2005: an outback odyssey
 

Good whenever to y'all.

This'll be my first post on these here boards. I've visited from time to time in the past and thought I'd make my presence known as I am now actually on the road...for real...

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v4...ter50prose.jpg

So, we've spent the better part of two weeks in Melbourne, waiting for our bikes to get released to us and today is that day. Finally.

I'm in a bit of hurry right now, but if you're interested you can follow our trip on www.gravelseekers.com - the site is not at 100% just yet, but I'm woring on it.

Nice pictures mate. Keep up the good work, I'll enjoy keeping up with your journeys. Are you coming to NZ? I know you would love it here.

Regards

Nigel in NZ

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"The world is a book and those who do not travel read only a page"- St Augustine

So are you up for a beer?

Hi Gravelseekers,

Hope you have a great time guys. Let me know if get to Brisbane (Queensland) - thats where the sunshine and warmth starts - judging by the number of Victorian caravans on the road anyway....

Skillo

Hi, if you're planning to head east from melbourne, drop me a line. We live out in the bush, about 30 minutes ride south of Traralgon, (2 1/2 hours east of Melbourne on the Princes Hwy). we have plenty of space & would be happy to accomodate you for a night or two.
regards
Ian

If you guys are heading through Alice Springs, get in touch and we'll go for a few beers!

Updating the site oer the weekend hopefully, just need to write something. We're in Townsville at the moment.

- We're not going to NZ.
- Brisbane is really pretty at night with all the lights and the water. We won't be back there though.
- The southern states will e explored on the flipside when the weather is a tad better for bikers.

Was just looking at the pics and wondering about all the sand action, Fraser Island is it?

Hello everone.

Ive updated www.gravelseekers.com today with report 004 and 005. The pictures that were out this past week was for report 004 and there's a few new ones for report 005.

The sand action is from Coolola Section of Great Sandy National Park.

A few snips from the reports:

Report 004

[Snip]....The Coolola beach is about 70kms long and we camped about halfway. Tonje felt it only natural to test the strenght of her R80GS. It can take about the expected amount of abuse after getting off at about 70km/h....[Snip]

[Snip]....the Fresh Water road, 20 km’s to Rainbow Beach and or brunch. This road as it turned out isn’t suited for a fully loaded bike with a big rider…..350kg’s on 20 cm2 in soft sand and uphill is really exhausting. After three km’s the the track get’s hard enough that you don’t have to be on your toes and you can actually enjoy the ride….don’t get me wrong, there’s still several more km’s before you can sit down, and when you can you’re on hard packed dirt, surrounded by green rainforest with vines hanging down from the trees – nothing less than spectacular !....[Snip]

[Snip]....A 100 meters after the sealed surface ended a state of wild chaos broke out as two fully oaded bikes tried their best to navigate the ditch at 80km/h. It had been raining so I guess we should’ve expected the roads to be soft and slippery – covered by 5-10cm of red sludge from hell......[Snip]

http://www.gravelseekers.com/bilder/...lseekers48.jpg

http://www.gravelseekers.com/bilder/...lseekers15.jpg

http://www.gravelseekers.com/bilder/...lseekers25.jpg

Report 005

[Snip]....Equipped with Marius’ business card and orders to find Hooterz Scooterz and ask for Steve and we’d be taken good care of, we found the barge terminal.....[Snip]

[Snip].....We pitched our tents and got a shower and a couple of beers in the bar at Bungalow Bay and had a few laughs with five Irish girls .....[Snip]

[Snip]....the manager and quiz leader soon announced that the Nowegians riding around Oz on motorbikes would act as head judges and award the last six points. It just so happened that the team we awarded the six points was running five points behind. The prize was free beer and we were invited over to the winning table to share of the prize....[Snip]

http://www.gravelseekers.com/bilder/...lseekers72.jpg

http://www.gravelseekers.com/bilder/...lseekers69.jpg

http://www.gravelseekers.com/bilder/...lseekers76.jpg

The complete stories and all pictures are at Gravel Seekers.com - hope you enjoy this as much as I am !

We are in Darwin and I've updated www.gravelseekers.com.

I'll be by the pool if anyone needs anything