Day 8 - Meeting more Compass Riders

Every day riding in South America is a new adventure. And this was to be no different. 

Our plan was to ride on the sealed road due south in Argentina, along the border near to Chile, but to start early to avoid the winds that start blowing from the SW around lunch time. We left at 08:00am which was earlier than some wanted but turned out to be a good idea. For JC, this was to be a "long boring day" of 590 km, as he had ridden it all before. For us it was all new and fascinating.

The forest (Bosque) gives way to wide treeless savanna type country, with gentle hills and some mountains in the distance. This is the Patagonia that I dreamed about, with the snow covered peaks to come further south. It was decidely cooler today, and my wearing long underwear was an excellent idea. I also tried out my new gloves from Sian and Sheryle. 

We stopped a couple of times for fuel and a Cortado coffee (like a macciato with slightly more milk) but eventually reached a road-house where another Compass party of 27 was stopped, waiting for us to join them for a picnic lunch set up around the trucks. It was delightful in full sun and no wind. When I stopped, one guy ran over to say he could not believe he was seeing an ACT Registration plate in Argentina! (As he had worked in Canberra). The others knew each other from BMW clubs and rallies, and they were coming from the south, so we compared notes on the organisation of the rides and gravel roads, as you do!

The road surface had been very good, so we sped along up to this point, but soon after the road-house there were lots of potholes (Baches in Spanish) and they were serious in size and number. On another trip, riders had destroyed the front rims on their bikes, so we took it easy, dodging the holes and often riding on little bridges of tar, barely 10cm wide between the baches. 

At one point JC had his Mobile Phone blown clean off his bike in a gust, and it was destroyed on the side of the road. So he will be looking for a fast replacement from Paraguay!

Soon they cleared and we raced along at about 140km/hour, until JC pulled over on some gravel on a shoulder and I did too, and dropped my bikedown a hill! A group of Brazillian riders also on BMWs came along and picked it up very easily. All they wanted in exchange was a little petrol for one rider, which we quickly provided. No harm was done to me and nothing to the bike thank god. 

Soon we had covered the long distance and were in the small town of Perito Mereno, named after an Argentinian who surveyed and planned the agreed border between Chile and Argentina, quite a task as they had been arguing over it for years. 

We go further south tomorrow and that includes some 30km of gravel, but the harder stuff is the day after that.

Day 7 - Serious Gravel to Esquel

 Now we are heading into Patagonia proper. The mountains are incredible.

Patagonia's Pata means big-foot in the local language. Prior to 1900 no westerners had come here, including the SPanish, but the Welsh came first and built homes and had particularly good relationships with the locals. One is a pub just nearby to the homestead which was Butch Cassidy's hideout before he was almost discovered. When warned he escaped north to Bolivia and was killed in a shootout. We visited his house here.

Our next outing was 43km of rough gravel road through the national park which initially I was dreading. After a few miles, I got the hang of it, and actually enjoyed most of it, having removed the panniers from my bike and reduced the tyre pressures, plus put it in "Enduro" mode. About two thirds of the way down the track, I was stung by a bee on the back of my neck which was quite a distraction for a few hours!

We have stopped in the tiny but beautiful town of Esquel after some sensational riding on curvy roads, plus magnificent scenery. It is not possible to describe how magnificent it is.

Day 6 Bariloche

We had this one day in Bariloche and many riders took the time to do some washing and catch up with personal things.

We rode around a prepared route from JC, and particularly enjoyed the castle that was made famous by Hitlers henchmen, called Ya Ya but spelt Llau Llau about 20km to the south. We had coffee in the huge building and a tour.

It was built in 1938, burnt down 15 months later and rebuilt by the Argentinian Government but financed by the Nazis. On a hill-top it is truly spectacular. 

Our guide told us that her grandfather had met Hitler after WWII at "El Chaco" a local villa just nearby. Who knows the truth. 

Day 5 - Argentina!

 Day 5 was to be an epic, with more "Wows" than you can imagine. Our route took us out of Pucon Chile, and up the beautiful curves on a perfect sealed surface to the Argentinian border, then onto San Carlos de Bariloche - generally shortened to Bariloche.

The first hour was incredible riding, the best of the trip so far, and the border crossing (the first of 13) was made easy and short, but the very helpful preparation and guidance of Willy. Officially Argentina will not allow a "guide" without two years of requests and paperwork, so JC went ahead as a regular tourist. Obviously you need to exit customs and immigation on the Chilean side, then ride 400m with our spare tyres loosly strapped on the back, then go through immigration and customs on the Argentinian side. The only hiccup, was the nice lady who wanted to confiscate our (huge) pile of spare tyres, as "they collect water and mosquitos so they are a risk to the population from Dengue Fever!" Easy peasy overall after this was fixe, except that the new road was bumpy gravel which extended for 17km and so I took it very easy, not wishing to dump the heavy bike in the middle of the road. Dust was everywhere especially from passing cars.

Argentina is different. It is not as wealthy and the money situation is weird. Credit cards are not often accepted but the largest cash note is 1000 Pesos, about a dollar so everyone is carrying around vast quantities of paper money.

Anyway the ride was brilliant, and took us around the Siete Lagos, the seven lakes of the Argentinian Lakes District! It is truly beautiful in every direction across the lakes and up to the mountains some with snow. We stopped for lunch in Saint Martin, of which we all very pleased. It had been tiring. I must say that the planned stops are just perfect in timing and location, all learnt from last years event. In this case we sat on a verandah and took in the view across the lake with the little yachts floating in front. 

The incredible riding continued around hundreds of corners and we stopped at times for photos of the views. My iPhone is now playing up as the gyro sensor cannot deal with the vibration on the handle bars and so I am carrying it closed in my jacket. Too late?

Bariloche is beautiful. It is reknowned as the town that the Nazi High Command came to both before and after the second world war and there is a magnificent house where they stayed. For the consipiracy theorists, this is where Hitler finally hid out after his exit from Europe. 

Here at the "best hotel in Baroloche" an NHN called Nahuel Huapi, we have small rooms and no airconditioning, but I am not complaining. I was to sleep soundly. but first we had to change money for our few weeks in Argentina, so $400 turned into hundreds of thousands of Pesos and piles of paper, changed in the hotel with the head of the Italian Mafia, Pablo - as you do. He is Mr Fixit here, having got a past Compass traveller out of jail on a Sunday, normally an impossible task!

The restaurants are all European in style and we at a first class steak at Weis Restauant and Rahn and I had a magnificent bottle of Malbec of course. It was a 2017, cost about $50 and was truly excellent. 

Tomorrow, we have a few fix its to fix including getting some paperwork that Homer left behind and getting tyres changed on Rahn's bike as they are nealy through to the threads! Then a ride. 

Day 4 - Enduro Mode

 Day three saw us staying in Pucon (pronounced with a hard C), the "adventure sports capital" of Chile. Here there is much mountain biking, ziplining, rafting and horse riding undertaken by all and sundry as it is in Queenstown NZ.

We decided to take a recommended ride of 140 km around the mountain lakes, and ended up at Lake Caburgua where the trials for the Chile Olympic triathalon team were underway, resulting in a long wait for traffic on the way into town. It was a perfect summers day for swimming, running and cycling. As for other places, everyone wanted to talk about our bikes, and one young lady a "chico" of about 8, wanted to sit on a bike, so we all took photos of course. She was a delight and gave us all chewing gum, provided by her adoring mother. The chileans are overall family orientated people and very relaxed.

After the lake, we headed up a winding gravel road towards three waterfalls. On recommendation from Paul, I put the bike into "enduro" mode, one of four on the BMW, the others being road, rain and dynamic. Modern bikes are run by fancy software that provides ABS, traction control, hill start control and many other things, that can be an advantage on a sealed road, but not on washboard gravel. In Enduro mode, ALL of these are turned off, so you are back riding a bike  where you CAN lock up the back wheel and manage it as a good rider must. And this is important on a switchback mountain road to the falls (Sala). 

There was a 4000 peso fee to enter but it was well worth it. Rahn and I then walked up a steep track to the other two falls and took photos. The forest was spectacular.

On return we tried to ride to another set of falls, on a very dusty and loose-gravel road, but after a few kilometres, returned, filled with gasolina and had a chicken hamburger and a beer for lunch. Now for Siesta.

Day 3: Vamanos! (Lets go boys)

 I fianally managed to get a good nights sleep in Chile - all 6 hours of it. 

And that despite waking at 1:47am and talking to Sheryle on the phone as mentioned. Today's Desayno breakfast did not start until 8am and finished at 9, so I had plenty of time to prepare before our 303km ride to Pucon, a spectacular tourist town in the mountains beside lake Villaricca, a favourite holiday spot for many Chileans as I was to find out when I went for a swim.

About 27 km before we reached the classic hotel on the Lake, we stopped on the other side for lunch to revel in the sight of a perfect vulcano cone also called Viallarrica. We decided to climb it tomorrow. However the gods did not agree and it started smoking from the caldera in the afternoon. Climb is off!

So we stopped our perfect hotel, and I put some washing in, went shopping for water etc, had my clothes washed and waited for Paul to deliver two new speciality power adapters, which he did. Wonderful mate.

I ate tea alone as Rahn could not find my pin, and enjoyed my first very alcoholic Pisco Sour and a Salmon Navarra - one of the best pieces I have eaten in ages. And now to sleep as tomorrow we stay here another day and maybe go to the Piscina Caliente (hot springs!).

Day 2: Santiago to Saltos del Lajo Falls

 Well this was the first ride day of our Ultimate South American Expedition with Compass Tours. 

It was an action filled event, pressaging 100 more! It is hard to imagine how this will play out and I am unsure if I can keep to writing a post, even a short one every day. But here goes! We rode off the 490 km at high speed where the speed limit is 120 km/hour (about 70 mph) but rarely does anyone keep to that on the dual carriage way. Sometimes we were over 140 but it seemed good and safe. We stopped very regularly for water and petrol as the others are riding smaller bikes than me, with a range of about 320 km vs mine over 500.

It has become very apparent, and gladly so, that both JC (Guide) and Willy (Driver) are very well organised and have a very particular routine. I am frankly glad of this, and can see some advantages and potentially some disadvantabes. In short we get a tex on Whats App from JC giving the times and places to be, and are asked to stick to it. Apparently Willy (Wilfredo/Wilf/Homer/Tonka) would prefer you dont arrive at the truck to load baggage five minutes early. No matter, I can work with that!

Breakfast is provided by Compass as part of our fee, and lunch too. The latter can vary from a retaurant, to pre-packed to a picnic. Yesterday was a public holiday in Chile so the roads were croweded with cars, trucks and busses, and so were the gas stations. So we stopped a local truck stop for soup - which was full of noodles and un-identified carne (meat) and was truly delicious.

In short we rode 490km south towards Pucon and stopped at some falls called Saltos del Lajo. Our hotel was away from the huge crowds and looked over the falls. JC and I walked a little way around the track and loved it. Old world accommodation but perfect. He flew his DJI drone and I took many photos and video with my Go Pro (which I am loving!).

My stomach was slightly upset by water from the previous day, so I had a quite beer with Rahn and a few chips only, when Paul joined us. The team of riders is Rahn (Israeli/Australian), Jeff (Chinese/Japanese), Paul (New Zealander) and myself, plus JC riding. He is Ecauadorian but lived in the USA for some year with an ex-wife. They are delightful all of them, and have different characters which will no doubt show over time.

In the middle of the night, I woke as my sleep has been very erratic so far, so I rang Sheryle on WhatApp and we had a great chat - I really appreciated it after the "stress" of starting off. Tomorrow we ride to Pucon for two nights, following a late breakfast here at the falls from 8am to 9am.

Day -1: Be Polite the Customs Officers! Ultimate South America Expedition

 Yesterday we went by Van to collect our Motorcycles (called Moto's here) from Valparaiso Port, about 150 km west of Santiago, the capital of Chile, where we are staying.

We arrived to find a customs agent having an argument with the man who had to review all of our paperwork, and that did not bode  well. The female security officer took us through a detailed site-induction and we donned the orange jacket, helmet and boot toe covers (over sandles in one case) and progressed to the shed, around tall moveable cranes and hundreds of sea containers.

I was picked out with one other rider, as our Registration paperwork looked completely different - ACT vs NSW varients. And yes they were. We explained calmly over the coming hour or so. Then we had a bike inspection, removing all and every item on our bikes and lifting the seat. We had no food, guns or drugs and during this long three hours, JC carefully worked with the official until they became best mates! It was a pleasure to watch the master in action. We had all bought a pair of extra tyres along, all "used" so that we could not be accused of selling them on the black market. In fact that was an error

Then, we rode off to get some gas, also a different experience as they have a person to fill your tank and take payment, and of course they wanted to talk bikes! The 150 km back to the hotel was on the expressway and expressway speeds as the limit is 120 km/hour. Nice.

 

Day -3, “When it Rains” - South America Moto

Australia’s weather has been quite extraordinary this summer. Whether it is El Niño or El Nina or the SOI, the west coast is baked in heat and bushfires and the east has drumming rain. Right now it is torrential at Sydney Airport!

So our flight to Santiago, Chile is delayed about an hour, but I am happy to be on the way. But already missing my wife who will wait a few weeks to get fully better.

But it’s a 12 hour 45 minute flight so I should settle back with a glass of read or a gin and tonic. Decisions!

Day Minus 4: "Every Lost Sock Matters" - Ultimate South America Moto Expedition USAME

My bags have been packed in part, for four weeks. Now for the fine-tuning, as every sock counts!

It's now 19 February, and one day until I fly out to Santiago, Chile and four until we ride off. So I am washing up gear, and in the process have found a single sock belonging to Sheryle. Preparing for 5 months on the road, is rather different from a ten-day holiday, so every "white sock matters". 

The Tour leader, Compass Expeditions has provided two 100 litre Black Wolf softbags for us to bring out stuff in, mainly so that they can manage the packing into the van each day, and keep everything tidy and rattle-proof. While this is probably far more space than we need, there is no protection for delicate items. So they will be packed into plastic "lunch boxes" or taken in my small backpack.

So the question is what to take and what not? I have two theories:

1.  Take all new stuff. It will then last the trip well, and you will be "well presented" and they will last.
2. Take all old items, that are favourites, well liked and well used. 

I decided on the second option. When something is "done" I will throw it out. I plan to throw a lot out along the way. For example, I have two pairs of riding boots. One should have gone out a long time ago, but they are SO comfortable. I will use, abuse and dispose of these somewhere in South America.

But for white-sock-theory - what have I forgotten? It really does not matter, as I assure myself that I can survive well on what I have packed. Anyway, I could buy something else somewhere if it really matters.

Day -27 Prep Ride for South America

It has been quite a few years in the "thinking" and now preparation, but Sheryle and I are heading to South America on 20 February 2024, to ride off on 23 February (which is my Father's 94th birthday as an aside). We can't wait, as it had always been a dream, and not one we could work through practically in the past. 

However, I had a week to spare in late January and early February, so decided to ride my Harley Road King (currently my only bike available) to all State and Territory Borders so as to collect points for the annual "ABC's of Touring" Competition run by Harley-Davidson each year. My second purpose was to visit the David "Davo" Jones memorials of which there are three. Davo is a riding legend, and was the first "Far Rider" in Australia but was killed in 2009 competing in the Iron Butt Rally that year. My total ride was somewhat of a risk, given the heat of summer and risk of high rain falls. but it went very well, and I covered 8,691 kilometres in the end, having to avoid flooded roads in Queensland and return via Broken Hill instead of a sweep through central Queensland. 

DAY 1 was to ride to Albury to photograph the Dealer and Victorian Border, then go onto Rutherglen and Zeerust where "Z" is a hard letter to find across the whole alphabet unless you live in Tasmania! I then wandered along the Murray River stopping at Swan Hill and Mildura, but finally making it to Renmark South Australia after a long and warm day. I was to learn many things on this ride, one of which is that my HD leather riding pants are very good in all weather, and very comfortable but now looking decidedly used. The second learning was that the softbag I had brought along with a sleeping bag and other gear made a great back-rest!

DAY 2 was organised to ride into Adelaide, a little to the south and meet with Steve "Wes" Wesbroom, who had previously been a Canberra Harley member but returned to Adelaide to work in the construction industry and be with his family there. I took photos at the two HD Dealers and then we headed to the  "Big Scottie" quite an institution in Adelaide. Our tour took us to various small towns around the Adelaide hills including a long stop to chat over coffee, as you do. How I valued that time with a friend! Our drive then took us to Wilmington with a fantastic few corners riding through Horrocks Pass which was my favourite riding section of the whole trip. The first memorial for Davo is amongst the windmills at the western end, and I found the easiest way to find it was to type the Latitude and Longitude into Google Maps and ride right up to it! For those looking, there is also a piece of green plastic fitted into the fence wire, directly above the memorial on the right (north) side of the road.

I had planned to ride to Ceduna, the halfway point across Australia but I only made it to Kimba following an excess of socialising! Kimba is a non-descript town in SA but does have 24 hour petrol and some decent motels, one of which I chose. Prices for motels have all gone up now, with the  $60 to $90 range long gone, and typically they are about $120 per night. Kimba is infamous for one key "hidden" attribute - it is the site of Australia's only Nuclear Waste Dump, taking materials from our one Nuclear Reactor at Lucas Heights in Sydney. Generally this reactor is used to manufacture medical items, and not weapons! However, the discussion about where the spent rods from our future nuclear submarines will be stored, is not over yet, and this is one location. Kimba also has a "Big Thing" being the "Big Galah" and large and very pink it is. I needed to photograph 15 big things to complete the list for 2024 and found the requisite number by the end of my ride.

DAY 3 started at 4:30am and I continued to ride west into the spectacular views of the Great Australian Bight. The aim was to make it to the Border Village, which is in SA but right at the border with Western Australia, which I did. The Eyre Highway goes right across the Nullabor Plain as you might expect and about 98km before the border is the very strategically placed "town" of Nullabor, with a fancy petrol station and cafe, and a Big Whale (Actually a small whale as it is not the "required" three times larger than the original!)

As soon as I fronted to the Border Gate for my "no fruit or honey inspection" I was surprisingly breath-tested, something that has not happened to me for a while, with cops from Eucla, about 10 km further on, obviously being ready-at-hand, and friendly. Border Village has a "Big Kangaroo" holding a beer can as its welcome image, plus simple cabins and very expensive petrol at $2.85 per litre. I booked a room and rode west a further 203.7km to Madura Pass, to visit the second Davo Memorial. This one is much harder to find and has defeated others, but it is on the North side of the road, just behind the SECOND "lane merging" sign. Turn right at the "Lookout" sign and return back (east) about 30 metres and park in the dust carpark. The memorial is on a 1 metre boulder, somewhat hidden by a tree on the top of the cliff. Other IBA members have left small stones under the boulder with their IBA number or name on them e.g. "Olaf #517". I returned to Border Village for the night having covered over 1,400 kilometres for the day. 

DAY 4, I rose before dawn as for everyone on this trip and headed for the sea cliffs to the East for a photo, which was well done at this magnificent and serene place. I had seen only 5 kangaroos on the road for the first five days, but was wary and rode at about 80km per hour before dawn, allowing me to dodge roos, goats, rabbits, foxes and wedge tailed eagles of which there were many. Later I was to see wild horses and camels further to the north, but the Eagles were the most spectacular, often tearing chunks out of new carcasses on the roadside. There is no way to practically "cut the corner" (from Wudinna to near Woomera) to join the Stuart Highway north to Darwin, without riding on a very sandy road, so I headed to Port Augusta. My aim had been to have the killer "Big Breakfast" at local roadhouse, but I was half an hour early prior to their opening and decided to continue to Nullabor for that meal. 

For this trip, choosing the right speed was very important. The maximum legal speed is 110km/hr, but this is too much at night and also means that the bike consumes far too much petrol especially when riding into a head wind, which was the case here. In calm conditions on a good road with no wind, I can easily make 430km to a tank of fuel, but often it was reduced to 320km or in one case 263km. I later chose to carry a small spare tank, so that I could run the 22 litre tank nearly dry, and on two occasions, managed to put more than 22 litres into it - clearly "running on fumes"! 

After a very long day, I made it to Pimba and turned off to the east, to Woomera on the Roxby Downs to Andamooka road. Woomera is 6km off the Stuart Highway and is absolutely fascinating. I stayed at the venerable Rocket Hotel called Eldo after the launch supplier from EU. I had to walk up the hall to ammenties, but did not see a soul. Their restaurant and bar are replete with wall-sized drawings of rocketships. I talked with a few working locals, one of whom said he was working on a classified missile project, another was exploring for minerals (uranium and lithium) on Andamooka Station and the third was an individual who just said he was a "private gold hunter"! Outside, I walked in the semi-dark to the museum where there are about thirty rockets of various sizes displayed.

DAY 5 was a big one which strangely caused me a little concern, mostly due to the increasing heat as I headed north. The aim was to make the SA to NT Border and ride into the Northern Territory (my first time on a bike) to Kulgera to the "Big Tinnie". I left early to make some big distance in the cool air and loved every minute of it, right to the border where it was indeed over 100 degrees F. Kulgera is famous for the "Thousand Bras Pub" and so I sat inside slowly savouring a ginger beer and reading the messages on many of the bras hanging from the ceiling. At this moment a young lady from Switzeraland walked in, and it turned out it was her first day working at the pub, so she was receiving guidance from the local male managers. It was hysterical to watch, as she had just arrived from Europe the day before and was truly suffering in the heat and rather non-plussed by the pub. Foreign workers who take remote work for 90 days then get a one-year visa to explore Australia.

I turned about, and passed the one and only 130km/hr top speed signs that I saw, then returned to South Australia and headed to Coober Pedy, a total of 1300 km for the day. This place is the famous Opal Town, and is packed with workers, so finding a cheap hotel room was a challenge, but I ended up with a "walk-up". My shower had one tap - "warm" artesian water which was great! The day finished with thousands of white cockatoos crowding into the tree beside my room and shrieking the roof off in a spectacular display. In fact the recent rains made the bird life stand out, with huge flocks of Corellas, wild emus, and thousands of tiny green finches. 

DAY 6 and I was determined to make it to Queensland, via Broken Hill, and took the road through Peterborough, with a short stop at the Toy Museum at Wilmington, where I had been inveigled to enter on the basis of all the old Landrovers parked out the front. There were two of Series 1's plus Series 2 and 3 plus a couple of Willies Jeeps one fitted with a 50 calibre machine gun. Inside is the largest collection of Meccano in Australia plus every guage of model railway set available. It was truly a blast from the past for me.

Beyond Yunta was my stop at the most remote Big Thing, the Big Dice, which are actually 24km north of Yunta and are reached via a gravel side track of about 1.5km. Few will visit this one on their Harleys!

That night, I took a cabin in the Caravan Park (possibly a better option than a motel room), had a swim in their pool and had a delightful evening at a BBQ with old friends and HOG members Grahame KIWI Cotterell and Sally. We chatted into the night, solving the worlds problems as you do.

DAY 7 I rode from Broken Hill and north towards the Warri Gate (The border entrance to Queensland) via Packsaddle and Tiboburra. Despite the pumps out the front neither had any petrol (!) but I did find some 91 in Tib, and stopped there for brunch after a visit to the huge Warri Gate (54km north in the Sturt NP) that guards the entrance to the huge and famous Bullo Downs Station, and to Queensland. The Tiboburra Central Cafe will prepare you a huge breakfast on request, and so I did not need to eat again for the rest of the day! I ventured through onto the gravel road to take some photos, but stopped after a couple of kilometres as it is unsealed for 153 Km to Noccundra. Sealing it has started at the north end, but its very slow. The locals told me they want it done, to support the trucking industry and to attract tourists.

On my return to Broken Hill, I travelled on an apparently "empty" tank for 35 km into town, looking for gas, and found it in time. I then headed east to Wilcannia, strangely one of my favoutite OutBack places, but stopped at the roadside rest area at the top of the rise that is Netallie Hill (18km to the west of Wilcannia) to meet the newish memorial to seven Iron Butt riders who have passed away or "ridden on", including the third memorial to Davo Jones. I realised that I had previously met everyone of the 7 people listed on the memorial when they were alive. This is a truly special place where I sat in the warm sun for some time, thinking of friends and enjoying the increadible view across the plains to the south. 

In Wilcannia, one of the camp grounds and another Motel have closed, so I headed to the one camping area down by the billabong to the east and found a calming cabin with a nice view. Here I made packet lasagna and relaxed in the bush. 

DAY 8 I was determined to get home, The shortest run of the trip at 951km, with a side trip to Albert and the Rabbit Trap Hotel, plus stopping at Forbes for my "F" for the ABC's. The reason was to join Sheryle for dinner with friends, which worked well as the days were heating up or moving to pouring rain in the coming week! Total distance was 8,691 km and given that two days were under 1000km, some of the others were fairly long, but what a blast. For the ABC's Competiton, I have all State Borders (except Tas), all 15 Big Things and all letters of the Alphabet except L and X, plus five Dealerships and five National Parks. My current score is 70 which is a little high for this time of the year!

I had forgotten how special the dawn can be, how unbelievably nice and helpful the country folks are, and who much there is to see, that I have never experienced. Australia is truly a very special place.