We’d all agreed to meet at 7am for an 8am departure, and had decided to ride with Daryl & Dave for the day. Considering our tardy start to the previous day, we were all packed and ready to go by 7:30am. That’s when our buddy Dazza dropped a bombshell that he would not be continuing his Black Dog Ride for a number of reasons. We wished him well on his return journey and promised to keep in touch to see how we has.
The rest of the Brady Bunch left at 8:30am for a casual ride up to Pimba. It was some time out of Port Augusta that an iphone decided to test it’s ability to escape the tank bag at 120km/h. It succeeded at escaping, but did not survive the impact or slide along the road. I went back to retrieve it in the faint hope that there’s some way to retrieve the data. We heard that one of the WA crowd had a camera ‘in his lap’ that decided to hit the road, only to be run over by the support vehicle!
After a fuel and pit stop at Pimba, we headed towards Woomera to look around. I got an eerie vibe last year, and got another eerie vibe this year. So much so, I did a short video about it here:
Glendambo was the next stop – there’s not much to do except fuel up both you and the bike. There’s not much shade around and it is quite warm – the bike showing 29c. You often need to stretch out here more than usual as the next fuel stop is quite a lot further away (254km with no fuel stops) – many people break up this journey and use the rest stops provided to recharge/refresh for the next leg.
One of the last rest stops (known as Ingovar), I saw an odd sight, of a cat on a leash. In case you don’t believe me, have a look at the pic! The sun was setting to our left as we rolled into Coober Pedy, which made for great, long shadows in pictures. As you can see in the slideshow, the area around Ingovar is quite flat, and stunningly beautiful.
Once in Coober Pedy, we settled into the Radeka Downunder Hotel before heading off for official duties at the Opal Inn, with dinner again put on by the local Lions Club. Ken Williams was able to have the proceeds of the evening’s drink sales donated to the Black Dog Institute as part of the Black Dog Ride. Everywhere we went, people wanted to help, from generous donations such as what Ken arranged, to $5 donations from locals in towns.
The Lucky Dog award went to Jim Williams who rolled into Coober Pedy at 10:3pm after having to replace his tyre in Pimba – it shredded itself just before he got into Spuds roadhouse! After waiting 4 hours for a tyre to arrive from Port Augusta, he was on his way again.