping grounds we must have looked like real hicks. Covered in red dust on old motor bikes. The little children came over to have a look  "You fellars are probably in need of a shower". And a beer, a coke, some icecream, ....they tasted delicious.

The next day, thursday the 6th of August, we decided to have a rest. Cees' motor could be fixed and we could think about our next course of action. Some of us were pretty pertinant on not going back to Perth others didn't want to travel 2400 km's on paved roads to Darwin (travelling with an average of say 400 km's a day). Going back to Perth would have the advantage that we could save some money by returning the 4-wheel drive Ute and bike and that the bike crates would be there. But the weather, oh no. We really liked the temperature up here and nobody found it appealing to go back because of the weather in Perth.
Right, what about going to Perth but taking the touristic route and staying a day or two along the coast? Beautiful diving facilities at Ningaloo.
At this point the lash back of aborting our project started to play up. Typically when the pressure is released there's more room for emotions. Sounds logical. We overcame this too and decided on using the rest of the journey as a holiday and travelling first of all up to Karrajini National Park and then through Tom Price to Hamelin Pool. From then on we would travel south and stop at Coral Bay, Carnavon, Kalibarri, Pinacle Desert and on to Perth.

We still had tickets leaving from Darwin. It wasn't possible to get them re-issued from Perth in reasonable time so that left us buying additional tickets in Carnavon from Perth to Darwin.

On the way to Coral Bay (near Nanutharra road house) Fried's engine started playing up again. It sounded like trouble, bad trouble. End of the line for Fried. What bad luck. Two engines gone. How is it possible? We dismanteled his bike in Nanutharra and loaded it into the truck.

Week 6   Back in Perth...

Once in Perth we still had about 4 days to organize our departure. After meeting up with Helen en Gary again Fried, Cees, Annemarie and Harry left off for Fremantle (Backpackers Inn Freo, cheers mate). From here we got the bike and truck back, returned the radio and got the bikes crated for their return journey to Holland.

From Perth we flew to Darwin, had a brief look around and the next day we were underway back home. Not with a feeling of disappointment but some what richer. Knowing that you have done something which you will always remember. Something which has given you more insight and trust. Something which has asked both physical and mental perseverance. And an experience with six people who up till then had only (for the most) known each other for a relatively short while and who under demanding circumstances had learned to trust each other and to rely on each other. Even though the main goal was not reached it was still an adventure, as Cees put it, comparable with a boys book adventure with commando-training aspects.

  Harry & Cees

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