Adrenaline pumps as I spin around and rush back to her. Lisa’s pinned under the front left fuel tank. In a split second, she’s thrown forward as her 650 GS high sides before smacking the ground hard and flipping. In my mirror, I can see Lisa’s bike is sideways, her rear wheel sliding out violently. Clearing the trees, I plough into a deep wash of dust and rocks and instantly shift my weight to compensate. Stood on the pegs, I squeeze the throttle and my rear wheel drifts out before I straighten for the next long left.įor two hours we ride glass gravel, which looks like millions of shiny ball-bearings, and the air becomes pungent as we speed through a grove of silver-barked eucalyptus trees. With our tyre pressures lowered, we pick up speed. West of town, the tar ends abruptly with a thump as we drop down to the loose gravel track. The Majestic Uluru Shade was hard to come by Lisa rides the Rainbow Valley The Outback Has Teeth “I think we’ve just met Crocodile Dundee’s dad,” Lisa comments to me with a smile. Ya’ll be right,” Jim adds with a dry chuckle. “We’re riding down to Perth across the outback,” Lisa answers. You’re ready for an adventure, eh?” asks the inquisitive truckie pointing to the motorcycles. Jim, a long-distance trucker sporting a thick dusty beard, ancient jeans, and a faded orange safety shirt, is hanging around in the heat outside. Handing over our cash, we quickly fill our water sacks. Inside, the beaten ‘50’s Coca-Cola fridge is overflowing with chilled bottled water. The quaint, wooden-decked provisions store looks like it hasn’t changed in decades. In the small town of Clermont, we cruise the short main street and stop to refill our water packs. After heading west for five hours, we meet the Gregory Development Road and turn south, grateful for the interruption. Fields of sun-bleached brush grass stretch out under a cloudless sky.
We’re looking at a straight piece of tar that stretches out of sight. “We’re going to have to be very careful of this particular hazard,” I yell to Lisa.
The large male at the rear throws us a suspicious stare before disappearing into the tall grass on the other side. Six large kangaroos leap in unison across the Peak Downs Highway. We’re headed into the outback.Īs we ride away from Mackay, Lisa’s BMW F 650 GS belts out a hefty blat, blat, blat as she eases off the gas, applies the brakes, and pulls to a stop. We’re here to motorcycle the real Australia, the primeval interior where walkabout legends take root in the blood-red earth, and the land whispers to those who listen. Our journey will see us ride more than 3,000 miles, taking in vast, uninhabited desert and extremely challenging terrain, as we traverse this mammoth country from coast to coast diagonally. It’s known as the world’s longest shortcut because it takes you on a direct route across the heart of the country, rather than following the main roads closer to the coast.
Ahead is a long and unforgiving route called The Outback Way. A warm dry breeze lulls our senses, but it does little to distract me from the knot of anxious excitement growing in my stomach. At $250 (£137) per person, the excursion is beyond our budget. Nearby, the Coral Sea pounds the beach as a stream of boats head out to the Great Barrier Reef. At a petrol station in the small town of Mackay, Lisa tops off the fuel tanks while I check the bikes over. We’re perched on the north-east coast of the world’s sixth-largest nation and biggest island, Australia. Just enough to shake me up a little,” I continued naively. “I need some dirt, sand, raw beauty, and a little danger. I want to do a big ride,” I commented to Lisa. SIMON AND LISA THOMAS travel through the heart of Australia along the unforgiving Outback Way on one of the toughest yet enthralling rides of their lives
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