Pomona to Kyogle
Sunday 10 August 2014
Click on the image for a detailed map
Some time in the late 18th or early 19th century, Charles Caleb Colton wrote "Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery". So, in homage to EmptySea's excellent work reporting on a meeting of the Chicagoland Chapter of the CB1100 Forum, I was going to produce a post describing the lead up to what would become the minutes of a meeting of the New South Wales/Queensland Chapter of the Australian Division of the CB1100 Forum. But it would be just that: imitation. It's true there was a meeting. But there was no agenda. Nor were there structured proceedings or even minutes. Indeed, there is considerable evidence that much has already been forgotten.
Pterodactyl hit the road on his way northward to visit his son and, subsequently, to meet me in downtown Kyogle. His excellent report may be found here.
Sometime during his journey, I set out from my home in Pomona, Queensland bound for Kyogle. My route took me inland, away from the highway, and through some lovely roads. The Eumundi Range Road, a few minutes south of my home is a great warm up for the magnificent climb from Nambour to the top of the Blackall Ranges. At the back of Maleny, I stopped at the Mary Cairncross Scenic Reserve to deal with an ageing man issue and met my very first Valkyrie in the wild. Note the admiring glances being cast at the CB. Turned out he was a returning rider who had just got back into riding on a BMW. "Best thing I ever did," he told me.
It was a cool day, so I took no more photos for a bit as I simply haven't mastered turning on the camera while wearing thick gloves.
The Maleny-Stanley River Road remains one of my favourites with magnificent twisties on the final descent onto the Kilcoy-Beerwah Road. As usual it was good and, because it was a Sunday, there were lots of other bikes enjoying it — most going the other way.
Shortly after Kilcoy, I turned left so as to ride along the Esk-Kilcoy Road. The final section beside Lake Somerset is also biker paradise—pretty, relatively quiet and twisty. As I flashed past the lookout for the dam I saw a very rare sight: a white CB1100 in the wild. Indeed, it remains the first unidentified one I've seen. I'm still kicking myself for not going back and saying g'day, but there was no easy place to turn and I was more focussed on whether I'd make the next petrol station.
From the southern end of Lake Somerset, the Wivenhoe-Somerset Road is fast and quiet and I made very good time to the petrol station where the gauge was showing 229.9 kms (I start getting a bit nervous at 200 kms). In fact the tank took 12.24 litres which meant I had another 2.36 litres remaining. After petrol and a quick lunch, I headed through easy, but not very interesting, roads to Boonah.
In this picture you can see the Border Ranges which I was going to cross to meet Pterodactyl.
Here they are again. You can see how dry the country is.
On approach to Boonah.
The first meetup of Queensland members of this forum passed through Boonah. Enzo and I partook of coffee before he introduced me to the very pretty Boonah-Rathdowney Road. This time I kept going through Boonah and took a cup of tea at Rathlogan Grove, an olive farm with a café set in lovely surrounds. In my opinion, the view was augmented by a certain black motorcycle.
After my cup of tea, I headed through Rathdowney and onto the Lions Road — see an earlier report on that road here.
Leaving Rathdowney on the approach to the Lions Road
Stray cows were to be a recurring theme on this ride
The northern end of the Lions Road
One of a series of about three dips that, if taken quickly enough, feels a lot like a roller coaster
This is the Queensland New South Wales border on the Lions Road looking south. The transition from one state to another is amazing. Queensland has been cleared for farmland and, as you have seen from earlier pictures, is open and — for the moment at least — terribly dry; NSW, on the other, remains bush and is anything but open. Both are lovely.
The device you can see above the guidepost to the right of the bike is what looks a lot like a standing speed camera but is actually one of two similar cameras allegedly to monitor stock movement across the border. In theory cattle shouldn't cross as there is a grate in the road.
There is also a collection box in the middle of the road to help to raise money for the maintenance of the road.
It's very different scenery in NSW
Pterodactyl refers to a sign like this in this post of his splendid rant on the essence of motorcycling. It makes a lot of sense on this road where there is often no centreline, the corners are blind, the surface is erratic to bad and the quality of the camber varies.
This is Australia's north-south railway
One of the narrow bridges
Approaching Kyogle where there's been fire since I was last there in July
The top nut on my steering worked loose recently and I thought I'd tightened it; but I noticed on the Lions Road that it had worked its way loose again and I rode through Kyogle looking for a hardware store where I could acquire a 30 mm spanner to tighten it. It was Sunday afternoon and, Kyogle being a small country town, everything was shut. I reached the far end of town and headed back to get petrol before heading to the hotel to meet Pterodactyl. As I rode past the hotel there he was riding into town from Nimbin. Exquisite timing.
Within 30 minutes or so, I had fuel and we were installed in the bar of the Commercial Hotel, bikes under cover, beer in hand, talking about the CB1100, motorcycles in general, the vagaries of the CB1100 Forum and all sorts of other things. A few more beers, a pizza and a bottle of red later, I slid peacefully into a dreamless sleep.
