Cape York to Brisbane Motorcycle Adventure Australia Part 7 | DRZ400E | OLD COACH ROAD

My biggest, longest, hardest and hottest motorcycle adventure ride to date. In this video Josh and I head south from the town of Laura.
Josh and I with our mighty dual sports Suzuki DRZ400E's begin to tackle the Old Coach Road from Laura to Maytown. We experience steep rocky hill climbs and descends, visit old mining relics, I break Joshes GoPro mount on his helmet and Josh looses his Insta360 camera. All in a days ride.
This is part 7 of the series.

[@DRZADV]

I appreciate the videos

[@richardpratt5883]

It's a rock crush,luv ya vids mate 👍🏼

[@6226superhurricane]

it's a stamp mill for crushing quartz to get the gold out of it.

[@The_Apprentice_Adventurer]

Thanks mate. So we were on the right track. Good to know 👍

[@simonjones2645]

Yep a ten head crusher, other crushers are available 😅

[@stephenwittmack4271]

Exactly

[@kevinwilliams9380]

stamper mill for crushing rock/ quartz etc for the gold within

[@charliem5332]

Lovely riding. I love looking at that country.

[@sprintermaximus]

I ride an F800GS and over the last year or so watching your channel/trips, I need to get something a touch lighter like a DRZ. I ride a lot of the same difficulty of terrain here in the mountains, but with less success than you haha. Good on you for posting these. So good.

[@The_Apprentice_Adventurer]

Mate I started with a F800GS myself. Nice bike but hated the thing after a while. I just wasn’t able to do the tracks with ease and was also second guessing myself.

[@wa7215]

Your “big-Furnace-thing” Lance, is what’s called a Steam Powered Traction Engine, and the big rotating flywheel on that was used to drive a big leather belt connecting it to the large drive-wheel on the other machine beside it that is called an “Ore-Stamper” where the rotating Cam-Shaft on it would then vertically lift, the heavy steel rods of the ‘Ore Hammers’ ie, the big heavy cylindrical shaped steel things, on the bottom of each rod, and then drop them onto the large lumps of Gold-bearing Quartz rock being shovelled into the bottom of it to smash it into much smaller size pieces that could then be manually sorted and inspected for any Gold content and then subsequently subjected to chemical leaching treatment with Cyanide, to actually dissolve and hence, recover the Gold content from it. As for why all of that heavy machinery was simply abandoned, and left onsite, when the Gold ran out..? Simple, it would take more than it was worth, to recover it and transport it all back out of there, back to ‘civilisation’. Remember that the Palmer River goldfield was discovered in the late 1800’s and so you can just imagine the, ENORMOUS, difficulty, in transporting all of that heavy industrial mining machinery and equipment out to there in the first place, from the East Coast of the Cape, where it would have back in them days, all been landed from ships, and barges. No such thing back then, as bitumen roads, or B-Double/Triple Road Trains..! 😳😳

[@The_Apprentice_Adventurer]

Thanks for the in depth answer mate. Awesome 👍

[@ricmoffet6843]

Steam engine, with an ore stamper( crusher), usually used for gold ore. It would be worth putting a pan over the wash down the hill, for nuggets, it probably has been detected with a metal detector, but I guarantee you someone has never panned it since this mine was last worked.

[@budget-adventure]

I’m sure every visitor does the same thing

[@NotShookADV]

Great adventure, you are spot on the track looks a lot like a Vic high country track!

[@55Agro]

Boiler & steam engine drove ore battery via leather belts to crush ore. Who carted the water up to the boiler?

[@robdotcom71]

Great stuff.... I'll have to make a mental note that if I ever end up riding with you that I should bring a spare Go-pro chinmount (or 3..) just in case.... ;)

[@The_Apprentice_Adventurer]

Hahaha. I know, man I felt so bad for him. Glad i had that spare chin mount.

[@ronwarber535]

Glad to see that you guys are living the dream. Bike rides are always an adventure. I just got back from my bike trip from West Yellowstone and had to slow down for a buffalo!!! Funny thing when I come back to OZ next year, the first thing that I want is a meat pie and some fish and chips. Great Video

[@The_Apprentice_Adventurer]

Absolutely. Go the Aussie food. We always miss the small things I guess.

[@budget-adventure]

Epic area man, just imagine the old coaches travelling up and down that road 100 years ago. Once the gold dried up there’s no money in taking the heavy machinery out with you so it’s just left behind

[@The_Apprentice_Adventurer]

Yeah it was a cool place to explore. We have it so much easier these days that’s for sure.

[@stevenloynds3691]

Im a fresh sub catching up on your trips. Im thinking both you boys must be fit as going days even longer doing kms standing up. Im watching out of order but think im almost caught up. Grear videos man keep em coming.

[@The_Apprentice_Adventurer]

Thanks mate. I don’t think it’s fitness but rather sheer determination to get it done lol. We are pretty beat up each night but we wouldn’t have it any other way.

[@JAOM]

3:00 Looks like the Spanish Step you did couple of years back.. with a himalayan rider. Which one is tougher?

[@The_Apprentice_Adventurer]

The Spanish Stairs are heaps harder for sure. Wouldn’t even try them loaded up.

[@troykratz74]

Great vids once again.! Hey how come the go pro footage doesn't bounce around while riding over bumpy ground?? How does it stay smooth??

[@The_Apprentice_Adventurer]

Thanks mate. They use to bounce around but the new ones a pretty good. I have mine set for maximum stabilisation and as seen gets the job done. I only have a GoPro 9 so no doubt the newer ones are better again. But be warned, they do play up a lot and drop the ball in reliability massively. 🤬

[@philmenzies2477]

@27:00 Mate you look like Popeye!

[@The_Apprentice_Adventurer]

Haha just the camera angles mate.

[@RollerGuideX]

Throughout this epic adventure, did you guys ever want for more displacement? Was the 400 enough or would you consider a 600+ like a 650 or a T700 maybe?

[@6226superhurricane]

400e has more power than most 650's like xl, xr, klr, dr. and only slightly less torque.

[@TNP1990]

Bigger is better

[@RollerGuideX]

Not sure of the figures but i thought the BRP for example had better powerband for both lower end tractoring and high speed blasting through open spaces. @@6226superhurricane

[@RollerGuideX]

True in most cases but bigger means heavier to harder the maneuver in tight trails right. Plus once you drop it or get bogged in muddy situations, it's a nightmare unless you have support. I was trying to compare the DRZ400E vs say the XR650R. Very similar in weight but the BRP is taller with more rake in the forks for stability at speed. @@TNP1990

[@The_Apprentice_Adventurer]

It would be great to be able to hum along at 120 and more power to overtake at speed. Overall though no real complaints. For a little single cylinder fully loaded up it gets the job done plus some in my opinion. Although my bike now has a big bore kit and super keen to truly test it out.