Roxby Downs is the service town for the massive Olympic Dam project.
There is heavy security at the site but you can get a good look at the operation by travelling down the Borefield Road which is part of the Oodnadatta Track. The surface is fine within the extent of the borefield where there is quite a bit of company traffic but it gets very corrugated after that.
Just north of Coober Pedy is an area called the Breakaways accessible by a good gravel road. The scenery is amazing and it is not possible to capture its impact with a simple camera. You can cut across from the Breakaways to the dog proof fence and the Oodnadatta Track.
One of the road I was very keen to do was to ride the Oxley Highway from Walcha to Wauchope. It has an unbelievable number of tight turns and lots of steep dips and climbs.
The day I rode it was bucketing down with rain with water flowing across most corners and my mirrors and glasses fogging up with the change in elevation.
There were few places to safely stop as the side of the road was a quagmire. The last section was done in the dark. I would love to do it again when it was much drier.
Himalayas Royal Enfield Tour 2017; Camp Cook-Off Winner 2017; Kennedy Ranges; Three Oceans Tour Australia; Hyden-Norseman Breakaways; R1200 series final drive repair; Mt Augustus; Bimbijy Station; Around Oz
It was a brand new rear tyre fitted in Melbourne and the ASC was operating about every 5 kms with the rear losing grip. I suspect that I was leaning it over more than any of the corners that I had taken since the tyre was fitted. It was June 11 and Mount Seaview had had 40.6 mm of rain that day with the relative humidity being over 90% when I passed through.
The next day I discovered that the tank bag Velcro had ceased to stick and the middle of the sole of one motorcycle boot had separated. I attribute that to days of soaking rain, earlier incidents in my ride and lots of corners.
300 corners is a lot to tiptoe through and still get to your destination. I had travelled from Mudgee via Tamworth using back roads to get to Walcha and probably stopped for longer than normal at the Royal Café to dry out. It did not take much thought to head inland to Glen Innes and Narrabri to get back to blue skies.
Cocklebiddy Cave looks unremarkable as you approach it but the window into the geology that the subsidence provides is amazing. All around are rocks with ripples show that they were laid down under water.
Cocklebiddy Cave looking towards the entrance from within the subsidence.
Another view
Bozo
Last edited by Bozo on Sun 12 Nov, 2017 5:30 pm, edited 1 time in total.
One of the great Australian Bakeries is at Birchip...the home of the Mallee Bull. Birchip is on the Sunraysia Highway and does not have a lot of competition from surrounding towns.
Although its speciality is Vanilla Slices it does a reasonable steak pie.
