We Meet an Australian Dirtbike Legend!(23rd June)

We're still in Darwin and will be until mid-Monday where I'll get a dealer service on my bike. It's almost got 10,000kms on it already in it's flat out being 2 months old!

We wandered past a Suzuki V-Strom this morning on the way to breakfast. We had a laugh as people tout these bikes as being an adventure bike in the same manner as KTMs and BMWs but I feel they're a bit too much of a road bike for the sort of stuff we've covered. It had a bash plate, knobby tyres, and a whole heap of other off-road gear on it.

Whilst checking out the V-Strom again after breakfast, it's owner returned. We were pretty sure we knew who he was and I stealthily threw a couple of questions into the conversation to confirm who he was before asking, "You're not Tony Kirby are you?". Sure enough it was him and after half mocing his bike we now know that with him riding it he could probably take it more places that any of us could. Lesson learned.

Tony told us that he was busily trying to get his gear in order, as most of it was sitting in Heathrow after being in Spain recently. Getting riding gear in a hurry is costly and difficult as he pointed out. He also stated that him and the crew he was working with have to be in Broome by Tuesday! They're definitely got a long couple of days riding, and we think we're covering some ground quickly!

For those who are unsure, Tony is the guy who created Sidetrack magazine in Australia. He's also been an editor of some of the other major dirtbike magazines here also. The Dual Sport Motorcycle Riders Association(DSMRA) is another asset to the dirtbike community that Tony was instrumental in creating. Anyone who wants to correct me on these details, please feel free :-)

We settled into a pub down the road from our new accomodation at the Comfort Inn. The pub has $3 Coopers Premium Lager schooners all day, a recipe for disaster, but we were all well behaved, I think. I also ran into Alan from my work at the pub, two unexpected sightings in one day.