Day 2 Sat 17th March
York to Southern Cross - distance 271 km
Official start in York with Shire President Cr Tony Boyle, wonderful fun he flagged off every entrant. Graham and I as Bob’s backup had a call from Bernard Holmes 0935, he was broken down about 6 kms from York. We could not contact Bob on his mobile so went back for the Bernard and Sylvia Holmes. They were not on the road they indicated so we went back to the Castle Hotel coffee shop opposite and asked them to come to us. Bernard wanted to get to the Brush “experts” to fix his Brush. Big winds and he ran out of petrol. We had Bernard’s brush on the back and then on arrival checked into historic Palace Hotel in York.
After a great start for the temperamental Indian Powerplus of Andrew Lamond this morning he roared through the field with triumphant yells only to fall foul to a seized main bearing / lubrication issue which temporarily sidelined him but with the help of ‘Indian guru’ Spencer, he rejoined the field only to have the same issue down the rough and very windy road.
There was a lot of curious looks as the Indian was trailered at road speed with Andrew in the saddle on his bike on the back. A glorious 25km came to an abrupt halt then a full engine pull down later that night, it didn’t look good. Engine out, post haste sent to Sydney, fingers crossed it will be repaired and sent back by the end of the week.
Judie Stephens OAM - Expedition Director