Trip to Longreach ~ Day 8
08/10/08 08:02 Filed in: Motorcycle
Madness
I left Roma at 6am this morning heading for Surat. It
was pleasantly cool, but clouds were gathering. I am
hoping to see Emu’s somewhere along the track today.
I’ve seen very little actual wildlife so far this
trip, aside from some Brolgas.
The road to Surat was flat and featureless and I could see rain to the West. I stopped in Surat for a quick break but it ended up longer than expected. A bloke by the name of Peter Ryan saw my bike and walked over for a chat. He’s also a bike rider and comes from Toowoomba. We had a good chin-wag and he’s put me onto a few necessities for the bike. 1. a new seat, and 2. cruise control. I’ll do some “Googling” when I get back home and see if I can track them down. I remember an ad in the Australian Road Rider mag that was selling bike seats that prevent the “Bum-burn”. I don’t suffer too badly from it, I stand up every now and then to stretch my legs. This act get’s people looking. Traveling at 100+ kms with the rider standing up is close to flying.
My longer than anticipated stay in Surat meant the rain caught me up. Just out of the town I had to stop again and put on the wet weather gear.
Just out of St. George is Beardmore Dam. My Dad was one of the engineers who worked on the Dam so I stopped in to have a look and take a few photos. The rain had eased slightly but came back by the time I got to St. George. The rain continued all the way to Goondiwindi. I gave up on the photo taking and just tried to make the best of it.
I got into Goondiwindi at around 3:30pm with the rain coming down. I decided to stop here rather than try and push through to Warwick. Warwick is another 200kms down the road and in the rain didn’t sound to enticing. Certainly not as enticing as a dry Motel room. Before finding a place to stay I rode around the town. I got looks from everyone. Who was this mad person riding around in the rain? I’ve driven through Goondiwindi a number of times on my way to other places but this time I took the time to look around. It seems like a nice place, I could see myself working out this way. Mind you, I thought this as I went through Emerald, Longreach, Charleville, Roma and St. George also.
Anyway, I’m now dry and happy to see the panniers don’t leak. I’ll head to Warwick and home tomorrow.
The road to Surat was flat and featureless and I could see rain to the West. I stopped in Surat for a quick break but it ended up longer than expected. A bloke by the name of Peter Ryan saw my bike and walked over for a chat. He’s also a bike rider and comes from Toowoomba. We had a good chin-wag and he’s put me onto a few necessities for the bike. 1. a new seat, and 2. cruise control. I’ll do some “Googling” when I get back home and see if I can track them down. I remember an ad in the Australian Road Rider mag that was selling bike seats that prevent the “Bum-burn”. I don’t suffer too badly from it, I stand up every now and then to stretch my legs. This act get’s people looking. Traveling at 100+ kms with the rider standing up is close to flying.
My longer than anticipated stay in Surat meant the rain caught me up. Just out of the town I had to stop again and put on the wet weather gear.
Just out of St. George is Beardmore Dam. My Dad was one of the engineers who worked on the Dam so I stopped in to have a look and take a few photos. The rain had eased slightly but came back by the time I got to St. George. The rain continued all the way to Goondiwindi. I gave up on the photo taking and just tried to make the best of it.
I got into Goondiwindi at around 3:30pm with the rain coming down. I decided to stop here rather than try and push through to Warwick. Warwick is another 200kms down the road and in the rain didn’t sound to enticing. Certainly not as enticing as a dry Motel room. Before finding a place to stay I rode around the town. I got looks from everyone. Who was this mad person riding around in the rain? I’ve driven through Goondiwindi a number of times on my way to other places but this time I took the time to look around. It seems like a nice place, I could see myself working out this way. Mind you, I thought this as I went through Emerald, Longreach, Charleville, Roma and St. George also.
Anyway, I’m now dry and happy to see the panniers don’t leak. I’ll head to Warwick and home tomorrow.
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