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Nullarbor Trip

Back in the old days I always dreamt of motorcycling across the Nullarbor (but never on a Harley).  In November 2009 I took my 2009 Harley-Davidson® Road King® on the trip with my son on the back.  A workmate, Heffy (formerly known as JP), who upgraded his custom dyna for a new Road King also jumped at the chance to come.

Planning the Nullarbor part of the trip was made easier by referring to the very informative Doin the Nulla guide by the Nullarboys.

The Australian HOG® Rally was in Launceston on 6 - 8 November 2009 so we decided to drop in on the way, opting to leave our HOGs in Melbourne and fly across Bass Strait just to save some time and some bucks for the trip to Perth.  We took the winding route, deciding it'd be pretty stupid heading west from Melbourne and not using the Great Ocean Road.  It was our intention to hug the coast as much as we could the whole way with a detour through Kalgoorlie (because it'd also be pretty whacky not to visit there too).  We didn't make it to Kalgoorlie, we did make it to Perth.  The odometer reading for the trip was almost exactly 6,200k's.

The costs, well for my son and I one one bike, fuel was around $600, everything else including food, accommodation, the flights to Launceston cost about $6000.00.  We didn't skimp on food and stayed in 4+ Star accommodation where available.

The summary, it was quite simply one of the best times of my life despite the fact that for 6 days of it we rode through the longest and hottest heatwave since they started recording temperatures in 1887.

Some Highlights

  • Jimmy Barnes Concert Aurora Stadium, not really a fan but a great night
  • The Great Ocean Road, VIC
  • Helicoptering over the 12 Apostles
  • The Big Lobster, Kingston SE (well not great but piss funny).
  • The shock at the stark differences in the landscape either side of Spencer Gulf SA
  • Riding nearly 1100k's in one day while hitting a bird, a kangaroo, a thunderstorm and a bush fire
  • The Great Ocean Drive, Esperance
  • Eating fresh Green Lipped Abalone at Moceans, Streaky Bay SA.
  • Lime 303 Restaurant, Albany
  • Caves Road, Augusta to Busselton WA
  • Zanderhars "Cougar Bait" t-shirt
  • Doing the lot on a Harley

I had the GPS Logger going madly the whole way.  Unfortunately a technical glitch resulted in the loss of all but the last three days of the trip.  Never mind, I might just have to do it again.

The links below go to each of the legs of the trip. The google time wasn't too far off the mark, we didn't push it and the distances are between destinations.  We did a bit of riding around as well, e.g. taking the Great Ocean Drive  and other bits and pieces that weren't counted here.

Date Locations km's Google Time
4/11/2009 Newcastle to Albury 709 8h 44m
5/11/2009 Albury to Glenrowan - Glenrowan to Melbourne Airport then Launceston 315 3h 23m
6-8/11/2009 Launceston National HOG Rally, Day 1, Day 2 Jimmy Barnes 0  
9/11/2009 Fly Melbourne, Torquay, Warrnambool 363 5h 35m
10/11/2009 Warrnambool to Kingston SE 386 5h 24m
11/11/2009 Kingston SE to Adelaide (via Victor Harbour) 370 5 hr 28m
12/11/2009 Adelaide to Port Lincoln (via Port Augusta, Ferry was cancelled) 647 8h 19m
13/11/2009 Port Lincoln to Nundroo 556 6h 36m
14/11/2009 Nundroo SA to Norseman WA. The Nullarbor 1048 11h 40m
15/11/2009 Norseman to Esperance 204 2h 22m
16/11/2009 Esperance to Albany 480 5h 36m
17/11/2009 Albany WA to Augusta WA (via Denmark, Northcliffe) 369 4h 45m
18/11/2009 Augusta to Perth (Cape Leeuwin, Caves Road, Margaret River, Busselton) 394 6h 38m
19-21/11/2009 Perth, Femantle on 20th then fly home 0 6h 38m
Total K's   5841