Ride A Harley Davidson to Birsdville? 47 Hours (4,316 km) via Warrego HWY
Road King 107 Milwaukee 8
Travel Gear
Swag 23 Zero King single $289, this is by far the quickest to erect and roomiest swag i could find, including free delivery from melbourne. I replaced the included 70mm matress with a 100mm self inflatable one.
Self Inflating Matress 100mm wanderer from BCF, $189 im 108kg and slept like a baby on this without making contact with the ground, and it fits perfectly into the swag.
Cardo Freecom 4+ Blueetooth helmet Audio I ordered this online and installed it into my helmet for two main reasons: receive phone calls and to listen to music. I chose cardo over Sena because of their water proof rating.
Lets Go !!!!!
I left the Gold Coast on Tuesday 22 September 2020 and headed 550km west to Roma. This route is usually mind numbingly boring however this time i was briefly excited to discover the new Toowoomba Told Road Bypass, which in itself cuts about 45 minutes off the journey.
I opted to overnight at the Big Rig caravan park and forked out $25 for a bit of grass to erect my swag, but the hot clean showers and swimming pool made it value for money.
Next day i asked a local man about road conditions out West going to Winton and he seemed surprised a guy on a harley would be able to ride that far, so i explained my rig was like an armchair on wheels.. its worth noting some of the one horse town names like Mungalala and Muckadilla on the way to Longreach.
The next overnight stop was planned 700km away at Longreach, the home of the Qantas Museum. Here i stayed at the Longreach caravan park $14 for an unpowered site, excellent facilities.
The ride from Roma to Longreach was about as exciting as watching paint dry seriously, but i had music in my helmet and i just got in the zone to ride all day, stopping briefly for fuel and burgers.
Stopped briefly at Blackall to see the Black Stump and have a cold beer at the Barcoo Pub.
The next stop was Winton another 180km North West from Longreach. Its worth noting many of these outback towns have limited chemists and electrical gadget stores so make sure you bring simple neccessities like lip balm, electrolite powders, USB power bank and spare charging leads.
After Winton you leave civilisation behind, there is literally nothing for the next 380km to Boulia, however its all sealed bitumen road. There is a pub at Middleton 170km going west,where you can buy fuel from Leicester the publican who keeps unleadded and diesel in 44 gallon drums out the back of the pub in his shed. Its all guesswork as to what voulme you transfer into your vehicle, but he does give you the fuel in 20 Litre jerry can for easier measuring. Its about $2 a litre. I also had a few beers there and listened to his stories about his life there and the challanges. There are rooms there at the pub for $50 a night or you can camp across the road in the Hilton Hotel for free.
The Publican is Leicester and hes been running the pub with his wife for the last 15 years he told me.
My motorcycle is a 2017 Road King 107, and its fuel range varies between 300 and 400km depending on headwinds or load im carying so i phoned ahead to make sure there was fuel available, as he only gets deliveries once a month. Ph number is 07 4657 3980
From Middleton to Boulia 193km is even more desolate, where the main excitment is seeing another car on the road. There are clean toilets regularly along this stretch of road with some interesting rock formations likened to the ones in Utah USA, well the same colour anyway lol. Then there is also the legend of the Min Min lights luring weary travellers further into the desert with a fake city glow that you never arrive at. There was some serious road kill lying around everywhere mainly kangaroos but i did see a dead cow that must have been hit by a semi trailer.
In Boulia i stayed in the Caravan Park on the eastern side of the bridge as you enter town on the lefy hand side. Address: Diamantina Developmental Road, Boulia QLD 4829.
Phone: (07) 4746 3320 an unpowered site is $10 per person with clean amenities and plenty of hot water. There are also camels in the adjacent paddock.
At the time of writing a fire had destroyed Bedourie Roadhouse so unleaded fuel was only available via a pneumatically pumped 1000L fuel bladder, but i called them from Boulia to make sure there was some fuel for me otherwise i would have to purchase a jerry can to carry extra fuel to make it all the way to Birdsville.
The terrain heading towards Bedourie is likened to the surface of mars, wirth a spanse of red dirt and gibber plains as far as the eye can see, there were some humerous exhibits along the way like a concrete outdoor setting, a tree of shoes and a trash and treasure in the middle of nowhere.
From Bedourie to Birdsville is another 190km south which is broken up to include 4 stretches of dirt roads each about 15km long. The surface on these dirt road varies as does your speed, dropping down to walking speed as you can clearly see in the video.
These last 190km took about 4 hours because i rode to suit the road conditions, i could not afford a blown tyre or snap a drive belt. There is zero mobile phone signal and i saw one car every hour, so a breakdown would be the end of my journey with an expensive return to home requirement. As i finally rode into Birdsville i got off my motorcycle and kissed the ground, being eternally grateful to arrive at my bucketlist destination without any dramas or maintenance needs.
As i arrived in Birsdville i went straight to the petrol station and was surprised fuel was only $1.75 a litre, and while i was there 12 girls arrived on dirt bikes who were on a mission to cross the Simpson desert. They made some comments on what the hell a harley was doing in Birdsville, with their knobby tyres and massive fuel tanks plus 4 support vehicles.
After this brief social bonding exercise i went directly to book a room at the iconic Birdsville hotel, and was greeted by exceptionally helpful staff members. I paid my $150 for the one nights acommodation and immediately unloaded my motorcycle of all the shit i had been carrying for the last 4 days. As i eagerly opened the door in anticipation, i was pleasantly surprised at how modern and big the room was with one queen bed and one single bed with coffee making stuff and a bar fridge.
After showering and putting on clean clothes, it was BEER OCLOCK. Beers are typically $10 a schooner and alcoholic cider $11.50. The pub was interesting with memorabilia on the walls and 100 acubra hats on the ceiling, playing aussie music on the inhouse stereo.
The menu is basic with all your favourites like fish n chips, steaks and bangers and mash all about $25 for a generaous portion.
theres not much else in Birdsville other than the bakery which closed its doors in 2019.
Overall it was a great experience and well worth my time and efforts to travel 2250km to get there, total cost to get there was about $1000 return all inclusive.
The next morning i packed up my room, swallowed 2 panadol, drank 2 litres of water, and was eager to get the dirt road portion done as soon as humanly possible. The return journey was just as bland and boring as the day before, so i broke up the time creating these videos and taking lots of pictures.
The ride home was equally as long and tiresome with long periods of time seeing nothing, this time i overnighted in Barcaldine at the Shakesphere Hotel for $50, the rooms was ok with communal showers .
Next day i started to ride towards Roma but decided to just keep going all the way home a massive 1150km stopping only for fuel and mcdonalds in Roma. The whole experience was totally awesome without any regrets, i did not make any silly decisions or waste money on stuff other than beer lol..