Mt Bundey Station

[Darwin_R65]

I'm on the comittee for the foster carers association here in Darwin, and I was one of the organizers for a carer's retreat this weekend which was at Mt Bundey station 90 kms out of Darwin.\
Now I flew to Alice Springs and was working across the Tanami desert fro the last week
I was meant to fly back from Alice springs on Friday, but couldn't get a flight until Saturday which got me in Darwin at 2pm.
Seeing as we were organising the event my wife left with all the kids at Noon, and seeing as i was by myself i chose the R65 to get me there.
First time I've had it out of city limits.

130kmh speed limits.

filled the tank and took off down the highway, it sat beautifully at 120kmh, and then i took it up to 130, hmmm the engine purred, but now I understand the purpose of fairings i think.
Ambient temps were 40'C (104'F)and it felt like standing in front of an oven.
I took it to 140kmh (only 10 above legal) and the bike was riding well, but there wasn't a lot left in power I don't think. It was at this point I thought about the front wheel not being quite true anymore, my imagination ran wild with what might happen if a front wheel failed and I slowed back to 120 for the rest of the trip.

I pulled up at Mt Bundey Station and of course had all the attention of the kids having turned up on a bike.

Was a fantastic weekend. Mt Bundey station is a working station and the kids fed potty calves, played with horses and dogs, chased geese around the lake full of freshwater crocs. watched the wallabies that came in for a feed but still avoided humans.

(For the Americans a station is basically what you call a ranch)

today i rode back without so much haste as i didn't have time against me and sat on 110 - 120kmh all the way, riding behind my wife driving a car full of kids that were exhausted and slept the entire trip home.

[Darwin_R65]

On the way home I also had cause to overtake a road train. I awaited for the overtaking lane and used it, but at that time another road train was passing the other way. Both where 3 and half trailers, and it was not pretty being in the middle even though everyone was in the middle of their respective lanes. A psychological thing but when you can feel the wind generated pulling you about and each wheel looks as big as you only 6 feet away, it's brown pants material. [smiley=shocked.gif]

[montmil]

[smiley=clap.gif] You've had a safe, fun adventure, Mate. Of course, the kiddos will be expecting you on the bike from now on.

Monte

[Lucky_Lou]

Good stuff you may have to invest in a sidecar to give the kids a treat.
Lou

[SCJJR65]

Damn, Darwin, I wish you had taken some pics of the goings-on at that "station"!  I would have loved to see those wallabies and freshwater crocs!!!  

[alexznam357]

Hey Darwin...really enjoyed your post...sounds like you had a great ride and now will take your R65 out for regular rides in the Outback. Being a US Navy sailor (retired now) I've been to OZ a few times and always enjoyed the delightful people, great beers, and incredible hospitality your fellow countrymen showed us when we pulled into Fremantle, or Geraldton. Cheers!

[Lucky_Lou]

Hey Darwin...really enjoyed your post...sounds like you had a great ride and now will take your R65 out for regular rides in the Outback. Being a US Navy sailor (retired now) I've been to OZ a few times and always enjoyed the delightful people, great beers, and incredible hospitality your fellow countrymen showed us when we pulled into Fremantle, or Geraldton. Cheers!

When were you in Fremantle mate i was a regular visitor in the 70,s with my then employer BP also did fleet support with the US battle group at the end of the Nam war and dry docked a couple of times in Singapore with a number of US frigates.
Lou

[alexznam357]

Hey Lucky Lou...I always enjoy your interesting and funny posts. The Regent car into a space shuttle was a real hoot! I was stationed aboard the destroyer USS Ingersoll for 4 years, 6 months, and 13 days and did 3 Westpacs (overseas deployments/cruises) with that ship. We pulled into Fremantle/Perth in 1981, then Fremantle and Geraldton in 1983...probably my favorite visits during my sea time. Fremantle was very historic and full of great bars...the Aussies hardly let us pay for anything...great friends of the US (as are the Brits). We also pulled into Singapore those same cruises and drank beers with Brits at the outdoor bars near the Merlion and Change Alley. I got to tour a Brit frigate that was in drydock at Subic Bay, Philippines and they had small fridges in their berthing compartments and were issued daily rations of beer by the senior petty officer. I was amazed and impressed by that! We had to smuggle our booze aboard (don't tell the captain...I don't want to get busted in rate!). The only time we got to drink was after we'd been out to sea for 45 days straight, and then we only got 2 lousy beers! I would always buy an extra or two from guys who didn't drink (which was rare in the US Navy . Great talking to you Lou, Alex Manz - Columbus, Ohio  

[Lucky_Lou]

Sorry we we missed each other by a few years !! i have fond memories of a bar beside the prison walls just out of Fremantle harbour it was particularly entertaining one night when the German navy came in and WW3 broke out... oh to be young and reckless i almost jumped ship in New Zealand i had such a good time with the nurses in Dunedin and not a bandage in sight.
Lou
ps glad you like some of the posts

[alexznam357]

Hey Lou...yeh, too bad we couldn't drink a few Swan Lagers in Fremantle together! My second visit there was the best. I was hitchhiking on the Sterling Hwy from Fremantle to Perth and got picked up by 3 guys in a Holden saloon. They agreed to drive me to Hay Street in downtown Perth if I bought beers for them...I agreed. We ended up going to the punk bars along the street, and their night scene with souped up 4-door late '50s Chevies and Holden Monaros was great to watch. The bars were full of pretty Aussie girls dressed to the nines in their best punk looks...I wrote to one for awhile. The next night the same guys met me at the ship and we drove out to the Cottesloe Beach Hotel and listened to an excellent punk band I've forgotten the name of. Really had a great time there! Drank with some German sailors from the Schulschiff Deutschland...a training ship for German naval officers. Traded hats with one of the sailors and got to drink a beer in their petty officers mess...had a similar setup to what you guys had with daily beer rations. We couldn't pull into New Zealand because my ship carried nuke ASROCs (anti-sub rockets). The nurses sounded great...I'm sure some fond memories there! Cheers!

[Dugald]

Ridng to Mt Bundey takes me back to my first ever motorbike adventure. Riding in the inaugural ( and possibly only) Darwin to Nourlangie Bike Rally in 1969!.. My bike was at that time, a Yamaha 49cc stepthrough... yea, I know... a bit wimpish for this site, but you have to start somewhere!.. we made it out to Nourlangie in a day via the Mt Bundey road... ( this was before the Arnhem highway was built)
# brave souls set out in the under 75cc class and by some miricle or other I was the only one to finish!
That adventure was just the start.and a few bikes a bit bigger than the 49cc, but then a long break from bikes but now 40 years later, Ive just bought an  R65 on ebay!!... and she's a lovely bike... still getting to knoe it and I happened across this website as part of my researches.. It's refreshing to see that there are plenty of other slightly mad blokes around the world who are able to through care to the breeze and live dangerously with a grin on their face!!

[Lucky_Lou]

It's refreshing to see that there are plenty of other slightly mad blokes around the world who are able to through care to the breeze and live dangerously with a grin on their face!!

Oy i ressemble that remark!!!  [smiley=thumbsup.gif]welcome to the madhouse
Lou

[Darwin_R65]

I have afriend who rode his scooter every weekend from Darwin to pine creek.

What I found crazy was it was only capable of 75kmh in a 130kmh zone and frequent road trains (3 and a half trailer) flying past him. He said it was a 3 pub trip. He was English and we reminded of the saying about Mad dogs and Englishman.

49cc would have had a top speed of 60kmh I guess (probably only 50kmh if this fat bastard rode it)
Would have been a long trip, but a lot of fun.

I always wanted to do the postie bike challenge but never got time.
(A 110cc postie bike from Brisbane to Darwin about 3000kms)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C78QdYa3hT0

John

[Dugald]

Mmmmm!... 60 kmh?.. well maybe on the bitumen, but on the dirt, a not very stately 40-50 slewing wildly in the  drifts of bulldust that lay all along to road... in between extravagant corrugations that also took their toll on ride and bike!.. I dont think it ever went seriously anywhere after that, and last seen was spread in  a forlorn pile on the verandah of one of the dongas at Roos Smith Hostel in Parap, having been bartered for a slab as I left Darwin for Europe.

My next bike was  anquantum leap... a Honda 175!!... bought in London and carried me all over Europe and down as far as Marrakech and over the High Atlas and then back eventually to London.
but that was all in another life and I was 40 years younger!... but you never know... one day!.......