Got a little tweaking to do before the bandit is ready to tour again this year, the 200K mark needs to be crossed. This was my first trip to the Island.
My Supers trip started out pretty wet and I hit the road a little later than I had intended to. I had intended to be heading out the gate by 3am on the Tuesday morning, but after getting up at 2:30am and then stuffing around and doing a couple of things that I had forgotten to do saw me heading out thru the gate at 4 am with the trailer in tow. I didn’t really need a trailer to go to supers, but I owed a big favour to a good mate of mine whose brother lived in Melbourne, and that favour was called in, a debt owed, a debt to be paid, and so I had the trailer loaded with some 50kg of stuff. It made packing the bike easy, real easy, I simply threw stuff in the trailer!
Once out of the driveway, I took the turn on the highway and up the Mt Morgan range, a short, sharp and tight bit of road that doesn’t last very long at all, along with a few loose rocks strewn along it, the weather was nice and cool, ideal for riding and halfway thru Mt Morgan itself, a light misty rain started to fall, a sign of things to come for the day.
Not long after, I pulled on the wets and kept going running thru some heavier showers and lots of water along the road. On small creek had me slow right down as the road was under water, and upon inspection, as I got closer, I could see the line markings clearly under the water and crossed it without any drama, the water was only about 6inches above the road and some 3 metres wide. Just before sunrise and not long after I had went thru a place called Theodore, I came across another low spot in the road, not a bridge but simply some culverts, but the water was some 20 metres wide and this I thought, needed a hawk-eyed look see.
After walking it and find it all good, with the odd bit around a foot deep, I proceeded on my way, finally getting to Miles and my now habitual stop for fuel and a snack and also find out why the gps was on battery power and not getting power off the bike. After a leisurely breakfast and yack to a bloke about the bike, I found the offending fuse that was causing my gps power issues and than set about knocking out some more miles. As I left Miles, I thought I was in luck as the rain had eased and looked to be breaking, but alas, it was not to be!
Once thru Condamine, the rain varied from drizzle to heavy rain patches, the puddles of water on the road were getting bigger as I hit them, and me being me, I was setting along at my usual pace, and the bow wave coming off the front wheel was just finding the right spots and my boots were constantly getting ripped off the pegs, it didn’t take long before my boots were simply full of water. This continued right up to the outskirts of Goondiwindi, where it eased right up and started breaking up very quickly.
I stopped at a servo on the outskirts of Boggabilla to take the wets off and saw that they had pretty damn cheap fuel, so I topped the tanks up and decided that my next stop would be Dubbo, around 500km down the boring highway of which to only bit to write home about is Coonabarabran to Gilgandra stretch with the few hills and sweepers that one can find. The odd thing about this stretch, is that most of it is signed to a 100 speed limit, whereas the rest of the highway is 110. Go figure!
After fuelling up in Dubbo, along with a Mars bar, I cruised on out and headed for Narrandera, where I had intended to stop for the night, but few km south of West Wyalong just on sundown, I spied a nice little rest area that looked just right to stop and have a drink and a munch on another snack. As I pulled in I saw another bloke there rolling out his swag and about to have a camp. We got to yacking, and there were a nice couple of bench tops that had some nice roofing over them and I decided that the company was good, so stopping here was the go!
‘ol mate was heading north on his fatboy to a birthday bash or something and was from Melbourne, he was a bit rooted and had decided to stop here for a few hrs or so.
No worries says I, I drag the triangia stove out and whip up some dinner for us, along with a bit of snakebite medicine from the flask in the tank bag and we were set for the night. Before turning it, I tried to convince ‘ol mate that we needed to find some fire wood and stoke the little fireplace thingy that was there and light it a little later on, as
I reckoned it was gonna get bloody cool in the early hrs of the morning, but he convinced a gullible me that wasn’t needed. I shoulda went and got wood myself, as around 4am qld time I went and found my boots, which had miraculously had dried in the later parts of the afternoon with the help of some engine heat, and put them on to try and keep me toes warm.
‘Ol mate was still sacked out as I packed up and got ready to leave just before sunup, but as soon as the bike started up he was up and we parted ways.
The gps reading when I pulled up:
Taken a few km down the road as the sun was coming up:
After a fuel stop at Narrandera, nothing much to write home about, I went thru Shepparton and then made my way onto the Hume highway and then into Melbourne, to make my stopover there to deliver the goods that I had onboard. After doing so (a debt owed, a debt payed), and finding that I was a lot earlier than I thought I would be I headed straight for the Island. Those who had offered me a place to sack out in the Melbourne area, your offers were greatly appreciated and if any of you are in my neck of the woods and looking for some company or just a place to sack out, just call!
I made San Remo and let Rosie know I was there, she had offered some space and her place to sack out over the weekend, which made the trip affordable for me, not having to fork out mega bucks for accom. She gave me a quick tour of the Island, and I was surprised at how rural and peaceful it was, I thought it would be more metropolized than what it was.
Stats for the day, including have to go into Melbourne and harassing those poor Mexicarnts
Topic: Thommo's Supers 2008 trip ( on an FJR1300) (Read 9157 times)