The blog for Arse About Face has moved!
You can find the continuing adventures of Gosling One and myself by visiting www.arseaboutface.com or http://blog.arseaboutface.com.
I'll not be updating this blogspot site any more as I have enough trouble remembering to update the one, let along multiple blogs.
Onwards!
13 July 2014
20 December 2012
Jingle jangle jungle...
Ah the festive season is upon us once again and what better way of lessening the pain of receiving yet another unfeasibly jolly jumper and pair of reindeer themed socks, than reading an article penned by yours truly about crashing a motorcycle through a very remote and tropical region of Australia?
Adventure Bike Rider issue 14 should be as stuffed as a Christmas turkey with literary delights just waiting to warm your cockles and bring a sparkle to your Xmas sale jaded eyes. More exciting than a visit from Santa himself, more fun than a royal baby and guaranteed to have no batteries included.
Lurking within the pages like the inevitable orange at the foot of many a Christmas stocking, should be the story of my attempts to reach the most remote northern tip of Australia - Cape York. As is fairly standard, nothing comes easily for Gosling One and myself so it's filled with tales of excitement, adventure, 'daring do' and quite nearly some actual 'do'.
More entertaining than a sack of coal and less irritating than a Cliff Richard Christmas song, what's not to like?
Should be released onto the unsuspecting public very soon. Adventure stories from the tropics...take that winter!
08 November 2012
Just wandering about...
When you arrive at a place that sums up what you try and spend most of your time doing it's only natural to take a photo really, and then just keep on rolling by.
I spent a weekend wandering around the highways, byways and mostly no-ways of the south-western bits of Western Australia the other week and experienced something quite novel, at least for me.
A flat tyre! Gosling One's first ever flat tyre. In the entire 44,347km travelled of the original Arse About Face expedition I managed to avoid, mainly thanks to dumb luck I would imagine, any flat tyres at all so I was probably due one. In fact I'm probably due more than one to be honest, but don't spread that around lest the idea catches on.
The valve on the inner tube decided it'd had enough of being stuck inside the rear wheel and made a bid for freedom, persuading all the air to escape along with it the silver-tongued, erm, valve.
My natural tendency to plan for when I meet the many screw-ups that tend to lurk in Australia waiting for me, meant that I had along a spare tube. So with a fallen tree serving as the centre-stand Gosling One doesn't possess, I managed to switch out the ruined tube in a surprisingly efficient manner and with a minimum of swearing or fatal injuries.
As always the flies were enthusiastically persistent in their attempts to lend a hand, wing or whatever, in my wheel changing exercise. Thousands of the airborne menaces made my first ever tyre change a more irritating experience than it probably could have been, but they certainly helped lend a sense of urgency to proceedings.
End point of the riding was Nalyerin Lake in Western Australia:
I was thinking about camping in the middle of it, but (and here's a tip for fellow travellers out there), just because it looks pretty dry on a satellite photo doesn't mean it actually is. Still, plenty of room elsewhere in Australia to throw up a tent.
I spent a weekend wandering around the highways, byways and mostly no-ways of the south-western bits of Western Australia the other week and experienced something quite novel, at least for me.
A flat tyre! Gosling One's first ever flat tyre. In the entire 44,347km travelled of the original Arse About Face expedition I managed to avoid, mainly thanks to dumb luck I would imagine, any flat tyres at all so I was probably due one. In fact I'm probably due more than one to be honest, but don't spread that around lest the idea catches on.
The valve on the inner tube decided it'd had enough of being stuck inside the rear wheel and made a bid for freedom, persuading all the air to escape along with it the silver-tongued, erm, valve.
My natural tendency to plan for when I meet the many screw-ups that tend to lurk in Australia waiting for me, meant that I had along a spare tube. So with a fallen tree serving as the centre-stand Gosling One doesn't possess, I managed to switch out the ruined tube in a surprisingly efficient manner and with a minimum of swearing or fatal injuries.
As always the flies were enthusiastically persistent in their attempts to lend a hand, wing or whatever, in my wheel changing exercise. Thousands of the airborne menaces made my first ever tyre change a more irritating experience than it probably could have been, but they certainly helped lend a sense of urgency to proceedings.
End point of the riding was Nalyerin Lake in Western Australia:
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| Click this for a bigger version [fair warning, it's pretty big] |
11 September 2012
If you build it, it will break...
So Gosling One is sporting her rather fetching new spotlights for this upcoming season in motorcycle fashion, as mentioned in a previous post. I've also added a waterproof GPS thing [waterproof as she tends to be under water quite a lot, not because it ever rains in Australia] to enable me to reliably say "I know exactly where I should be, but I'm not there".
The most important must-have accessory for the socialite motorcycle about town this season however, is the often of neglected shovel.
Not only does it add an 'adventurous' flavour to an otherwise drab wardrobe, but it will also enable me to dig us out of whatever hole I managed to ride into. It's happened before, I'm sure it will happen again. Also of course, because I'm British dammit, it serves as a very handy tea-cup holder. Hooray for multi-purpose! Also tea.
I spent the weekend just recently seeing if I could rattle off any of the things I'd added to Gosling One by exploring a bit of the South West of Australia. Nice place, pretty big, lots of kangaroos and everything stayed attached surprisingly. That's a testament to a metric-crap load of duct-tape for you.
Some photos from the short trip down south:
Attempts to coerce a book agent into looking at the manuscript for Arse About Face have continue with renewed vigour, so with any luck there might be some news on that front soon!
The most important must-have accessory for the socialite motorcycle about town this season however, is the often of neglected shovel.
Not only does it add an 'adventurous' flavour to an otherwise drab wardrobe, but it will also enable me to dig us out of whatever hole I managed to ride into. It's happened before, I'm sure it will happen again. Also of course, because I'm British dammit, it serves as a very handy tea-cup holder. Hooray for multi-purpose! Also tea.
I spent the weekend just recently seeing if I could rattle off any of the things I'd added to Gosling One by exploring a bit of the South West of Australia. Nice place, pretty big, lots of kangaroos and everything stayed attached surprisingly. That's a testament to a metric-crap load of duct-tape for you.
Some photos from the short trip down south:
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| 2 wheels good, 4 wheels erm...no wheels then |
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| Everything looks artistic in black and white. Wonder if that applies to zebras.... |
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| Someone in the highways department has a sense of humour |
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| Not a bad spot for a bit of camping... |
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| ...so I did. |
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