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Cape to Cape...sounds a bit South African, but the reality is, it is in Australia....
In April 2003 the Western Australian section of the Velocette Owners Club of Australia ran a rally that took in some of the Capes on the southern most corner of the State.... Cape Leuwin for example....
Now I attended the rally which meant a round trip of 10,500km from Sydney...
The trip there and return took 9 days.....
The rally ran for a week.
Towing a trailer with two Velos and three hardy souls in my 1977 300D Mercedes...
Interesting that...speaking to an acquaintance before I left he remarked.. "have you got a house brick to take with you..?"...I looked somewhat puzzled and he continued...
"No cruise control on those early Mercs and with the straight long roads you'll need something on the accelerator pedal to give you some relief..."
He was right....
Although Jim Day and I had done the trip on Velocettes in January 1969...the road now completely sealed, but then over 800 miles of variable dirt road..
Jim Day, myself and Californian Gil Loe, over for what he felt was the trip of a lifetime...cross country over OZ to a Velocette Rally...made up the crew.
I decided we'd make a convoy of Velo people coming from the Eastern States, meeting at Port Augusta in South Australia for the 2000 plus trip across the Nullabor Plain...at least we'd have like minded company in the evenings when we stopped for the night.
Risky business travelling at night in a car or motorcycle due to the kangaroos on the road...they hop into your headlight and it is nigh impossible to avoid hitting them.
The big road train trucks...two and three trailer units just thunder along at 120kph plus with huge bull bars on the front, knocking any wildlife out of the road..
The carnage of the night is strewn across the road as we travelled daily...fresh food for the carrion birds, crows and wedge tailed eagles...
Lets have a look at where we went...
It took up several days to get to Port Augusta with me blowing two trailer tyres despite them being new ones...they appeared suspect in age according to the tyre dealer after I replaced the second one...
We met up with several of the Victorian group on the way to the rendevous point...Gary Gibson pumps fuel then we follow him for a while.
Gil Loe surveys the sign at the start of the Eyre highway, called by many the Nullabor Plain, but the reality is the road only clips the bottom of the Nullabor some distance further on...
Even our avid US tourist succumbed to the monotony with some shut eye... At least Jim in the back was comfortable....
Around Nullabor homestead fuel stop you are within a km or so of the coast and the spectacular cliffs along which the Southern Ocean washes...nothing between us and Antarctica...
I mentioned the dirt road when we travelled across in January 1969...they had to grade it. The grader usually towed a caravan so when the grader stopped for the night the driver had his accommodation.
Earlier graders were horse drawn and there was one on display. Peter Wolfenden poses for the camera...
At Eucla, on the South Australian/West Australian border, Gil decided he'd like to say he rode a Velo on the Nullabor, so we unloaded a Venom...
DQ and Jim in the sand dunes below Eucla in the remains of the old telegraph station, slowly consumed by the sand.
Gil rode it for some 160km before he felt he'd had "the experience"...Jim jumped on and rode it another 600km to Coolgardie...
Jim stopped at some road works...in the "middle of nowhere"...
the Nullabor plain is a treeless plain.
This is a pretty crappy photo, taken on our Velo trip in January 1969 after rain on a clay road,can't locate the colour one in the "mess" I call my office, but it illustrates how difficult that trip was...
There is a straight section of road on the Nullabor that is 90 miles long, no turns....
Yes they even have police cars out here...thousands of km from anywhere.....
Finally we arrived into Perth and the Indian Ocean...
The story goes that as the sun sets into the ocean, at the instant it disappears under the horizon you see a green flash of light....
Look with us...
Did you see it?
Just as I thought, we didn't either.....
Urban myth?
A few more selected pics during the rally...
Cape Leuwin light house...one of the most southerly points on the West Australian mainland...here the Indian and Southern oceans meet at the most south westerly point- David Royston's Viper illustrates the point....
Mick Felder, also from California during a break in the Margaret river area...
Ken Vincent suffered a puncture on his Adler...
One of the tours took in underground limestone caves...
H'mmm..the later group look like they're waiting for the local bus....
Plenty of curious wildlife...Californian Larry Luce feeds a lorrikeet.
1929 USS Velocette....
After it was all over, the Californians flew home and Jim and I faced the long drive back....
Well I didn't enter this years Australian National Velocette Owners Club rally, held at Toowoomba in Queensland, but I made the long trip up from Sydney for an overnight stay, taking in the club's AGM...well I am editor of the Club's magazine Fish Tail down Under and as I'm heavily involved in the planning of the next years 2012 Annual Rally I needed to make a presentation...something the organising group has done for some years....
As in past years the rally runs for a full week, operating as a "hub" rally where entrants leave daily for pre-arranged rides with morning tea and lunch stops and evening activities...trivia nights, a talk by Jim Day on the 24hr record Velocette... 100mph for 24hrs over 18-19 March 1961....
Where is Toowoomba..? Other than it is some 1000+ km from Sydney where I live.....
As usual there were entrants from all over Australia and a team of Velocette stalwarts from New Zealand led by the Mickelsons.....
The rally was held in the spacious grounds of a Catholic church children's camp...conveniently vacant at the time we needed it...
You don't see many Amal TT carb. equipped Velos in Oz...
This owned by former IOM TT rider Dennis Fry...the heel toe gear lever and bicycle pedal kick start indicative of racing injuries past....
A typical rally scene....
Becoming a regular "Exon Valdez"...Jim Day's oil stained Venom, which seems to defy all his efforts to keep the oil in the engine/oil tanks....
Doug Farr's early Clubman Venom....
Armchair puncture repairers......
Robert Pound starts his 1938 MSS....
Bob Milner, proprietor of the Sydney firm Classic Allparts...prepares to ride his nice 1966 Velocette Thruxton......see-
http://velobanjogent.blogspot.com/2009/07/classic-allpartsclassic-motorcycle.html
Dave Royston with and enduro Velocette...unsure if it is an endurance model as supplied by Veloce....
Bruce Phillip's mk.2 KSS and Colin Hanger's Venom with special white faced "Velocette" instruments curtesy of DQ/KTT....
On the floor of the Club's AGM...chairman Keith Canning with Jim Day...
An attentive audience....
The Kiwi contingent listens in...
Next year...2012...the Rally moves to Bundanoon in the Southern Highlands of NSW.....
See you there....
As mentioned in the previous post I appeared to have overlooked some more photos I'd received from Keith Bryen some time back.
You can view all the posts of Keith's special photo archive by typing his name into the search facility on the RHS of this blog....
These are popular and I feel important, as they allow you to travel with a privateer on the GP motorcycle circuit in an era many considered some of the most exciting in the history of motorcycle racing....
Now that's a serious statement and I won't be drawn into the argument...as a motorcycle enthusiast I enjoy reading and viewing all items from our sport....
So, left click on the following images to enlarge them and savour the times.....
IOM TT 8.06.1956, Keith readies for the start in the Senior TT...he retired during the race.
After the Senior TT in 1956, Aussie Barry Hodgkinson who came 22nd on a Norton and Canadian Gerry Robarts who finished 15th on a Norton....
23.06.1956...Thruxton 9 hour race in which Percy Tait and Keith, pictured, won the 750cc class....
30.06.1956, on the grid for the 350cc class of the Dutch TT, Keith finished 14th.
Ready for the start of the 350cc Dutch TT, 30.06.1956.
Start of the 350cc Dutch TT, 30.06.1956, Barry Hodgkinson and Fred Cook...
Keith is flagged into 14th place in the 35occ Dutch TT, 30.06.1956.
Start of the 500cc Dutch TT, .30.06.1956.
Assen for the Dutch TT, June 1956, Bob Mitchell and Eric Bliss.
A typical overnight stop during the 1956 "Continental Circus", somewhere in Belgium.
Ready for the start of the 350cc Belgium GP, 08.07.1956, Keith finished 13th.
Start of the 350cc Belgium GP,08.07.1956.
On the grid for the 500cc Belgium GP, Keith finished 10th.
In the paddock for the German GP at Solitude, 1956.
Gwen with Bill Hall, closest to camera and Barry Hodgkinson having a "cuppa"...
Awaiting the start of the 350cc German GP, Solitude circuit,22.07.1956.
On the grid for the 350 German GP at Solitude..Keith #98, with Ken Kavenagh on the works Moto Guzzi.
Start of the 350cc German GP,30.07.1956.
18.08.1956, practising at Sachsenring on the Hohenstein-Enstthal circuit...those cobblestones...aghhhh
August 1956 at Sachsenring with Bob Brown.
02.09.1956, bound for Tampere in Finland.Keith finished 7th in the 350cc race.
