Team Black Dog Update #3Real Men Ride Posties

Day 11 Starts with a sneaky breakfast ride along stunning Cable Beach, before Team Black Dog begin their 250km journey to the start of the Gibb River Road. Barry’s bike, aka Priscilla Queen of the Desert, is all fixed and ready to join the team again.

Day one on the Gibb, and 50 metres into the ride tyre pressure was dropped on the posties for the punishment that lay ahead. At times the Gibb is heavily corrugated, and others it’s just plain rock. The Gibb River Road regularly gets graded, but it never lasts long.

The best stunt driving award for the trip goes to Wazza, with a spectacular back tyre blowout at 80km/h!

Team Black Dog (TBD) ended day one on the Gibb in beautiful Windjana Gorge, an awesome spot with loads of freshwater crocodiles, and the best camp oven Ryan has ever cooked!
Day two on the Gibb TBD continued to Manning Gorge, one of the most gorgeous swimming spots in the Kimberley. Once again Barry’s Priscilla got all emotional about the road conditions and blew two front fork seals, at least he had one day with suspension!

Day three on the Gibb brought great happiness to Team Black Dog! Ellenbrae Station provided them with hot showers, toilets, mango smoothies and scones! As well as an old station junk yard with some useful nuts and bolts AND a FULL Honda CT110 engine that they salvaged and put on the roof of the cruiser… Just in case!

Day four on the Gibb began with the boys rescuing two separate groups of backpackers! One with a broken exhaust and no tools, and the other with two flat tyres and no spares! Nothing an angle grinder couldn’t fix, along with TBD gifting one of their spare tyres to the backpackers... The boys were pleased to find out later that their efforts had gotten the tourists back to civilization safely!

Ending the day at Home Valley Station, Team Black Dog enjoyed a little luxury in this outback oasis with a pool, bar and a grassy campground! They also celebrated Barry’s birthday in style, with a chopper ride over the Pentacost River and Cockburn Ranges… leaving a little reminder that ‘real men ride posties’.

Day five on the Gibb, and the boys say a happy farewell to the dirt road! Consisting of hot springs, gorges and water crossings the day ends at El Questro Station.

Day six delivers the official end of the Gibb River Road at Lake Argyle, stopping into the spectacular Emma Gorge on the way.

The next day, the boys say goodbye to Western Australia crossing the border into the Northern Territory and heading to Victoria River for the night.

On Team Black Dogs’ second last day, they hit the road headed for Pine Creek, approximately 200km south of Darwin… really on the home stretch now! Priscilla (Barry’s bike), once again decided to self-destruct causing damage to the piston, rings and valves!! The final evening saw a HUGE effort by Baz and Ryan to rebuild Priscilla’s engine with the parts recovered from the junk yard at Ellenbrae Station a few days before.

Defying all odds, ALL FIVE postie bikes were operational for the home stretch to Darwin! The boys stopped at Adelaide River, tagging the pub fridge with their Real Men Ride Posties sticker, and getting the token Buffalo photo before painting a tree blue in memory of their mate Marty (The Blue Tree Project also raising awareness for Mental Health).

On Sunday 15 September Team Black Dog arrived into Darwin on five functioning postie bikes, with all five riders mostly in good shape. Another successful trip raising money, and awareness, for mental health!

Team Black Dog – Real Men Ride Posties would like to thank all those who have donated and supported them in their journey from Perth to Darwin.

It’s not too late to donate to this awesome cause, click below to donate on Team Black Dog’s page.

They are so close to their goal of $20k for the Black Dog Institute!