Day 2: Electric Boogaloo

Day 2
Oct 15, 2004
Morsetti to Walcha (I think)

Wake up after a car backfires, repack, stare at the small oil leak,
and figure it's just some leftover from the rebuild. Bike starts up
and we leave.

We, as in my bike and I. Haven't named it yet. I don't usually name
my stuff (even name my pets all Dave because I got sick of people
asking why I never named them) but there's a name for this bike. I'll
find it.

We make it to a mall in Newcastle so I can stare at the groceries.
Vegemite is such a small part of the crazy flavors they eat here. Musk
flavor Lifesavers is a good one. Coca Cola is made with sugar here.
It tastes better than "high fructose corn syrup" that they use in the
US.

I go to leave and notice the oil leak is getting bigger. It's nowhere near Brit bike but it's noticeable. If it was an old engine, I
wouldn't have thought twice. The engine stutters and it's idling too
fast. It's also gotten very hard for me to start but I haven't
figured out the starting pattern for it yet. My SR500s would start
first kick, with no gas, and the choke out. My Monkey Wards Benelli
would usually start 3rd kick with just a touch of the gas. I'll figure
out the trick for starting this.

I'm at a rest area and lend an old Czech couple who've lived in OZ 35
years a pair of Vice Grips. She said she couldn't offer money and I
said "Just trying to be helpful". She came up later and gave me a
couple of Czech homemade sweets. One quote from the couple.
"Australia is nice just like the USA. Only same problem with both --
too many Moslems". It's the good/evil bit at work.

El Duce made the trains run on time, but was a fascist (the real
fascist, not the "fascist" neighbor who plays music too loud). The
bike runs mostly okay, but that's "mostly". Hitler had a girlfriend,
but he also painted horrible watercolors. There's some sort of big
worded "duality of existence" bit that would be entered here if this
was a college term paper, but just like a Monster Truck Show, it's
better when you watch it in action instead of sit around theorizing
about it.

I talked to a guy who rode his Kawasaki 750cc around Australia in the
last decade. He's headed to Brisbane to pick up a boat. He wants to
sail it down to Melbourne, but said it needs too much work. Sounds
like a lot of time off but Aussies get 6 weeks of vacation a year,
plus another paid day off a month. They work 40 hours a week, get
paid for 38, and get one day a month off paid for by those 2 hours a
week. Many people are surprised I quit my job to do this.
Australians, probably because they get so much time off.

I go to leave and a guy is looking at my bike. He had an NSU 250cc.
I try to kick mine over but it didn't start on the first couple kicks.
He said, "Sorry, it's because I'm watching" and left. It started
after that.

I took a tourist road which takes me inland up The Buckets Highway
onto Thunderbolts Way. I stop for gas and the NSU guy was at the
station. He gave me his map since I didn't have one. He's just out
exploring roads he hasn't been on and didn't need the map because he's
familiar with the roads here and knows which ones he hasn't been down.

After that, I couldn't get the bike started. The guy inside came out
and said it had a really high idle when I pulled in. I flooded it so
I waited. It starts but dies as I put my gloves on. I tried to push
start it, which sucks on a loaded bike, but no go. Pull the plug,
kick it over, put the plug back in and it starts. The oil leak is
getting worse.

I see warning signs for koalas and kangaroos. I saw my first kangaroo
today. Dead on the side of the road, but it counts. And I met my
first overseas couple on motorcycles. Marcus, from Germany, and
Daria, from Poland. They're circling Australia too. Started in Perth.
Marcus said his site is www.monsterq.de

He thought I was crazy to be doing this on an old bike, and I thought
Daria was crazy for doing this on a Yamaha XT 225cc that she bought
because she didn't know how to ride a motorcycle. Marcus gave me
advice for crossing the western territory. And said they had ridden
through a really cold part that I was headed into. Cold warnings from
a German are unsettling. He noticed the oil leak and said it was from
the head gasket, so I told him old Ducs didn't use head gaskets. He
wished me luck and left.

I get to Walcha at 4:30 but the tourist place is already closed and so
are the campsites. I'd like to take a shower, and I'm sure anyone
standing next to me thinks the same thing. The bike won't start. I
tried push starting it 3 times. Finally it starts but it's running
rough. I leave with a bottle of XXXX Bitter and a bag of salted
peanuts for dinner.

I'm camping on the side of the road. listening to crazy wildlife, and
learning how to fingerpick the banjo. This is a lovely part of OZ.
They have birds that are the opposite of magpies (magpies and crows
are my favorite birds). Black feathers where magpies have white
feathers and white where black. Sort of like the black/white guy vs.
the white/black guy who fought on Shatner's Star Trek. Do I continue
towards Brisbane, or head back to Phil's shop?

Posted by DaveSmith at October 21, 2004 03:23 PM