Well I’m here.
A long but not ridiculous day of riding. Any time I stopped, the sweat taps turn on. Ain’t pretty, but there’s no point telling this story and leaving out the gory bits. Actually I suspect the sweat taps are on while I’m riding, but ‘tis all blown away at 120km/h.
After checking with a local (thanks Joe!) I selected a sensible camping spot, but “Discovery Parks Darwin” weren’t answering the phone at 5pm on a Saturday. Not sure what “open 24 hours a day” means? With no better plan at hand, I rocked up anyway and arrived around 6, expecting someone could help me with a camp booking. There was simply a sign that said “book online”. Oh well, I can do that – with both Telstra, Vodafone, an iPhone and an iPad at the ready I reckon I can manage a web booking.
So online I go on my phone – which was on the handlebar, unlike the iPad which was locked away in the panniers. It was an annoying experience but I got through it. They offered a 10% discount if I signed up for their club, and doing maths badly I decided the extra was worth it. (It wasn’t.) I don’t know how long I’ll be here but I booked 5 days of exorbitantly expensive powered tent site since it said no unpowered were available. A web page said “congrats you’re booked”, but… “from Sunday”. Bah! I need it NOW! (That’s Saturday, for anyone reading this after the fact.) oh well. I can just do another booking, and take more care this time. So I then booked just one night. And it came through as Sunday night. WHAT?! I checked one last time and did the booking the same way (without submitting) a third time, and that gave me confidence that I was selecting Saturday all three times. Bah.
One of the joys of a motorbike is that it can get through some tight places… including many pedestrian entires. So, having booked and paid twice I just rolled on in. In the end I’ve found a random unpowered site and set up. I figure if someone comes along to move me, at least that will be a person with whom I can have a discussion about booking twice.
I guess I’ll have a problem on my hands in the morning, but we’ll see how customer focussed Discovery Parks is! What I’d really like them to do is undo both bookings, and redo a booking for one of the many unpowered sites that appear to be vacant. I’ll let you know. (And if you happen to know anyone in the Discovery Parks team, maybe could you put in a word for me?? 😏)
Over and out… I’m going to take a break until tomorrow night. Then I promise to have a go at some photos and videos too. Until then…
OH. No. A PS. I should say I dropped the bike today. No secrets. This is kinda embarrassing, but I dropped it at exactly zero km/h. It just. Fell. Over. And it is oh so heavy, with full panniers and tired legs! It seems that’s what you get for a long, long day of riding.
And that only brings to mind something I should have admitted to on Day One. I forgot (or at least that’s my excuse, and I’m sticking to it.) It was late when I pulled into the National Park north of Adelaide, and the narrow, windy country road was getting dark. Couldn’t find the site, and decided I’d gone too far and went to turn around on that (did I mention – narrow, windy) road. Again, that beautiful bike just plain fell over. All in slow motion. But once it’s over a certain angle, it just won’t stop. Bah. Did I mention – it is REALLY HEAVY to pick up. But adrenalin is a wonderful thing and up it went. Neither time any damage, except the smallest scratches which I’ll call character. I guess that’s one of the upsides of an adventure bike – built to surviving a lot tougher than I’ve thrown at it yet.
Anyway… downing tools again. Will report in tomorrow after sunset.
1 Comment
Ha! Every biker with years of experience will admit, in a moment of honesty, that they’ve dropped their bike while standing still. Then quickly move on to their most spectacular crash with all the drama they can muster (and a little exaggeration)! My record is dropping my BMW 8 times on the same day, but you don’t need to break that record – unless you find a mud track…
Enjoy!