Took the good turn of weather as an opportunity to ride out and see friends and family over the past 5 days. Perfect weather all the time!
So the first stint would be the longest, 371k's to north west of Gympie. I'd been undecided about which of the three ways I could go, inland, coast, or cut across heading north east. The last one got the nod as I rode past the 12 mile turnoff to Brisvegas.
And what a good nod it was. Took the Pilton turn off from the Towoomba 'highway' and found that Ma Ma Creek road had been fixed up a lot since 7 weeks ago when it tried to turn me into a pretzel. So this time I could enjoy the ride instead of dreading the pain in each turn.
The road takes you into Gatton where I took the Esk road out and got sand blasted by a semi hauling landfill. Forgot what that was like, and now I remember it I still hate it. Even though the road marking told me I wasn't allowed to pass .. you know how it is. The rest of the ride to Esk was most enjoyable, as was my breaky and a ciggy in the park there. Saw a slightly older couple heading out from there on a big Beemer as I pulled in. 2 wheel Grey Nomading is fun, obviously.
With the body fuelled up it was time to decide whether to go via Somerset Dam, which would be the preferred route with plenty of time up my sleeve, or ride on from Esk to join up with D'Aguilar highway to Kilcoy. The last option got this nod. Before Woodford I turned off for the Kilcoy-Beerwah road as I knew this was a nice bit of road with some windies and lots of scenery to cruise through.
Fuelled up in Beerwah before hitting heavier traffic on "Crikey!! I'm dead Way" and even more traffic once on the Bruce Highway.. me no likey that road. Once I got to the 90km/h zone all the way to Gympie and beyond, boredom set in. I've seen that scenery more times than I can count and sitting behind a Hyundai, behind a Bus, behind a semi... etc, just wasn't sitting well with me. So I was naughty all the way and finally arrived at my first stopover.
Next day I took a ride to Tin Can Bay to see an old friend, and was still a bit naughty.. damn that highway!! Saw some "lose your licence and go to jail" speed once or twice. Yep, very naughty. But in my defence I was being sandblasted by semi's hauling dirt and others with logs.
Had a day out of the saddle doing other things and come Saturday morning I pulled my saddle bags out of my mate's shed, cleaned them up, and found I can carry a week's worth of stuff in them. Which is looking good for my 2 week NSW tour later in the year. Gives me more room now for small tent and bedroll, and food, and spare fuel.
Saturday arvo I headed to Yandina down the Bruce highway.. behaved myself a lot better this time. After a coffe and ciggy stop I continued on the higway.. which was getting boring by now .. until the Pumicestone road turnoff. I thought I would have a look at the old back road to Strathpine as it used to be a nice cruise when I kicked around there. Ok that was last century, so things might have changed a bit.
They had. Lots. Apart from all the trees being taller, the housing, shops and signage had increased 1,000's of times more than I knew it in the mid to late 80's and with so much going on I had to get my focus on big time. It just got heavier from there, all the way through Caboolture, Petrie and Strathpine. Not going that way ever again... 'effin madness.
So I was glad to arrive at a mate's place nearby and hide behind his big gates away from the madding crowds. Kicked back overnight and this morning the bike got her wash, ready for the last stint through Brisvegas and out to Gumbieville via Cunningham's Gap. Was nice to get home. Checked the trip meter which read 967km's.
There were lots of bikes on the road come Friday arvo, and more over the weekend. Well it was perfect riding weather.
Not a bad 5 days I reckon. And great praccy for my jaunt south through Mexico around the time of this year's Bazza Memorial Ride.
No comments:
Post a Comment