Days 119-121 Lake Wallace - Gunning - Canberra

We woke up to a beautiful morning at Lake Wallace kamp ground. It was reasonably warm but not hot. Most of our gear was dried already and the morning felt quite good. We had some pancakes for breakfast and of we went again.

Our goal for the day was to visit Abercrombie Caves about a hundred kilometers southwest of Lake Wallace. Using the almost straightest route it was something about 140 km to get there. Partly on gravel roads. But it was nice. The roads were in good condition as they mostly seem to be here in Australia.

Abercrombie Caves is said to be one of the biggest caves in southern hemisphere. And it really was huge. On the bottom there is a little river that can turn into a massive stream extremely quickly at springtime. The water level is known to rise 2 meters in half an hour.

After this nice (and hot) walk it was time to start heading towards the next night's camping ground. This time we chose Gunning Show Ground. Several villages and towns let people camp at the side of sports grounds. Campers can use toilets and often there is even shower available. Of course they hope campers use the shops and services of the town. At least we did. We bought food and fuel in Gunning.

The most amazing event of luck happened in the morning. I was having breakfast when when a nice lady stopped by with a bicycle and started chatting with me. Eventually she called us to have coffee or tea at her home as her husband must meet us. After packing our gear we rode to their house as we promised.

Turned out Pete and Andy were bikers who make 3 month trips in different parts of the world with their BMW. They are heading to Europe in March.

We told about our plan to go to Canberra to visit the embassy of Laos and the War Memorial. Pete said he could come with us and invited us to stay for the night at their living room floor.

We drove to Canberra and I could have never imagined how big this War Memorial is. There were several airplanes in the building. Dioramas, maps, paintings, photos, tanks, torpedoes, guns, uniforms, whatever you can imagine about war and Australians taking part into battle. I'm so happy we had Pete with us to tell about the places and events. As an old soldier he obviously had some interest in war history but he also had a great way of telling things.

I didn't take any photos in the War Memorial. It didn't feel right. The museum shows the cruelty of man and it doesn't deserve to be photographed.

After a good night sleep it was time to do some maintenance for the bike. I changed the engine oil in Pete's garage. It was so easy on a lifter. At around mid day we had to say goodbye to our great hosts and get going to pick up Mirco's passport from the embassy.

When riding in Canberra all of a sudden oil started to leak out from Mirco's bike's front fork. Not any small tearing but really leaking all out. The seal had given up. Riding around Canberra in that heat to find parts wasn't too easy. But eventually we had new set of seals and fork oil and we got to Terry and Janelle's place.

As Terry is a qualified motorcycle mechanic it wasn't hard to find the reason for the leak. The support ring that's supposed to keep the seal on it's place was made of normal wire and couldn't hold the seal anymore. No wonder all the oil came out. But the problem was that the parts we got didn't fit. At all... and actually the old seals were okay. Just the support ring needed to be replaced. Of course they are not available. Terry was certain we can fix it, but that'll wait until morning.