TravellingStrom

Although Glen offered for me to stay there to wait out the rain, I once again declined as I wanted to be on the road, the rain could be there for a week 😦 Thanks for the offer though 🙂 Here are two stroms under cover

While packing the bike up, I noticed my Pat Walsh light bar was loose, it is secured by two bolts and nylock nuts, the left one had sheared off! The bolt was still stuck in the hole and I could not get it out. Lucky I had cable ties, because that kept it secure, I will need to find a space to remove the whole front cowl and get a new bolt fitted.
Glen was going into work late so he could take me for a ride though some nice country and roads around the place. First we fuelled up and met the young fellow Jarrod again, he is oon there somewhere 🙂

It was quite overcast with drizzly showers, that is Glen ahead

Then he left me at the road to Kirup as I was wanting to do a particular road I had heard about which was the Balingup to Nannup road. Have you noticed all the Ups in the town names, apparently it is an aboriginal word for water, well, there is lots of it about and more falling all the time. There was some lovely country out this way and the ride was worth it.

Another electrical failure, bloody hell, crap materials I think. My tyre watch had stopped sensing the ambient temperature, but tyre pressures and temps were OK. Another email I will have to send, maybe all this stuff is not worth it, or cannot take the Aussie weather.

I stopped at this rest stop, it was nice.

It was here I checked out the rides book and there was a ride out to Cape Leeuwin and Augusta that was mentioned. I had time and it seemed a shame to miss the lighthouse so I went that way. The ride was not that good, it may have been better when it was sunny. I got to Augusta and then the cape, this is where the Indian and Southern Oceans meet. It was cold wet and windy, not a good day for viewing.

After that I just turned around and headed on to Walpole. I was going there to see the Valley of the Giants. It was a nice ride except for the weather. I had a ‘moment’ when going through one of the many twisty forest roads, I was following a caravan and when a straight section came up I gave it some right hand and moved to pass, but as soon as the back wheel hit the white centre line it lost traction and nearly spat me off, and then again because I backed off the throttle 😦 I was up on the pegs and noticed that while the back was jumping around, the front was rock solid, so I hung onto that part 🙂 Needless to say, I backed off and rethought my actions and next straight I moved into the other lane and then gave it some gas and that worked, LOL.

I got to Walpole and I was over the excitement of new gloves and booties, because I was cold, dry but cold and it was hissing down. I booked into a motel and had a hot shower. I started to catch up on the blog text and photos etc, before venturing up to the bar and ended up staying till close. I was chatting with some locals and decided I would spend 2 nights here, maybe the rain would go away by Friday and I could slow down, relax and find an internet shop. Maybe I should have stayed up north with Greg or Glen, but hindsight is a wonderful thing!

Day – 540km
Trip – 14,785km
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