All participants were gathered before the ride, thanked for their attendance, handed copies of maps with a rough travel itinerary and, were read the MRA norm' re: group riding, responsible riding, lights on, staggered formation & the like. 13 heads on 11 bikes set off at 0730 sharp from Gingers for the run north.
Badgingarra (171km north) was our first pitstop.... Couldn't come quick enough for some. "Morning coffee does that to you people!!" Well..... now the first little pockets of sunshine were out & the girls in particular were chasing the sunny spots. Just after 0930.... Time to round up the troops for the return to the road.
151km on & Dongara was stop no. 2 on the road to Denham. Was just meant to be a light, short fuel & stretch stop until a couple of the Patriots Members decided they were peckish. I'VE NEVER SEEN PIES THAT BIG!! OK.... Next stop was meant to be lunch, but, some bodies were already in need of re-fuelling as well as the bikes. Pies were had & it was back on the road..... we bypassed the hole in the ground they call Geraldton, and for very good reason.... Just because It's GERALDTON!!
After 30 mins of Geraldton city riding (that's just to get from south to north)..... Binnu was the next scheduled pitstop. This is not normally a problem place, but, we arrived to find it CLOSED!! Was re-opening at 1630hrs. We scratched our helmets & thought to ourselves..... WHY?? OK a decision had to be made, as our fuel levels were low & Billabong Roadhouse was 144km north. We all decided that it was safest to turn back to Northampton (37km south) for re-fuelling & a bite to eat. We gingerly limped in to the BP roadhouse to find that Suzanna (Moto Guzzi 750 Breva) had run dry 20 km out. Wolf (Honda VTX1800) filled up & ran out to Suze to give her a juice boost to get her in. It was quoted by the ladies in at Northampton BP, that "they make their own rules & times out there at Binnu!!" I thought.... Nice to know.... NOW!! We were now all rested, fuelled & ready for the last, mad 360km into Denham. This little mishap had lost us just over an hours road time..... but, WE PRESSED ON!!
181km straight on to Billabong Roadhouse & we were nearly smelling Shark Bay. Making great time & probably the smoothest stretch so far. Kamikaze wildlife on visors though, was proving difficult to see in the late afternoon sun. Splash of fuel, quick stretch & on to it..... 175km to Denham.
The start of the final leg in was equally as smooth and tantalizing until we had to turn left. An hour & a quarter with the sun below visor line made it near impossible to see the road, but, on the other hand, painted an amazing picture across the landscape & the waters of Hamelin Pool & Shark Bay.. Concentration levels were sky high & I think adrenalin got us there. Although visibility was poor on the road in, everybody seemed to have enjoyed the landscape & the experience.
We're now in Denham (1830hrs), although a little breezy (aren't all coastal locations), what a fantastic laid back part of the country (hmmmm..... seachange to Denham perhaps??) John, at Bay Lodge, welcomed us all in & allocated rooms. The offer was made to us to jump in his Troopy to run down & do shopping if we needed. (Good on ya mate..... top gesture) Most of us walked, as everything you need is 400m or less away. A handful just grabbed stuff to take back, while the rest decided that the good ol' Pub meal was the better option. We finally all met up in the BBQ/Rec area to indulge in an evening beverage (or three) & John put the disappointing Springboks V Wallabies game on, on the big screen. Light hearted entertainment was provided by the ladies of our rabble that weren't watching the hiding unfolding on the big screen. There was lots of good chats & social interaction with a lot of the participants having not known each other at the start of the days proceedings. Ladies, alcohol, black textas & folically challenged gents..... you do the math. Retiring to the hay about 2230, any bed was going to be comfortable & it was zzzzz's in 5 mins flat.
A glorious sunrise was seen by the early risers & it was off to the shops for brekky gear. Bacon, eggs, toast & coffee was the order of the morning & it was chef Simon (yours truly) to the rescue of the growling bellies & good on ya Mr "T" for doin' the brekky dishes. A select few must've heard rubbish stories about my cooking & strolled down for a Café Breakfast. All said & done in the brekky dept.... it was time to depart sunny Denham. All intentions were to be on the road to PERTH for 0830hrs. We left Bay Lodge at 0830hrs to make it 150m down the road to all fuel up & play Japanese Tourists..... eventually parting company with Denham townsite at 0915hrs.
Wolf had now suggested to Travel the road to Monkey Mia (28km) on the way out of town for a peek. Having said yes to this, then realizing that it was an extra 52km all up on to the trip..... we were now 1 & ½ hrs behind scheduled time. Gotta to the touristy thing though. A 10 min stop at Monkey Mia, then finally on the road.
Overlander Roadhouse was first port of call on the way home where it was grey nomads as far as the eye could see. Fortunately we got in for fuel just before they all arrived..... we all finished, looked around, & every bowser had a line of 6-8 caravans & 4WD's behind it. It was now 1115hrs with 700km to go, so, it was now time to hightail it out of there knowing that the next few hundred clicks was going to be grey nomad leapfrog. Ten minutes & fuel splash at Billabong Roadhouse had us in readiness for the 181km slug to Northampton.
Northampton is upon us & bellies were screaming lunchtime. A ½ hr stopover in Northampton had, both, bike & human bellies satisfactorily full. At this time of the day, it was starting to feel like groundhog day, because we had just seen the same road train pass us for a second time. We knew there were two more passes to go with this bugger yet.
Pressing on, it was on to Dongara, where, being on the south side of Geraldton..... felt like the home stretch. It was fuel, a hot coffee & a little bit of a biased Moto Guzzi photo session. After all....
4 x Moto Guzzi
3 x Kawasaki (including a 250)
2 x Honda
1 x Yamaha
1 x Suzuki
The sun was now getting on the wrong side of us & still had one fuel stop to go in Badgingarra, so..... off we went. Heavy cloud cover at this stage was putting a little chill in the air & the weary bodies were feeling the pinch. The last fuel stop was on us & with 170km (or so) to go & the sun nearly touching the hills..... it was inevitably going to be a dark, cold ride home. We all said our goodbyes to those travelling straight through to home, as the remainder of us were pitstopping at Gingers for a well earned warm-up coffee.
All in all, a fantastic weekend was had by all & it was a hard days riding on the return trip pushing into a strong headwind all the way. We covered a total of just over 1900km in 36 hours. Thank you to all that participated & a special congratulations to Princess for the hard work she put in muscling a little Kawasaki EL250 Eliminator all the way up there and back.
A big thank you to John & Kirsty Gittens of Bay Lodge on Shark Bay for accommodating our numbers & John says they'd love to have us back in bigger numbers.
WELL DONE!! See you all and hopefully more next year.
