Day 23 8th June Freemantle and presentation at Perth bike shop
Everyone is doing their own thing a little today. Georg is staying with a relative. John Laird is off visiting a nephew, everyone is doing their washing… (we’re not dirty bikies). Retired WA Police Union officer Dave Lampard rolls up on his old R50/5 BMW and escorts us out to Xander & Tam Kabat’s shop, Overland Adventure Equipment out at Midvale. There’s a group of customers, riders and some police out there. I do a talk on our overseas travels and then on the wall2wall ride and the reasons for the baton run that we’re doing. It goes down well. Xander sold out of all our books and also sold a lot of bike gear to my fellow travellers.
It’s nice to catch up with Xander and finally meet the lovely Tam. They are closing down their shop, unfortunately it’s just tredding water and not making enough for a living. John Laird met us out there and the crowd were very interested in our cause.
Afterwards I head out with Xander and a couple of friends to the XXXXXXXXX forest to an old pub in the forest. A nice meal, a chat in front of the open fire and we get told it’s closing time! I then ride back down out of the hills with one of Xanders’ mate on a KLR650 back down to Freemantle. The others are out to dinner. I had a late feed so turn in for an early night.
Day 24 9th June Perth to Corrigin (Bike services)
It’s up early and a Police motorcycle escort to Police Headquarters to meet the Commissioner Chris Dawson. The traffic heading into Perth city is a pain. But we plod along. My air cooled bike is getting hot despite the rain and cold wind. So at the traffic lights I turn it off to give it a rest. After a re-group we ride onto the forecourt and the Commissioner is there to greet us.
He is a big supporter of the wall2wall ride and is intending to ride a bike from Sydney to Canberra this year. We have morning tea and a good chat about Police Legacy and policing matters in general.
We leave and head out to West Haven Motorcycles in Midvale where we’ve organised through Xander to have fresh tyres put on for those that need them and maybe an oil change. Jarrad is there without the boss Jordan who had conveniently taken the day off. They boys do a great job servicing bikes despite the cold, windy and driving rain as we shelter as best we can.
This all takes time, so those of us that are finished decide to head off for our planned stop at Corrigin.
Spike, Georg, John Laid and myself head out through the traffic…. I’m low on fuel and have to find somewhere after riding the hills yesterday. I haven’t fuelled up since Jurien Bay with over 500km on this tank and don’t want to risk leaving the suburbs. It’s raining and miserable and the boys don’t really want to detour but they stick with me.
We take the Brookton highway and have rain with us most of the way through the hills, as we come out on the plains where farmers have welcomed the rain, it gets a little drier, but the wind is viscous., WE set a good pace to make the most of the daylight and roll into the Corrigin Hotel car park at 4.45pm. I get a phone call from Jarrad at the bike shop. Huddo’s fob for his Harley was found in the gutter. This is the electronic key for the bike and will allow the bike to start when it’s nearby but turn it off without the fob and that’s it, it won’t go unless you know the secret code. I ring luke and tell him. Bugger. We put our heads together and contact Xander to collect the fob and we’ll get it sent somewhere. Meanwhile Huddo and Luke, who only left at 4.45pm from Perth are out there somewhere riding in the dark and out of phone range. Finally we get word that luckily Huddo has a spare fob on him and can still stay mobile. We arrange for the fob to be sent to Adelaide. It’s great to have good mates like Xander and our police colleagues to help us out.
A roaring fire, a nice clean room upstairs and a nice bottle of WA red and we have a great night. Especially when our weary mates arrive cold and wet but safe and sound.
Only 200 km today but we’re on our way east and it feels good to be on the road again.