I invite you to come on a journey with me to celebrate Ev’s bike turning over 300,000 original klms,
My idea was to make a day ride using the history of the Wide Bay area whilst marking a milestone not to many bikes have or will ever reach,, when broken down, it’s 10,000 klm a yr, every yr since it was made, not bad going in my opinion.
Apart from Ev and myself, Brian, a mate of mine came along for the ride on his Goldwing{the same that was in my shed for a time} with his eldest girl.
Our ride started at Ev’s place, itself an area that was settled in the early 1800’s, riding into primarily beef and gold mining country from the same era
The other plus of Ev’s area is it has the area’s only set of twisties to be enjoyed, which we did 3 times at each set, but I’ll start at the front.
Leaving Ev’s, we head out of town down a 8 degree hill with some neat corners, elbeit it with a rough surface, but it wasn’t going to stop me enjoying “our “ corners, so a “u” turn was performed at the bottom and straight back up we went, whistling past a still descending Ev and a bemused wing rider.
what goes up, must come back down,, so that’s what I did, again tearing past a cracking up Ev and brian on their way back up, and then waited at the bottom for them to return, that was the first 3 sets,
Continuing on a further 12 klm comes the “s’s”, a series of 17, 45 and 55 klm corners over 2 klm, brian decided to sit this set out after going thru as quick as he dared, so Ev chased me back thru them, before doing another “uie” and heading west thru again,
Ev wasn’t quite as lucky as I was with traffic flow, having a car and camper trailer going a bit to quick over shoot the centre of the corner and give him a bit of a moment, all turned out a o k, that was our 2nd set of 3
3rd corner in on the return 1 of my cruising pegs came loose and was bouncing off the road causing alsorts of funny feelings, they pick the most inopportune time to come loose,
From here we head out to “Paradise” dam, our area’s newest dam, a nice leisurely ride thru the Aussie bush incorporating some rolling 60 and 80klm corners, taken at the speed limit, an enjoyable 30 minutes
Paradise was a small settlement that started before the turn of the century, and finished not long after, and was situated somewhere near the new dam wall,
leaving the dam, I take a road I’ve never been on to Biggenden, another town built on gold, rail and beef from an early time, still with a working gold mine in the area west of town, the servo we had country style and size hamburgers for lunch showed a working memento from yester year
after lunch was taken care of, the plan was to go round to the back of the dam some 70klm away, as we meandered thru the single lane back roads, some dirt, some tar, where Rosellas seemingly come out of trees to fly along side you as you ride, almost like dolphins and ships {@ 80kph btw} another historic sign showed itself
After a climb over it, and a look around the immediate vicinity, which hid a large swimming hole just round the corner, we head off to find the back of the dam,
More dirt roads most of them unfenced, with stock grazing on the very edge, necessitating the need for a speed and direction change, then walking nonchalantly across in front of you, knowing they have it over you, back onto the black stuff where 4 and a bit foot goanna’s forage for food,
With the dam still a klm + away, a pink line on the road indicating the high water mark from the floods,, a bloody long way above the “normal” level
After a cool drink at “Mingo Crossing” the dams backwaters , we turn our attention to Mt Perry, the “largest” gold mining town in the area in its day, which still has an open cut operation today, and a nice steep hill, {12 degrees} and a nice set of turns with a look out overlooking the valley we’ve just ridden through
From here we turn our heads for home 100klm away, and 2 stops left,
The first a rail tunnel built by hard men, that is still part of a gazetted road today
It had to be done, a run through in 2nd wound out to 7000 rpm,--------------wow, what a sound,
Once back at the start point, a glaringly obvious hiccup was discovered when I went to turn the motor off,, no key
what a sinking feeling,,,, how long had it been gone,? did I see it gone and not notice,? where did it fall out ?,
a very slow run back and forth across the tunnel floor on high beam with the other 2 bikes failed to find it, when we {mainly Ev} decided to look around the motor and found it hanging over the clutch cable under the tank, phew-ee
a quick test revealed no resistance against the key and the barrel in the on position, with little resistance in the off, it must have been a couple of close bumps were enough to jolt it from the lock, something maybe for others to check,,
with that sorted, our last stop just around the corner and down the road a bit, is an old hotel,
an old boss of mine has a photo handed down from his great grandma of this place in full swing one xmas eve, taken early 1880’s.
we have no idea how long before that it was built, whether it was the grand opening or a normal evening shin dig.
A short 25klm stint saw us back on h/way 1, fuelled up and back to base,
my plan almost worked,,
every time we fueled up, I'd fuel first, then hand the nozzle still running to Ev,
Brian would have his filled up by now and be waiting inside to pay, or it would be me inside waiting,
either way {it was my idea to shout for this milestone ride} but by the end, Ev was feeling bad, {cause he hadn't payed for any
} and hadn't picked up on what was happening and ran inside to pay before either of us could
all in all a very relaxing day, with good company, excellent conditions, and a nice warm fuzzy feeling to help Ev mark this orspicious occassion
