Border Ride, Sunday 9/4

Sunday 9 April
Border Ride
Join us to explore the Great Dividing Range in the Queensland-NSW
border area!

Depart Ipswich, travel back roads via Beaudesert to Kyogle for lunch
(cafe/pub/etc). This route of approx. 180km (some highway time, plenty
of twisties) includes the famous Lions Road. Return via Woodenbong &
Rathdowney, probably disperse there north/east.

Meet at 10am Sunday 9/4, at the Conneara Heritage Centre, Redbank
Plains Rd (just off the Cunningham Hwy). All welcome! That means we
won't leave you behind if you have a small bike or are a beginner.

Look forward to seeing everyone next Sunday!

Gary

 

Might I suggest a slight detour?

Ipswich --> Boonah
Boonah --> Rathdowney

From Rathdowney carry on as planned. The Boonah/Rathdowney Rd is a tad
more pleasant to ride than the Mt Lindesay from Beaudesert.

Not that I'll be there, mind (previous commitments)!

Have fun.

Rusty

 

I appreciate your suggestion! I was sort of saving that for returnees to Brisbane's west and
north, such as myself, but we could just as easily head home via Beaudesert. We'll decide on
the day.

Ah well. Next time perhaps.

Ta!

Gary

 

<snip!>

Hey Gary,

Did you end up going ahead with the ride on Sunday? Get many people? We
were planning on coming along, but we had a last minute change of
plans, which made us too late.

By way of a peace offering to the motorcycling gods, we ended up
watching The Worlds Fastest Indian later in the day (great movie).
Still would have liked to have been out there though - was a great day
for it, and whilst I don't know the route you were planning on taking,
I do know that there's some amazing country down that way.

Hope to get a ride report when you get a spare 5 (or 30) minutes, just
so I know what we missed!

Thanks!
Matto
05 Sprint ST (is sad now it didn't get get to go play on Sunday)

 

Sure! I can (usually) organise myself!

Ha ha! Report to follow.

Amazing movie. See what motorcycles do to people

Gary (there's a shitload of messages on this new server!)

 

A new place, a new range; yet the same Great Divide. A heightened thrill of map
study, endless anticipation of new roads, a cavalcade of greater and lesser
unknowns scattered through the Good Book (Brisway First Edition) as I turn the
pages, casting my eye hundreds of kilometres in all directions, way into the
tropics, west towards the flatlands, over the border.

This was one such ride, one of many delightful rides in the eastern Queensland-NSW
border area; so many that it is hard to go wrong. I decided on a short and simple
route, to appeal to the less experienced, with some excellent twisties to excite
the enthusiasts. NSW is so close that a border ride should be part of every touring
rider's repertoire, as there are several choice border crossings between the coast
and the rolling plains around Toowoomba: well isolated, near natural, and on the
way to many highlights of the volcano's ruins.

I devised a RDV just out of Ipswich, more or less central to north, south and west
Brisbane. No one contacted me to register their interest, so I wasn't too annoyed
about being a few minutes late nearing Ipswich, but I surely was when I missed the
turnoff south, and unknowingly hurried on towards Toowoomba.

A gradual dawning, a sudden stop for a map consult, and a wandering reversal
through North Ipswich, soon saw us back on the Cunningham Hwy; but not before a
passing Ulyssian stopped to see if we had problems, as motorcyclists still often do
(for car drivers in Rodentland, it often seems that NRMA/RAC membership and a
credit card have taken the place of community and goodwill). I thought it curious
that my pillion saw his bike and mine very similar: large silver BMWs; but I
protested that his sparkly as-new K75 was quite, quite different to my tatty old
RS. The challenge of perspective.

So we were at the RDV nearly an hour late, stopped briefly to admire the
bougainvillea collection, and pressed on towards Boonah. This picturesque valley
supplies much of the veges for south-east Queensland from its rich soil, and craggy
volcanic remnants overlook the valley from all around.

Soon we passed Boonah, and swung into those sharp peaks. The closer we came to the
border, the rougher and narrower the road, until there wasn't even two lanes to
pass, let alone paint to guide them. All the while Mt. Maroon, a huge granite
outcrop with sheer sides, hung over the road, minding our passage like a lollipop
lady. We called at the Maroon Dam, where there was scarcely water for fish, let
alone reticulation.

The road weaved between farms and forests, and eventually popped us out onto the
Mt. Lindesay Hwy at Rathdowney. This sleepy little village's main claim to fame is
the sign that points to the famous Lions Rd, famous for its rollercoaster inclines
and its collection boxes at the border. Now there is a model for a toll road which
deserves more attention.

We swooped up and down, swayed left and right, zinged across multiple cattle grids,
and smoked near to a stop for a few of those cattle playing on or by the road,
foolish beasts. Once across the border, the farms faded to forest, crowding the
road, which fell apart in the crumbling pock-marked manner familiar of NSW roads -
choppy, multiply patched, with many ripples, pits and domes where the tar has been
squeezed away by heavy vehicles in the famous Australian sunshine.

A bit further past the border we reached established farms, with the occasional
cafe, B&B or conference centre to provoke wonder. Towards Kyogle the road opened
into wide sweepers (surface permitting) which led us to the Summerland Way into
Kyogle, just in time for lunch.

We slipped past a dozen bikes parked in the main street, not outside either pub,
and in a quick investigation, we found out why: no meals today at either of these
pubs. So, with a bit of strolling, we stopped at a cafe and snacked on Kyogle's
best fleeting lunch, as a steady stream of bikes rumbled and zinged to and fro.

Outside in the street, Beemers gathered, a rather tasty /5 outfit and a near-new
GS. Their riders were as disparate, a local who built the chair's chassis, mounts,
and the leading-link front end himself, and the other, like me a redundee from
Canberra, taking a long way home from the just-completed 2006 BMW Safari. I must
take the R65 on this ride one year (to balance all the new GSs and RTs). Briefly,
the main street of Kyogle was the centre of the motorcycling world.

As the shadows stretched across the street, we turned north, heading back to
Queensland towards Woodenbong, past more rich dairy flats, wild writhing hills, and
ancient villages, overlooked by Mt Lindesay, more bulky, more steep, more haggard
and ruined than even the Maroon. During a map break at the Mt. Lindesay Hwy, a
large cattle truck headed north, and I had a flash of horror at the thought of
following this staggering stink bomb all the way over the ranges to the hinterland
of Brisbane. But we carried on, across the border, and in a complete reversal of
our earlier crossing, the road instantly changed from a reasonably wide and smooth
highway through a semi-rainforest reserve to a tight, twisty, crumbling goat-track,
with us half-expecting overflow from the cattle truck around each narrow little
bend.

On past Rathdowney, the land relaxed from the tightness and rugged scrub, with
occasional rough-hewn driveways marking isolated farming flats. We caught the
cattle truck just south of Beaudesert; the driver, unlike us, knew the highway
well. This road goes straight from the border into the heart of Brisbane, as we
did, with the scattered paddocks, farmhouses and sheds gradually giving way to
industry, retail, and housing precincts.

Then we turned into Rocklea, and the ride was over. Rocklea, Kyogle, Rocklea,
hardly the stuff of dreams; but we remember the looming Mt Maroon, the Lions Rd
campground, the cattle grid where we nearly had veal for lunch. From enough
distance, it is all a dream. We think back, until it is time to think forward to
another Border Ride.


Gary (it'd be good if the fucking street light would stay *on* or *off*)

 

~
I used to always stop for broken-down cars but after being waved away for
the seventy-umpteenth time with "I've called RACQ..." I don't bother any
more (unless they're showing distress).
Fortunately someone stopped and helped me last time my car broke down
though.

 

[snip ripper ride report]

**** I'm a slackarse!

 

Pencil me in...

Have one of mine!

Gary

 

wotsup with the beemer mate?


Johno


Beer mate? Tis Coopers

 

It's got some anti-rust in the radiator......
(Valvoline HPR15)

They tell me that it's NOT the head-gasket though and it's the
oil/water-pump instead.
I've ordered the kit but I've gotta' wait for it to come in.

 

Came down the Mt Lyndsay GoatTrack today. Locals reckon the road won't
exist once the dam goes in.

Ahhh. You haven't had the pleasure of the 44 km of bucking-horse road
between Legume and Woodenbong. Great place to test if your fork seals
are on the way out.

Did it today, for only the second time. I swear it's gonna be my last.

---
Cheers

PeterC [aka MildThing]
Before an accident, most city drivers say "****!", whereas most country drivers
say "Hang on to this stubby, mate, while I show you some awesome driving"
'81 Yamaha Virago (XV) 750H (work in progress)
'01 Yamaha FJR1300

www.dmcsc.org.au
http://eladesom.com.au/ulysses/
# 37181

 

Smack.. phosphide eutectiod?


Johno


Beer mate? Tis Coopers

 

I am assuming you mean oil in the radiator? (going by head-gasket
statement)

bummer mate

Johno


Beer mate? Tis Coopers

 

Yeah I thought "Valvoline" was the giveaway but I guess they make all sorts
of other things (including actual radiator rust-inhibitor).

 

Well, he _is_ getting on a bit and a bit hard of reading Clem!

 

That's what I said years ago. I reckon the Bonalbo and Tabulam roads are
getting worse too.

 

Look on the bright side... riding that road puts you in a position to
steal a sign reading "Woodenbong".