As part of the FarRiders group, this is the ninth FarRide we have attended. The idea is to do 1000km in a 24 hour period and be at a certain place and time. This time it was the Thurgoona Golf Club at Albury. Calculating distance was not going to be a problem as it is over 1300 km to get there from here. On previous FarRides we have had to pick a long way round to put in the kays.
Target time was 12:00 - 12:30pm on Saturday. Miss out checking in during this window and you miss out on certification for the FarRide.Charleen couldn't ride this time as she needed to work on Friday and without sufficient sleep it would be dangerous to attempt an overnight ride. However I don't have that worry and so caught a few zeds Friday afternoon. Charleen could catnap on the bike as we went if necessary.
We departed Rocklea at 7:10pm with a docket showing our time and location tucked away. This was necessary as proof we did do the 1000 km minimum.
I took a bit of film testing out one camera setup we plan to use overseas.
All in all it went well with few problems. It was a little cold during the night with the gauge getting down to 2ºC. But we were fairly well rugged up with only the hands feeling it. Dawn saw us at Dubbo and we breakfasted at Forbes. We still had plenty of time up our sleeves so we traveled at a leisurely pace to Wyalong and made the turn.
Only a few hours later we were at Albury with about an hour to spare. In to the car park where all the bikes were starting to turn up. 67 in all from all over the country.
Click the photo for larger (1.5MB download)
We had a good lunch with our organizer Davo giving his speech welcoming all the new and old FarRiders. It was also great to catch up with friends we only see on the FarRides - though we do keep in touch on the internet.
After lunch we headed north again, but were not planning to go too far as I was getting quite tired. We opted to go a slightly different way home and take our time. So we pulled up at Junee where we climbed in to bed and I slept a good 12 hours.
Up bright and early, we headed mostly north-east stopping first at Cootamundra for brekky, then through Young and Cowra. Across to Bathurst and over the Sofala road to Mudgee.
Then it was up the middle. My favourite way to travel between Brisbane and the South, avoiding the over-busy Newell or New England highways, but staying in between them.
When we got to Gunnedah at about 4pm and still 680km from home, we decided to call it quits for the day. Charleen had the Monday off work so we were in no hurry. We found an excellent motel - Maynestay - and settled in.
On the road again next morning and it was quite chilly with high cloud almost obscuring the sun. We travelled up our "middle" route, eventually coming out at Stanthorpe where we had a bite of lunch and a final refuel before the last couple of hours in to Brissie and home.
A total of 2853 kilometres for the weekend and a very nice ride.
Some photos:-
holy sh*(*T clint whats that music on that video C&W whats going on ?????????
ReplyDeletegood video by the way whats the camera is this new ?
johng