About 6.30am I hear the truckers start their trucks up and they are off and out before we get to breakfast.
WE shower, dress, pack the bike and go across the hotel to the breakfast room. We have toast and coffee and in comes Wally.
(Forrest gump accent please !) 'Morning', 'morning' we reply. John tells the story of the beetles.
'Yeeeeep' we got plenty of them says Wally. '' If you annoy them, they spray an ink on you that stays like a tattoo for week, Wallyt tells us. 'Yeeeep, he says again. He then goes on to tell us how the previous year they had had a mice plague, the hotel had reeked and they had had to clean out everything when they had taken it over 6 months ago. Mice ???? I ask, oh god really ???? 'Yeeeapppp', he replied...
WE pay the bill, say our good byes, get on the bike and off we go, on towards the Nullarbor. The next town is Ceduna, we fuel again even though we don't need much, but better to be safe than sorry.
It gets to about 2pm and its about 90 degrees. We are both hot, tired and a tad tetchy. I feel sick and the water is running low. The camp book shows lots of 'sites' where we can camp. But to be fair in a caravan yes, but in a tent no!!!! The ground is hard, theres no cover, no water, no loo's. We carry on and John starts to slow the bike down. I'm feeling very unwell and start to get teary. John pulls into a parking lay by. He best out the last bit of the water and pours it over me. I am now on the floor,feeling and sick and crying. John is doing his best toe oct me out. But he is worried the bike has been making a funny sound. He says its the front, I can see the back tyre is hanging in shreds ( see the piccies), I try and tell him, but he is sure its the front. when he eventually looks at the rear tyre, his face tells a thousand pictures. WE are up a creek without a paddle !!!!. I start to rally with something else to take my mind off the sick feeling. John says we can make it but we have 130km ( about 95 miles to go to the next Road house( garage/station). So we set out with about a cup of water left and a rear shredded tyre. 2 and half long hours later we trundle into Border Village Road house its the last point in Southern Australia before you cross quarantine to go into Western Australia. I am so relieved to see people, lots of people and trucks and truckers, I jump off the bike and go into reception. I book us a cabin room for $70 its got a bed, a kettle and a chair. You shower and go to the loo in the shower block opposite. But we don't care, we are both safe, we have got and we now have a bed to sleep in. But now the mission begins... WE have to get a replacement tyre. I start straight away and soon realise, that when they tell you that the workers on the Nullarbor don't smile, they really don't SMILE !!
I ask for the local mechanics number. I call him from the public call box as there is no mobile signal. He answers but he is away for 18 days. Actually we later found out he was ill, had sold the business to a young lad and he dos'ent do bikes. He tells us to speak to the Roadhouse manager 'Adam' for another number. All I can say is that if Adam smiled he would break his face!!!!. We call another number and fire off emails when we can all over the place. News come back thats its gonna cost about $3000 (£2400), bloody hell at this rate it will be cheaper to come home ! What a miserable and unhelpful git Adam turned out to be. ..... But one day, one time he will need help, lets hope he gets more help than he gave us, I digress sorry, but revenge will be sweet !.
We decide to leave things till the morning, so we sit down and eat at the bar, where we meet the road house Chef.
He's a nice young lad, into cars and he tells John if there are tools under his car that John can use, just take them and use them. WE are so grateful to get an offer of help.
We have a shower and get our heads down. Ready for round two tomorrow. John decides he is going to get the tyre off himself and get a lift from trucker back to Ceduna, some 500km away ( back the way we came) and stay there overnite while its repaired. I am not keen but what can we do???? I will stay here and wait for John to come back. But for now we go to bed and decide to start on it all early tomorrow.
The Nullarbor.....
A Roadhouse...
The TYRE !!!!!!!!
More tyre....
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