"Houston, Tranquility Base here. The Eagle has landed."– Apollo Rally 2014

[Pterodactyl_imp]

"Houston, Tranquility Base here. The Eagle has landed." (Neil Armstrong)

On July 20, 1969, at 20:18 UTC the Apollo 11 Lunar Module landed the first humans on the Moon. Without doubt a triumph of American scientific, technological, and political purpose. A triumph in which Australia played a minor, but significant, role. Due to intermittent communications difficulties, radio, television and telemetry transmissions were relayed through Honeysuckle Creek tracking station, a NASA tracking station in the Namadgi National Park, to the south of Canberra. The station received and relayed to the world communications with Apollo 11. The first historic TV images of astronaut Neil Armstrong setting foot on the Moon were relayed through Honeysuckle Creek. The station was opened in 1967 and closed in 1981.

Every five years since that landing, a Canberra motorcycle club has run a rally at the Honeysuckle Creek site, on or about July 20th, to commemorate the event. This year the rally was held from the 18th to the 20th July. It is a "back to basics" rally with firewood and water provided on site but all the rest comes by motorcycle. A twenty dollar registration fee covers park costs, that is firewood, facilities and cleanup. The rest goes to charity. For me, a perfectly good reason to put the OEM rack on the back of the CB, pack my tent, sleeping bag and thermals and head to Honeysuckle campground.
The route; to the south of Sydney, through the Royal National Park, up the Macquarie Pass and then down the highway to the east of Canberra; then on to country roads to Honeysuckle. Both the RNP and Macquarie Pass are brilliant motorcycle roads but are heavily speed limited. Still, on a cold weekday morning both can provide some entertainment. Apollo Road, the final run up into the Namadgi, is challenging; narrow, winding and there is no room for error. The shoulders are treacherous and on a winters day black ice may be present on road that has not yet had sun. Take care!

Route Map: [url=http://goo.gl/maps/5inQA]Sydney to Honeysuckle Campground

Some photographs:

Stanwell Tops, Royal National Park



Apollo Road



Honeysuckle Camp.
A light dusting of snow on arrival but quickly dissipated with some clear sky. Honeysuckle lies at an elevation of nearly 1400m (4500ft) with temperatures during the weekend from 3degC (37.4F) during the day to -10degC (14F) at night. Beautiful clear sky though, and at night the southern sky, with the milky way, was spectacular.




Last Blast under cover for icing conditions


Some bikes:

Road warrior


Oldie


Speed machines


Long gone tracking station


Campfire conversations

In the spirit of the occasion the rally organisers had brought along an audio recording of the final stages of the Lunar Module landing. Around the campfire and under the stars it made for very compelling listening. Aldrin and Armstrong a long way from home and, considering the possibilities, ice cool.
It was agreed by those of us old enough to remember that the lunar landing was one of those "I'll always remember where I was when ...." moments. In 1969 television coverage was not widespread in Australia but some remembered huddling with their families around black and white TVs or, in country areas, listening to the audio on the "wireless". The younger blokes had not even been thought of while all this was happening and for some it was the first time that they had heard the audio. They were impressed. For me, listening to that audio took me back to sitting in a rubber plantation in Vietnam listening to the audio being rebroadcast over our unit radio net - was it really that long ago? Well..... yes, it was.
Funnily enough there was one young bloke around the campfire who had been on all the right websites and reckoned that the whole deal was shot by Stanley Kubrick and that all those involved in the filming had been "terminated with extreme prejudice" by some shadowy organisation. A lot of rum filled derision and the odd empty beer can was, in good humour, cast his way. After all, who is going to ride 600kms and camp out in sub-zero temperature to listen to that?

Cheers

[the Ferret]

Very very cool pics and ride report. Remember it well, I was 19 and on that day recovering at my parents house after running my 67 305 scrambler into the passenger door of a 54 Dodge. It was totaled, and I was broken pretty good.

We watched the landing on the black and white TV in my parents living room. My father went to his grave believing it was all faked to fool the Russians lol

On to the bikes .... love the 450 scrambler. Always had a weakness for the scrambler family.

And you should have been here to hear my exclamation when I scrolled to the first pic with the Kangaroos...and we worry about raccoons at our campsites HA!

Your bike looks great in the pics and I still have a hard time believing those windshields do anything but look cool.

[Razor]

Thanks for the photos and info. Just curious... can kangaroos be nasty? The raccoons we have can be destructive, and are always into places you don't want them to be.

[Cormanus]

Geez! Good one Pterodactyl. Hope you had a great weekend.

[redbirds_imp]

Great report and educational too. Camping with kangaroos would be interesting.

[albert52_imp]

would love to do that, Thanks for the pics

[Pterodactyl_imp]

Thanks for the photos and info. Just curious... can kangaroos be nasty? The raccoons we have can be destructive, and are always into places you don't want them to be.

Kangaroos and wallabies are not dangerous animals as such. For a start they are not carnivorous . However, if not treated with respect they can inflict serious injury or cause death. Males are particularly aggressive if they sense that you are a threat to their dominance over their mob, particularly the females. A female will be aggressive if a human comes between itself and it's joey. A roo or wallaby will cause injury by boxing with its forepaws or can stand on its tail and strike out with their hind legs. This will, at the least, cause serious bruising, scratching or wounding, and in the case of a large western red complete evisceration would be the likely result.

So, in short, they will do their best to avoid humans (and dogs) but they are best not messed with.

Cheers

[CA200_imp]

What a great bit of history on Apollo that I did not know about, love the pictures, looks cold.
In July 1969 I had just been married in June ,in the army and in Georgia and watched on a small B/W TV hauled down in a 64 Austin
Healy Sprite from Wi.

[The Spaceman_imp]

It's a shame the event appears to get more attention in Oz than here. We don't even have a damn ride to our own space station without asking the Russkies. Ike and Kennedy must be spinning in their graves.

[Ridem32_imp]

I'm like ferrets dad!! Who was filming Neil from the moon as he walked down the latter? (You can see the whole space shuttle) could not be a camera mounted on the shuttle! And how the heck did the flag cast a shadow? Lol. Just a thought!