tabledrain
IBR Finisher
The phone rings on Wednesday arvo prior to the Saturday lunch meet. Hackle says, "what are you doing on the weekend."? Truth be told, zip, nada and nothing. He then proceeds to convince me I should burn fuel, wear out my motorbike some, see some country, have a pub meal and go home.
I sighed, agreed, and while we were chatting decided I'd run down from Beenleigh to Grafton, across to Inverell and make the rest of the plan up from there with regards as to how I would arrive at Moree.
The ATM showed me my start time was 00.00.01 Saturday morning. That's close enough to midnight and all completely lucky, I didn't even check the time till I was writing the odo on the reciept. South we headed, me and Wonky, south into rain and blustery winds all the way to Grafton.
I love my Stich; it kept me dry all the way but at Grafton the decision was made to put the wets on, crossing the range to Glen Innes is cold almost any time of the year and in the small hours right before dawn on a wet night, especially so. Over the range and into Glen Innes, flip flop through the dogleg in town and west to Inverell, the road to ourselves and not a vehicle or animal to be seen. I love riding in this country, oftentimes I feel like the only person in it and this feeling may be one of the reasons I love night rides, the sense of isolation and aloneness, content in that bubble.
Inverell was quiet just before sunrise, I found a servo and after ordering a coffee, sat and worked out my route. In the end, we took as many back roads as possible to Bendemeer and this involved some nice dirt sections, well formed, empty, a little enthusiastically traversed and with the wheels full of dust in Bendemeer an hour or two later, I turned south to Tamworth. A quick stop in Tamworth to say to some important people in my life and then the back roads through Keepit Dam, Kelvin, Wean and finally popping out on the Boggabri - Narrabri road just north of Boggy. All these back roads I grew up on, my old paddock basher and I learning how to drive( or not) depending the the latest success or failure.
I rolled into Narrabri and Wonky took 32.9 litres, sheesh, that's close to walking with a 33 litre capacity. Hackle went by, we chucked salutory waves at each other and after a couple minutes we also hit the highway north to Moree. three of us arrived one on top of the other almost.
These ever so brief connections are wonderful, I never leave feeling any thing other than grateful to have been so fortunate to be part of the seemingly madcap idea that riding all weekend is a good idea and the other four riders that turned up, I thank you for your camaraderie.
Heading north to home the plan was made up as the road disappeared behind me. Goondiwindi, hhmm, screw it, turn left lets go to Moonie. I fueled there at the crossroads, the very close fuel call from the morning still fresh, turned right and headed to Cecil Plains.
The Cecil Plains Rd takes you to Toowoomba, but I really love the Moonie to Cecil Plains section. Its forested, scrubby stuff, good tar, twisty-ish, empty, and on a sunny Sunday afternoon, its a great ride. Its full of empty river courses and floodways, mostly reasonably shallow with reasonable approaches but when you are having a bit of fun, the suspension is gonna get a work out and so Wonky got its suspension well and truly exercised here.
Toowoomba was the beginning of traffic and so the run down the range and across to the Logan and M1 motorways were ridden with the sun finally starting to lose the warmth I had felt since leaving Moree and as I rolled into the workshop, the odo clicked over 1515km.
Not bad for a weekend with no plan. See you at the next one.
I sighed, agreed, and while we were chatting decided I'd run down from Beenleigh to Grafton, across to Inverell and make the rest of the plan up from there with regards as to how I would arrive at Moree.
The ATM showed me my start time was 00.00.01 Saturday morning. That's close enough to midnight and all completely lucky, I didn't even check the time till I was writing the odo on the reciept. South we headed, me and Wonky, south into rain and blustery winds all the way to Grafton.
I love my Stich; it kept me dry all the way but at Grafton the decision was made to put the wets on, crossing the range to Glen Innes is cold almost any time of the year and in the small hours right before dawn on a wet night, especially so. Over the range and into Glen Innes, flip flop through the dogleg in town and west to Inverell, the road to ourselves and not a vehicle or animal to be seen. I love riding in this country, oftentimes I feel like the only person in it and this feeling may be one of the reasons I love night rides, the sense of isolation and aloneness, content in that bubble.
Inverell was quiet just before sunrise, I found a servo and after ordering a coffee, sat and worked out my route. In the end, we took as many back roads as possible to Bendemeer and this involved some nice dirt sections, well formed, empty, a little enthusiastically traversed and with the wheels full of dust in Bendemeer an hour or two later, I turned south to Tamworth. A quick stop in Tamworth to say to some important people in my life and then the back roads through Keepit Dam, Kelvin, Wean and finally popping out on the Boggabri - Narrabri road just north of Boggy. All these back roads I grew up on, my old paddock basher and I learning how to drive( or not) depending the the latest success or failure.
I rolled into Narrabri and Wonky took 32.9 litres, sheesh, that's close to walking with a 33 litre capacity. Hackle went by, we chucked salutory waves at each other and after a couple minutes we also hit the highway north to Moree. three of us arrived one on top of the other almost.
These ever so brief connections are wonderful, I never leave feeling any thing other than grateful to have been so fortunate to be part of the seemingly madcap idea that riding all weekend is a good idea and the other four riders that turned up, I thank you for your camaraderie.
Heading north to home the plan was made up as the road disappeared behind me. Goondiwindi, hhmm, screw it, turn left lets go to Moonie. I fueled there at the crossroads, the very close fuel call from the morning still fresh, turned right and headed to Cecil Plains.
The Cecil Plains Rd takes you to Toowoomba, but I really love the Moonie to Cecil Plains section. Its forested, scrubby stuff, good tar, twisty-ish, empty, and on a sunny Sunday afternoon, its a great ride. Its full of empty river courses and floodways, mostly reasonably shallow with reasonable approaches but when you are having a bit of fun, the suspension is gonna get a work out and so Wonky got its suspension well and truly exercised here.
Toowoomba was the beginning of traffic and so the run down the range and across to the Logan and M1 motorways were ridden with the sun finally starting to lose the warmth I had felt since leaving Moree and as I rolled into the workshop, the odo clicked over 1515km.
Not bad for a weekend with no plan. See you at the next one.
