Kalgoorlie–Boulder

I've been ridding the motorbike every day since I got here and planed to have an easy day before I head up to the Outback with John, Steph and Neal. The Kalgoorlie city was founded during the Yilgarn-Goldfields gold rush, and is located close to the so-called "Golden Mile". 

These are the kind of birds that will come into your backyard if you hang some seeds around.

In the morning I went to take a look at the Super Pit, which is Australia's largest open cut gold mine. The pit is oblong in shape and is approximately 3.5 kilometers long, 1.5 kilometers wide and 570 meters deep.

It's quite difficult to give you an idea of how big this hole really is, the small dots slightly in the middle of the picture are haul trucks about to be filled with ore. Take a look at how big the bucket alone is, I've placed my helmet in for a size perspective.

Relaxing and checking notes at one of the many available rest spots in WA.

 

Wrong way

fter some research I found out that apart from the Pinnacles, for all other things that I would like to see up north, this is the wrong time of the year, besides that and due to an appointment made earlier for the 18th I decided to turn around, have a swim in shark waters and then do some roads away from the beaten path, then that's more my style anyway :-)

I draw a line from Bunbury to Coolgardie and checked which roads would be the best to get there, ended up passing Collie, where I they have some old loks and discover an interesting hike track, just a bit too long for this time, the Bibbulmun track.

Found a new unknown sign and wonder what it means.

And some strange stuff.

Spend the night in Kondinin

and at 7:00am I had already a couple of kms behind me direction Hyden to see the wave.

My previous plan was to do the Holland Track but a fellow jumped out and alone is a bit risky as I have a full range of about 400k and the track length is over 390k, besides of all other dangers. The decision to drive to Norseman was an unexpected surprise.

Stopped for lunch at the Johnson lake, indescribable peaceful feeling being there.

By the way, it's been a pain in the ass to post something :-(

Unplaned trip

I had  some vacation time reserved to help friends but shortly before the planned start date they told that they would do ok without me. According to the company's roadbook, this year is going to be a nightmare in terms of work, trowing away an approved vacation time didn't seam to an acceptable alternative at this point.
My travel list of intended destinations is quite long and since the winter in Europe started to  be annoying, I had a look at the the available options and pretty soon a teenager dream was on it's best way to finally come true.

Mails got exchanged, problems as far as I could solved, details fixed, flight booked and here I am on the other side of the world. The customs took quite long, they demand a staying address, which I didn't had since I'll be ridding around but at the ende they were happy with a name and telefone number. John was already waiting outside and we spent the night with friends chatting about bikes, mods and trips, fallen a sleep to the beautiful sound of eucalyptus leaves blown by the wind.

Sunday morning packed things up by freezing temperatures and left on time for my first interesting experience. Xander had gave some directions "turn left, than right, up to the highway, ride the will down and turn right at the first traffic light" and he mentioned that it was just around the corner. I followed his instructions correctly but after over 10 kms, due to the European feeling of "around the corner" :-), thought to be on the wrong way shortly before the traffic lights.

I was still undecided about the direction to take but after getting to the coast near Burns Beach, followed the sunset road up to Cervantes.

On the way stopped at Leemann's boat landing.

A common sign every now and then along the coast

and others that make you reflect when you're on a bike not to take your eyes of the road for too long.

 Stoppt to take a picture of the Xanthorrhoea preissii which is at risk in the Midwest.

Specially if the fire continues to happen, always a depressing view, no matter where in the world.

The Pinnacles, got there a little bit late, they close at 4:30pm

Sunset near Cervantes.

To close the day I decided to taste the Aussie version of Fish & Chips.

and closed the day with a Pinnacle :-)

Not much comments about the prices around here but I thing you can do cheaper in Switzerland.

Closing the circle

While in Grotte I had the change to watch one of these fire fighting airplanes picking up water and dropping it again in appeared to be a training program, quite impressive.

I know, not the best picture of it but I didn't realise immediately what the plane was doing and by the time I got the camera out it was already too far away :)

After Grotte I Drove along the north coast until Palermo and was quite surprised about the condition of some road stretches with good flat tarmac, didn't expect to find something like this in this island. 
Later on at dinner I ordered a big bottle of water which had an interesting size.

It's just amazing how far marketing and sales departments go to fool consumers and try to hide price raises.
In Palermo and after spending some time trying to find the office from Grimaldi to do the check-in I went for dinner in the Osteria Lo Blanco which I absolutely recommend regardless of some negative comments on the Trip***sor site, from the Palermo port you walk up the Via Emerico Amari up 200 meters and you will find it on the left side, be aware that you'll have to wait for a free table if don't reserve or are there when then open.

The last two days were quite unpleasant with stormy winds from the north and I was wondering how that would feel inside this huge ferry and if I would be able to arrive in Livorno without getting seasick, well I did but the crew seamed to have expected that some of us do there where plastic bags hanging all over the ship.

On my way back home I opted for a different route crossing Switzerland over the San Bernardino, it was quite difficult to find an empty spot to park the bike on reserved parking space, wonder why? :-)

Based on my latest experience in Sicily generally and specialy in and around Catania, I made a couple of diagrams that show how the majority of the Sicilians understand traffic lights and signs that can help you survive a visit to the island accident free.

Be aware that it can be very dangerous if you respect the speed limits and if you're willing to keep always a good look your mirrors, I didn't on one place, a connection (single) lane on a highway crossing with rails on both sides, while driving in the middle well guess what, a car coming from behind saw those 2 millimeters one of each side of his car between me and the left rail and overtook me on the left, I didn't even notice that there was someone behind me when I entered that lane, what an idiot.

The North East

I've been struggling the last days to get my tank filled up, the most gas stations are unattended and the only choice I had was to use bank notes which don't give you change. The stations that still have someone available to fill up for you, charge around 20 cents extra per liter. After three days I finally found  someone kind enough to inform the cashier that you'd like to fill up by myself and got the pump unlocked.

Drove the coast up past Messina, this side is worth seeing and I do think that this is the best time to do it, all day with temperatures above 20 degrees and a nice view of the Etna and I look at all the closed hotels and emtpy holiday apartments I don't think it is that fun to drive around in Summer, even now it took a lot of time to cross some villages. All the restaurants I drove by were closed, ended up stopping in a bar where I saw "foccacia" writen outside and that's what I had for lunch. 

I had already eaten foccacia before but it was the first time that someone asked me if I wanted half a kilo, a kilo or one and a half kilos of it.

Exploring the East side

Every evening I look at the weather forecast and adjust my travel plans accordingly, Catania seamed pretty good for the next couple of days so there I went. The East has a much pleasant scenery but the infrastructure is equally falling apart a the traffic in Catania is by far the most chaotic and dangerous that I've ever seen or driven in my all life.
This morning I visited the Isola di Ortigia in Siracusa, beautiful place, a must if you're near, too bad that it's not being take care of.

Later I went to take a look at Noto, also a place to visit when you're in Sicily