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

ULURU, THE BIG RED HEART OF AUSTRALIA
Our two Lambrettas ride West through the Gibson Desert
We are glad to be back in Uluru (aboriginal name from Ayers Rock), the biggest monolith of the world both for its meaning and its beautiful landscapes.
Yulara, in the National Park of Uluru-Kata Tjuta is one of the most visited attractions in Australia and Uluru is a natural monument and a religious symbol dear to the aborigines.
You can arrive there from Alice Springs; cars can be driven there thanks to the paved road, organized excursions and flights connections are arranged from all the cities of Aussie.
We arrive there with our Lambrettas too and enjoy the great organization for tourists that Australian guarantee at a good level of quality.
There are a lot of tourists and a lot of young people from all over the world; we decide to spend the night at the Pioneers Hotel where we spend a nice evening writing postcards and listening to a good rock-band.

Going west through the aboriginal lands
We leave the day after, going west through Kata Tjuta (aboriginal name from the Olgas), a mountain less known as Uluru but with equally beautiful landscapes.
We know that leaving the rounded shapes of the Olgas to our shoulders, we’ll have a hard journey ahead of us of about 2000 km.
Being alone, Nadia is riding in front of me since she seems to better recognize the road conditions and adjust her riding rhythm as she like. I follow her with great anxiety most of all in those moments I see hew wind. I am relieved every time I see her getting back on track, km after km.
Our lights are always on even during the day so that we are always visible in the mirrors fixed on the frontal luggage carriers; a great solution to always keep a good field of vision with following vehicles.

A bad fall
The track from the Olgas toward a place at the limit with west Australia called Kaltukatjara (Doker River) is really hard. It is in this leg that Nadia, maybe due to less concentration or maybe to the fatigue, falls with her bike.
First of all we check nothing got broken and we pick up the Lambretta. We hoped it was just a painful hit but the pain to the shoulder followed Nadia until the end of our trip.
Back in Italy she’ll need to go through many treatments and at last even through a tiresome surgery.

The important thing is to arrive, even if slowly…
Reaching Perth is more and more difficult.
Cruise speed is not faster than 25 km/h. At this speed and using the 4th gear, the engine doesn’t work at its best but its balanced enough to pick up gradually at the beginning and pick up better later when gas is supplied. We need to be careful and try not to go too fast because we could loose the control of the bike when riding on ruts, on sand bumps or on sandy and gravelly tracks. In these conditions, we are not able to reach every time a nice rest area where we can both buy gas and spend the night.
In this season it’s already dark at 7.30pm but we need to stop an hour before that because the sunset in front of us unable us to see clearly all the obstacles on the road.
As soon as the dark comes, it gets cold and the only thing we can do is try to eat something like some tuna with some bread, some Hungarian salami and some milk.
We decide not to light the fire because spinifex bushes contain resinous inflammable substances that can cause fires in the near undergrowth so we take refuge in our small tent using our wind jackets as pillows. There’s total silence around us and during the night we can hear small rodents around our tent but that’s not all: even a snake get close to our tent and leave traces of its passage on the sand. The morning finds us cold and our tent is wet of dew used by some thirsty birds of the desert.
Once our Lambrettas are loaded and our tanks filled up, we check as always our tires and everything it’s useful to safely continue our journey.

La tole ondulee
Before Warburton on the Outback Hwy there’s a stretch of road called by the French “la tole ondulee” that means “corrugations” in English.
The surface of the road looks like a corrugated sheet-iron due to the constant passage of heavy means of transport. It’s a real torture for vehicles going through these roads and a torment for suspensions, tires, frames, bodyworks and for our arms that need to hold on firmly the handlebar and at the same time try to be elastic following the corrugations of the road. Pieces of bodywork can fall down easily, leaf springs can get broken and frames (even the most robust) bent.
Those who rode the African tracks in the Hoggar and Tassili (just to mention the most popular) know well what I’m talking about.
Rusty skeletons of abandoned cars, rims and broken tires, engines, axles and other parts are the sad proof of unfinished journeys.
People welcome us with kindness and wonder in Warburton and we’ll spend the night in the comfortable Road House taking a regenerating shower and having a good dinner.
Many in this region are the volunteers that with great determination are involved in the instruction and sanity of the aboriginal population. Attention is paid trying to stop problems like alcoholism and fuel-sniffing and for these reasons pumps in gas stations are often armored in cages locked with big padlocks.
People that stop in Road Houses are often technicians that travel for work while tourists prefer the camping areas. Even in this stretch of the Outback Hwy we only cross 8/10 vehicles per day and when we meet we often exchange news about road conditions. Everyone is surprised to meet us; people often ask us if we need something and after being reassured that everything is ok, they say goodbye and continue their journey.
Solidarity here is a tight rule.
Warakurna and Warburton are stages too far to be covered in one day so we spend few nights out in the Gibson Desert in complete solitude.

Renato is waiting for us in Laverton
We are slowly reaching Laverton and another Lambretta rider is going to meet us there; he left from Perth driving a three-wheel Lambretta FD, a bike used for lightweight transportation and well known during the fifties and the sixties, even in Australia.
It’s Renato De Pannone; like may Italians he came here in Australia with the classic cardboard suitcase, great will and talent to be successful.
He worked as a technician for the Lambretta import company and then as teacher of technical subjects. Nowadays he’s retired; he collects and restores Lambrettas and gives assistance to many Australian Lambretta riders.
He has a beautiful home and most of all a big and great family; he’s one of the many Italians that took part in making great this country, he’s a pioneer too after all.
We reach Tjukayirla, an area with an aboriginal unpronounceable name even by the aborigines…. We only know that this is a very small area indicated as the smallest and isolated of Australia but where we’ll be able to find food, water, fuel and a bed where to sleep.
Here we meet a group of Italian tourists from “Avventure nel Mondo” traveling on comfortable cross country motor vehicles; they greet us politely surprised to find a couple of Lambrettas in this remote part of the world.
Our aspect isn’t too good so covered in red desert dust. Our jackets are dirty and torn but for motorcycle riders their own jackets are like flags: the more they are worn-out, the more they can tell about great adventures, journeys and sometimes falls.
From Cosmo Newberry, road conditions are getting better and few kilometers before Laverton the road is back to be asphalted. We stop and hug each other, happy to be arrived unhurt (or almost) to Laverton and be able to meet Renato.
Renato and his friends Bob and Kevin are waiting for us there being arrived the day before. We celebrate the meeting with a good plate of spaghetti and coffee “Italian style”, like we planned.

The golden mile and Modesto Varishetti
Laverton like Leonora, Menzies and other cities of this region grew at the beginning of the century with the gold discovery and with the opening of mines to extract the precious metal.
We stop in Menzies; here too we find signs of a past connected to gold mines. At the beginning of the century the population of Menzies amounted to 15,000 and most of these people were miners. Nowadays population number is around ten and one hotel, the last of nine. These mines were reached by men coming from old empty mines of Victoria, California, Nevada and Klondike. We’ll visit a mine in Kalgorlie under the open sky and still working.
Pieces of history and relics are collected in a museum in Coolgardie, city that was an important mining center.
We’ll tell you about one of these mines, one for all, since its protagonist has been an Italian man that became famous in those days.
Modesto Varischetti was a miner coming from a small village in the valleys surrounding the city of Bergamo. He was working in Bonnievale in a mine 320 mt deep when he got trapped by the water flowing from the pits due to heavy rain; that day, the 15th of March 1907, it rained as much as it usually would in an entire month.
Varischetti was, as the newspaper of that time reported, “In the Devil’s company for seven days”, with the water to his throat and using an air-pocket to breath in the bowels of the earth.
A special train left Perth taking two volunteers divers named Berne and Curtis; another miner and ex diver named Hughes volunteered to try to save him.
Out of curiosity, the train traveled night and day with absolute priority covering the distance in time of record. This record remained unbeaten for many years.
Once he was brought back on the surface by his rescuers he was acclaimed a hero and after few days of rest he went back to his work in the mine like always. Nowadays miners still know Varischetti’s story.
Renato is riding in front of us with his three-wheel scooter. He assembled on it bigger tires so he’s now able to go as fast as 80 km/h.
On an asphalted road we can ride for 300/350 km per day easily.
We’ll stop in Southern Cross and then in Northam where Renato’s son Mark is joining us with his Lambretta. Few kilometers before the capital of Western Australia a group of Lambretta riders is waiting for us to enter the city and reach symbolically with us the Indian Ocean coast after a journey 28 days long.
We’ll spend few days with Renato and his family and we’ll check our Lambrettas for the next trip in Australia.

Conclusions
We told you about this journey dreamed for long writing about it with our inexperienced hands hoping to make feel some of the sensations, emotions, joys and sufferings to those that (like us) are fond of motors and find pleasure in traveling to reach new places not always easy to reach but for this reason even more beautiful.
We wanted to find that pioneer spirit that characterizes this part of the world and I think we found it day after day.
We also had the confirmation that the success of an exacting journey like this one depend on a good organization, a meticulous mechanical preparation of the bike and most of all on a good dose of determination.
Important are the new experiences we made and that are part of our personal knowledge, the new friends but most of all the new technical knowledge we have about these incredible, untiring, mythical Lambrettas.
We would like to thank the Consul General of Italy in Sydney Antonio Verde (a Lambretta rider too), Stefano Balboni for the attention dedicated to our scooters, Toni Brancato, Bill and Peter Guthrie, Bob and Kevin, Renato De Pannone and his family for the kind hospitality; the “Lady” and the Telstra’s technicians who supplied food to us at Jervois.
Pictures (the most beautiful) are from Peter and Bill Guthrie; Bill is professional photograph in the RAAF (Royal Australian Air Force).
Words by Tino and Nadia Sacchi, hoping we didn’t annoy you.
Translation by monica@monimax.net

Some numbers
· Distance covered: 6120 km (equal to five times the distance between Milano and Reggio Calabria) in 28 days.
· Fuel consumption: 400 liters each Lambretta
· Medium consumption: 1 liter every 16 km
· Punctures: around ten
· Damaged tires: 4
· Damaged rims: 2
· Damaged frontal shock absorbers: 4
· At the arrival, Nadia’s bike suffered insufficient compression caused by the entering of some sand in the damaged filter.
· No problems with my Lambretta.
· A journey 6000 km long on these roads is equal, in terms of stress and mechanical wear and tear, to a journey of about 70-80000 km made on European roads.

Some technical data
· Model Li 125 la series 1959 – Model Li 125 lla series 1960
· Cylinder and piston diameter 64 made of aluminum Nicasil type Mugello 186cc
· Drive shaft model Dodicimila stroke 58, solid engine shaft balanced with tungsten inserts 2500gr in weight.
· Carburetor Dell’Orto PHBH diameter 28, air filter by Pollini
· Electronic timing adjuster ignition Varitronic 12V 90W
· 5 disks clutch and lightened clutch case special type
· Silencer Clubman/A.F. Rayspeed
· Chain adjuster Nylon Quick Slip
· Frontal and rear luggage carriers model Australian by Cuppini
· Power 16 CV – Speed at full load 125 km/h


translation by monica@monimax.net

First part  |   Second part  |   Third part