Monday, December 31, 2012

A 2012 Christmas ride - Waffles & icecream


Well Christmas is here and gone for another year....where did 2012 go....for me with 5 week off recovering from a double hip replacement and 7 weeks overseas ticking off the bucket list ( and getting youngest daughter married) that was a quarter gone.What about your year?.... I know that whatever it was for you that God wastes nothing....as St Paul said...."In [Christ] who is the source of my strength I have strength for everything” (Phil 4:13)."
A huge thanks to all who made our Band of biker ride so enjoyable in 2013 and those wonderful support vehicle, we certainly had some fantastic rides in Gods own country, as you can see by our blogs....crowned by our amazing "Hot way round" road trip in early December.
This short ,150 km run, took us down through Yatala, the back of Beenleigh, through Canungra , up the goat track to Mt Tamborine and around to Eagle Heights for a nice Christmas brunch....with waffles and cream of course.

Johns adds some Christmas bling to MG
As normal we welcomed some new riders and a new bike or two..brett even bought his singing teddy bear .
Brett bought his Kwaka 900 from Gateway Sth






Paul introduces his new Harley softail retro












and we had some real Christmas bling from Debbie's painted nails


It was a good turn out for our last ride with 13 or so riders.... though we lost a few around the Yatala turnoff but our trusty ride shepherd BMW Dave was able to get up the mountain safely from the Coomera end.

The quick ride video ....apologise for the tilted aspect, forgot to check before I left.



Jason enjoying a chat with a great backdrop
 Check the following pics from the MG support vehicle....thanks to Andrew K



A special video at Mt Tamborine lookout..... called "Leigh's a Naughty Boy"
...and a Christmas brunch....



Monday, December 24, 2012

"Hot Way Round" - Day 4 the road home

We geared up on a cool morning in Glen Innes for our final day on the road-trip. It promises to be a stark contrast to our first 2 days with some beautiful bike riding through the Gibraltar national park to Grafton, then up the Summerland way to Casino, onto Kyogle and over our final range to Beaudesert then home.....but first some breakfast at Macca's of course and a fill for the bikes.

It was with a little trepidation that we headed off... we just had to remember what it was like leaning around corners, using our brakes and watching for wet slippery roads....and travelling at outback speeds...but everyone was looking for this last day.

So off we went , in low temp, the road looking new having been clean by the large storm that had swept through and limited traffic....just like the Gwidar Highway, which we had ridden from the hot, flat west , was now saying.."come on, I am all yours"
Magnificent Gibraltar  National Park
a break to enjoy the scenery


Mike looking for a snap
some fellow travelers on the road







Am sure you would agree that it there was some great riding was had by all as we made our way over the Gibralta national park then tracked the Mann river towards Grafton. Truly spectacular
 Now can you guess what Mike , our resident paparzzi, was up to in the picture below as Andrew parked near the Maan river.


Mike doing some close up photgraphy
worth the stop?





So after stopping for the obligatory Macca's stop at Grafton it was then off on our well travlled road ...the summerland way...through Casino. Continued to be amazed as to how many people mow the grass on the side of the road...it all looks most sureal to ride through. We stopped brefly in Casino for Des to stretch his Hamstrings ....and I had to find my keys.
sure keys are here somewhere


It was then onto our well driven path through Kyogle then over one last mountain range, through Rathdowney to Beaudesert. What away to fininsh .....as usual at what seems to be our most frequented food stop...Macca's...again.

So after freshing up we retrieved our luggage from the support vehicle, tied them on the bike and headed home with so many great memories , hugely contrasting landscapes, interesting people, places and things.....and great mates. We will remember the "Hot Way Round" for a long, long way....or at least untill next year for the "Bushrangers" trip.
 


just one more photo
Some last reflection from the trip..... our wonderful Paparazzi who never left us alone and captured lots of great memories...too many to put in one blog......and of course the "PRAYING MEN"
burn....burn
 Please one more phoe, please help this BBQ fire up.
Then of course there was always the food, that we would be invited to the Banqueting table (chinese that is)
Then, the most famouse prayer of all from the very patient and ultimately triumphant Des.... "Lord can you please take this Moto Guzzi from me...but your will, not mine be done
the awesome Guzzi

the Faces of roadtrip 2012 - The Hot way round.





Saturday, December 22, 2012

"Hot way round"- day 3 ..the road to the coast



Mike acting as Valet
fuel consumption sure drops in the heat
support crew pumping up tyres
After a short but fascinating day in Lightning Ridge, a restful night under the air-conditioning' we got our gear on and fueled up the bikes ( and support vehicle Tyre pressures) and headed for the cooler temperatures and rolling hills of the coast...reflecting on the great people, sights and landscape of Lightning Ridge.



  So we had a 5 1/2 hr trip ,472 km day ahead of us to overnight stop at Glen Innes , with a stop over a little half way at Moree. It was great seeing the flat landscapes give way to a greener and undulating one.


Club Hotel
After a very hot morning ride we made it to Moree for lunch and to top up the camels then made our way off towards the beautiful hills of the New England ,slightly cooler temperatures, the first sighting of large numbers of highway patrol ....and ultimately Glen Innes and our single ( non air-conned) rooms at the"The Club Hotel". Thankfully the temperature started to fall as a huge storm approached.Once all the gear was thrown into out rooms...the boys got a coldy and RELAXED...check emails and basically shared stories of another awesome ride.
Des,Paul,Ken &Phil relaxing with a
 cold drink
 studious, Bob,Andrew &David catch
up on some news 
posing in city centre
We found out that things are very quite in Glen Innes on a Sunday evening with "the club Hotel" being one of the later closing at 7pm. So off we went for a wander around town ...... macca's for a coffee and of course a 30c ice creme ..
Andrew spied out the local Chinese restaurant and we enjoyed a fantastic banquet as a raging storm blew outside with streets awash , looking  more like a river than a main street.
a "sign" of the times
By the time we finished dessert the storm had passed and we enjoyed a beautifully cool evening , enjoying lounging around on the classic large second story.


Well Day 3 came to a great end as we settled into our own room....no more snorers...no sharing...you could just spread out and have a great night sleep.


Tuesday, December 18, 2012

"Hot Way Round" - Day 2 the road to Lightning Ridge

After a sleepless night at Nindigully Pub, for some of us at least, we awoke early to so we can make a deadline for our "chambers of the black hand opal mine"... but first a big breakfast for the trip, cooked by our master chef from the support team, Mike Tilley
Mike cooking up a breakfast at Nindigully
So, after topping up fuel from containers the night before, we packed the bikes and headed out for a shorter day to lightning ridge some 260 km away. It was enjoyable to ride in the relative cool of the early morning
 but at the same time we needed to be careful of feeding Kangaroo's on the side of the morning....we certainly had seen enough roadkill on the side of the road to make us wary. We soon came upon some amazing irrigated cotton plantations, amazing to see fields of green emerge out of what appears to be hot,flat desolate landscape...and along the way some fantastic roads...funded by mining and cotton ,which were continually being improved.
Dave getting to know the lollipop man in the cotton fields
With time difference between QLD & NSW we managed to get to our motel with plenty of time to spare , bedded our bikes down undercover and went to our rooms to be greeted by our favourite appliance.....an airconditioner!!







After a short rest we met the bus to go to the amazing  "Chambers of the Black Hand" opal mine. It had been mined out but one of the miners found he had an amazing skill for whittling away at the soft clay.... so some 10 years later we have this amazing mine.
Peter was kind enough to take us for a tour of lightning ridge full of eccentric creation, all partly finished, dotting the landscape...yes this is a place you can disappear to.
After a great feed at the Lightning Ridge Bowls club over the road from our motel.... we had to do the only thing you could do on a roadtrip.... a "Wild Hogs" moment....a dip in a artesian pool of course, so off we went on an evening where the temp was in high 30's to jump into a pool registering over 40deg C...madness?? Did bump into a policeman but did have a good chat to a bloke from Burleigh. What a way to finish a truly amazing day 2.