tabledrain
IBR Finisher
Cyclone Albert was almost X cyclone even before I left home early on Saturday morning. My original 2000km loop from home north to Rockhampton, across to Barcaldine and south to Chinchilla had been ditched early in the week.
What was left of the cyclones power showed in the amount of debris all over the road as Wonky (myR1200GSA so named) made its to the M1 and then headed west. Branches, leaves, twigs, all manner of parts of trees covered the first 10km. There are two rivers that can flood me in, I took a chance that the roads were still open when returning on Sunday.
The next 50km maybe had 50 vehicles total, rain pouring down, wind blowing me all over the place, it was lovely having normally congested highways to myself and a dying cyclonic weather event.
Topping the Great Dividing Range via the new Toowoomba bypass saw the weather change dramatically as the coastal weather hit that big block and by the time we were 10km closer to Chinchilla, the day was perfect riding weather.
The remainder of of my planned 3hr 45 minute ride helped dry me out, gave me time to ponder life and use helmet time for my favourite thing to do while riding - soak up the view and enjoy the smells of country.
Apparently it takes a U turn to get into the hotel, well that's I'm telling you anyway. I'd ridden past the entrance. woops..
As always the camaraderie of this event saw me change from an " I am outta here after lunch, to Hell no, I'm not going home until tomorrow" and so the afternoon was spent reconnecting with those I haven't seem much of. Lovely to catch up with everyone, for sure. A real privilege to be able to hand off some books. Another one to listen to Pauls IOM story, I'll get there one day. As always, the effort put in by Derrick and Gatey and I'm not sure who else made this a great weekend. The effort is most appreciated.
Sunday a.m, dawn just changing the sky, I got out on the tail of Ed and Martin, those two headed south, me and Wonky headed east. It started raining not far into the trip and as we got closer to Toowoomba, the wind got to be extremely rough, rough enough to try pull my helmet off, the rain very heavy causing the odd aqua plane and the visibility well reduced due to heavy fog. Slowing down, now under the speed limit, wondering if I was going to be able to keep the bike upright, the white lines continued disappearing under my right eye line.
The bypass loomed into view and I rolled off the mountain top and down into the beginning of the Lockyer Valley. The fog at the top was epic but two thirds of the way down the weather relented, wind dying down to the point where the various limits could be maintained, rain relenting a little but still quite heavy. Making my way along the Ipswich and then Logan Motorways, once again essentially empty roads, we turned south on the M1 and then took my exit at the Yatala Pie shop. The road around to my place saw me crossing one bridge with water up to its underside, that told me the second low bridge would be well under and so the second one did me in. 100 metres across, at least a metre deep with water racing, rain still pouring, we retraced our steps and took a route that saw us in Logan Village 20 minutes later. From there we meandered across the roads that sat above the flood line until I finally turned into my street. My street has dips that get flooded but really, there was only one with about 500mm deep water for 20 metres in it so I got home, everything soaked and completely happy with everything.
6 hours later we were flooded in for 2 days. ah the timing.
In the shed hanging all my gear up to drain and dry, I started looking forward to next year.
What was left of the cyclones power showed in the amount of debris all over the road as Wonky (myR1200GSA so named) made its to the M1 and then headed west. Branches, leaves, twigs, all manner of parts of trees covered the first 10km. There are two rivers that can flood me in, I took a chance that the roads were still open when returning on Sunday.
The next 50km maybe had 50 vehicles total, rain pouring down, wind blowing me all over the place, it was lovely having normally congested highways to myself and a dying cyclonic weather event.
Topping the Great Dividing Range via the new Toowoomba bypass saw the weather change dramatically as the coastal weather hit that big block and by the time we were 10km closer to Chinchilla, the day was perfect riding weather.
The remainder of of my planned 3hr 45 minute ride helped dry me out, gave me time to ponder life and use helmet time for my favourite thing to do while riding - soak up the view and enjoy the smells of country.
Apparently it takes a U turn to get into the hotel, well that's I'm telling you anyway. I'd ridden past the entrance. woops..
As always the camaraderie of this event saw me change from an " I am outta here after lunch, to Hell no, I'm not going home until tomorrow" and so the afternoon was spent reconnecting with those I haven't seem much of. Lovely to catch up with everyone, for sure. A real privilege to be able to hand off some books. Another one to listen to Pauls IOM story, I'll get there one day. As always, the effort put in by Derrick and Gatey and I'm not sure who else made this a great weekend. The effort is most appreciated.
Sunday a.m, dawn just changing the sky, I got out on the tail of Ed and Martin, those two headed south, me and Wonky headed east. It started raining not far into the trip and as we got closer to Toowoomba, the wind got to be extremely rough, rough enough to try pull my helmet off, the rain very heavy causing the odd aqua plane and the visibility well reduced due to heavy fog. Slowing down, now under the speed limit, wondering if I was going to be able to keep the bike upright, the white lines continued disappearing under my right eye line.
The bypass loomed into view and I rolled off the mountain top and down into the beginning of the Lockyer Valley. The fog at the top was epic but two thirds of the way down the weather relented, wind dying down to the point where the various limits could be maintained, rain relenting a little but still quite heavy. Making my way along the Ipswich and then Logan Motorways, once again essentially empty roads, we turned south on the M1 and then took my exit at the Yatala Pie shop. The road around to my place saw me crossing one bridge with water up to its underside, that told me the second low bridge would be well under and so the second one did me in. 100 metres across, at least a metre deep with water racing, rain still pouring, we retraced our steps and took a route that saw us in Logan Village 20 minutes later. From there we meandered across the roads that sat above the flood line until I finally turned into my street. My street has dips that get flooded but really, there was only one with about 500mm deep water for 20 metres in it so I got home, everything soaked and completely happy with everything.
6 hours later we were flooded in for 2 days. ah the timing.
In the shed hanging all my gear up to drain and dry, I started looking forward to next year.
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