another 400km Queensland country circuit...

[wordsmith]

A much-travelled motorcycling mate once said to me that the best way to prepare for a long ride is to take a long ride.   I understand what he means!   With that in mind, and with too few kilometres on the road in recent months for many good reasons, I intend to put in a few decent weekend rides before I head off on my ~4500km circuit to Far North Queensland at the end of May.   My ‘decent weekend rides’ won’t be anything like the day-in-day-out 600km to 800km and occasional 1000km+ BMW rides of the past, but will serve me well enough in preparation, as the longest leg on my planned trip north is about 530km, and the average day’s ride is a mere 448km.

Today’s circuit of 404km was a near repeat – although in the opposite direction – of last week’s outing.   I headed 95km to my occasional Sunday-morning coffee spot at The Old Fernvale bakery – home of 160 varieties of pies – to sit and watch the passing and parked parade of other bikes.   The bakery claims to have 'the best pies in Australia’, but then every bakery in every small town in every State claims that, as well as the coldest beer and the oldest pub!

We then headed cross-country towards Toowoomba through the flat rich irrigated-soil farming country of the Lockyer Valley, SE Queensland’s ‘salad bowl’, turning off the highway at the small town of Gatton.   From there we took a 99km country back-road full of twists and turns and dips and signs reading ‘falling rocks – proceed  with caution’ and very narrow one-lane bridges – ‘no passing or overtaking’ – across the multitude of creeks in the foothills of the Great Dividing Range.   Quite an exhilarating and mildly challenging ride, but I wouldn’t want to do it in the dark or a heavy rain-storm.

The oddly-named hamlet of Ma Ma Creek brought a brief refreshment stop as the sun climbed and the air temp rose, and time to chat to a caravanning (trailering) couple.

We re-joined the highway eventually nearing Warwick, then it was up and over the Great Dividing Range at Cunningham’s Gap, where the air-temp briefly fell to a brisk 24°C (75° F) having reached 31°C earlier in the day – thank goodness for my all-mesh jacket.

A short lunch break and fuel top-up near there refreshed both me and the Tracer, and then it was another ~80km or so to home.

It was a perfect riding day, temps hovering around the 25°C mark (77°F) and little humidity despite much recent rain.

Today’s country roads were typical of what I’ll encounter on my trip north, and with the bike set-up for comfort and the BAGSTER seat doing a superb job I need not fear butt-fatigue.   But I have to confess that I was pretty tired when finally home and off the bike – old age will do that! 

I didn’t take many pix as my camera was in the top-box and I’m reluctant to keep hopping on and off the bike when photo opportunities present themselves – must do better next time!

[sirepair]

Nice writeup!  I hope to ride in the land down under some day!

Thanks for sharing!