21 April 2015
Master map. Unlike my usual offerings, this map contains a series of coloured alphabetic pins which show the route taken. Ignore the white alphabetic characters on a blue background.
Just after 0830 on a March morning I headed south on the M1. I was a bit weary, but it was a glorious morning and I felt pretty good. Must have been the unbearable lightness of CB-ing.
I was headed to the Coles Express, Mango Hill — an example of a curious modern phenomenon: a petrol station which, while it sells petrol, sells little else that has to do with motoring. You can buy a pack of crisps, weed killer, toothpaste, procreative prophylactics, a take-away coffee, breakfast cereal, milk, toilet paper — the list goes on — but try to find an oil filter, a set of jumper leads or an automotive light bulb and you could be in strife.
Coles is half of what is essentially a supermarket duopoly in Australia. It and its other half, Woolworths, are determined to shoehorn their way into almost every aspect of retailing. As a result they’ve bought up service stations where they can flog a bit of petrol and a lot of groceries and try to bind you to them by offering paltry discounts on fuel. Their minnow competitors have joined the fun. And not one of them is a bit of use if you want something for your car or motorcycle.
I pulled into Coles Mango Hill and there, in all his leather-clad finery, was none other than my mate, Pterodactyl. It was good to see him as I'd been looking forward to sharing a few of my favourite roads with him. We had a day and a bit as he needed to be back over the southern border the following day and I had to be home early for another engagement.
Pterodactyl and the bikes at Mango Hill
The switch on my riding camera is always temperamental, but for the two days of this ride it seemed rather more random than usual. There are not as many photos as I would have liked.
From Dayboro (C) to Woodford (D) the Mt Mee Road is a lot of fun. Plenty of twists and turns to the top and then plenty more down to the bottom. The Pitstop Café near the top was not open. From a culinary point of view this was no great tragedy, but there are great views to be had down the valley to Brisbane. We stopped at the Braisen Hussy Café in Woodford for a light lunch.
The start of the Mt Mee Road at Dayboro
A lookout on the Mt Mee Rd — looking north east. The Pacific Ocean is out there somewhere above the tips of the mountains. It doesn’t show in the photo, but it was windy and quite chilly on the mountain
From Woodford we rode north along a flat, straight road to the foot of the Blackall Range. There are some good riding curves climbing to a ridge where we turned left onto the Maleny-Stanley River Rd (E). It’s a great climb up the hill until you reach the Postman’s Track (F) whereupon you find yourself on a steep, narrow descent into the valley below. It’s pretty enough, but it’s not a route I’d take if it were not for the excellent ride along the valley floor. It’s narrow, but there’s almost no traffic and it rewards a bit of effort.
It was a Tuesday, not a good day for cafés in this part of the world, so I couldn’t take Pterodactyl to the Bellbird Creek Teahouse, a very biker friendly haunt. So we kept going through Kenilworth (H) and then turned right along the Obi Obi Creek Road to Mapleton (I). There’s a little stretch where the road divides at the bottom of the major climb back up the range. It’s one of my favourite local stretches of road. Indeed, it was so good, and I was so irritated by the traffic that slowed us half-way up, that I turned round, rode down the hill and we did it again.
The road from Mapleton to Nambour (J), which has two great sections, was also depressingly full of traffic. But I admired the views out to the ocean. We stopped for petrol at Yandina where I looked down and realised I’d reached another milestone. For those who read novels, the Australian author Peter Carey’s book His Illegal Self is set in part in the hills behind Yandina.
Another pocketful of cash for my friendly dealer. 36,000 kms is a service point. They got to check the valve clearance and sell me a new set of tyres
Some pleasant enough back roads took us to Emelia’s Café at Gympie (M). It’s a great place. I once ate a plate of scrambled eggs with Tasmanian truffles for breakfast there. It was memorably delicious. Our host, Giovanni, made us tea and we started chatting. I knew he rode a Ducati, but he said he had his Griso that day and disappeared. Moments later he pulled up outside and parked next to the CBs. Muttering something about posting photos of bikes rather than food for a change, he took off outside with his phone. Another bike arrived and Pterodactyl followed suit.
By the time I limped outside, the fourth bike had gone, but these three looked very pretty as Pterodactyl and Giovanni discussed something very technical
Leaving Gympie we rode the pretty Cedar Creek Road (N) to Kin Kin (O). From there we were on the nearest bit of really good road to where I live. I went very slowly for a while to allow the utility in front to get far enough ahead that, when we got to the twisty bit, we’d have enough room for some sport.
From there it was home to Pomona for a well-earned beer, a salmon cutlet and a glass of wine or two. Mrs Cormanus, who had not before met Pterodactyl, greeted him with, “It’s nice to finally meet his imaginary friend.”
