Australia: Broome to Perth

Well, boredom has officially set in.  The run across the outback is just allot of the same nothingness, with no variation in nothingness that would normally make the other nothingness stand out to some degree.  To be fair, there are beaches that are readily accessible, but even those seem to be mostly without variation.  With few exceptions (cliffs near Kalbarri, The Pinnacles, a McDonalds in Geraldton (I was struggling for a third one)), the Outback is best left...well...outback.  


Perth. is with no doubt, an insanely beautiful city.  Rivers, cleanliness, decent, although bland, architecture, all the modern conveniences, makes for a very inviting space to send a coupe of days.  Compared to the Outback, where the cost of EVERYTHING is insanely inflated, Perth is a very livable area.  

The time has come to say, "I am ready for this trip to end," and to some degree it's as if already has.  It seems like I have made my way though all of the really cool and challenging places, and I just have miles ahead of me with noting great to see, or better stated, places that I have not already seen throughout my previous travels.  Sydney, Vancouver, the American west, the The Pacific Coast Highway, the Grand Canyon, all have my footsteps implanted on them in one way or another. and do not hold the excite that a new place would..  Now it is just a matter of completing the trip, and the boredom of the Outback was the rude awakening that the trip is all but over.   






Leg Distance: 1,459 mi (2,353 km)

Total Distance Traveled by Motorcycle: 45,493 mi (73,375 km)

Countries/Territories Visited: USA, Mexico, Belize, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Panama, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia, Argentina, Uruguay, Canada, Portugal, Spain, Morocco, Gibraltar, France, Monaco, Italy, Vatican City, San Marino, Slovenia, Austria, Slovakia, Hungary, Czech Republic, Poland, Ukraine, Transnistria, Moldova, Romania, Bulgaria, Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Montenegro, Albania, Kosovo, Macedonia, Greece, Turkey, Georgia, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, China (for 20 seconds), India, Nepal, Burma, Thailand, Cambodia, Laos, Vietnam, Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, Timor-Leste. Australia

Australia: The Outback, Darwin to Broome

Out of Darwin and into the northern Australian Outback.  Home to the Gibb River Road, bushes, trees, kangaroos and very little else.  One of my favorite authors, Bill Bryson, wrote a booked he titled "In a Sunburned Country," (and it should be noted for marketing purposes, it was called "Down Under" for the Australian release), and I fully understand where the title came from.  There is just so much empty land out here, and 99 percent of it looks post apocalyptic.  The only signs of life are the occasional kangaroo, road train, or scores of recreational vehicles, that too look like they were built for the apocalypse with their multiple tires on the roof, beefed up suspensions, and solar panels affixed to every available portion of their vehicles.  To be quite honest, they are kinda cool looking.

There is no secret as to why there are so many camper vehicles running through the outback.  The cost of a basic 1 to 2 star flea-bag hotel is $180 USD (which is oddly the price of a 3-4 star hotel too). The only food and gas available is at the roadhouses, and pricing reflects this lack of supply where there is an abundance of demand.  Gas and food is about 2-4 times more expensive in the outback than anywhere else in the country (and possibly the planet), so these heavily modified RVs have kitchens, enormous fuel tanks, additional gerry cans of fuel attached to their roof racks, as well as water, and electrical making capabilities to avoid stopping at hotels or restaurants.  An non-powered campsite is only about $13 USD, so that is where you will find these behemoths.  And if you look closely, wedged in-between these vehicles, you may find a BMW 1200GS parked next to a small tent with me inside.  

The highlight of the journey was to be the Gibb River Road, which is a dirt road, with a few river crossings, that runs through the Kimberly region of Australia, and is legendary in these parts.  The road itself is unimpressive, but it leads back to dozens of gorges through side roads dirt trailsallywats that travesable by four-wheel drive vehicles.  There is very little support on the Gibb as there is few gas stations, with distances in excess of 450km without unleaded fuel.  My plan was to affix an additional 20 liters of fuel to the bike, and run the full Gibb River Road, That WAS the plan, but there was a problem.  When I had my bike serviced in Darwin they informed me that the cylinders were running uneven, and they needed to remap the engine.  Well they remapped it, and now the bike is getting about 35 percent less mileage out of the bike, and even with the extra fuel on board, there was not enough range to make the distances between stations, thus making running the full Gibb impossible.  So I just did a small piece of the eastern end of the landmark trail.  I was able to get to some gorges (Emma and El Questro) and a water crossing of the Pentecostal River, but unfortunately, the whole Gibb was not in my cards. Now I sit in Broome a little broken-hearted, but c'est la vie.  

The Luck of the Ken: So far, during the entire trip I had just a single tire puncture. During some off road sections here in Australia (Northern Territory), I had a puncture and slice, thus loosing two tires in a 24 hour span.  It was in the middle of the outback, near a small town named Kununurra, a town with a population of 7,500 people, and no other towns for hundreds of miles in every direction. So, what is the chance they would have a rear tire for BMW 1200GS?  Luckily for me, pretty good.  There is a small motorcycle (and weed whacker, chainsaw, leaf blower, etc.) shop in town that had maybe 12 tires in stock.  Turns out they had both a front and rear tire tire to fit the bike.  Odder still, I had my choice of a road or 50-50 tire.  If they hadn't had these tires in stock, it would have taken about a week to get them shipped in, or four days for me to get on a bus and pick them up.  So as unlucky as I was to loose two tires in 24 hours, I was quite lucky to find the tires.  



Leg Distance: 1,233 mi (1.988 km)

Total Distance Traveled by Motorcycle: 44,034 mi (71,022 km)

Countries/Territories Visited: USA, Mexico, Belize, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Panama, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia, Argentina, Uruguay, Canada, Portugal, Spain, Morocco, Gibraltar, France, Monaco, Italy, Vatican City, San Marino, Slovenia, Austria, Slovakia, Hungary, Czech Republic, Poland, Ukraine, Transnistria, Moldova, Romania, Bulgaria, Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Montenegro, Albania, Kosovo, Macedonia, Greece, Turkey, Georgia, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, China (for 20 seconds), India, Nepal, Burma, Thailand, Cambodia, Laos, Vietnam, Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, Timor-Leste. Australia

Australia - Darwin

I have arrived in Australia.  This will mark my sixth and final continent of the trip.  Western supermarkets, police that police traffic, people who don't jay-walk, and no traffic or scooters, I have definitely left Asia behind me.  The good news is that the motorcycle has also arrived (actually a couple of hours before I did), the bad news is the motorcycle was put into quarantine for seven days, a small fact that the shipper failed to inform me would happen.  As such, I have been sitting in this small town for almost a week now waiting for the container containing my bike to be released from customs jail and moved to the shippers yard.  Once released, I will take her to BMW and have the bike checked out before I head into the outback.  

Ant Hill

My first trek through the outback with be on The Gibb River Road, an unimproved road with multiple unimproved off-shoots leading to magnificent gorges.  I guess this is the true bush.  During my past few days of research, I have come to the conclusion that the biggest issue in this part of Australia will be fuel, or more importantly, a lack thereof.  There are stretches of off-road that will go on for over 400 km with no unleaded fuel to be had (oddly enough, diesel is more readily available), go into the gorges, and that distance can quickly grow.  So, I had to purchase a real certified Jerrycan - although acceptable in countries that end in "stan," used water bottles apparently are not permitted to haul fuel here in Australia - to extend my range by an additional 150 km.  Even more surprisingly. there is not allot of information about fuel, food, water or even roads on Google, Google Maps, iOverlander or Maps.Me, so after almost 70,000 km, I had to break down and purchase a paper map (yes, until now I have been using a cheap Chinese smart phone and free apps to navigate).  Fortunately, the map is very well put together and has tons of information about services offered along the trails.  Should be a good trip.  

Leg Distance: 0 mi (0 km)

Total Distance Traveled by Motorcycle: 42,801 mi (69,034 km)

Countries/Territories Visited: USA, Mexico, Belize, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Panama, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia, Argentina, Uruguay, Canada, Portugal, Spain, Morocco, Gibraltar, France, Monaco, Italy, Vatican City, San Marino, Slovenia, Austria, Slovakia, Hungary, Czech Republic, Poland, Ukraine, Transnistria, Moldova, Romania, Bulgaria, Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Montenegro, Albania, Kosovo, Macedonia, Greece, Turkey, Georgia, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, China (for 20 seconds), India, Nepal, Burma, Thailand, Cambodia, Laos, Vietnam, Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, Timor-Leste