Border Run Day 2 - 414km and interrupted

I had a really cold night in that motel room and was glad to get up early, beating the alarm by 30 minutes.

Dressed and a warming cuppa and I was under way.

Turned out of the main street of Injune and a small wallaby jumped into my path. No problem there, happens all the time. In fact the road from Injune to Womblebank was lousy with them. But the narrow road was nicely mowed back a distance and they were easy to see in the glare of the spotties.

A loud blast of the horns now and then and they noticed me and fled.

Even so I kept the speed to 80kph for most of the way in to Mitchell.

It was a very cold ride. Mostly not a problem with the bike's heaters on full and the low speed, but when the gauge read minus 1 my toes froze. Tucking them right up against the heads helped a little but those vents in the under panels sure didn't help at all.

In to Mitchell and the Caltex now has a nice restaurant and I ordered a big plate of B&E with coffee and sat thawing while it was cooked. Fueled up and headed for Charleville, the sun was now at my back and the day warming up nicely. Lots of dead wildlife on the road but no sign of live kangaroos at all. Happily buzzed along at the 110 limit hoping to bring my average up closer to the 100 needed for such a long day.

I didn't really need fuel in Charleville but needed a pitstop and so topped up the bike at the same time.

Back on the road again and I was travelling south in warm sunshine on a good road. What could possibly go wrong?

There was an oncoming car with van and keeping an eye on him I guess I was a bit late seeing the roo coming from my left. It was angled away so a dab on the brakes would see him go in front. But he may have been spooked by the car and swerved back towards me and my gentle brake became a full panic - way too late.

Collision inevitable, I released brakes at the final moment and leaned in to take the force. The bike took most of it and whipped the roo around so it hit me on the left leg. No damage to me. The roo was no more.

The car and van were locked up and swinging wildly but safely off the road to their left. I pulled up, gingerly in the loose gravel off the road and got off to take a look.

Damage was minimal, mostly to the spotlight that had done such a good job earlier. But the main worry was green fluid dripping everywhere.

The caravan people walked back to see I was OK and within minutes there were several other caravans pulled over. No cars - no trucks - as usual.

But the caravan people were really nice and helped me get the flow of green stemmed enough so I could at least ride the 38km back to Charleville. They even followed me in to make sure I was OK. We may curse caravanners occasionally as mobile roadblocks, but they were nice helpful caring people with me and have gone up in my respect.

Back in Charleville I sought out the Honda shop but they couldn't be much help as it would need parts and they could take a while to get. No quick fix was going to get me going again.

So on to the insurance company, QBE, and they were really good. Transport is arranged to get the bike back to Brisbane Motorcycles and I am in a motel tonight awaiting a flight out tomorrow. All covered.

Even better, he informed me I can have one claim per insurance period without losing the no-claim bonus - and this period runs out in two weeks. (That last one was more than a year ago).

So there's my sad story. Didn't make it to Border Run 2011 but the good thing is it is on every year.

And I'm OK to ride another day. No biggie really. I've hit roos a couple of times before but this was the first time there was enough damage to ruin the trip.

I am glad I was on a big strong bike which took most of the hit and kept me safe.

Thank you Mr Honda.

I did manage a few pics so here they are:

Mitchell Hot Springs. Would have been nice but too early

Early morning wait while I breakfasted

The good caravanning folks

Damage not too bad but that radiator is terminal.