At FarRiders, we play riding games. One is called FarTowns Spelling Game. THe idea is to have a word and be the first person to go fo a ride and photograph town welcome signs or entry signs and using the first letter, make up the word. I did a run on 31 March and here is the Ride Report I files with Far Riders.
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Now that is doable and I'm just sitting around here. First, though, a little planning. Looks like U is going to be the hardest, so look up local towns starting with U. Close by is Underwood, but that is a suburb so I better not go there. Urangan is up in Hervey Bay area and doable, but UKI in Northern NSW is closer and half the day is gone already.
OK so what else is close. Plenty of B towns so no worries. Couple of Gs needed. Goldcoast? Nah - too easy. There's one, at the back of Tweed and a small E town nearby and both this side of UKI. Great. Looks like I will have to do a big loop around to Rathdowney for the R, but that means the Mt Lindsay Hwy.
Make up a route and download it to the GPS.
Quickly grab everything. GPS, SPOT, IPOD, Camera, Video, tank bag. Set em up and I'm off. 11:00am already. Going to be a quick day.
Down past the Gold Coast. If I saw a Welcome sign it wouldn't have been safe to stop for a photo on the M1 anyway.
Through the new tunnel and turn off and head up behind the Tweed looking for a place called Glengarry.
Well, it was a great little piece of road, but when I got there it was only a locality. A few houses but no town sign.
BUGGER. The word for the day.
OK, there are more G towns ahead so I should be alright. Head back out to the highway and turn off for Murwillumbah and the E town just outside. There's the turnoff sign to Eungella, but I need the town. Just a few kays off track. Well I went all the way to Tyalgum, but there was no Eungella town. Same as before. BUGGER again. This is bad. I do not know of any more E towns on the route and it is already nearly 2:00pm and a long way to go.
At least I know there is UKI and I finally pulled up and got my first pic of the day.
Back on the road again and catch back up to the hippie driving all over the road in the old Subaru. Every left turn he floated out over the double lines. Glad there were no bikes cutting in close coming the other way. I'd soon had enough and found a longer than usual bit, dropped back to third and blasted past in the blink of an eye. I love my Bird.
Along the Kyogle Road it is pretty twisty and the going wasn't really fast. Local council, bless their tiny hearts had just laid spots of bitumen and rocks here and there on the road and small stones were flying everywhere. There was no colour change in this new wet surface and a couple of times the front did a little sideways skip on the corners. Heart in mouth stuff.
School's Out. And so are the lumbering buses. Got really slowed behind one for a while. Twisty and doubles so no overtaking. Traffic backed up. Behind me a low sleek Mercedes - itching to go.
Finally, a clear bit. Broken lines and two big open sweeping corners. Give the bird its head. Quick mirror check and the Merc is up my clacker. I'll give him his due, he stayed with me for a few corners, but really?
Down in to Kyogle and fuel up. 285km, it is 2:30pm I've got only one picture and no known E town. BUGGER.
Leaving the servo I see a signpost and there on it is Ettrick, only 13km off track. Great. Plug it into the GPS and away I go. 13km along a nice bit of twisty road and there is nothing there. The GPS track leads off on to a dirt road and stops. BUGGER.
Well I'll just go over that bridge to turn around. Over the bridge what do I see?
Two pics and 3:00pm. At least I have both vowels. Ways to go yet.
Back to Kyogle. Took a little film on the way. Fun road. Here it is on YouTube.
Next stop Rathdowney - time to get the lead out. The road is quiet now all the kids are home from school (it is actually after 4pm here).
Did I say I love my Bird?
Picked up my first G on the way.
Then the great run past Mt Lindsay. So many corners, so little time. I boiled the brake fluid. Well - it needs a change.
Did a lot of gear changes while the brakes cooled and after a while they came back.
4:00pm and I'm feeling great. Practically had that road to myself.
Then it was a quick run in to Beaudesert for the big B sign.
One more quick stop 6 km out of Beaudesert to pick up Gleneagle
4:40pm and I'm done. Now to battle the traffic back in to the big smoke, fire up the puter and hope I get it online before some other BUGGER beats me to it.
I even got home before Charleen, but didn't have time to cook dinner, so it had to be pizzas. Oh well.
It was a great day. 485kays, beautiful weather, good roads, little traffic and a goal that was just a BUGGER.
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