Flight info: BD=British Midlands   BI=Royal Brunei Airlines

Saturday 13th of June

We received a very kind offer from Helen to make shack at her place on arrival in Perth. Talk about Ozzie hospitality! Helen, we're looking forward to making your acquaintance. Helen supplied us with more info:
<snip>
Don't worry about buying food supplies etc, we have everything here. People
go into the bush often and I am sure that the choice of supplies is as good
if not better than what you get in Holland. ..... We have many camping and outdoor stores, supermarkets, health food stores, pharmacies etc. Perth, hehehe, believe it
or not, is actually a well equiped city. You will be able to buy all your
medical supplies etc from here, including snake bite kits (just incase). The
chemists will be able to help you with all your medical supplies. They are
helpful.
<end snip>
Good on ya Helen.

We also received an email from Glen Andrews who is planning on taking the CSR by   4-wheel drives:
<snip>
Interesting to read your web site re-the CSR,as we are leaving
Sydney (the other side of the island) on 11th of July to attempt the Canning
also. We will be travelling by 4WD vehicles (3 Nissan Patrols & 1 Toyota
Hilux) and look forward to seeing you along the track.
<end snip>

Okay the bikes are off. They left from Rotterdam on the 17th of May (or at least we hope).

So what's happening at the moment? I'll give a little run down on the activities and tasks:

Willem's ticket

Seeing Willem has joined we'll redistribute the chores.
Proposal: Maintenance/technical- Toyota: Willem in stead of Cees

Saturday 2nd of May

Just a few little odd bits to complete the bikes for their trip and for their customs clearance in Perth. Cees is busy with the mounts for the large tanks (after he and Annemarie come back from sailing their new 32 footer to it's -her- mooring at one or other marina).
K&N filters should be coming in any day now. Michelin T63's (rear and front) tyres with extra thick innner tubes will be used. Annemarie will have info on the shipping data this week. We'll see if Hank has got some confirmation on the hiring of the supply vehicle.

The XT's have had more preparation time and expenses put into them than expected. Just goes to show. Without the expertise and effort of Willem "The Wizard" Peters and Ernst "The XT Doctor" Anepool the job would have taken longer (with more expenses...Ernst has a rather large array of excellent XT use parts!). Thanks both of you!

Fried is off with Llia and Steffie for a short holiday in the east of the Netherlands and will be back on the fifth of May.

We're well underway now. The motor revisions are getting into the final stages. We've had contact with Marcel Vermeij who visited Australia recently with a few friends and travelled extensively on and off-road. Quite interesting. He supplied us with practical information and good tips like tyre choice and such.

Hank (our man from down under) was in Holland for a few days. I (Harry) had the opportunity to meet him at Frieds place. Having only had e-mail contact it was very pleasant to meet him in real life. Hank, as mentioned earlier, is invaluable to us and our logistics.

All of us are very keen on going and can hardly wait. Patience though.

Mirjam has started taking video recordings. Nice camera Mirjam! A semi-professional Sony Digicam. She caught the rest of us off guard while reassembling the XT's. I do hope she edits our conversations :(

Saturday 21st of March

We seemed to have lost contact with Hank. His POP server is not responding! Oh well, Fried is pretty creative and will try to contact him through Hank's volleyball club.

Tuesday 3rd March

Changed carrier to Royal Brunei. (???) Seems okay. Pretty low air fare, something around NLG 2250,-  TO: A'dam, London,Brunei, Perth. Leaving 10 th of Juli. Leaving from Darwin on the 20th of August.

Monday   2nd March
Flight is booked and confirmed.

Carrier: Garuda

CANCELLED  due to 14 hour wait in Djakarta!!!!

Sunday 1st March
H. has got his 30 litre gastank and his new Hagon shocks (thanks Ernst aka the XT500 doctor). Cees, we need extra K&N filters for the crank-case ventilation! Tomorrow we'll disassemble the last bit of the motor, the clutch. Next week we'll go to Ard Nolen for the spare parts and have the cilinders checked (maybe they need an overhaull?). After that a bit of welding and we'll need to weld the cannister carriers (fuel and water) for the bikes. Then re-assemble the bikes and test-ride (approx 500 kms).

Saturday 28th Feb.
More information from Hank concerning the transportation of the bikes from Darwin to Perth in order to ship them back to the Netherlands.
More info .

Sunday 22nd Feb.
We received information from Hank Rosendal in Perth concerning the renting of a supply vehicle in Australia.
More info .

Friday 20th Feb.
Vehicle trade mart in Utrecht (Old Timers and second hand motorbikes and spareparts). A lot of XT500 spare parts available. Harry promised Black Kees (from the Dutch XT 500 club) to write an account of the trip for the XT500 mag. - Kees, how about sponging this page?- Hmmmmm......

Monday 16th Feb.
Evening. Cees and Harry's motorbikes are dismanteld. Actually they're quite allright. Nothing special. Beter safe than sorry, in doubt just replace. Besides the usual chain and sprockets, filters, gaskets, cables, exhaust, tyres, bearings and the like just a few little other things (30 litre tanks maybe?) 

GENERAL - Febr:
Flights blocked pending ticket prices.
Plan: Bikes to Oz in crates or Roll on - Roll off (RoRo)?
            Objective: 2nd of May from Rotterdam?
Transportation bikes from Darwin back to Perth?
Renting a supply vehicle? (Hank's checking that out..great!)
Preparing the Yammy XT 500's - Large tanks ???
Fuel depot? How much? Diesel and high octane leaded?