Bourke Rally Ride Report (Brrr for short)
Finally, the big day had arrived. My firstborns’ wedding the prior weekend had squashed any extensive bike preparation plans so the morning was spent refitting my old driving lights and a fresh set of plugs plus a quick wash to make it presentable for scrutiny by the Xsive masses anticipated to be at the rally. The previous days job of fitting my new bigger, better, brighter driving lights proved to be folly when I tested them on the way home from work that night and it was discovered that for all the extra light out the front, there was more light reflecting off the shiny bits on the front of the bike which actually made it harder to see down the road. Oh, well. You learn by your mistakes, eh?
^ Ready to roll
Finished the packing process, and set off at about 2.00 pm. As I was doing the trip solo, I took the shortest route possible and ventured off Southwest through the backblocks via Goomeri and Yarraman. Cleverly dodged a few storm cells just short of Yarraman (the road went right between them) so at the next fuel stop, the wet gear went on as my luck couldn’t hold out forever.
^Yarramin fuel stop. Was still clean at this stage
Surely enough, just got through Cooyar range when the rain hit hard. I got stuck behind a fuel tanker for a short stretch and the driver obligingly put his wheels off into the verge a number of times showering me with muddy slop till I could get past him. Thanks a lot, mate! So much for the wash the bike got a few hours beforehand. Anyway, soldiered on trying to make it to Rimfire winery at Maclagan before it shut. We’d been out this way a few times and Neriel’s got quite a liking for a number they call “Hogs Head” so a couple of bottles of this would’ve made a nice gift upon my return home. Arrived there at 4.20 to see a sign on the gate stating “closed today”. Great! So much for that plan.
Approaching Dalby now and a couple of isolated storm cells were hammering the plains.
The rain I can take, but being on a road with no trees to be seen and no power lines but lightning a plenty makes me nervous. I’ve never heard reports of a motorcyclist being hit by lightning but I don’t like being the tallest thing on the ground for miles around.
Thankfully made it to Dalby ok and stopped in at the packed KFC for a snack & cig. Tummy filled, I rolled over to the big United roadhouse and topped up the tank and set off, only to notice that my speedo had stopped working, no flicker or anything, I just stopped. As I was already on the outbound side of town, I decided just to wing it through this stretch and look at it at the Crossroads Roadhouse. Just paced myself with the other traffic on the road which must’ve been in a hurry to get where they were going as I saw over 5,000 rpm a few times along here.
Reached the Crossroads and set about investigating the speedo, much to the amusement of the crowd of boaties that were sitting outside on the bar verandah in varying states of sobriety. It turns out that the inner cable had snapped in the same place that the original one did, where the cable curves up towards the front guard, so I’d say the outer may have some burring inside to chew it out. Not bad, though. That’s the original outer from when I bought the bike so it has done a lot of work. The replacement inner kit I bought some time ago did its job in the meantime. Had a fish around in the keg and produced my new replacement cable so ten minutes later, I was good to go.
The road down to Gundy was a pleasure to ride on after the bumpy last stretch so I just rolled on into the night. Gave Geoff a quick call from the Gundy roadhouse to let him know that I was still alive and would see him in the morning, then set off for Moree. I found that the driving lights weren’t really necessary for riding generally as the headlight was fantastic on its own. The only time I really used them was when oncoming traffic would kill their spotties, but remain on high beam. I don’t know why they do this, but a quick flick of the switch generally sorted them out quickly.
Fuel stop at the Moree Caltex where I was advised that the next fuel available at this hour was Bourke, about 200klms out of range for me. After considering my options, I just fuelled up the bike plus my 10 litre reserve container and resigned myself to having to wait at Walgett for the servo to open in the morning. I even had toyed with the idea of buying a 20 litre jerry can and bringing it but I didn’t think that even that much extra would see me the rest of the way to Bourke. The $86 price tag on the drum alone swayed me away from that idea. Saw quite a few furry grasshoppers on the stretch but all were avoided. I can't recall who it was that tagged them as such but it's a fitting description of the critters. The one major moment occurred when approaching 3 smallish greys browsing at the left verge. They obligingly hopped off to the left, but as I neared that point, their mates that I hadn't seen bounded in from the far right so I slammed on the brakes bringing proceedings to a screaming halt to avoid being broadsided. The trailer brake pedal felt a bit odd after that, so at the next stop, I investigated and found I'd snapped the master cylinder lever clean off. Ran a bit steadier after that. Road quite bumpy on this leg of the trip. Topped up the bike from the container at Collarenebri and managed to spill fuel all over the tank and motor. It was dark, after all. Had an extra bit of a wait here to let it evaporate away as there wasn’t anything to wipe off the excess. A good walk around to get the joints moving and two cigs later, I’m game enough to try hitting the starter hoping that the bike wouldn’t erupt into a fireball. All good, so off to Walgett I go.
Rolled into town about 3.15am without incident and cruised up the main street hoping that the guys in Moree were wrong and there was a servo open but, no dice. All shut up tight as a clam, and I mean that. I was here working in the wheat silos on the northside of town in the early 80’s but there was no sign of all the bars across the front of the shops, pubs etc. They’ve even got the shrubs on the footpaths fitted with a cage surrounding them so it looks like they really have security issues there nowadays. I rode back to the BP servo I’d passed on the way in and parked the bike nose in behind the party ice freezer out of the breeze and dug out the sleeping bags, then tried to settle in till the morning. I woke some time later to the sound of a car starting and driving off from the servo, and as it was now dawn, I got up to have a look around. Walked around to the front side of the icebox and there was a BP ATM for the bowsers. DAMN! Packed up quickly and fuelled both the bike and drum up then left for points west.
^ I tucked in here between the icebox and the post
^ This is what I saw when i walked around the front of the Icebox.
Fair bit of wildlife here but easily missed. Road similar to the Moonie stretch, but felt much better as I didn’t have too far to go now. Road damage from the floods very evident though here. (Blame it on Geoff for his countdown thing, I reckon) Despite my prediction, the Brewarrina servo was in fact open, so I tipped my drum into the tank, then topped up from the servo to justify using the amenities. They make a very nice coffee here, by the way.
The last bit. A couple of dirt roadworks sections here covered my once was clean bike and trailer with dust and completed the trashing up of the appearance factor. Oh well. We only wash them so they’ll get dirty again, I suppose. Started getting pretty tired as I watched the mile markers counting down to Bourke so I changed my thinking from the trip to the destination and it served to brighten me up quite a bit. Finally rolled into town and had a brief pause for a Pic & cig (missed opportunity here. I’ll explain later) and went off in search of Kidmans Camp.
^ Finally made it!
It wasn’t quite the 7 o’clockish arrival time I’d banked on due to the fuel drama, but arrive I did and the sight of XS’s en masse made the trip worth every mile.
Xsive greetings and introductions were exchanged and another chapter in the XS Australian Forum had begun, but that’s another story to be told later.
Eveready (Errol)
