Heading off for a little jaunt in the outback

[Aussie_T100]

I'm heading off tomorrow for a little 2,000 mile jaunt through the outback, all packed and ready to go. Just finished the 40,000K service on my Bonnie and fitted a new front tyre so she's running as sweet as a nut and as keen as I am.

The local British Motorcycle Owners Association has organized the ride with accommodation most nights in country pubs and fairly easy 400 - 500k days. A really good group of guys going on this ride judging by our pre-ride meeting so it should be a bunch of fun - ten bikes in all.

We're heading for Karumba in the Gulf of Carpentaria and then back down through the western country which should be looking really good after the recent rain. Unfortunately I have a wedding to attend on the Atherton Tablelands on the Saturday so I'll be heading out solo tomorrow and meeting up with the rest of the guys at Mt. Surprise on Sunday afternoon. All new country to me from Mt Surprise on - never been out that way before so I'm looking forward to it.

I promise I'll take lots of photos and post them on my return.

Nine days of freedom - bring it on.

 

[strokerlmt]

Very cool....lots of pics especially wayyy outtt backkk....ride safe.
LMT

 

[buckstoy]

Enjoy the trip!

 

[wobblygong]

Probably missed you but if not, have a safe trip and watch out for roos.

 

[otherwise]

Where do you start from, I notice the pins start at "B" Ayr. I've ridden that country back before the kids came along, loved it. If I were going it'd require 4 days ride to the start point, it's a big country :ride:

 

[Nick Morey]

:snack:Looking forward to pics Aussie_T100, but more importantly, hope you have fun!

 

[Aussie_T100]

Where do you start from, I notice the pins start at "B" Ayr.

Starting at Mackay, the L pin covered the A pin, same start & finish point, 3200Klm's in all.

Just about to walk out the door now, final gear check has been done.

Thanks for all of your wishes and see you all in nine days.

 

[Phil-1100]

I spent two weeks with my Bonneville and 28 others all on Triumphs touring round Tasmania early March - I hope you have as much fun as we did.

 

[Aussie_T100]

Well I'm safely back home, tired and a little saddle sore but I wouldn't have missed the experience for quids. The first part of my trip from Mackay to the Atherton Tablelands was fairly uneventful with the only problem encountered being insects on the first leg to Ayr because I was traveling at night. I had to stop every hour or so to clean my visor and the bike and my clothing were covered in dead bugs by the time I made it to my first overnight stop. I spent an hour or so on my arrival cleaning everything off before they set like concrete. The run from Ayr to Malanda on the Tablelands the following day went smoothly and the run up the mountains topped off the days ride nicely.

On Sunday I packed the bike up and did my final checks before heading off for Mt. Surprise to meet up with the other guys doing the gulf western run. The ride through the lush Tablelands country with winding and undulating roads and cool mountain air was very enjoyable even though there was a very light misty rain at the time.

Windy Hill windmills up in the Misty Mountains on the Atherton Tablelands.

From Windy Hill looking west towards Ravenshoe.

Hotel Tully Falls at Ravenshoe, the highest pub in Queensland.

 

[Aussie_T100]

Once you leave the Tablelands the country very quickly changes to typical western savanna and the further west you go the thinner the trees get. This leg of the journey was fairly short with good roads and except for being held up by some roadworks it was covered quickly and without incident.

Stopped at roadworks on the way to Mt. Surprise.

I made it to Mt. Surprise just after 1pm, settled into my accommodation, had some lunch at the cafe next to the pub and then settled down in the bar to wait for the other guys to turn up. I only managed to down one beer before I heard the rumble of approaching bikes and the bar was soon full of thirsty bikers.

Mt Surprise Hotel, our accommodation for my first night with the guys where they put on live entertainment and a $10 per head barbeque for our benefit. Apparently having ten bikers staying at the hotel is a bit of a novelty in Mt. Surprise and by 7pm the place was really rockin', the bar was full and people were spilling out onto the street. The local copper was in attendance, in full uniform, for most of the night and mixed freely with the crowd while drinking can after can of Coke. He seemed to be having just as much fun as those that were imbibing something a little stronger. A really good time was had by all, in fact they were still having a really good time long after I went to bed.

A hearty breakfast was enjoyed the following morning at the roadhouse cafe next to the pub where we fuelled up before heading off for Karumba.

A quick stop was made at an abandoned gold mine just west of Georgetown where we had a quick look around and set the bikes up for a photo shoot.

Early afternoon and we were getting a little thirsty so we stopped for a beer at Purple Pub in Normanton and purchased some lunch from the cafe across the road. We found it to be quite hot in Normanton even though it was late autumn, I can't imagine what it would be like in the middle of summer - pretty hardy folks out there.

Another photo opportunity at the Crocodile monument in Normanton - yes they really do get that big.

 

[Aussie_T100]

A quick run to Karumba 70Klm's away had us there by mid afternoon and we settled into our digs at Ash's Holiday Units & Cafe. Thankfully it was much cooler now that we were by the sea. Once settled we headed for the pub to quench our thirst and watch the sun go down. That evening we dined at Ash's cafe - crumbed barramundi and salad for $12.95, excellent it was too. We had a couple of quiet beers back at the unit and retired early.

Next morning, after eggs on toast & coffee at Ash's Cafe, we headed off on the bikes to explore the local township.

The boat ramp in Karumba where it's common to see up to 400 boats launched per day in the peak of the season.

I don't know if there was 400 boats launched on this day but there were quite a few boat trailers parked in the surrounding streets.

A little history lesson.

We couldn't miss the opportunity to have a late morning beer at the Animal Bar in Karumba township, it was very quiet when we were there but it is reputedly aptly named. This is the only bar I've seen where there are drop down security grills to protect the bar staff when things get a bit out of control. It is commonly frequented by the local fishermen and mine workers who tend to party pretty hard apparently.

 

[Aussie_T100]

Lunch under the mango tree in Karumba. We purchased 4 kilos of fresh cooked prawns (shrimp) straight off the trawler from the previous nights catch along with two loaves of fresh bread, some butter, salt & pepper from the local supermarket as well as two cartons of cold beer and headed back to our units to spend a leisurely afternoon telling yarns while eating prawn sandwiches and drinking to our hearts content. Total cost $180 or $18 each for the ten of us and they were the best prawns I've ever tasted especially when washed down with cold beer.

Later on that same afternoon and the crowd has thinned a little as some of the guys had wandered off to have a little afternoon nap.

That evening we walked across the road to the Sunset Tavern to have a couple more drinks, watch the sun go down over the ocean (a novelty for us east coast dwellers) and have our evening meal. I had crumbed lamb chops and salad which cost $15 and was more than I could eat, especially after the feed of prawns we had for lunch. This was, of course, washed down with several more beers.

The sunset was absolutely incredible as you can see. We soon retired to the units again, sat around chatting and drinking some more beers before hitting the sack early in preparation for the next days ride.

 

[Aussie_T100]

The next day we headed off for Cloncurry and along the way we encountered quite a few road trains hauling lead and zinc ore from the local mines. We gave them quite a wide berth on the narrow roads.

Lunch and a refuel at the Burke and Wills Roadhouse.

A quick stop at the Quamby Pub for a mid afternoon refresher, this little country pub is out in the middle of nowhere - nothing for miles around - just this little pub all by itself beside the highway. While chatting to the publican he says "you should have been here last Saturday night, we had 150 people in the pub". This left us scratching our heads - where do you find 150 people when there seems to be nothing around for miles in any direction? Nice cold beer though.

 

[Aussie_T100]

That night we bunked down in the Wagon Wheels Motel in Cloncurry and dined at the bowls club next door, I had oysters Kilpatrick, washed down with ample cold beer of course.

The next morning we had breakfast and refueled at the local roadhouse before departing Cloncurry heading for Longreach.

Some typical old Australian country architecture in the little town of McKinlay.

Walkabout Creek Hotel McKinlay. This old hotel is where part of the Crocodile Dundee movie was shot.

 

[Aussie_T100]

Fuel stop at Kynuna.

Open road typical of the type of country we were traveling through.

Rest stop, we were beating into a fairly strong headwind this day which made the going a bit tiring and it was also the longest run for one day at 526Klm's

Winton lunch stop.

 

[Aussie_T100]

Rest stop between Winton and Longreach.

This night we bunked down at the Commercial Hotel in Longreach where we also dined. My choice was Chicken Parmigiana with salad for $7.95 - one of the best meals of the trip and nice cold beer to wash it down too, then off to bed for an early night after a tiring day.

The next day we were up bright and early to head for Emerald 415Klm's down the road, it was quite a brisk morning at 10 degrees Celsius and the wind chill at 120Kph made the first hour or so a little uncomfortable but this soon passed once the sun rose a little higher and our grim faces started to smile again - no headwind today either.

The Tree of Knowledge monument in Barcaldine, without a doubt the ugliest monument I have ever seen but it marks a very significant moment in Australian history all the same. Poor old tree is as dead as a dodo now - allegedly poisoned by some Tory mongrel or so the legend goes. You can read more about this here:-

http://www.treeofknowledge.com.au/history.htm

 

[Aussie_T100]

Rest stop in Jericho on our way to Emerald for our next and last overnight stay. At this point I ran out of batteries for my still camera which was very disappointing because we stayed at the private residence of a friend of the guys I was traveling with and he had the most amazing shed full of old (and new) bikes that I have ever seen. Luckily my video camera still had some life left in it so I shot some video of this treasure trove.

http://www.vimeo.com/11760588

Our hosts really laid it on for us with a well stocked beer fridge and a beautiful buffet style meal, we partied quite hard this night and had the beer fridge almost emptied by the time we crashed at midnight. We bunked down in the shed on camp stretchers graciously supplied by our hosts and slept very soundly until dawn.

Things were a little slow to get wound up the next morning but several cups of strong coffee with the option of a bacon and egg breakfast soon had us firing on most cylinders so we packed up, thanked our wonderful hosts for their hospitality and headed off on the home run. Little did our hosts know that we had taken a little collection up before departing and secretly left a nice cash surprise for them in the beer fridge - more than enough to cover them for their outlays I'm sure.

The last leg of our journey was quite uneventful and through country that most of us were familiar with, we just put our heads down and headed for home. At the last fuel stop we all shook hands and said our goodbyes promising each other that we would do something similar again in the not too distant future. As we hit our home town and each of us started to peel off in different directions to head for our homes, giving one last wave as we did so, a sense of sadness came over me - it was coming to an end and I so much just wanted it to go on forever.

 

[wobblygong]

You've made my day Aussie_T100. You've certainly captured the spirit of the brotherhood of motorcycling.
It's wet & miserable down on the NSW Mid-north coast today and your report lifted me no end.
Thanks mate.

What's the average age of your group? I'm 62 and just wondering

 

[otherwise]

Absolutely loved your report and photos, I've ridden some of that country way back in the 70's. You took me along again today, thanks.
Now you've got me thinking....

 

[Nick Morey]

What a report! I felt like I was right there... nice pics, nice story, nice job!