Biggles
Premier Member
It's been a while since I attended an ANZAC Dawn Service, and I was amazed to see the number of people who braved a rainy morning to park blocks away and walk to the Service at the Redcliffe waterfront. I stayed for a while observing what is a very significant annual event for the local Returned Servicemen's Club. The crowd size didn't facilitate a better photo than this as my starting point for my ride.
A nearby 24 hour servo provided the essential start docket:
As I recall having read somewhere (it's not obvious in the rules I have), the distance between the locations for the spelled word must be at least 160 kilometres. I headed north with the force of habit and ritual seeing me ordering a Bacon and Egg McMuffin and Capaccino in Childers to fortify me. Some zig-zagging rural roads brought me to the beautiful Burnett River crossing (it's not a bridge- it's designed to go under whenever the water rises).
My "A" was
Arriving in the town there was evidence that a mid-morning (or very long Dawn) Service had recently ended, as people in military uniforms were still in evidence and some were tidying up the memorial area.
My bike's range on cruise is 550km, so the 360km to
was easily attainable, and an ideal way to get a docket to prove my attendance there.
A docket at my next "letter" could have been a challenge- I didn't need fuel, and in any case, there is no servo there. But I had ascertained in advance that the IGA was open on Public Holidays until their usual closing time of 9:00pm, so a docket in
was secured for the purchase of an evening snack (Ironbutt dinner, I call it). Basic and servicable like the famed IBA Motels.
My next "letter" provided a challenge in that there isn't really a town or suburb there, just a school, and it doesn't issue any time-stamped documentation after-hours. So just past the locality sign
I shone my headlights on the target
and got my photo. Now to document it, I rode the 2.2km to the nearest operating business for my docket
To retrace my track to home from there would have been short of the required distance, so I went south to Tenterfield thence east to the highweay at West Ballina. This was to prove the most challenging leg of the ride. While I had experienced several showers up to this point, they weren't too uncomfortable. However, steady drizzle all the way down the mountain to Drake made a difficult road plain dangerous. On a fine day on a sports bike, the multitudinous tight bends and choppy surface of the Bruxner "Highway" would be bliss for many. On a cold, wet and very dark night, with no other traffic, I felt the need for a cautious approach. There were just a couple of roadworks on the mountain, but a lot more out where the recent heavy rains had wrought havoc. The road workers had the decency to cover their ultra-conservative speed limits for the weekend, so it was left to we users to exercise appropriate caution.
I paused at Casino considering making that large town my "C" but stuck with the plan and headed up the highway and through the tunnels to
where I got my final docket
confirming I had just 1700km on the ODO. The GPS declared 1675km and Google Maps had calculated 1667.
The ride did little by way of honoring the sacrifice of many thousands to enable us to have the freedom to do things like this ride. But it did serve to give me plenty of time for reflection on all manner of things, including such dedication.
The SPOT can be seen here:
https://new.spotwalla.com/trip/c703-4b3454-11ac/view?homeActive=1&showAll=1
A nearby 24 hour servo provided the essential start docket:
As I recall having read somewhere (it's not obvious in the rules I have), the distance between the locations for the spelled word must be at least 160 kilometres. I headed north with the force of habit and ritual seeing me ordering a Bacon and Egg McMuffin and Capaccino in Childers to fortify me. Some zig-zagging rural roads brought me to the beautiful Burnett River crossing (it's not a bridge- it's designed to go under whenever the water rises).
My "A" was
Arriving in the town there was evidence that a mid-morning (or very long Dawn) Service had recently ended, as people in military uniforms were still in evidence and some were tidying up the memorial area.
My bike's range on cruise is 550km, so the 360km to
was easily attainable, and an ideal way to get a docket to prove my attendance there.
A docket at my next "letter" could have been a challenge- I didn't need fuel, and in any case, there is no servo there. But I had ascertained in advance that the IGA was open on Public Holidays until their usual closing time of 9:00pm, so a docket in
was secured for the purchase of an evening snack (Ironbutt dinner, I call it). Basic and servicable like the famed IBA Motels.
My next "letter" provided a challenge in that there isn't really a town or suburb there, just a school, and it doesn't issue any time-stamped documentation after-hours. So just past the locality sign
I shone my headlights on the target
and got my photo. Now to document it, I rode the 2.2km to the nearest operating business for my docket
To retrace my track to home from there would have been short of the required distance, so I went south to Tenterfield thence east to the highweay at West Ballina. This was to prove the most challenging leg of the ride. While I had experienced several showers up to this point, they weren't too uncomfortable. However, steady drizzle all the way down the mountain to Drake made a difficult road plain dangerous. On a fine day on a sports bike, the multitudinous tight bends and choppy surface of the Bruxner "Highway" would be bliss for many. On a cold, wet and very dark night, with no other traffic, I felt the need for a cautious approach. There were just a couple of roadworks on the mountain, but a lot more out where the recent heavy rains had wrought havoc. The road workers had the decency to cover their ultra-conservative speed limits for the weekend, so it was left to we users to exercise appropriate caution.
I paused at Casino considering making that large town my "C" but stuck with the plan and headed up the highway and through the tunnels to
where I got my final docket
confirming I had just 1700km on the ODO. The GPS declared 1675km and Google Maps had calculated 1667.
The ride did little by way of honoring the sacrifice of many thousands to enable us to have the freedom to do things like this ride. But it did serve to give me plenty of time for reflection on all manner of things, including such dedication.
The SPOT can be seen here:
https://new.spotwalla.com/trip/c703-4b3454-11ac/view?homeActive=1&showAll=1
