Beer, Flies and Bulldust
by Thommo
When you're sitting atop of one of the largest sand dunes in Australia and gazing upon the vast remoteness of this sunburnt country, you can't help but wonder how hard it was for those pioneering adventurers who set forth into the unknown knowing they might very well not return.
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For once I had decided that this trip would be a daylight only ride, for once, I didn't want to travel at night and all night and I very nearly failed this rule I set on day one. Originally I wasn't going to go, due to lack of dollars. Then, a few days before, I decided to hell with it and I'd deal with the issues later, it wasn't like it would be much different to the last few years.
Thus when I left home to start the journey I had $550 to pretty much do the whole trip on, and much much less in reserve just in case something went wrong. Also a first, I managed to get more than 4 hours sleep the night before, and I wasn't packing the bike the night before either. The planned route for day one was a tad over 600km, so I didn't need to leave at sparrowfart if I didn't want to, and I didn't.
It was just after 7am by the time I fuelled up the bike and pointed the handlebars down the highway. From Bouldercombe where I live I headed up the Mt Morgan range through Mt Morgan and promptly took a back road just to check that everything would handle okay on the dirt. Eventually I made it to Moura and refuelled and covered some more tarmac out west until Springsure, arriving just after lunch.
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The postie takes a breather while crossing the Expedition Range. Something it didn't do in top gear. |
After a quick stop in Springsure to fuel up for the next leg which would mostly be dirt (the Springsure to Tambo road is pretty much a goat track at the best of times), it was time to make tracks if I wanted to get there before dark. There was a little more tarmac on this road that when I was here last, but not much, and when I hit the first bit of dirt I began to wonder if I had chosen the wrong road to take…
Road trains had been through here and the wheel ruts were deep… very deep… loose gravel built up either side and high enough that when I dropped into the wheel track, the bags dug in. Interesting when one minute you're flat chat and the next thing you know your doing walking pace, yet the rear wheel is doing doing flat chat speed. The table drain didn't provide much respite either, so I spent the next 100km switching from one side of the road to the other picking the smaller of the bloody huge rocks to hit. Not having a great deal of power on hand in a postie leads to lots of work heaving the bars upwards to try and ease the pounding the front end was copping. Going so slow also has great advantages. One gets to see the scenery more, and notice historic signs that I would have missed had I been on 600cc adventure bike.
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A dirt road need a good warning sign first... |
So, like any red blooded motorcyclist, I decided to go for sticky up the section of track where the sign was. Damned if I knew where it went, more than likely it would lead into impassable bush. The historic unmaintained track was in better shape than the main road (a few washouts and things to dodge), but overall an exciting little stretch of road. After about 15km, I was starting to wonder if this would merge back to the main road or I'd be shortly doing a U-turn and returning, but the road gods were looking on me favourably and as I came to the top of a small range, there the main road was.
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The Wagon Route |
It looked good too, in ultra good condition asking for uber speeds, which on a postie, isn't all that uber fast… I was now making great time, and much needed it was too, as the afternoon was fast slipping away. The closer I got to the Tambo-Alpha road, the better it was. All grids were taken flat chat, and to add some spice to it, I'd stay in the loose gravel parts of the road, give the bike a little flick to slip the back out and then flick it back the other way crossing the grid straight and coming down the other side a little sideways. Wicked stuff! With about an hour of daylight left I made the Tambo-Alpha road. I had an hour to knock out some 40 km of tarmac, pretty easy and I made it into Tambo with about 15mins of daylight left.
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The CT110 don't stop for no stinkin' fences. Well it does, but it gets going again. Pretty soon. |
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Campsite view on the Barcoo River |
A quick scout along the Barcoo river found me a camping spot for the night, and I ended the day at the pub with a rum, an eight buck dinner, and some entertaining conversation with the locals.
