To Alice: Reminiscing.
 

Ulysses members gathered in Blatherskite Park in Alice Springs for the 2014 AGM.
This was a remote location for us, and it was to be expected that there would be a smaller attendance than normal. I understand that there were around 2500 attendees, indeed somewhat down on other AGMs.

I know that Australians may find this a little prosaic, but to many, Australia is as remote as the moon! So I'll let this one travel where it may.

Certainly there were far fewer traders than normal, which was just fine for the Ulysses Gearshop, which did a roaring trade!

Manufacturers were another sad story, and only Harley were there – we learned that they were on their way from Queensland to WA, and we just lucky to be on the most direct route. Welcome Yanqis – hope you sold a lot of bikes!

Of course, one of the great charms of a long ride to a venue, are the Ulysseans to meet along the way, and this ride was no different. - Hi again Tony, Ray and Gerry!

For me, the ride started in Caloundra on the 5th May. My wife Jill and our friend Pam Smith left a few days later in Jill’s car but proceeded directly to Darwin. Both nurses, they had employment at Royal Darwin Hospital waiting for them. Jill feels that Alice is cold at night. (It was...)

But this time, I wanted to include some of the roads not ridden at that time. So my route was via Bollon, Queensland, ($40 per night) where reminiscing with the publican about my early activities in the helicopter mustering industry caused a stir of interest in the local community.

Can you imagine retiring as a ringer (farmhand) and realizing that you had no home and that your life until death was to live in a tent on a bore drain?

(Another story, but I should add that a bore drain is a ditch leading away from an artesian well that provides drinkable water for cattle.)

This was the lot of one elderly couple that I met, all those years ago. And yes, the story does have a happy ending.


Thargominah! Can you imagine a more Outback name? But I only refueled there and left town to track North to Quilpie. (I should explain that I had anticipated a fair degree of gravel roading, and had fitted a Trailwing front tyre, and would have done the same with the back wheel, but Bridgestone do not make a 16” tyre, so that remained a Harley-Davidson Dunlop. (An omission that I was later to regret.)


So! North to Quilpie….
Old bloke on an heavy bike with - not quite the right tyres…. Gravel, sand and dust. Huh. What could possibly go wrong…
The water truck. That’s what. I was following the blasted water truck!

For what? Maybe 187KM, I quickly realized. Having slipped and slid to the far right hand side of the road I realized that I was riding in tomato soup. And that my excellent rear tyre had dug a nice little trough. Could have gotten off and walked away.

Back in the 20th Century(!) I had come across just such a mud road on my BMW, but with more rain ruts. I had had the front wheel slide into one rut and the rear wheel slide into another.
Over I went. BUT THERE’s MORE! Because of the beemer’s engine configuration, a cylinder sticks out either side. And now the left cylinder, on the ground, formed a pivot point, and rolled the bike completely upside down – with me underneath it!

So here I am, upside down, heavy bike pushing me under – drowning here - !

Can anyone tell me how to attach photos cant find any info on the site. Thanks - rob