Journey from Sydney to Perth through Alice Springs and Uluru: an adventure 6.000 km long through the Australian Outback with the mythical Lambrettas.

Pioneers spirit can’t be found everywhere in such evident way as in Australia.
We would like to remember the epic journey that Jack Boviers and Frank Oakley Smith did in 1929 from Sydney with their Harley Davidson and sidecar. They traveled for 15.000 km in 7 weeks through their country. Running over white roads through desolated moors they would sometimes use telegraph poles as their reference mark.
According to the data found at the Autocycle Union of Australia and Motorcycling Australia, many motorcyclists tried the same exploit in the years after that obtaining every time a better timing.
Few years ago, the same distance has been covered using a Goldwing 1200 in less than 7 days; a great performance even if now days roads are in better conditions and motorcycles are more dependable and fast.
Far away from trying to emulate the extraordinary adventure that Jack Oakley described in a book he wrote in the last years of his life “Around Australia Hard Way”, we went back to Australia with our Lambrettas.
The idea to commit ourselves to such difficult journey with our mythical Lambrettas came from the awareness of having two great means of transport. They are the result of an extraordinary and still valid project that allowed us to prepare meticulously the Lambrettas. All these efforts to be able to overcome difficulties that would put to the test even the most modern and robust cross-country motor vehicles.
What can we say about us? We are pensioners chancing one’s arm…
Some of you will probably remember our previous journey in this country carried out with a 1947 Lambretta A and a 1954 Lambretta 150D: 16.000 km in only 75 days.
Most of the roads we run through in 1998 were asphalted and conformed to our modest means of transportation. We had the chance to measure ourselves with the great Australian distances and with the vastness of the territory and at the same time we had the chance to appreciate the beautiful Australian landscapes, the asperities of the territory and the great temperament of Australian people.
We got back to Australia knowing that we could say that we know well this beautiful country only after traveling over the Australian Outback and over the Simpson and Gibson Desert through Alice Spring, running along the same roads explorers, pioneers and gold seekers had to run in the beginning of the last century.

Traveling Companions
As soon as the news about our travel plan spread among Lambretta’s raiders, Bill and Peter Guthrie that we know for a long time expressed their desire to come along.
Their presence gave us more confidence and we were sure that they would make the journey more pleasant with their knowledge and liking. Ron De’ Pannone, a Lambretta rider for a long time, will meet us there traveling from Perth to Laverton with an FD 150.

Preparing the Journey
The organization of such exacting journey took a long time and care. We took in consideration the climatic conditions of the area we were supposed to go through, roads conditions, distances between gas stations, distances between overnight stay places like camping, motels and roadhouses and transit permits for those areas subjected to limitations. Great attention has been paid to the mechanical preparation of the scooters.
We decided to make the trip in July, during the southern winter. In the geographic area between the tropic of Capricorn and the 35th parallel south (dry season) we have in the Outback a warm temperature during the day (from 17° to 25°) and cold temperature during the night (from 7° to 0°) while on the coast the weather is particularly pleasant.
In this period showers are not common in the Australian interior so there will be no danger to be trapped in mud and flooding (very common in the monsoons season instead). We will be able to run along the roads easily and when impassable, roads will be back in use in short time.
We asked to the local authorities about the gas station locations and we received a detailed list. We found out that due to the low number of vehicles that pass through that area every day (it has been estimated from 8 to 12 vehicles) and because most of the cross-country motor vehicles rarely use fuel, gas stations are few and very distant from each other.
This means we’ll have the objective difficulty to have assistance in case of an accident and to obtain a fuel refill.
For all these reasons we’ll need to carry extra fuel and oil, a light tent and non bulky sleeping-bags, maps, tools for repairs reduced to the minimum for weight reason, some classic wire, tape, holding belts and also some glue and patches to repair inner tubes. Also important are a pump to inflate tires, working gloves, the classic Barbour jacket necessary to any respectable hard scooter driver and oilcloths for rain. At this point there’s only some room left for few other clothes and no portable stove or coffee-maker (sob!).
These pages will not be enough to talk about the right way to fix the luggage both on cross-country motorcycles and scooters. In few words, luggage must be fixed with holding belts so that it’ll not get loose and in the lower position possible to prevent the scooter to swing and to prevent the possible loss of it on the road. Very important is the position of the fuel and water spare tanks: they need to be firmly fixed to the carrier but at the same time they need to be easy to handle to be filled up and to be used for scooter refilling. They also need to be placed in a safe position in case of accident.
We refused to use the more esthetical carriers usually bought on Saturday and then thrown away on Monday. We decided than to build with the Cuppini firm two new carrier models: light, robust, practical and fitted to our purpose. A carrier will be set on the front and the other one on the back.
Heavy waits can make difficult the drive on uneven paving; they put to hard test the mechanical components (in particular frame and suspensions) and increase the fuel consumption.
We knew that we could obtain a drastic loss of wait and therefore a better drive by removing the lateral bonnets and the posterior pedal keyboard. The advantage was to be able to easily check the mechanical parts and avoid the dusty whirling that usually follows a scooter in transit and the inevitable clog of the air filter. We decided to give up these benefits for a better identification of our Lambrettas.
The mechanical preparation need a lot of attention, apparently meaningless details can cause annoying inconveniences during a trip.
Our Lambrettas, the same we used in the Los Angeles-Alaska Rally and few years before that in the journey through the 61 alpine passes, are checked and modified with the thermical unit Mugello 186. This unit will help to reduce fuel consumption, easy in delivering the power and great for its robustness and dependability.
The same mechanical changes have been made by our Australian biker friends so that repairs will be easier to take care of and the number of mechanical components will be reduced relieving our bikes. Furthermore they will furnish useful comparative tests.
We’ll use sponge air filters furnished by Polini to protect our motors after being modified to be easily removed and washed every day. This is a very important operation not to be underestimated especially when driving on dusty roads. The preparation of our Lambrettas, a Li 125 first series and a Li 125 second series, continued within sight of the transfer. In Sydney Bill and Peter were generously working on their bikes, a DL 200 and a 150 Special. They have decided to use, for a more comfortable transport, two nice PAV trolleys from Czech Republic, very popular in that area in the sixties.

Departure Date is Near
Our Lambrettas have been shipped by boat a month in advance using robust iron cages that will be used again at the end of our adventure to bring them back home.
Luggage has been shipped with the scooters and already fixed in the definitive position for the trip.
Finally, after almost 30 hours since we left, we arrived in Sidney going through the inevitable duty checks and through some very efficient and nice “quarantine” dogs.
We need to remind to those nostalgic of “national salami” that the import of food, vegetables included is severely forbidden for hygienically-health reasons. They would be caught (or rather sniffed) by or four-legged friends led by kind and chubby but inflexible customs officers.
At the Sidney airport Bill and Peter were waiting for us among the crowd raising the Lambretta banner.
After clearance (sob!!) we’ll use our Lambrettas to visit downtown Sidney and Bondy beach and to pay a visit to Toni Brancato, the owner of a workshop in Leichard that become in the last 30 years, a point of reference for every Lambretta and Vespa owner. From this city begins our journey.
We’ll use the time left to the departure to set-up the carburation and make the last adjustments to the Lambrettas of our Australian friends Bill and Peter.
Leichard is Sydney’s Little Italy; there are good restaurants, fashion boutiques, coffee-houses, pastry-shops, sport cars: it’s the centre of the Australian “dolce vita”.
It is from here that we’ll leave for our adventure after drinking the last real Italian coffee with Toni and all the other Lambretta riders.

translation by monica@monimax.net



First part  |   Second part  |   Third part