FEWER roos than expected and more grass.
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That's how Ray Mendes sums up the first leg of an epic ride he's taking with his mates Brian Healey and Frank Wells that has been two years in the making.
The Bathurst trio - Mr Mendes and Mr Healey are retired police officers and Mr Wells is known for his association with Wellmix Concrete - rode motorbikes to Uluru previously, but have upped the ante this year and have ridden clear across the continent.
They are in Perth for a little while after a nine-day ride through NSW, South Australia and Western Australia and will head home to Bathurst next week.
IN OTHER NEWS AROUND BATHURST:
"We stayed at Hay, Renmark, Port Augusta, Ceduna, Eucla, Balladonia, Kalgoorlie and Merredin, and then it was into Perth," Mr Mendes said.
"We'll do the same going back, but from Port Augusta, we will go through Broken Hill and Cobar."
Mr Mendes is on a Kawasaki 1700 Voyager, Mr Healey is riding a BMW RT 1250 and Mr Wells a BMW GS 1200.
"We have had a great time," Mr Mendes said.
"We expected to see much more fauna, but we have not seen one live kangaroo.
"We've seen eight to 10 emus, all alive, and a bit of roadkill."
You think of WA as being dry and desolate with a city at the end of it.
IN OTHER NEWS AROUND BATHURST:
Some of the farming country had been "beautiful", he said.
"You think of WA as being dry and desolate with a city at the end of it," he said.
"But we went to Wave Rock [on a day trip from Perth] and once we got over the coastal range, it was a consistent farming and cereal growing area.
"There were hundreds and hundreds of kilometres of consistent green. They have had a fair bit of rain here and are having a great season - not like us [Bathurst], unfortunately."
IN OTHER NEWS AROUND BATHURST:
Mr Mendes said the people they'd met along the way had all been friendly.
"At all the service stations where we have stopped and got fuel, we've been greeted," he said.
"It's not like the big cities where people walk past you and don't want to know you."
The only rain they struck on the way over was on the West Australian and South Australian border.
"We happened to be in the quarantine station, so we sat there and let it pass," Mr Mendes said.
"We have had a really good, safe ride and we're hoping to get the same on the way back."
