4 day trip to Berri

The BMW Motorcycle Club of Victoria had organised a Christmas Camp at Berri, so I decide to make the effort to attend. Since this was my first organised event (apart from the Toy Run) I wasn't quite sure what to expect.

Day One

Left at 10:15 and followed the usual way to Mildura up the Calder Highway via Melbourne, Bendigo, Sea Lake and Mildura, arriving at Berri around 8:00. Hardly any traffic on the roads past Bendigo, everyone must be at the beach.

As is usual for me, I forgot to take one important item. This time it was the 'palm lock'. I'd put it in a safe place and decided that I'd pick one up in Melbourne on the way through. Bad move, ALL of the bike shops were closed. Not happy. As I made my way back to the tollway along Queen Street, I noticed this car in the left lane going slower than what I would consider normal. Sure enough, halfway past him he decides to turn to the right, cutting me off. We were both going slow enough to stop and avoid a collision. The driver threw his hands up in the air to admit his mistake, glad nothing came of it.

I stayed at the Berri Resort Motel while the BMW Club members camped out at the Berri Riverside Caravan Park. The two places are about 200 metres apart on the same road. I had dinner with a bottle of wine at the restaurant. The chef worked at large curved stove that faced the patrons. A large exhaust system was placed above that. His novelty trick was to put something inflammable into a wok and put it on the stove resulting in a burst of flame perhaps a metre high. Sure gets your attention the first few times along with the gasps from the patrons.

I had walked down to the Caravan Park before dinner and had a look around the onsite units but didn't see any bikes. I was wondering if the trip had been called off. I phoned the Club Captain, Barry Law and was assured that the event was happening and that he would be there on Monday. He advised me to check the camping sites. After dinner I walked back to the Caravan Park and searched through the camping sites. As is typical of most searches, I found them in the last place I looked, right at the back of the park. A large banner proclaiming the BMW Motorcycle Club of Victoria and the presence of motorcycles gave them away. I was expecting a few more people than I found, namely about 8 people. Doesn't matter, I had no trouble fitting in, with everyone being very friendly and laid back. The ride organiser, Neville Borgelt, had already hit the sack and was audibly sawing wood. I stayed until midnight and meandered my way back to the Motel and had a good nights sleep. Neville rides a R1150GS and thus includes dirt roads in his organised trips, not exactly my cup of tea.

Day Two

Had a Continental breakfast and set off at about 8:00 for a trip to the Flinders Ranges. The route I took was a crisscrossed one which took me down the A20 through Barmera, Waikerie, and then the B64 to Burra, and then some of A32 to Clare and then up the B52, Yacka, Gulnare Junction, Georgetown, Gladstone and Laura, where I stopped for lunch. Had a couple of salad sandwiches and a drink and decided against filling up as I thought I could make Wilmington on what I had left.

Continued up the B52 through Stone Hut, Wirrabara, Murray Town and then at a more leisurely pace stopped at Melrose to fill up. The tank took 16 litres. I technically had enough to get to Wilmington, but that wouldn't have helped as all of the petrol stations were closed. I really do need to change my filling habits and not go to the end and hope for something close by.

Up the B56 through Horrock's Pass, turned around and through the pass again, as I've never been through West to East. Turned around again and went through the Pass one more time and stopped at the lookup where you can look down on Port Augusta and Spencer Gulf. The view is fantastic just not a real clear day.

While taking in the view, I pondered the road layout and decided that all of the North-South roads follow the valley floors. If that's the case I decided to check out the West-East roads. Turned left at the A1 and followed it to Port Germein where I turned left and took the road to Murray town. I was quickly rewarded with a sign that stated "Narrow Winding Road" and sure enough, far more challenging than Horrock's Pass, at least a gear slower.

Turned right at Murray Town, through Wirrabara, Laura and Gladstone again before turning right along the next East-West road back to the A1. This road was no challenge at all as the ranges at flattened out a little.

Left turn at the A1 and on to Crystal Brook, left again to the B64 to Gulnare Junction. No challenge here either. I continued on to Spalding and that proved a bit more challenging.

Enough exploring, time to head for home. Took the B80 back to Clare. I was most impressed at how many wineries were below Clare and all Riesling types. I'll be back here for sure for some more discriminating research of the palate kind.

To make the trip different I took a different route home going on the B82 to Auburn, the B84 through Saddleworth, Marrabel, Eudunda, and then the B81 through Sutherlands, Bower and St Mary to arrive back at Morgan. Far more interesting than the Morgan-Burra road. Instead of taking the Ferry at Morgan I then took the B64 travelling North of the Murray before rejoining the A20 at Barmera. No irrigation here so nothing green in contrast to the South side of the Murray.

Had a swim, a shower and dinner at the Resort and then back to the Caravan Park to chat with the BMW Motorcycle Club members. Neville was sawing wood again.

Day Three

Decided that the right thing to do was to take a boat cruise, I tracked down the information centre and asked about tours. "Sorry, there aren't any cruises from Berri, you'll have to go to Renmark." Not a problem. Track down the information centre there are query the lady on cruises. Her response was "Yes, there are cruises, but, none are running today." Not happy, seems the cruises don't run every day, only selected days of the week. I still wasn't put off, so I asked her about cruises at Mildura. "Yes they run river cruises and here's a brochure." I called them up and sure enough they were running today. Their cruise leaves at 1:50 pm. I'll have enough time I think, taking into account the half hour time difference.

The trip to Mildura was hot and passed soon enough. Had Subway for lunch. A sub-plot to today was to try and track down a palm lock. Nothing in Berri (no shop in fact), nothing in Renmark and nothing at the Yamaha shop in Mildura. I decided that I wasn't going to get exactly what I wanted so I decided "I'll make one!" Off to the Bunnings store and located a pipe bracket with suitable dimensions. As would be when you are in a hurry, only one check-out is working and there's a long queue of people. The lady seems flustered with trying to solve product codes from items that have no product codes on them. In fact, the lady hadn't removed the "Check-Out closed" sign either. Here was someone under pressure. I looked at my watch and found I had ten minutes to get to the wharf. I ditched the fitting into the specials and walked out. The next mistake was to take the main road to the wharf, Deakin Avenue. With the speed limit at 50 kph and a set of lights at every intersection being red I was starting to yell at the traffic lights. I managed to get to the wharf with only a few minutes to spare.

The boat (ship?) was the PV Melbourne. Two decks and a bar at the back, what more could you ask for? The captain aimed as downstream and showed us the weir wall. Of note is the fact that the weir wall is like a Leggo kit. It can be removed and adjusted at will. The weir raises the water level by 12 feet. Onto Lock 11 and the time consuming process of getting through the Lock. The gates are hydraulically activated and move quite slowly. After reaching the level of the river below the weir, the Captain took us around Lock Island and showed us the weir from below. The water was running over the weir creating a waterfall along the entire width of the river.

The Captain turned the boat around and headed downstream to a beach, where he turned around and we made our way back to Lock 11. On the way to the beach the Captain invited patrons to steer the ship. Now the wheel was nearly as high as me and took some effort to turn being entirely mechanically driven by cables. No joysticks here. The time in the lock was made more exciting by the water filling the lock and causing a great deal of turbulence. The entire trip took two hours and was worth the effort.

Next task was to track down the Honda shop located in 7th street. I made my way back to the Yamaha shop and followed the directions I was given earlier. I should have been more aggressive in realising that the Honda shop was in the same street as the wharf. All I had to do was make a right hand turn from the wharf and I would have been there in two blocks, rather than the nineteen it took me. Upon quizzing the owner on the palm locks he admits to having had them but no longer carries them. "Some Ulysses guy makes them in his back yard!"

Well that's it, back to Bunnings and buy the brackets. The same lady at the same Check-Out. But of course as I'm about to be served another Check-Out opens - GRRRR!!!! It's not her fault, it's management.

With the help of a shopping trolley, I formed the clamp into the desired shape and it works very well. My poor right hand can relax a little.

The trip back was uneventful except for the fact that the weather had changed and I could see a large rainstorm to the South and another to the West. I sat on the one hundred and ten speed limit until a lady in a tiny Suzuki passed me. Hmmm, my speedometer must be out, so I followed her and made good time. I stayed behind her on the road but she quickly disappeared once we hit Renmark. Arrived back in Berri and had a swim just as the rain started. Just the way I like it.

Dinner at the restaurant and then back to the Caravan Park. Neville was awake this time and spent a great deal of time talking with him. Neville works for the armed forces and retires next year when he turns fifty five with a great payout. That was my plan with the SEC, pity it didn't work out. Neville recently purchased/upgraded to a R1150GS from a bike he had for thirty years. Neville commented that he could fix anything on the old bike as it was basic plumbing, but the new bike was a different matter, with computer chips, etc. We chatted until late before saying goodnight.

Day Four

Left at 9:00 and dropped into the caravan park to say goodbye the the BMW Club. Picked up a few riding hints from some of the members observing my ride style.

Not having checked the weather forecast, I decided to wear the DriRider without the liner as I figured the weather would cool down as I headed south. Nice idea that had no relation to reality. Today was a scorcher and not really any sort of a day to be on a motorcycle. I decided to take a different route home. Instead of heading East to Mildura, I headed South for Pinnaroo. I was glad I did as I found that I had to stop at every town too cool down and drink a bottle of water. I also decided to try the Sunraysia Highway instead of the Calder Highway. I ditched the DriRider at Speed and put on the Draggin' Jeans jacket. A little bit better, but not much. The sun was so intense and the wind so hot and strong that you just had to stop and rehydrate at every opportunity.

Harvesting was in full swing with some properties waiting to be harvested, some properties being harvested, some properties finished harvesting and some ploughed fields for the next harvest. This last category suffered most in today's conditions with dust storms all over the place. All that good soil in the air.

By the time I reached St Albans I was exhausted and was starting to fall asleep, so I stopped and had a power nap in the shade of a tree in the tourist park.

Not sure if it was my imagination or not, but the temperature seemed a bit lower and I was able to travel further. By the time I reached Melbourne it was on with the winter gear, brrr, cold! Arrived home around 9:30 and it felt a long, long day, with the gear changes being far from smooth on the last few kilometres. Glad to be home.

Statistics

Distance travelled: 3,200 km
Weight lost: 6 kg.