Horrocks Pass
Horrocks pass is the front door, or maybe front path, to the Flinders Ranges. The start of the pass lays between Port Pirie (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Port_Pirie) and Port Augusta (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Port_Augusta).
I had been looking forward to the ride up through Horrocks Pass, (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VfIG664cMtI) a road of fast sweepers that climb into the Southern Flinders Ranges. I had flown down the pass some 38 years earlier on a Norton Commando and in preparing for the trip had fantasised about a “super comparo” – Norton Commando Vs Moto Guzzi Breva; Michelin Pilot Road 4s Vs Dunlop K81s; Brembo Brakes Vs the trusty Lockheed – pff no comparison.
But the road is a great ride as the Ranges start to reveal themselves as you climb riding through the curves on a fast smooth road with no traffic heading for the outback from the sea.
I was young, just 20, and heading off to ride around Australia (a trip of many unmade dirt roads then). It was one of my first adventures and in some ways set the pattern for the rest of my life. I had ridden across from Melbourne to Wilmington (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wilmington,_South_Australia) and at the cross road I turned left down to Port Augusta and the crossing of the Nullabor Plain om my path west.
I had promised myself to come back to the Flinders Ranges, to once again ride Horrocks Pass – and here I was.
