The view outside the unit was a whole lot better this morning, although it was still cool, it was sunny 🙂

There is a knocking noise from the engine, but not all the time only under load and only when cold, I only noticed it for the first time yesterday afternoon when I had no ear plugs in. I am not sure whether it is because the oil I am using is too thick in this cold climate. I am using 20W50, so maybe I need lighter oil. I am pissed off with Suzuki for one thing, how the frig is one person supposed to check the oil level with that damm stupid sight glass; it is on the wrong side of the damm bike!!! I have a feeling my oil level is down, but there is no bike shop or any bike oil that I can find. I will have to get to Perth probably and it is Saturday so no bike shops will be open by the time I get there 🙁 I am not sure what the problem is, but when the engine is warm it is OK and it is running perfectly. I will monitor it and hope it is nothing major.
So, after packing the bike it was off to the rock, where it seems the only cost is $7 per car or $3.50 per motorcycle. The ticket machine took my exact $3.50 but would not issue a ticket, it kept asking for more, so I got my money back and walked away. There are a few things you can do here but I chose to do the Hippos Yawn walk and see as much as I could.

There were a lot of interpretive panels on the way around; here is a sample or two and shots of what they relate to.

This is part of the track around the base of the rock; imagine doing that in the rain yesterday, no way Jose!

I eventually got to the Hippos Yawn, which is a big rock that is expanding and cracking from within.

Up on top you have all these little depressions etc where life is thriving, a lot of water gets collected up here as well.

A long time ago they built this wall around a lot of the rock to trap the water runoff and channel it into a weir.

And then after an hour or so of walking I finally came back to my starting point and this is Wave Rock.

And that was it, pretty impressive but if I had just looked at the rock only it was probably not worth the wet ride, I am glad I did the walk. Another part of the area further away is called The Humps and also a place called Mulkas Cave. These seemed interesting so of I go for 22km until I get to this road!

No way am I playing in mud with a sick bike, so back I go to Hyden, fill up my belly with a hot pie because it was quite cool and head to Freemantle. Now, I said it was cool, check this out

There is something wrong with my Chargeguard again! It was actually coming up with an ICE warning and when I cycled through the display I saw the above -30C temperature. Incorrect, my other temp gauge said +18C. Then it stopped even giving me temp readings, just Volts and Amps. I will have to send them an email next chance I get.

Along the road edges I kept on seeing these yellowish fruit of some sort, so eventually I stopped and took this photo

And a bit further on asked a parked car, a local water officer, he said they are melons and not to eat them, especially with all the spray around. I kept on going and Fuelled up at a town called Corrigin where a Triumph and a Buell were heading out west for a ride. The Triumph chap had lost the rear seat of his bike and he had no idea where and I forgot to ask him which way he had come. It was just west of Brooktown that I happened to spot what looked like a seat and turned around for a look. Sure enough, a rear seat so I figured it was his and left it up against a guide post, hopefully he will get it not some other curious idiot, but I left a note on it, he may reply to me via this page.

I got into Freemantle just after 3pm and after riding around a bit, chatted with Doug on his BMW and he pointed me in the right direction to a caravan park just down the road, thanks m8 🙂 I had noticed when using the clutch that my F1 light was coming on when slowing down, hmm, same problem or something else?

So off I trot to the Fremantle Village CP, because of the school holiday and show day etc, it was an extra $4/night so $33, pretty steep, but a pub was across the road, bonus 🙂 First things first, I pitched my tent and went looking for oil, I happened to pull up next to a crotch rocket at the lights and he pointed me in the right direction. I bought a 1lt bottle and put in 600ml, I needed someone else to help with the sight glass, but as I went for a ride to the shops to buy food, the red F1 light had stopped coming on when slowing down, so I guess low oil was my problem. I bought food for the next few nights due to the holidays and headed back. A chap next to my tent sighted my oil level and could see nothing, but he was not sure and did not want to hold the bike up while I looked. I left it for the moment. The AFL grand final was on but had just finished, which reminded me, I could go try the pub to see if they will play the footy later on if they had Fox. I headed over there around 6.20pm and found the game on live, they had Imparja TV, not bloody crappy WIN, so I only missed the 1st 20 minutes, it was a whitewash, the Warriors never looked like winning and Manly romped it in. I had a few beers of course. During the game I had a phone call from Brett(aka Wombat on StromTroopers), he wanted to know if I wanted to go riding tomorrow, of course, so he did some calling around and texted me the meeting point for next day. Not long after I got a phone call from Glen(aka The Hack on ST), he lived near where I was staying and offered to ride past and pick me up, cool, so I accepted, saved navigating 🙂 I had an early night as he was picking me up at 8am

Day – 415km
Trip – 13,515km
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