TRAVEL FEATURE - AUSTRALIA
MARK GALLI
A WEEK AGO
ON THE NULLARBOR PLAIN
Was it really that long ago ?
It ’ s hard to believe , but I remember looking for a bike .
I ’ d bought a copy of the Trading Post , which was once a newspaper . I scoured the classifieds for a postie bike , a Honda CT110 . I ’ d just read in a motorcycle magazine that a trip had been organised from Port Augusta in South Australia to Perth , the capital of West Australia , three thousand kilometres . It no longer seems like a big adventure , not nowadays on big 1200cc adventure bikes and a ribbon of mostly dead straight bitumen between the two locations , but on a Honda CT110 it ’ s a different , much slower story . Throw in a few remote outback roads and tracks , and suddenly adventure was redefined .
The bike was bought from a retired postman who offered to throw in some bright yellow leathers . Unfortunately , they didn ’ t fit .
The bike was a cracker , well maintained with an extensive service history , all documented on a little rectangle of cardboard stored in the battery box . Still , I thought it wise to subject the bike to a full strip down and comprehensive rebuild , just to be sure . Adding a supplementary fuel tank to enhance the paltry five litre standard one , extending my range to over four hundred kilometres . Heavy duty tubes and tyres , spotlights and panniers completed the picture .
This ride was to be fully selfsufficient ; I didn ’ t know what that meant so I made contingency for everything , including two ten litre fuel cans strapped precariously to the rack on the rear of the bike .
The bike was shipped to a dealer in Port Augusta while I made my way there by air . On meeting some of the crew they kindly offered to take some of my excess luggage , including a box containing three meals a day for nine days .
TRAVERSE 37