Sunday morning arrived and we awoke to a clear blue sky outside and the sound of the kettle busily doing its thing. Coffee was enjoyed sitting on the verandah taking in the relaxing valley views while Geoff busied himself putting the settings into his GPS. He also managed to get all their wet weather gear stowed in his expanding gearsack bag, where as in my case, all my bags were full, but I hadn’t brought my other jacket with me, so I was forced to wear my old faithful (but damned hot) alpine Dririder jacket in the heat of the sunny morning. We bade our farewells and set off for the show.
The route that the GPS led us on was pretty good, with not too many sets of lights, got us off the freeway pretty smartly, and the roads wound their way through the hills and valleys up past the Sirromet Winery (they make a nice drop there), we made it to the showgrounds in good time, where we pulled up outside and Geoff gave Bryan (AussieXS11G) a bell to find out where he was. A minute later, we’re rolling in the gate and personally guided towards our parking area by Bryan, who is a very busy man today. He’s the event organiser, so had a lot on his plate, but the day was coming together nicely and the great weather was going to help make it the success that the show was. Unfortunately, Lucrezia (his other other half) is still recovering from her throttle rocker crash and wasn’t present today. He came up and made us welcome, chatted for a few minutes, then his phone rang and he raced off to do something that required his attention.
^ We made it!
The new venue is huge, with good road access and ample off street parking for cars and bikes in separate areas. The show arena (I’d call it that) is about 2 or 3 acres and is ringed by the food vendors and the usual assortment of accessory shops, bike dealer demo areas, and club marquees. Geoff made another call and a few minutes later, I was being introduced to Tony, who had ridden down from the Sunshine coast to check out the show. We did a few laps of the bikes on show, and bumped into Bryan again who took a nice group photo of us (forgot to get himself into the frame, though) and we chatted about our trip and the possibility of an XS pavillion at the next show. Besides, I’d give us somewhere in the shade to sit, as it was a pretty hot day out in the sun. At least I’d remembered my hat. Next up, Tony brought his bike down next to ours and we spent some time doing the “spot the different bits” game and generally speaking Xsively.
^ The 3 XS11's in the parking area.
Michele suggested we do lunch somewhere air conditioned so we decided to head for pastures cooler and begin our trek home.
MR GPS did it’s thing and delivered us to a nice pub on the esplanade which was lined with bikes, but when we walked in and saw the queue to the eatery, we decided to axe that plan and just find somewhere along the way. One interesting formation manoeuvre later and we’re going the right way now, and headed towards Brissie. The traffic was thick along Mt Gravatt/ Capalaba road and it was a real challenge to keep the three bikes together despite the best efforts of most of the car drivers to intervene. Geoff had been pacing a nice WB Statesman in the left lane when he spotted a Subway store out of the corner of his eye and dived across the car filled lane to make the exit. Miraculously, all 3 bikes managed to split through the cars unscathed and pull up outside the evident destination for lunch. It was air-conditioned and it did have cold drinks, and it was stifling hot out on the road, so it was a good healthy place to refill our tanks. Geoff performed some minor maintenance on Tony’s bike as I’d spotted that his brake light wasn’t working, so while he fixed that, I went off in search of an occy strap to tie my jacket onto the bike. I was cooking with that on.
With our bodies recharged, we headed off again and Geoff let me lead them through the backblocks on Old Cleveland road, in through past the ‘Gabba, and onto the inner city bypass which led us back out onto the Gateway motorway and all points north. Stopped in at the Burpengary Service centre where we filled the bikes then had an impromptu meeting to decide which way to go now. Time was ticking away, so it was decided to just run up the old highway to Landsborough and run straight up the hill to Maleny, then search for the aforementioned grassy knoll with a vista for a bit of a photoshoot of the three bikes.
Landsborough is like a town in a time warp, with lots of old Queenslanders lining the streets, compared to the ultra modern, achitect designed colossus’s that are popping up everywhere up on top of the range. We did the ascent in a few minutes (not used to the ears popping like that) and settled in to looking for a good spot to pull up while enjoying the ups and downs of rangetop riding. At last, a suitable grassy bit was found and the bikes lined up and the photos were shot.
^ From left - Tony's G, Geoff's RH, and my SF. The same, but different.
Then we bid Tony our formal goodbyes, as when we got down the range to Nambour, we would be heading north, while he would go for a short hop south to his place. The last run here through the twisties was great, with all the water now gone from the road surface, it was a joy to be hanging it out in relatively safe conditions. We pulled up at the lights on the old highway and I gave Tony one final handshake and wished him a safe ride home. We arrived at the final roundabout, and with much horn tooting and waving we turned up the on ramp and he peeled off to run home.
During the run up to Gympie, I noticed Michelle hanging her legs down off the footrests so I’m assuming her feet were getting sore and tired from sitting on the pegs for so long. It had been a big couple of days, after all. A few years ago, I’d fitted footboards to my bike for Neriel as her feet were badly affected by long days in the saddle and she told me that was the best thing you could do for pillion comfort. Nowadays, as she can’t come on the bike anymore, they’d been sat unused in my cupboard in the garage so I feel a donation is in order here to help Michelles’ comfort on trips like these.
Fuelled up one last time at the Matilda servo north of Gympie and Geoff said they would run express for home from here as they had children to collect and work in the morning so official farewells were quickly exchanged and we set off. It got dark quite quickly now but the traffic was sparse so it was an enjoyable last stint of our trip. Geoff was running with only one mirror so I slotted in on the blind side so as to reduce the dazzle from my headlight and we ran like that through the cooling night air till we reached my turnoff, just short of Childers. With a beep and a flick of the indicator, I peeled off and rode up the hill towards home. One short stop, as I waited for a cane train to clear the crossing , then I was home proper. As I pulled in, I was greeted by Al, who gets very excited when I’ve been gone for any length of time. Knocked me over with his show of affection, and after I recovered from that, I went inside to tell Neriel how the weekend had been.
Bloody triffick! I can’t wait till next year!
Writers Block? What writers block? Gone now.
