Friday, July 8, 2016

The Winter Gully Tour - Day 3

After great nights sleep we awoke to clear skies ,a cold morning and a little frost on the bikes ...but had a great breakfast and all ready for a departure at 8:30am for our 470km run to Glen Innes and the freezing temp on the granite belt.
On the previous night at the Bowls club we handed out B.o.B stickers tot he worthy roadtrippers. Tim earned his sticker from his stella support of bikers with punctures..came out the follow morning to find the sticker proudly displayed on....his arial ...not sure how long it will last but its the thought that counts.

Leaving in the morning is never without some issues...this morning was Paulette's Harley refusing to start so, while the rest of us were filling up a few boys were push starting her hard cranking bike...they certainly warmed up!
So it was Crusty's turn to lead us through to Glen Innes...with a leg stretch at Collarenebri, fuel and
morning tea at Moree...( and meeting up with with Steve G) then Inverell an onto Glen Innes. This was the the beginning of the Gwydir highway that ran all the way from sth -west QLD through to Grafton and the coast ...from the wide open farmland through the sweeping curves of New England area then onto the twisties of the Gibraltar national park....fantastic!!

Things were again going well I thought until a small encounter with an emu ....not helped by my pre-occupation with three camera remotes on my dash and prattling onto Ray on my Sena s20...this woke me up. Ironically my camera's were not running at the time :) 
picture only for illustration purposes only
Then on arriving at a stretch and fuel stop at Collarenebri we seem to have lost half the group ..... the mystery was resolved when stories of Leigh K's seat comforter that flew off down the road...Paulette came to the rescuse though. Leigh McQ wondered what was going on. So with all the crew back together we headed off the 140km to Moree ...but nearly an hour behind schedule. 
The landscape was flat with some huge broad acreage farming taking place with huge paddocks of green from crops growing contrasting with the barren, unattended landscapes just across the highway. 
Due to the late departure and delays along the way Moree turned into our Lunch and fuelstop with Steve G joining us on his Honda 1200 Crosstourer. We stumbled on this great little art gallery come cafe...they were a little overwhelmed as they were about to close early saturday afternoon and a bunch of hungry Band of Bikers stormed in...despite expected delays everyone got fed and fueled up as we knew the temp was going to fall as the afternoon rolled on towards Glen Innes.
We saw the rolling flat plains gradually develop into the rolling hills as we went through Inverell and into the granite belt. With a leg stretch at Inverell we were all keen to get on the road and get settle into the Great Central Hotel at Glen Innes and enjoyed the open fires and lamb shank cooked by Tony, our host and Steve G's good mate.

So as the sun began to set and the temperature drop we rolled into Glen Innes and headed straight for the Great Central Hotel where we were met by Tony, our host. After losing a few bikers ( thanks for rounding them up Ray)we all managed to fit the bikes snuggly under cover beside the hotel for what was going to be a very cold night!
What a great hotel the Great Central promised and proved to be...after a nice warm shower we met up in the bar around the fire for more tall stories and true. It was a great days riding with a transition to more interesting landscape, a blue sky and no rain the it was getting colder as promised. Tonight we enjoyed a great dinner and community , our spirits were high and with expectations rising with some trepidation of the last day's twisties through the Gibralter National park and the prospect of ice....Mondays forecast was for snow at Glen Innes!!!

After dinner we enjoyed a small self contained area with a fire, lounge and kitchenette, where we whiled away the night with a coffee and good conversation of bikes and life.Whilst we slept in on our electric blanketed and comfortable bed the temp dropped overnight to -6.7deg but we were lost in dream of more riding, beautiful landscapes with a few twisties thrown in....indeed more adventure...before dementure :)
check out our video of day 3 below...