Adelaide to Moranbah with my daughter Easter 2012

I know this topic was here previously but the images disappeared when I changed host sites as I was a tight arse and didn't want to pay.

Being stuck in quarantine and bored shitless I decided to redo the photos on the trip there report, but it appears that both this, and the return leg topics have disappeared

It seems both the trip to and from Moranbah, I also posted it on net rider so I'm doing a copy and paste to put it back, it was in 2 parts this time I will be putting it up  in a few parts, mainly 1 day at a time

At least this time the images wont be in this starter post so won't reappear at the top of any additional pages

In early 2012 I bought my first new bike for 21 years, as much as I loved my old bike I didn't have the confidence in taking it on long distance trips any more, especially 2up.

Pretty much as soon as I knew I was getting a new bike I asked my other 1/2 if she'd like to ride up to Moranbah to visit one of my best mates, no chance, she claimed "my bum is too fat to travel that far on a bike any more, so I asked my then 18 yo son, nah, "I'd rather hang with my mates", before I even asked my daughter much to the horror of her mum, she blurted out "I'll go"

A few months later, a heap of km 2up on the bike to "train our butts" and a whole new set of riding gear for Kaylah and we were ready to go.

The trip up




Day 1, Easter Sunday, 2012, Adelaide to Hay (left with less than 2000 km on the new Bandit)





We had had a lot of nice weather in Adelaide for weeks leading up to Easter but it was freezing when we hit the road at 6:30am, and it looked like it was threatening to rain.







I had fitted Scala head sets for the trip, they were great, could chat to each other, answer the phone, listen to radio or ipod. We hit the South Eastern Freeway out of Adelaide, as soon as we got through the Heysen Tunnels the drizzle started, I thought it was going to be a long wet ride but it stopped in a matter of minutes.

1st stop was earlier than intended, a toilet stop at Tailem Bend, then it was back on the bike 'till Pinnaroo where we stopped for fuel.

Back on the road and a quick pull over to show we had left SA







.....and then it was on to Ouyen for fuel for us and the bike, after crossing into NSW at Tooleybuc we kept going and had our last stretch of the legs and fuel stop at Balranald







Then the exciting leg of the ride (not) the Hay plains, this was just after the floods and there was still water laying everywhere, I'd never seen this part of the world so green, despite all of the water, it was starting to heat up and we were glad to be down to the bare basic safety gear. We arrived in Hay mid afternoon, I had pre booked a night at the Riverina Hotel, $35 a night for a double and they had they bike locked up in a carport for me, awesome value!

Day 3, Coonamble to Injune





Again we left just after sunrise, it was a fresh morning, Kaylah put her liner back in her jacket for the start, I thought I would tough it out for the 1st hour or so, 1st fuel stop was Walgett, then it was back on the road towards QLD.
On this stretch we encountered a lot more wildlife than the previous days, in one spot we slowed for a bull coming down the hill and crossing the road, suddenly it stopped on the centre line and eyeballed us, a few toots of the horn and it was gone.







2nd fuel stop for the day was at Hebel, just over the border from NSW, the only fuel available was at the local Pub, Diesel and Standard ULP both @ $189.9 l , $15 was enough to get us to St George where we filled up with Premium



 
   


We were booked into the Injune Hotel for the night, our most expensive night in a pub room ($90) but it ended up being great value, we had 2 adjoining rooms and the room next door was a stocked kitchen where we could prepare our own toast or cereal etc for breakfast.





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Day 4,  Injune to Moranbah 









After a great night's sleep and a good feed before we left it was back on the road for the last leg of our trips to stay with my mate in Moranbah, the shortest day by a couple hundred km. By now the weather was cool mornings and very warm in the afternoon. We had a lot of stops at roadworks where they were rebuilding after the floods. 1st stop was Rolleston, then on to Springsure. We saw a lot more wild life that morning, encountering every thing from Roos, wallabies, Cattle, Eagles etc. That stretch of road was awesome, great scenery with gentle winding roads.






      

We stopped for lunch in Emerald, then it was onto Capella, a quick fuel stop in Clermont before the final stretch to Moranbah. We rang my mate from Clermont to let him know how far away we were to find out he had forgotten to leave the key out for us, and wouldn't get off work early like he'd hoped to.
About 30 minutes from Clermont we were stuck at roadworks for about 20 minutes, got talking to the lolly pop man, he said they were up there from Adelaide, earning 3x what he'd get home working on flood repair sites.

After approx. 2500 KM in 4 days, we were ready for something more comfy than a concrete driveway to rest our bums on, after an hour and a half wait for Matt to get home it was time for a well earned shower and rest






With about 4500 on the clock and over 1000km 'till to go before the bikes 6000km was booked in to be done at Brisbane, I wasn't sure if the original Dunlop rear tyre would get me there so we decided to put the bike in the shed for the next 6 days and do all the touring in Matt's twin cab and hope for the best with the back tyre's remaining life.

A few days off the bike with Kaylah and Matt

We arrived in Moranbah on the Wednesday after Easter

Thursday
...........was a veg/relax day, went for a bit of a drive in Matt's ute while he was at work, cleaned the bike etc

Friday
............we went bush touring with matt, he took us North of Moranbah on some roads that were no more than a dirt track, then across to Nebo, down to his work at Peak Downs mine and home


  



  







Saturday
............we went for a drive into MacKay where Matt was living last time the whole family went up in Oct 2002, at the Moranbah turn off from the Hwy we came across this rolled over Road Train



    


they were still cleaning up the mess 8 hours later when we were coming home







MacKay was nice, it has changed a fair bit in the 10 years since we were there before Matt moved out to the mines



      



   




   



The trip home nearly ended in disaster for a car in front of us, the Commodore had just got back in when the oncoming wide load came past







Sunday and Monday
............were just spent cleaning the bike, relaxing catching up with washing etc before the journey home began

The trip home







Day 10 Mornabah to Gayndah



Moranbah to Gayndah was just a long hot days ride, with heaps of roadworks it took a couple of hours longer than we expected, it was nice to get into a cabin at the caravan park in Gayndah and relax. There had been heavy rain from the Sunshine Coast down to Brisbane for days, they were expecting more of the same tomorrow.




Day 11 Gayndah to Gold Coast and back up to Brisbane's Northern Suburbs







The weather was awesome when we left Gayndah but by the time we hit Kilkivan, down it came, we were lucky to be able to pull over, get under cover and get all the wet weather gear on staying dry............10 minutes down the road it stopped and by the time we got into Gympie we were cooking and couldn't wait to get it all off again. Morning tea break @ Macca's and it was back on the road



  



Although we were staying with a mate from school in Brisbane's Northern suburbs we had decided to go straight down to DJR's museum, somewhere I've wanted to go for a long time, then down to Shark Leathers for a look before heading up to Eatons Hill to stay with a mate from school and his dog.



      

When we arrived at Eatons Hill and let ourselves into Chris's back yard and bar we were greated by his "guard dog". Chris and I hadn't seen each other for 29 years (his 18th), plenty of Jacks and a whole lot of reminiscing done that night, Kaylah and I had the luxury of a room each with Queen beds.....bliss!!!


   






Day 12 Brisbane



I had the bike booked in at 7:00am for it's 6000km service (10 weeks after I picked it up) and a new back tyre, went the Michelin PR3, looking for a bit more than 5500km from the next one.







Brisbane Motorcycles looked after us really well, gave us a loan bike to get around on, I felt sorry for the little GS500 on some of those Brisbane hill starts with 2 of us



 



After we dropped the bike off we went back to Chris's and got a heap of washing done, we also worked out how many of our clothes we didn't need for the return trip, instead of washing them we packaged them up and posted them home, much to the amusement of the post office staff!!

    

Picked the bike up, nice and clean, new rubber on the rear (the Dunlop had a bald strip in the middle after 5600km) and headed into the city for lunch with my auntie, then we just cruised around and did a bit o sight seeing before heading back to Chris's for the evening/night.

Day 16, Logan to Adelaide.................................... the last day of our journey


  



We woke early to the sound of heavy rain on the roof, we headed into the pub for the monster breakfast wondering if the supply of fresh cooked food would ever end. The rain was heavy and looked very set and it was cold.............bloody cold, we put on all of our warmest gear and all our wet weather gear, I left the lambs wool seat cover on for the padding but covered it with a garbage bag put a plastic bag over the GPS, and off we headed for home.

25 km into the trip we stopped to fuel up at St Arnaud, it had rained all the way into town. We had originally planned on heading over to Horsham and taking the Western Hwy/Dukes Hwy all the way home, a local suggested that we would be better off heading across to Warracknabeal then heading down to meat the Western Hwy at Dimboola to avoid a lot of road works, the rain eased off for a bit around Donald but by the time we got to Warracknabeal it was bucketing down, by the time we hit the Western Hwy just before Dimboola it was heavier again.

As we were pulling up at the intersection of the Hwy I went to use a bit of back brake as well, the pedal was nice and hard but the bake did nothing to help slow us down, I wasn't stopping in the wet to see what was going on, so I turned on to the Hwy riding on unsealed clay based road works was a bit slippery , we hit the edge of town and the rain just got heavier again so I decide to pull into a servo, get out of the weather for a bit, top up fuel and suss out the back brake.

The back brake was soon fixed, the garbage bag on the seat cover had slipped down and got between the pads and rotor. Kaylah was freezing, her hands were blue, her previously waterproof winter gloves had leaked and were soaked like a sponge, her only other gloves, mesh summer ones.




     

We had planned on stopping to catch up with Rellies at Nhill, family friends at Bordertown and Rellies at Coonalpyn, as the weather was so shitty we decided to skip Nhill and head for lunch at Bordertown, about Kaniva the rain let up, Kaylah's gloves started to dry out and her hands were feeling warmer, we had a quick stop at the parking bay on the border for a couple of pic's in the rare sunshine the the last 15 or so km into Bordertown


 

 


We had a nice lunch and thaw out with family friends in Bordertown, I packed Kaylah's still wet gloves away, duct taped plastic bags over her summer gloves and she had toasty warm hands for the rest of the day. We headed off again, through my old home town Keith without stopping, a quick refuel at another town I grew up in, Coonalpyn then it was non stop 'till we got home. The weather had stayed ok from the border to Coomandook, soon after Coomy the wind got stronger and the rain fell more regularly, this part of the ride was to prove the worst for our entire trip.

On the South Eastern Freeway, coming up out of the Valley from Callington, we came out of a cutting without realising how strong the wind had gotten, we were blown across the road from the LH fog line to the RH emergency stopping lane, luckily there were no other vehicles near us, I slowed down to about 80 for the rest of the trip, as we headed further into the Adelaide Hills the wind died down a bit (to just gale force) but by Mt Barker the rain was teaming down, it stayed like that until we entered the Hysen Tunnels and as it often does, when we exited the tunnels there was sunshine and no rain, just lots of wind.

About 35 minutes after coming through the tunnels we were home, after 16 days (15 of them awesome, the last a right bastard of a day) our journey was over, all 6,500km of it on the bike + another 1500 in my mates ute,

It was a great experience, and we've both promised each other it won't be the last, we plan to do Adelaide to Perth to Darwin to Alice Springs to Uluru to Adelaide

After a nice hot shower some clean warm clothes the one bad day seemed to fade into just a distant memory, and the previous 15 more than out weighed the last day, this was the end of the best school holidays I have spent with either of my kids.

That sounded like a great trip,

Kudos the PICS! Brings the story to life!