Day 5
Thursday 30 August 2012
Day 5 Windorah - JC Hotel Ruins (at the beginning of
the gravel 277 kms) -
Betoota
- Roseberth - Birdsville 382kms
What a great sleep we had, no-one hearing any snoring
as we were so exhausted.
Ron was feeling a bit sore from his fall the other
day, and as most of the day would be driving on gravel
he decided to put his bike on the trailer.
Up early as usual, and off to the cafe for breakfast
and fuel up.
As we left town, we were again stopped by the booze
bus team, but they did not make us blow the bag this
time, but sent us off as a group with a count down.
The first 109 kms was on sealed road and uneventful,
stopping just before the turn off at the start of the
gravel road to Birdsville, for refueling then on again.
After
only about 50 km, near Betoota, Ado's bike motor haemorrhaged
internally. But being prepared to the max, he pulled
out his spare motor and 50 minutes later was ready
to roll again.
In the meantime, Ron G and Moira made a batch of scones,
fried sausages on brown bread and gave us all a coffee
or tea as well.
It was now over 30°C with not a cloud in the sky
and sun screen was required to keep the exposed skin
from burning.
We continued to Roseberth, 63 kms from Birdsville
for our final fuel up. The gravel was mainly of very
good quality, but the vibrations still make for very
tiring driving.
Just at the entry to Birdsville we were once again
stopped by a road block checking us all with the breathalyser.
On the way into town the roadside on both sides had
literally hundreds of camps set up, caravans, tents,
swags, and just utes and four wheel drives.
Then into town and after a ride around the town we
headed for the caravan park. We were allotted a space
about as far from the town as possible, on rocky ground
down by the river. It was truly the roughest bit of
ground any of us had ever camped on !
It took a bit of juggling to get us all in place and
setup the marquee, but once established, we had a beer
and a well earned siesta before heading into town for
a Pizza and a few beers at the Birdsville pub. There
were plenty of people around and we met many for a
good chat.
Thankfully the sky became very overcast and the temperature
dropped to a pleasant degree, and just a few spits
of rain fell, but came to nothing.
The camaraderie was great as usual in a camp, and
right opposite us arrived a group of Postie bikes
all the way from Wodonga in northern VIC. They
were all driving stock standard Postie bikes, but had
a faultless run all the way, except for
four tyre punctures.
Some of us went to the Fred Brophy's Boxing Troupe
tent, to see some old time street type fighting, supposedly
the only one of its type left operating in Aus.
Fred is one of life's real characters, and introduced
all the troupe amid his own drum fanfare and much hilarity.
The highlight of the two evenings of fighting was
that the smallest guy, knocked out two opponents on
the first night and an unheard of and for the first
time ever, knocked out three on the second night. What
he lacked in height and weight, he sure made up on
in speed and punch power. (in truth - fighting
is barbaric)
We finally got to bed around 1.30 am but the camp
was humming for a few more hours before silence finally
set in.
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