Jun 09, 2009

More strife to start the day. My bike wouldn't start again. Norm headed to the Yamaha shop for a battery (none in stock) so they got onto the local battery supplier who had one thankfully. In the meantime Norm disconnected the headlight to see if there would be enough oomph to fire but no go. Oh well, worth a shot. Fingers crossed it is just a battery issue and not a starter or something else. Ah machinery, wonderful when working! Talk about a captive market, a car battery retails at $80 where this little number set us back $150!

So change of plan, instead of breakfast at Wilmington we had to settle for egg and bacon sandwiches at the Mobil road house on the west side of Port Augusta while we waited on the battery. The breakfast and the premises were beautifully presented and seemed 5star after a lot we've eaten at over the last few weeks.

The first photo today is a PS from yesterday and is the kids tucked up for the night with the hotels extra grog supply. Bit of a concern leaving them there but did so with the lecture that we ride 00 so we don't need to call 000 and hoped they would just appreciate being in out of the weather and be responsible. Perhaps it wasn't the battery!



Last night’s resting place for the bikes

Actually it was good to see Port Augusta looking in such good shape. There had been considerable effort made by many owners of really historic old buildings (including the pub we stayed in) to have them painted up and presented well. This was an improvement on a few years ago when Norm and I brought a load over here for one of our customers then waited for the return after the shut at the power station which was where the gear we transported was being used. The town was looking pretty tired at that time. On that weekend we actually put our spare time in by exploring more of the local area which was good.

Talking on improvements in appearance yesterday’s entrance from the north of the town was spectacular compared to 72. At that time the approach was truly ugly! There was a jumble of shacks and derelict yards and buildings and the sudden appearance of power lines and mammoth TV ariels was an assault on the senses after the remoteness and peace of the interior. Obviously been a concentrated clean-up effort and a credit to them. Now we just progressed from grassy plains beside a tidy north marching power line and just entered the town in a tidy suburb. Very nice.



A sorry sight my bike in bits at the Mobil as the black clouds approach. (That's weather type clouds I'm referring to).

Well the bike drama continued to unfold. After starting albeit using Norm's spark plugs, after fuelling up it refused to do so again. Turning over well but absolutely no spark. Norm checked all the fuses and connections and tried with and without choke. Continued to turn over but WILL NOT fire up.
Got back onto the bike shop who sent a tech up but he just confirmed what we already know, it' not going anywhere soon. At this point we would be concerned if it did go because while we don't know why it won't go, if it decided to it could just as easily let us down at a later place and time. So we waited for what seemed like forever for the bike shop people to get back with a trailer to pick it up. Told them we were RACV Total Care which arrange for collection but were told there is no-one here who does that. Norm also called the Yamaha Shop in Darwin where we had them serviced to see if they had any suggestions. To quote them 'it could be anything but just make sure they check all the connections and the coil. They're usually just so reliable and fire straight up' which has also been our experience until now.

When the trailer arrived Norm having a functioning bike was the accompanying family member to go and hear the status and prognosis of the patient while I got us settled back into the same room at the pub we had last night. So now I have an anxious wait hoping Norm can arrange whatever specialist assistance my little girl needs to return to perfect health.



The patient (my bike) on the ambulance (trailer) heading for the hospital (bike shop).

Another unsettling element was how reluctant Norm's bike was to fire up before he left. When we transferred the fuel from the jerry can to my bike yesterday it was an awful watery colour and we wondered if we'd been sold opal / opel fuel (don't know how you spell that) at Coober Pedy. This is the only fuel allowed to be sold to the indigenous population as it doesn't have the additives which maker sniffing it dangerous. We'd had this explained to us at Curtin Springs when we asked why their pumps were all padlocked. We had apparently pulled up at the opal / opel pump and were told we wouldn't want that in our bikes. The fuel we got this morning in Port Augusta looked equally pale. Who knows if it's crook or just what they can get!

Talk to you tomorrow, hopefully with good news re the bike.