Day 1 - Carnarvon Gorge Road Trip

Well the time had finally arrived for our much awaited 1,700 km road-trip to Carnarvon Gorge, with a total of 14 people, 8 motorbikes and 2 support vehicles we made our way to the Bronco Inn outside Toowoomba...giving us a head start for the long haul 700 km plus to Carnarvon Gorge in 38-40 deg temp.

a 590km ride to Carnarvon Gorge including 13km of dirt!!

It was a great short stopover at the Bronco Inn as everyone finally arrived expectant of a great roadtrip. We enjoyed some great country hospitality and after good dinner and some communal singing thanks to Dave Way's guitar..we turned the aircon up to full and hit the sack, ready for a long ,straight and hot ride in the morning.

Leigh covered with o/night bugs

An early breakfast before hitting the road 150 km to Chinchilla, our first fuel and drink stop. Traffic was heavy with multiple large articulated trucks carry farm and mining material...despite a slow down, the impact of mining can be seen all around this area with vehicles, accommodation donga's and investment in in the larger towns we passed through. As expected the road was straight with a number of roadworks along the way...what a hot job those road workers have.

stretching the legs is always good

It was then onto Roma and the wonderful "Bakeroma" bakery for lunch (thanks Andrew)..the temperature was rising towards 40 deg C..... but Johann found something for free ...a FREE "P"

We pushed on the 90km to Injune, where we filled up some addition fuel containers as there was no more fuel for 260km till Rollenson. We enjoyed the cool drink and shade at Injune though we were standing outside an air conditioned store? There were a couple of Jillaroos in the vehicle , coming in for a cold ice block.

It was from here that things got really interested as a mobile phone weather radar image showed a storm in our path to Carnarvon Gorge ...but being sooo hot sitting down putting on wet weather gear was not a prospect we entertained .... lesson #1...take notice of the technology!

Unfortunately we didn't capture any footage during the storm...too busy holding onto the bikes and the road as the elements tried to dislodge us ...this included lighting bolts that set fires near the road...temp drop from 40 to 20 deg C in the process, something we love sharing now but was scary in the middle of it. The reflection of bike headlights in my mirror kept me going...there was no real choice, no where to hide...

Everyone a little shocked/exhilarated after surviving the storm  ....now to tackle the 13km of dirt road and not one adventure bike in sight!!!
So we turned off the main highway and headed to Takarakka ..after 30km of beautiful tarmac ,lush undergrowth (and the odd herd of cows) we were confronted by the beauty of the amazing Carnarvon Gorge region..draw dropping and thankfully the dirt road hadn't turned to mud and we all safely navigated the journey (with a little trick riding from Drew on the big red Honda Goldwing).

..and so the intrepid adventurers made it to Takarraka Bush resort riding some 590 km in quintessential Aussie landscape, temperatures around 40deg C and with the odd apocalyptic storm thrown in ...what a start to our adventure.

After settling into our glamping tents, purchased our supplies we settled in for a night of good food (thanks Megan & Drew) and conversation then hit the sack after a long day and with an early start to walk the Gorge in the cooler part of the day.

How many supervisors do you needs to prep a meal :) It was great to chilled out and listen to Tim tell us all about those noisy Bats next to his tent.

Drew was amazing on the BBQ but between the singed eyebrows and the kookaburra mafia ( they love expensive eye fillets!) he had a tough time.

As we settle in for the night the animals came out to play... the obligatory Kangaroos everywhere were great to watch...but not the ferel pigs who have done great damage to the gorge (as we would see on day 2) and the Bats that seem to think that its all right to go partying at 2:30am!!

November - a hot and twistie ride via Springbrook

The heatway moving across Australia finally made it to SEQ. Though not as severe as the 45deg that hit Sydney it climbed to 35deg on the coast, dropping to a refreshing 30deg up at Springbrook.

the "gathering" at Gateway prior to departure

Along with around 12 bikes we welcomes Jon and his BMW F800 S to his first ride...and Adam, Pete's nephew up for a weekend for a ride on a hire bike. Seems it was going to be too hot for some of those tough bikers :)











It was suppose to be a relatively short ride but turned out to be one of those interesting one's :)

leaving Gateway

lovely country run down west mt cotton rd

Paul on his BMW r1150 rt at a consolidation point..little did we know he would have to be push started.

We started off with one our favorite small rides to to the freeway via West Mt Cotton Rd..you could be a million away from anyway.
May be it was just the rising temp but the Gremlins started with a battery problem requiring a push start, a small bike off causing difficult starting, the mystery of a flicked on "kill switch" caused me some consternation and lastly a loud noise from a stick being caught in my the belt....but despite that the ride was AWESOME.

 Escaping the traffic on a hot day was our priority so to finally start climbing up towards Springbrooks was pleasant , particularly as the temperature began to drop to a more pleasant 30deg C.
We wound our way to the the Rosella Cafe for morning tea ... a unique little cafe across from the Canyon look out..we enjoyed our usual fun and frivolity.

enjoying some coffee ...Leo playing hide and seek...then a walk to the "best lookout"

The boys thought they would dress me up a little with a facinator added to my normal garb. Check out our new merchandise...the sticker on the helmet and T-shirt.

We finished and went across the road to a great lookout and obligatory selfies...we could see the Spit/Sea World grass fire...looked huge

some great views....sorry about the chrome dome

 So after some good food and views it was off down down the mountain ..through twistie heaven to the heat of Mudgeeraba. With no cars in front of us our Band of Bikers tag line was coming true.."we do eat twisties for breakfast" :) 

 From there it was off back inland to Canungra for some cold drinks and a spray from their mist cooler

tropical rundown from Springbrook ....eventually to The Outpost

Check out a video of the ride below...the rear shots were used as when leading I have no one in front :) 

First Band of Bikers Merchandise

Well we have finally got our first Band of Bikers merchandise item, a T-shirt, out for sale (around $30/ea).
The front has a large Band of Bikers logo...and our tongue in cheek slogan.."we eat twisties for breakfast" (thx leigh k) , on the back highlights our blog and all our roadtrips to date ....and we have one colour...black of course.
Email me if you would like order one...they are a pre-shrunk, cotton..in a little larger size.

October ride to Binna Burra with extra's

Another great ride in October to Binna Burra and beyond. We again enjoyed the company of some new riders ( Di Walton,  and bikes as we meandered a few hundred kms around the great scenic and twistie hinterland roads.

we welcomed Di ,as a passenger on Daves BIG new Indian, also Doug and Phil

Prior to others arriving I met up with our newly form Gateway 4WD club who were on their way to Bribie Island for a bit of off-roading" and they though it funny to put a snatch strap onto my bike and pull me along .....ok so they have more wheels than we do but managed to convince them not to.:) 

So we headed with 20 bikes in tow and picked up a few on the way for our 209km rides with many obligatory coffee and food stops.

Its always a great sound as we roar out of Gateway then attack the boring S.E freeway, oh well there has to be some effort for the amazing reward we get.

So it was a run down the freeway and across to Belmont rd via Mt Nathan for the run up to Binna Burra , the other way round.

We enjoy a great morning tea with awesome views at the Binna Burra Cafe ...we enjoyed a chin-wag and some great food.

Then it was back down the mountain , skirting Canungra and headed up the steep Heni Roberts drive stopping at a look out on Nth Tamborine for a photo opportunity....what a good looking bunch of bikers :)

whats it with men and bikes..they just love them ..even designing wind deflectors in cardboard..well done Des

I think Brenton likes me ...the boys were watching some para-gliders ride the thermals

....But trying to get a group photo is like herding cats 

Mt Tamborine was celebrating some form of scarecrow festival so we were entertained as we road to the spice of life for lunch with all the variety of stuffed characters ...and found the biggest when we had lunch ...Paul and Phil wondered what the fuss was sitting next to this stuffed green hulk.

So gradually everyone left to find their own exciting way home after a great days riding in the great South East with some awesome rides... already looking forward to our next ride with the Band of Bikers.

Check out the extended split screen video of our ride up Beachmont Rd chasing one of our support vehicles then onto Binna Burra.

September - a Kyogle day and Yamba o/night roadtrip

Finally it was back on the road again with our Band of Bikers Community now numbering over 300 when we include Gateway and Meetup subscriptions. Some 25 riders and 20 people joined us this monthly ride incorporated a trip to the Lions TT (at Kyogle)and our first 2 day roadtrip ...this time down to Yamba. 

Some 15 people came along on the 650km run down to Yamba, via Lions TT Kyogle and across the Clarence River on a barge at Lawrence. We dodged most of the rain on the way down but found some in the morning the following day as we headed home via Byron Bay, Murwillumbah and Numinbah Valley as the QLD dry weather kicked in.
I love finding roads that bring a smile to the face of an old cruiser ride...on this ride apart from the usual I loved "Pringle's Way" between Casino and Lawrence and "Tweed Valley Way" off the pacific highway up from Byron Bay to Murwillumbah....Luuuvvv it.

Keen to get to Kyogle to maximise Lions TT time we grabbed a quick coffee at Beaudesert Macca's then followed the new adventure biker rider , Steve G with his Honda Cross Tourer. We enjoyed the twisty run up Mt Lindsay Highway to the Summerland way turn-off and stretched our legs before enjoying the sweeping curves to Kyogle.

With bad weather around in the late weekend the TT at Kyogle was tailored back and though there were a lot more bikers around Kyogle it seemed a little disappointing with the biker carnival feel totally missing.

After a good lunch the dayriders headed off home via Lions road ...seems like they had a good time

lots of photo opportunities

So as half the Band the Bikers headed home the rest of us powered on to the Pacific Hotel Yamba with some suspect weather ahead....but apart from a few sprinkles we were able to navigate our way through to Lawrence, over the Clarence river and on through McLean to the coast.

we had all type of weather ...it was dry at the important times

 We enjoyed our time at the Pacific Hotel ...the bikes got some undercover parking, the views were spectacular and food great ...it was an early night though some of us didn't get much shut eye with "doof doof" music running till after mid-night ...those on the otherside of the hotel wondered what we were talking about...a trade off for an awesome location.

We awoke to some constant rain on Sunday morning but found a great spot for breakfast out of the weather ....it was then off to the obligatory group photo ..resplendent in wet weather gear.

I was a not impressed with the weather...

Our mood was a little down with the weather closing in but with a belly full of good food and rugged up against the weather we headed off on the coast road to Byron Bay...after an hour or so the rain stopped an we could enjoy some hood views...though the Byron Bay traffic bought us back to earth. A morning tea at the pub and we were ready to head off to Murwillumbah on the magic Tweed-Valley Way...great sweeping curves climbing and dropping through the country side. It was dissappointing that my bike camera's not only were set up wrong but also ran out of batter...so no video sorry but be assured...we had smiles on our face.

The greatest aspect of these roadtrips are the people and we had a great group who made the weekend memorable.