LOOPING OZ
HOME | LOOPING OZ	The Cape By Al

The cape! What a place. We were about to head up the cape from Cairns and see what we could find. How much tread would be needed was unknown and posed a bit of a dilemma. There was tread on most of the tires but the one on the front of mine was showing definite signs of running out, and the back tires for both bikes weren’t much better. I sort of checked the maps and guesstimated we would probably cover anything from 1000 to 2000kms. The trip started by heading to Wonga Beach for a couple of nights and some catch up with J, K and the kids. It was nice and relaxing and gave me a bit more time to ponder on the issue of tread. We did a bit of travel around the Daintree which took in some gravel back roads and a ferry ride to cross the river that even 4wd’s would have trouble with. The scenery and roads are spectacular, and the bikes were running particularly well as I had just spent a bit of time back in Cairns tuning them up. But the drama of tires kept niggling as we were slowly clocking up the k’s around the Daintree, Mossman and along the coast road toward Cairns. Anyway the tire dilemma was soon solved when I noticed M’s bike’s had a rear tire on the front, no wonder the damn thing felt like a tank. So before heading further north it was a couple of quick calls to Wayne Leonard M/C’s in Cairns to book the bikes in for three new tires. The deal is – you rip the wheels off and we fit the tires. Done! Back to Cairns along a lovely but very busy coastal road. The scenery, is pretty spectacular with the odd twisty corner to entice even a 40yr old Guzzi to have a bit of fun. The new tread didn’t take long as the boys changed the tires as quick as we could rip them off the bikes in the car park. Even though it’s a bit of a mix and match we now have some decent tread that should see us to Darwin or there about. Once the tires were fitted we headed back up the range to Mareeba and turned north to Mt Molloy where we camped the night. Mt Molloy is a hoot. The camp ground is just out of town and was full of caravans. So, that night we exited the park and walked into town to the pub for something to eat and a couple of glasses of red. We got entertained with some live music by the Walker Bros, some FULL glasses of red, a top roast, and won one of the raffles. From Mt Molloy it was north to Cooktown. The road wasn’t as busy, quite wide, pretty good surface, and the scenery is to die for (sort of). Cooktown itself is quite ordinary and when we were there bloody windy. It was blowing a gale and the tent wouldn’t sit on the ground until we filled it with lots of stuff. Even the roast and glass of red at the top pub was pretty ordinary. You get that. In Cooktown we visited the museum and Cooks monument (impressive), even the Queen has even been there. We headed back to Lakeland for one of the best coffee’s I have ever had at the BP roadhouse. They grow, roast, and serve their own coffee. Their bananas are good to. After a bloody good coffee we headed out toward Weipa. We had been told by many 4wd owners the first 100km’s was the worst and then it gets better! We found it to be the reverse. The piece of dirt between Lakeland to Laura was rough but easy going on the v7’s. This section the gravel was predictable and there didn’t appear to be as much traffic. Mind you it was just out of Laura where M dropped her bike on a sandy section on a bend into a creek bed. We borrowed a large piece of galvanized pipe to do some running repairs to the v700. That is bash the shit out of the RH foot peg so the gear change could be used again. From Laura to Hahn River the road deteriorates slightly with sections of loose gravel and the odd bull dust hole to disappear into. At times you can see this large plumb of dust. Must be a road-train? Eventually a little white dot will appear at the centre of the plumb. You guessed it a 4wd. For some reason the drivers of some 4wd’s out this way just love to travel at breathtaking speeds and bounce through as many holes as possible! I suppose they have been told if you go fast the rough stuff smoothes out. I suppose you could call it low flying. All this said we were not that perturbed as the road on this section was relatively predictable and there was room to get off the road without killing ourselves when a 4wd came roaring down the highway billowing dust about a mile high. From Hahn River to Musgrave the road deteriorated again with some long sections of sand and corrugations that are not as easy to negotiate but still relatively easy to exit the road when the 4wd’s come roaring by towing their trailers bouncing about a meter up and down and to the side. Believe me I don’t want to come back as a trailer and I’m totally stuffed as to why there aren’t more accidents. We spent the night at Musgrave which is a good spot. We did an oil change here and the owner cleared a section of the shed so we had a nice flat concrete surface to work on. We set off for Coen fairly early. The first 20km’s is pretty good and I thought that maybe this where people had been talking about where the dirt gets better? But this didn’t last. On top of the range about 20km’s out of Musgrave the road deteriorated so badly that the sand and corrugations slowed us down quite considerably. We were bobbing up and down in first gear for most of it. It took us nearly 55mins to complete the next 20km’s. Worst was the shoulders of the road were quite deep sand and not easy to negotiate in an emergency. The road itself would have been doable but add the dimension of lots and lots of 4wds kicking up dust and traveling very fast made it very dangerous to continue on. So, before a 4wd took us out we decided to turn back. We got back without incident to Lakeland other than the fuse box melting and front suspension shitting itself on the V7 Special. The constant vibration from the road had shaken the fuse holder and front suspension quite violently for about 500km’s and had now taken its toll. The bike just stopped right in the middle of a section of red dust with no shade. I suppose it was telling me to ‘F Off’ for treating it so roughly. To get the bike going I had to remove the fuse box and bridge the system out. The fuses had melted into the holder and eventually blown. Another repair when we get back to Cairns. Then later, just out of Laura, the front steering started this violent knocking and shaking. The O’ring on the LH fork had blown early into the trip and had been pumping oil out all over the place for about 500km’s. I suppose the sloppy suspension had worked its magic and undid all the lock nuts on the steering head. We stopped at Laura and here I tried my best using a 17mm spanner and diamond drill head I had found to nip up the lock nuts under the top triple clamp, then a bit of loc-tite to stop the top clamp from popping off and damage the steering head from further damage. It was enough to get us back to Cairns for further repairs. In Cairns I looked up the Guzzi agent and tried to con them into lending a socket (hopeful) so I could remove the top fork bung to add some oil. “We will book it in for you for next Tuesday” (helpful). By the time I sit in a caravan park for a week waiting I could have bought a couple of spanners. So, it’s off to find a tool shop. Anyway, there just happened to be this bloke B who overheard the conversation and he say’s to me – I think I know someone who can help. Oh by the way I own a Harley. Don’t panic, this dudes a real biker. Anyway B invites us to his place so we can wash the bikes and fix my v7. He opens his shed shows us the Harleys (his and hers – very nice) and races us around to another mates of his who owns Ducati’s (also his and hers – also nice) to get the necessary tools to replace the fork oil for my v7. Somehow the repairs and bike wash turned into staying for tea and chatting about real bike stuff, the weather, and roads to wonder on while sipping Coopers late into the night. Very much appreciated and hopefully B and M and there Harleys will look us up when they come to Brissy sometime so we can raid my cellar and exchange more bike tales in the shed. Today we’re leaving Cairns and heading west sometime today. Hopefully we will get far enough from the coast so we can dry out our stuff from last nights rain. We will see!

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