A weekends ride to Qld return

Martin Little

Premier Member
IBR Finisher
#1
With Pillion Piglet in Brisbane visiting family, this offered the excellent opportunity for a weekend ride, and so with the GSA fueled up on Thursday night and a quick check to make sure the heated jacket was working I was set to leave work early on Friday afternoon.


Friday morning heading to work

Leaving Canberra Friday in the single digit temps, traffic was light, and it was an easy gallop up to Newcastle. I rode into the forecast rain at Pheasants Nest, and it stayed this way all the way through to Newcastle. My first stop/feet down was at Beresford, right on dusk, 450ish kms after leaving Canberra. The big tank on the GSA comes in handy at times!


First stop of the ride after a wet and cold ride up from Canberra

Fueled up and back out onto the road in the dark, I made my way up Bucketts Way in the dark to Gloucester where I pulled stumps for the evening and grabbed a motel room. A good afternoon’s ride on a wet winters day, it felt good to be out riding and I followed my usual Rally routine in setting up the motel room for an early departure in the morning.

Saturday morning and I was out on Thunderbolts Way in the pre-dawn darkness. I made slowly up the hill to Walcha, where I stopped for a coffee and a light brekkie of scrambled eggs. First customer of the day too!

Heading up Thunderbolts in the pre dawn


Suns up! Shame about the temperature.

With the temperature just sitting above zero I rode across to Uralla where I re-joined the New England and pointed the bike northwards to Tenterfield. The sun was out but there was a strong s/w wind keeping the temps well into single digits. At Tenterfield I took the Mount Lindsay Road heading for Legume and Accacia Creek. This was great, very quiet back road with about 10kms of gravel surfing. Cross the QLD border at Accacia Creek with my paperwork on standby to produce but there was not a soul to be seen so after the photo stop headed off to Boonah via Mountain View Road.


Gravel surfing on the way to Legume

Temperatures were now in the low 20’s, the sun was out and all the Qld traffic was heading the other way. Perfect! Mid Afternoon saw me roll into my Brisbane destination in time for afternoon tea. After catching up on family news over dinner I hit the sack to grab a few hours’ sleep as Sunday was the return ride to Canberra via Goodiwindi and the Newell Highway.


At the NSW/QLD border

Sunday morning, I was awake at 3:00am, dammit, after 30 minutes of lying wide awake I gave in and got up and prepped ready to get going. After a cup of tea and some fruit I waved goodbye to Pillion Piglet and fired up the GSA and headed for Toowoomba. The ride up to Toowoomba in the dark was uneventful, where I stopped to fuel up in the pre-dawn chill.


Toowoomba, and time to refuel

Heading westwards to Goondiwindi on the Warrego Highway I rode into heavy fog, which made things tricky with the oncoming trucks and the odd cars going my way. The fog stayed with me all the way to Bulli Creek where I rode out into brilliant sunshine. At last! I had been worrying about the Highway being closed as I saw intermittent signs flashing “road closed ahead” but the oncoming traffic indicated otherwise. Just after Wyaga I rode up to the road closure barriers where the floodwaters had closed the road yesterday. My timing was perfect, as I rode up some truckies were removing the barriers and gracefully waved me through.

At Goodiwindi there was a brief photo stop and then take the Newell highway south to Dubbo, and just count down the miles.


Goondiwindi and the sun is shining


Stopped for fuel at Narrabri and then again at Dubbo, where I also grabbed a pie for a late lunch. The ride from Dubbo to the Hume Highway was glorious, not much traffic for a Sunday afternoon as the sun set towards the west. Re-joining the Hume and then the Barton Highway into Canberra, traffic suddenly got very heavy right on sunset. Not much to do here but just go with the flow and cruise back into Canberra at the end of the day, pulling into the garage with 2, 469kms for the weekends ride.


The Newell Highway heading south


A leg stretch/fuel stop



This would make a good bonus for a Rally.....


The back road into Dubbo, you can feel the serenity


Home after an excellent weekends ride

An excellent mid-winter ride, not a full on multi day IBA ride but enough to keep the ride fitness up.


Not a bad route for a couple of days out riding.
 

Ed.

Premier Member
#5
Nice one, Martin. I was also planning a run to qld over the weekend (a little further west than you) but only made it as far as Cobar before turning back to limp home with a blown rear shock. Saddness.
 

Martin Little

Premier Member
IBR Finisher
#6
Nice one, Martin. I was also planning a run to qld over the weekend (a little further west than you) but only made it as far as Cobar before turning back to limp home with a blown rear shock. Saddness.
Bugger! At least you have the perfect excuse to buy that aftermarket shock