The Winter Gully Tour - Day 2

We were blessed with later start on day 2 with our Black Hand mine tour pushed back to the afternoon so we had time for some bacon and eggs from the cook with lots of character and the obligatory video's and photo's of this iconic place in the world.

Strange things you see at Nindigully ....Harley riders on Kawasaki's, Honda riders on Harley's, MX5 drivers on a bike and even a gaggle of triumph's all gathered together. :)

Our puncture repair support vehicle (aka Tim in his MX5) also decided to get some cred  and mud by doing a lap of the water logged car park...and we didn't have to pull him out.

and so we managed to get our mandatory group photo outside the pub ....slightly different from our previous pic...what difference 4 years and 8"of rain make .

The 2012 summer tour crew...only 3 did it a gain but more than double the number of bikes

So it was a two and a half hour ride to Lightning Ridge via Thallon and a Dirranbandi where we had to fuel up and leg stretch. The road was recently fully upgraded and flat and smooth... green as and water laying everywhere.

4 turns and we were there...cruiser heaven

wonder if he was thinking...hey I was halfway across that road!

a herd of  Kangaroos charging through a paddock

The level of roadkill almost dropped to zero on this run after seeing carnage everywhere,particularly from Goondiwindi to the Gully (where road-trains run)....Kangaroo's the greatest level (most stupid?) then some wild pigs and the odd Emu ... and the most unusual of all was rescued from the middle of the road by our support crew. With all the rain the grass was green and will become even more lush...we wondered why the Kangaroos bothered dicing with death for feed next to the road...dumb or what, on a bike you can certainly smell the outcome.

The bikes were thirsty after 260km from last fuel stop...a traffic jam at Dirranbandi fuel station. Amazing what service those support vehicles get but BoB did clean my windscreen. John was wondering how he could one of those tyres on his Honda shadow...they would last awhile..
So it was on to Hebel for a leg stretch ....its amazing what you stumble upon as this little town on the "Great Inland Way" was on the route taken by Major Thomas Mitchel on his expedition to find a route from Sydney to Darwin.

We did notice a deterioration of the roads as we entered NSW and the wind did keep those tall triumph's on there toes...but we were soon at the Lighting Ridge turnoff and another photo opportunity at the cement mixer...as symbol of opal mining.

So we finally made it to the Wallangulla Motel ...parked up the bikes,unloaded our gear in our rooms and with Chambers of the Black Hand mine tour not till mid afternoon we headed to lunch at the local burger joint, then back for a rest...the town was full of great Nomads with winter being the peak season for western Qld.

An awesome Lightning ridge street graphic of its mining history

Now it was on to the Chambers of the black hand mine and a bit of fun on a bus.

We had done this tour on the 2012 summer tour....now it was three times the price and we had squeeze on the bus...but everyone had lots of fun, the place is full of characters and tall stories. Unlike last time we only had Ray put his hand in his pocket and buy his wife some lovely opal earrings (with a little prompting of course).

We saw everyone down the mine...Jesus and the disciples, the finger of God, a lost Band of Biker and who said Elvis was dead. The temp in the mine was a constant 22deg C, lovely.

Paulette checking out Rodney Rude or Ray blowing in the breath tester?

After a rest and regroup we headed across the road to the Lightning Ridge bowling club where we enjoyed some fabulous meals and lots of frivolity and story telling.
For many it was back for a quiet night...but for some hardy souls, thanks to Bob's first time driving of the the disco ,we made it to the Hot bore pool for a very warm swim and soak....it was a little bracing though getting out into the crisp night air.

enjoy our day 2 video below