FUSA

This entry is part 17 of 22 in the series Adventure Rider Issue #10

Flinders Ural Spring Adventure

Sidecar owners are a specialist and often misunderstood group of motorcyclists. They love adventure as much as anyone, and the simple, basic Ural is often their weapon of choice. It’s surprising where three wheels can go.

Life is an adventure if you own a Ural. Since buying my Ural back in 2011, we – Lynn and I – have toured Armidale, Tasmania, Victoria’s low and high country, and outback NSW and SA.

We usually tackle two or three adventure rides each year and our titles make it easy to tag the rides

• KIRSTy is Kangaroo Island Russian Sidecar Tour yippee
• VARSTy is Victorian Autumn Russian Sidecar Tour yippee
• ROARy is Russian Outback Australia Ride yippee
• NASTy is planned for 2015, but we may have a name change to be PC
• VARSTY3 is happening while you read this

Do we need therapy? No. Owning a Ural is therapy enough.

Scraping by

FUSA was in September, 2014 (hence the ‘Spring’. We’re clever like that).

Twenty Uralists with 11 Urals drove the outback. You ride a motorbike,but you drive a sidecar, by the way. The group of drivers came from SA, Victoria, and two from Queensland.

We started at Hawker, then drove the bitumen to Blinman for liquid refreshments, and then four days of dirt roads and tracks out of Angorichina Tourist Village exploring the ranges.

ATV is an oasis in the middle of the Flinders geological area. Nature spent millions of years shaping the land, just so we could challenge ourselves with our rides. It would be a pity not to use it.

The Flinders is a magnet for bikes and four-wheel-drive adventurers, and Angorichina Village provides camping and cabin choices. I did my own cook-ing on their barbecue with bread, steak, bacon and eggs from their shop. Next time though, I need to bring an egg flip or paint scraper. I think someone knocked off the last one. All that was left was the chain.

Dirt ready

It’s not that we do it rough. It’s about choice. Some camp, and some cabin. Some drink cold beer, and others warm port. Some eat under the stars, and some in the fabulous restaurant at Parachilna Pub for ‘Road Kill’ cuisine.

I set up a small ‘kindergarten course’ in the dry, rocky creek beds to familiarise our riders with what lay ahead when we did the PAR (Private Access Road) to Nuccaleena Mine ruins. Nuccaleena is a 28km return track, with loads of creek beds, sandy patches and hard-rock trails.

The Ural is great on the bitumen, but much better on the dirt. Maybe it’s the 1942 Russian wartime influence.

After a few days at Angorichina we drove the 155km to Arkaroola and stayed in the cabins. What a treat having a mattress after hard-ground camping.

Arkaroola Village is also surrounded by lots of trail rides to challenge your Ural and hone your off-road skills.

The great thing with our adventures is that someone (usually Norm. Thanks mate) plans a few days in an interesting place and sends out emails and posts.

We then book our own accommodation and do our own thing within the group.

There’s total freedom when to come and go, or drive, or just veg for the day.

There’s a lot more to read on our adventures. Log on to one of these: URALOFOZ website http://uralofoz.com.au/Kathy’s blog
http://uralaustraliaadventures.blogspot.com.au/Our forum http://uralsinaustralia.freeforums.net/ The biggest problem with owning a Ural is remembering to put your foot down at the traffic lights when back on the two-wheeler.