04/03/2013
Had a great day today. Went to the kids school and spent some time with them in their classes. In Liviul's class I helped a few kids with their maths. Liviul was going great guns with her maths. Then sat down with Niamh at lunchtime as she had her lunch. After lunch I spent time in Niam's class as she did a 'show and tell' in front of the class. I was the 'show and tell' I think it was the only time I have seen her lost for words :-) She did a great though in telling her class where I had been and where I was going :-) By then most of the school day had finished and I headed back to their place to grease the trailer bearings and tow hitch.

05/03/2013
Today was a wag day for the kids and we headed to the Canberra Botanical Gardens for the day. The kids had a ball with Niamh wanting to climb over or under everything. Why use the pathway?? After a bite to eat we headed to the Telstra tower where, again, Niamh had to run instead of walk :-) Going to be a hand full as she gets older !! :-)

Off to Costco (damn its BIG) then back to Yass.

Canberra from the Telstra Tower

06/03/2013

After seeing Livual and Niamh off to school I headed off to Port Agusta via Wagga Wagga, Mildura, Renmark etc. Just out of town I spied an old Merc and a jag on trailers. Beautiful cars. The owners were on their way to Canberra for a motor show.


 I stopped at Gundagai for a quick look. The old road bridge crossing the Murumbidgee river was 850m long. It was built where the original township stood. After a major flood which killed over 65 people they relocated the town onto higher ground. After a look around I then headed off.

The Hay Plains. Supposed to be the flattest in the world. My photo is a bit wonky :-)

The roads were pretty good and I made good time and ended up in a little place called Hay. The Hay plains claim to be the flattest place on earth and for over 80km all I saw was heavy use of flood irrigation. Mostly maize, sunflowers, lettuce and rice!! The paddocks that had no crops ran sheep. I stayed the night in Hay at another Big4 van park. This was the first night I didn't use a sleeping bag. It was warm all night.

07/03/2013
A slow start today as I thought I would have a quick look at the township. What I found was very interesting. The area had been selected as a major prison camp during WWII because it was (1) flat (2) away from major towns (3) away from the coast. Initially only a prison camp for European and Australian residents who were of Italian, German or Japanese decent. Most of those who were shipped from England were highly educated and people but because of their ethnic background were considered a risk to the country(?). Their story is fascinating and were, in fact encouraged, to set up market gardens to become self sufficient. They produced so much produce that the excess was shipped to Sydney and Melbourne to provide food to the major centres.

The cells, Now a museum

Was a prison, a Hospital, an Asylum and a girls home

It was not until later that
 real POW's were interred there. Mostly the Japanese. There were more securely guarded were eventually sent to other POW camps.

Leaving Hay I travelled another 80+ km before I saw my first hillock. Boy the countryside was flat !! I ended up in Renmark for the night at another Big4 park with a lawned area with power to set up my tent. Again, no sleeping bag required :-) The park was right on the banks of the Murrary river with house boats dotted everywhere. A beautiful spot!!

A flash looking houseboat

View 30m from my tent site

What a beauty!!

I parked at the bank I noticed a paddle steamer berthed near the visitors centre. Worth a look I thought. It was!!

I walked up to it with the view to just having a look and to take a photo but whilst I was taking a shot a bloke came up from the stern and invited on board for a closer look. I didn't need any encouragement !! :-) The 'INDUSTRY' is 102 years old and has plied the Murray river all its life. It is maintained by a group of volunteers and does a river run once a month and does charter work as required. It's current massive steam engine replaced the original back in the very early 1900's as it was too small. The engine was manufactured in Adelaide and is of rivet construction. One of the blokes I spoke to actually worked in that workshop until he retired and it was his father that participated in the construction of the present engine. It is so big that it had to be slotted in sideways then turned upright. It's a beautiful old queen of the Murray!! In this old girl's case the term B.O.A.T was well and truely justified as it was expensive to maintain. (B.O.A.T = Bring On Another Thousand)

BIG cranks

The starboard piston

Where it all happens

Just behind her was a huge barge (the ARGO, built in 1915) that was pushed and pulled along the Murray and used to dig irrigation channels and later used as a moveable pumping station. It was falling to pieces and was partially rebuilt at a cost of $52,000 and 10,000 man hours. When finished she will be turned into a floating museum. The core group of 6 workers on it are known as "Dad's Army" and their average age is 72. Just a young bunch of hoons by the sound of it :-)

Onward and ever onward they say.... I pushed on to Port Augusta, stopping briefly at the green shed, and about 30km out of Pimba the storm I had been keeping an eye on for some time started to get much closer. I stopped to put on the rain jacket just as the first drops fell. Man it was a big looking storm !!  The last 15km into Pimba the bike was heeled right over in the strong winds. About 1km out of the stop, down it came, bucketing!!! I pulled in at the servo, under cover, with rain spraying everywhere!! I decided to call it a day even though there was another 1 - 2 hours of daylight left.  A dry night in a $25 room sounded good....

09/03/2013

Sunrise at Pimba

  It rained most of the night but sometime during the night the power went out and the aircon didn't restart itself. I woke up on top of the bed sheets. Nothing to pack really so it was off to Woomera for a look-see before heading toward Coober Pedy.

Anti submarine

A jet training aircraft

A target drone

   Very interesting the amount of land that is still classified as restricted!! The static display of rockets and aircraft was interesting and worth the stop. As it was Saturday nothing opened until after 0900 and not wanting to wait that long I headed off. It started off cool enough and evidence of last nights storm was everywhere with surface water abounding. The closer I got to Coober Pedy the hotter it got. When I arrived it was 38 and I was feeling it.

I wheeled into the Shell servo and pulled up at a pump. As I hopped off the bike steam shot up between the handlebars and the instrument panel. Next thing was water running out under the bike !!!!!!! What the !!!!! There was nothing on the instrument panel to suggest overheating???

I pushed the bike around the side of the servo and after asking if it was OK to park on the concrete in the shade I pulled the fairing and the fuel tank off. The radiator looked OK, no hoses appeared blown ?? I went into the little restaurant to cool off and to allow the bike engine to cool down. When it had cooled down I used a funnel and slowly began to fill the radiator.

 Next thing water was pouring out of the middle of the radiator, bugger, bugger, bugger !! The radiator must be holed. I looked at it closely and all appeared OK so it must be on the other side. Put everything back on and gently cruised down to the van park, booked in for a couple of nights, then stripped everything off and pulled the radiator off. BLOODY HELL  !!  The fan, which I've never heard running, was sitting on a slight angle with one side touching the radiator. Enough to wear tiny holes through 11 cores. BLAST !! It's well after midday, tomorrow is Sunday and....... would you believe it!! Monday is a holiday and no motorcycle shop in town !!

A gap between fan and rad.

No gap bet fan and rad

Before repairs

After repairs

The fan system is protected by the exhaust system so it looks as if it's been like that from day one!! By now it's late and I call it a day........