The Exmouth Ulysses Rally was a great success with 75 attendees on a mixture of rides from a Suzuki Burgman through various sports, touring and off-road(!) machines to a Gold Wing – People came from as far afield as the south-west of WA and one chap even from Queensland (on a Suzuki V-Strom).
The Venue was the Cape Caravan Park which is nicely located in the centre of town. All the entertaining (including BBQ dinners and breakfasts) was under a covered BBQ area, with plenty of tables and chairs. The undercover part was a good move for it poured with rain from Saturday night through most of Sunday and into Monday morning. At the big dinner on the Saturday night the organiser gave a vote of thanks (accompanied by much cheering) to “John Kennedy who would be organising the Ulysses Broome Rally in June 2012” – this was news to me, for I thought I’d simply been asked to have a look around the local caravan parks to see if anything was suitable!
The weather meant that the two rides organised for Sunday were abandoned – my son and I went for a short ride along the coast via Vlamingh Head Lighthouse.
The organisers had arranged discounts on various things including fuel at the local servo (which was open all weekend) and meals & drinks at The Pot Shot Hotel.
My ride south was uneventful being 600km to Port Hedland, where I meant a group of the local Ulysians (two of whom accompanied me onwards), followed by 800km to Exmouth. However, the 9 hour ride from Exmouth to Port Hedland was an “adenture run”: about 85% in rain, some quite heavy, with bits of road washed out, floodways with water flowing across them, plus an unusually large number of stupid sheep, cattle and a couple of roo’s to contend with! Of course the highlight was following a road train (doing about 100k) in a cloud of spray I couldn’t see through and then he flicked his right indicator, I assumed, to say okay to overtake – I dropped couple of cogs wound it up and set off into the spray only to sight (fortunately in time) a floodway with much water AND mud flowing in it - I don’t think I’ve ever braked as hard on my bike before! Anyhow arrived none the worse for wear (but wet and bedraggled) in Port Hedland in the late afternoon. It was quite pleasant riding back into the Broome sunshine today J Just a couple of photos at: https://picasaweb.google.com/Kennedy36/2011_0605UlyssesExmouthRally#
2012 a Ulysses Broome Rally maybe?