Adventures in the Vic High Country and beyond.

Two days after Xmas 2014 I had the opportunity to take the Sertao out exploring in the High country of Victoria with an intention to cross the Murray River at Tom Groggin into New South Wales before heading North into northern New South Wales.


After an exciting ride on Day 1 through the Toolangi State Forest, across the top of Lake Mountain and up Mount Terrible and down into the Howqua Valley (where I camped for the evening), I headed up to Mt Stirling for the descent into the King Valley via Lake Cobbler. The route from there would be up to Abbeyard and on to Bright for the evening.


Well, I made it to Bright, but not quite in the way I intended. Coming down the Lake Cobbler track I managed to lock my front brake on a slow steep descent with a drop off to my left. Unfortunately, the Sertao is a VERY tall bike and when I went to put my foot down the ground just wasn't there and I ended up laying the Sertao down gently on top of my leg. As I swivelled to dismount I twisted my leg, felt a pain in my ankle and knew something was amiss but wasn't too perturbed as the pain wasn't too great and there wasn't even a scratch on the bike.  I continued the journey to Bright but next day had to call the journey off and return to Melbourne as my ankle was swelling badly. As it turned out I had exacerbated an old ankle injury and fractured my left fibula so that was the end of the journey for a couple of months before I could complete the NSW trip to Menindee in March .


They say that every cloud has a silver lining and the good that came out of this incident is that I grudgingly accepted that the Sertao was way too tall for me, and subsequently installed a set of lowering links which made a WORLD of difference to my ability to manage the bike.

Pining for the Philippines

In October/November 2014, Kimie and I were fortunate to be able to spend 2.5 weeks in the Philippines riding around the Northern island of Luzon. We rented a small 125cm Suzuki Hayate scooter in Angeles City and were able to travel all the way up North along the West coast before returning South and heading inland (and uphill to the capital of Baguio) and then south through Manila to Pasangan.


I have to admit that riding through Manila was one of the greatest motoring challenges I have experienced since riding through China, and I'm still not entirely sure how we managed to navigate, whilst simultaneously dodging the scores of Jeepneys, trucks, buses, cars, tricycle taxis and other vehicles. Suffice to say, it is not something either of us look forward to repeating.


The final leg of our tour included a ride 3/4 of the way up Mt Pinatubu - the Philippines notorious volcano.


To be continued......

Thailand and Laos - February 2014.

As a follow up to our Indo-China Cambodia and Vietnam ride in late 2011, Kimie and I elected to head to Laos this time. Tried and true little scooters took us up hill, and down dale during the times when we weren't travelling by train or river boat, and a great time was had by all - particularly in Northern Laos which is a beautiful country and fortunately little changed from when I first visited there 40 years ago. More to come.........

A further addition to the family - as one door closes, another one opens.

Well, in November 2013 with the summer coming up it was time to reconsider my riding options again. As much as I enjoyed the KiLleR it had its failings - namely atrocious brakes, not a whole lot of power and it was big, heavy and bulky for a mid-range off-road bike. After reviewing the options and vacillating whether to upgrade to a DL650 Wee Strom, I took the plunge and went European. A white and blue brand new Sertao now sits in my garage and has been off on a few adventures of its own as well, which I will hopefully get to tell you all about in the near future. More to come........

Crossing the Simpson - June 2013

Well, in early 2013 I prepped the KiLleR with Dunlop D606s, a Ventura luggage rack and backpack, crashbars, Madstad screen, tank panniers and a set of saddlebags before taking off in June for the wilds of the Simpson for an attempted solo crossing. I had earlier tested the fully set up KiLleR on a couple of rides up through Lake Mungo, Menindee and White Cliffs and it all worked quite well As it turned out, however, once I left the Oodnadatta track, the addition of many extra kilograms of fuel, water, food, tools, clothing and camping equipment meant that the KiLleR struggled in the soft sands of the Simpson. After a frustrating day of bogging the bike many times on the uphill slopes of the dunes I was fortunate enough to be "rescued" by a group of 4WDers on the Rig Road. They kindly offered to carry my luggage in their vehicles so I was free to ride unburdened, and suddenly what had become a chore became a source of great fun. Well, that was up until the time I realised I had very low tyre pressure up front - zero to be precise - as I had torn the valve stem out of the front Heavy Duty tube by lowering my tyre pressure too much. However, with 300kms to go I decided to push it on and surprisingly I was amazed at how little this affected the overall bike performance and handling - even made it up Big red without too much difficulty! After repairing my spare tube in Birdsville I did the run down the Birdsville track to Leigh Creek effortlessly in one day, and followed this with an epic 1,300km one day journey home the next day in pouring rain, crossing flooded creeks and in freezing temperatures. More to come....