Distance: 709km
Dep: 7:00am
Arr: 3:30pm
Temperature: 15°C - 32°C
Total distance to date: 7045km
Caption: Long stretches of remote road really encompass what life is like when riding around Australia. We can see if a car is coming from quite the distance, being sure to give them a thumbs up if they pass. Locals and truckies might stop to check on us, but other travellers tend to keep going.
---
This blog marks roughly the halfway mark of the trip.
In my humble opinion, change is a good thing. How boring would life be if nothing around you changed, and instead we just lived a cyclical life every day until we eventually pass away, taking with us all-too similar memories and leaving behind nothing of importance?
Traveling around (or halfway around) Australia brings change in fast doses: new towns, fresh scenery, unfamiliar beds, and different people every few days. While Australia might seem homogenous at first glance, you quickly learn how varied the regions really are.
Making our way up the West Coast was symbolic of this change. In the 10 years that Steph and I have known each other, we've never experienced a year that was like the one before. Both of us are committed to self growth and our lives have always followed a natural upward trajectory together, despite the ebbs and flows of life. Going through these natural peaks and troughs made us more resilient, such that we weren't affected by repeated long days in the saddle.
It's been a phenomenal trip so far, though I'm equally glad Steph booked in some rest days for us to explore the area or kick our feet up. It's quite different from my 40-day blitz in 2017, and slowing down lets the mind catch up with the body.
---
Caption: Leaving Monkey Mia at sunrise, and taking in our last glimpse of white sand for the next few days.
Leaving Monkey Mia to return to the main highway turned out to be the easiest and most scenic leg of the day's ride. The undulating road was engaging, fun, and downright beautiful. Shady parts that haven't been awoken by the sun still retained the cool air from the night before. Sunlight started appearing through the minimal clouds in sparse rays that seemed to spotlight only a select few trees in the distance.
Caption: Australian roads - the country is so massive that long straights are typical to cover the most ground in the shortest amount of time. The weather was pleasant and the road was so smooth it felt like we were levitating on it.
It warmed up as we approached the turnoff onto the main highway, enough so that we no longer needed any longsleeve under our summer jackets by the time we reached Hamelin Pool Roadhouse. It was a 199km ride to Carnarvon - a fairly flat, straight section that transformed the lighter white and golden shoulders of the road into a deeper rusty red.
Carnarvon is a town that is 6km off the highway and toward the coast, a convenient spot to fuel up and have a quick banh mi before heading back onto the main highway. We had a decent amount of kilometres to kill today, though we've been making excellent time. Traffic now consisted mostly of road trains 3-4 trailers long, carrying anything from heavy machinery to bales of hay. Passing them is easy enough when your steed has this much horsepower.
Caption: Nena and I pulled over to capture the interesting contrast between the sand in the area. This sort of thing interests me - these bits were once a rock! White sand is usually eroded granite, while red soil has a very high iron oxide (rust) content.
Minilya Roadhouse happened to be the last pitstop before turning off onto the 220km detour to our final stop at Exmouth. I could tell that they've been wronged in the past, as most of us are. Multiple signs warned incoming customers that one must be in possession of an Australian drivers license or a passport, which they hold at the front desk until you complete the transaction.
You can tell enough people have done a runner - as we were leaving after our rapid consumption of ice cream bars, foreign travellers were trying to get past their rules claiming they didn't have a passport on them. Which, to be fair, could well be. If that's the case, the closest petrol station from here is Nanutarra (228km to the North), Carnarvon (140km to the south), and Coral Bay (98km to the Northwest, but a huge detour if you aren't heading up the cape) - if you didn't have the range to get to any of these, you'd be screwed.
Two younger guys in a beat up ute were pulled up on the other side of the bowser, both brushing their teeth while looking at our setup. Who brushes their teeth while pulled up at a servo? Steph and I exchanged glances then took turns going in to pay. We opted to fill one of the 5L jerry cans to assist with Steph's range, whereas the BMW will do just fine.
Caption: Doing a mid-ride luggage check on Steph's MT09 as they aren't mounted to racks. Nena's luggage are strapped to mounts, so they are more predictably stable. Still, the Roxby Duffel and Tully Tailbag on Steph's bike have been doing incredibly well for the kms we've done.
For some reason, I thought that the road to Exmouth would be similar to the one leading to Monkey Mia. on a map, the shape of the cape is similar. In real life, you couldn't tell at all that you were heading up along a cape next to the ocean. It looked exactly like the inland roads of the outback. A deep red dust on both sides and prickly vegetation as far as the eye can see.
Caption: Steph missed the turnoff while leading, so while she 'chucked a u-ey' I quickly snapped a shot of the beautiful red dirt that is all over Western Australia.
Slightly into our 220km detour off the main highway, we passed a sign: "Tropic of Capricorn". This was the point at which, if going further north, the sun can appear right over your head at noon. Below that this latitude, it can appear all hours. This sign also symbolises that we're most definitely in the northern half of Australia. Quite the ride from the southernmost major city on the mainland.
Caption: Winona (MT09) having a quick snack. Nena (s1000rr) has a highly predictable fuel gauge that counts down to the exact kilometre - German engineering at its finest.
We stopped about 150km into the ride to have a bit of a stretch and refuel the MT09. It happened to be in a "scenic spot" as depicted by a little camera icon on a sign that is typical all over Australian roads. Underneath read "Termite Mounds".
I chuckled at the sign because we had just passed about 100km of an increasing number of termite mounds - brown, oddly shaped structures that looked like mountains of hardened poo. However this "scenic spot" was apparently the best spot to take photos of these things (it wasn't).
Caption: If you aren't constantly taking photos of your motorbike, what are you even doing with your life?
The air was getting heavier with the heat by now, so I emptied the remainder of my bottle of water into the front of my shirt and enjoyed nature's air con all the way to Exmouth. Our accomodation for the night is a cozy little cabin inside a caravan park, with a paved area that fit our bikes perfectly. Celebrations involved an ice cold Coke in a glass bottle, and a delicious pizza and pasta that was so huge it was also breakfast the next day.
Caption: Our very comfortable accomodation setup for the next 3 days.
[Day 21 + 22 - We spent the following days exploring Exmouth by foot (with the worst choice of footwear - thongs) and Steph took a snorkeling tour to check out some marine life up close. I thankfully stayed on shore, eating nachos while writing this. A pretty great way to pause and reset.]
Caption: We walked way too long in cheap thongs that we each got 2 blisters in each foot. Not the smartest thing I've done.
Caption: This tyre was once a gloss black. She's definitely seen better days.
