the "STEPPERS" awesome trip

[steptoe]

the get together itself was nothing short of a resounding success, as has already been said heaps of people chipped in and helped feed and clean,, this was brekky each morning

 this was afternoon nibblies

on the saturday we did a group ride nth towards the Qld border for a lunch at a place called Enngonia with a couple of stops for pics along the way

[steptoe]

this is the back of our rooms


day 4 started with the plan of putting all the hard work together,,

the butcher delivered the meat along with the cold room to store everything in



and the local IGA dropped off all other groceries

then it was setting to and preparing all the fiddly food before every one showed up, such as desert


then to sitdown and wait foreveryone to roll in,, catching up and meeting new faces

[steptoe]

Day 3,  saw a bit of a sleep in , on the bike 9.00 ish, the road south was as populated with emus even more so than yesterday,,

3 very close calls with the bloody stupid birds,  the closest call  involved  3 of them running AT us, 2 veered off a little but 1 was determined to stay his course,,, maybe that's where the game "chicken" came from,, all you can do is brake as hard as you can, no point changing direction till he does something,,,,, so with the forks bottomed out and the tyre  changing shape , at the last second he changed his mind  and decided to exit stage left which was great till he lost  his footing on the tar and was skidding into our path,  by this time we were almost stopped anyway , his legs went under the foot pegs,, and I think he bounced off the trailer,, we, d stopped and turned our heads but he was gone,, another  couple not as bad as that  saw us pull into Lightning ridge for a captain cook,, a walk down an old mine and an appointment with the nosebag saw us back on the road pulling into Bourke just  on dark thank goodness,, I, d had enough of suicidal wildlife for one day,,,

Between the wildlife and stray cattle and sheep and some questionable grid crossings there has been some rubber worn of the front tyre,,  but  we, 're here and  with some setting up tomorrow will be ready to welcome the rest of the travellers in as they arrive,, heads up and eyes open lads and ladies

[steptoe]

Day 2,  started at 4.30, hitting the road even on the coast at that time has it, s roo, s  we were able to slip in behind a heavy straight up,,, followed him out to highway 1, then 4 Klm and onto our first proper back road,,,  our angel was on the job because  2 corners later we slipped in behind another which took us all the way thru till daylight and beyond , then he turned of and left  us to to get down to business,,

A mechanically sound day, covering some 800 Kim, s , the bike spurred all day getting 10 Klm to the litre,,  hasn, t used a drop of oil,, did have to fix a fuel line that has lost it, s squeeze on a t piece, but that was nothing , not without  wild life encounters though,,, 6 roo, s, 7 camels,  countless emus,  of which one encounter involved the pucker factor,, one wedge tail we had to slow down and wait to get some air ,

The day finished in Dirranbandi  were a quick pub tea was thought would be the go,, it came out on a plate 30cm across  piled 50 mm high,,  the bloke beside us mentioned they should use a bigger plate to put it on, but I didn't, t agree, they would have only filled that up,  and felling like a carpet snake that just ate a goat  off to bed for a sleep

[Christian Raith]

 

[steptoe]

well here we are on the first night , back at home   ,, 150 klm down the road we pulled up,, cause we could, no rush and all of that,, I hadn,t been 100% happy the way the bike had been running but I had spent so much time on her I was going to give her a go not really knowing the bike that well,, having used a full tank to do that leg,, the next sign was the right boot going down to kick the side stand down, had enough oil on it to get that funny stomach pit feeling, a quick look revealed a lot of oil

we actually stood at the bowser and tossed up the idea of paying the xsive fuel bill {sorry}  or head back home and swap bikes, so back home we came, to reshape the towbar to fit the rh, and the cruise pegs, at least the rh was already wired for the trailer,,

so as they say in classics,, the only way is up. the story writer will be along with piccies after we get home {after the trip}