FEATURE
DARYL BEATTIE'S AUSSIE OUTBACK TOUR
P88
(Australia's largest sand dune); Grant is the man
charged with the meals and does so by staying
up until 4:00am most nights, creating lunches
for the following day and catching a solid two
hours of sleep in the back of the dune-crushing
Unimog (he's worth his weight in gold but he
doesn't weigh much, so I'm not sure what you'd
get); and Rocket Ron, sweep rider and a man
who describes himself as "living the dream" of
riding all over the world on dirt bikes after a ca-
reer in the construction industry. He's a skilled
technician and takes over from Daz at the front
by day three.
Day one sees us leave Alice Springs and hit
the dirt about five miles later, the last tar we'll
see for a week. This is the road that follows the
Finke Desert Race track, and something I've
always wanted to ride. But the pace we run is
nothing like what the boys in the race do. Pic-
ture this: In 2013, GHR Honda rider Todd Smith
won the race on his Honda CRF450R, averag-
ing 70 mph going to Finke and 68 mph coming
back to Alice. So in many sections, over square-
edged ruts, whoops, and super fast blind
corners, he was hitting near on 110 mph! To say
that takes balls of steel is an understatement.
While we are only hitting about 50 percent of his
speed, it is still epic fun. The sand is super-fine,
(Above) The Mount
Dare Hotel was our first
stop, just before we hit
the desert proper.
(Left) The mad chef,
Grant, hard at work in
the bush kitchen.
(Right) Crossing one
of the many salt flats.
The salt isn't anywhere
near as pristine as that
at Bonneville!
