I think the first thing that people wonder is why did he do it, but then people often say I wish I had done something like that.

Although it was a 300 mile trip to Coober Pedy it was nowhere near as hard as the Ayers Rock Road. At various places the graders were out levelling off the road which made quite a difference to the riding conditions. All in all I thought the trip that day was not bad and I found a place to pitch the tent and crash for the night.

Coober Pedy is a very interesting place - people live in dwellings under the ground to keep out of the heat. This was an opal mining town so I thought I would go into one of the shops. I got talking to one of the shop owners who took me into the back to show me how the opals were cut - how they used the lower grade opal called potch to back off the finely cut opal so to make the colours show much better. Also they spit on the rock and rub it which will help to show the colours on rock that had not been cut. The people I met were very friendly and gave time to tourists who were interested in their work.

The next day the conditions were really taking their toll on the Norton - the front mudguard had sheared all its rivets and I had broken 2 more spokes in the rear wheel. Meanwhile, the exhaust had broken its welds, the mudguard had to become part of my luggage and I had to tie the exhaust on with the end of the rope I used for my luggage. I had to live with all these problems and hope that everything would hold out for 2 more days till I got to Adelaide where I could get some spokes and repairs done.

I arrived late that night at Kingoonya and booked into a Motel but I could not get anything to eat so I had to go without. I took off early the next day, got through the rest of the dirt road and picked up something to eat. I never really worried about the bike and its condition because it made more of an adventure that way. All I was interested in was to keep those wheels turning and the condition of the bike was a secondary thing.

When I got to Adelaide my first job was to get some work done on the bike - what a state it was in! The engine was covered in red sand so I got it steam cleaned and the next job was to get the exhaust welded up. It had to be brazed in the end. I tried to get some spokes but none were available.

I managed to get some work labouring on a pipeline in Crystal Brook for a short time, just to get a little money to continue. While I was there I removed the rear wheel and moved spokes around the wheel so not to have broken ones all in the same place.

It was getting towards the end of the year and I thought I would like to get over to Perth. I was lucky at this time as the road over the Nullabor Plain had just been bitumised making it a fairly easy ride. As I rode along I could see signs of where the old dirt road had run, parallel to the new one. I did not think the Norton could have stood any more dirt roads for a time.

My ride across the Ayers highway was quite unusual as I had to go through a plague of locusts - they swarmed everywhere. I stopped at a fuel station at Penong and it was funny because after a woman got out of her car she lifted the bonnet and shook a grid she had fitted to the grill near the radiator. A big heap of dead locusts fell out on to the ground.

After I had filled up, I rode on across the Nullarbor Plain to Norseman, then up to Kalgoorlie, before turning off towards Perth. As I travelled I caught sight of small bushfires and decided to stop and photograph one but, by the time I got out my camera, the fire had moved on, so I missed it!

By this stage, the Norton was showing signs of very bad wear and tear and it was now that I had my third brush with the law. An officer pulled me over and asked a few questions regarding the bike, as he could see that it was in a bit of a state. I explained what I had been doing over the past months and he was quite interested, but told me to get the bike fixed up as soon as I reached Perth.

I had been on the road for several months and had done as much travelling as I could, as many of the spares and parts the Norton needed were not available in Australia. There was therefore only one way forward, which was to return to the UK and bring the bike back as well.

I continued on to Perth and made my way towards the container depot - within half a mile of the docks the poor old Norton gave up and came to a stop. I got off and pushed it the remaining distance. Taking into consideration the little maintenance it had received and the conditions and terrain it had encountered I thought it had done really well... even then I didn't realize what damage had been done to the internal parts of the engine and other moving parts.

I got the Norton put onto a container ship to be transported back to the UK, and I booked myself onto a plane. I flew into Amsterdam and had to wait all day to get my connecting flight to Norwich. It was quite funny - snow had caused problems at Norwich and, although we reached and flew over the city, we could not land and had to return to Amsterdam. The hotel was paid for so I did not really mind. It was quite a nice hotel.

It was early January when I arrived back in Norwich and I then waited for the bike to turn up, doing various jobs until I could get something permanent. The Norton was brought up by courier van in March - it was good to see the old thing again - but I had no idea then how much work would be involved to get it roadworthy and I never guessed that we would travel round Australia together on another trip.

The Norton In Australia Archive

NVQAssessor

01.06.06 Front Page

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