Brisbane to Walcha: A day with the Lawnmower
26 January 2019
Clicking on the map above takes you to a map of the entire outward leg of this ride. The return leg is here.
In early January, I put my wife on a plane to visit her daughter overseas and went riding for a few days with Pterodactyl, a tale told here.
Then I came home.
I had an important social event and a doctor's appointment and the bike needed a new rear tyre before I headed out for a couple of weeks riding. The Michelin PR3 rear is no longer available, so I decided on Bridgestone T31s, but my usual supplier wasn't able to source them.
I was under the pump. A young woman, known on the Australian forum Netrider as Valvoline, had booked me a room at the end of day 1 of a ride she was organising. Having completely ignored my request to cancel it, I felt I should make every effort to use it rather than pay to have it sit empty. Besides, I'm stingy.
Valvoline's bike — a KTM 390 — is known to her readers as 'The Lawnmower'. Their adventures are many and varied and popular amongst the readers of tell-us-about-your-ride-like posts on Netrider.
It came to pass that, having sourced some tyres on 24 January, driven the wheels miles to have them fitted if they arrived, driven miles to collect them after lunch on 25 January, changed the disk pads and reinstalled the wheels, changed the oil, adjusted and lubed the chain, packed clothes and camping gear, I was on the road by 0600 on 26 January making my way to Valvoline's favourite meeting spot at Nerang.
The only memorable moment on the ride down was a chooch de louche on a sports bike who passed me travelling at an instant-license-loss speed before cutting off a truck. I saw the truck's brake lights come on and the faintest hint of a wiggle in the trailer. Even before I could begin to ponder the folly of cutting off something with the sheer mass of an articulated truck, the rider re-appeared to make an exit.
From the freeway.
I'm not confident of seeing him again.
I met Valvoline and another Netrider, JoshKTM, at Nerang. Having filled up, we set out for the Sphinx Rock Café for breakfast. Valvoline's partner, Kaiser Soze, was busy that morning, but planned to catch up with us later in the day.
It got hotter and hotter all day, but it was a good ride. Kaiser Soze caught up with us at the service station in Armidale.
Leaving Nerang, we're quickly out of town.
The photos above were taken on the Numinbah Valley Road where I achieved a milestone.
Valvoline seems to collect people and we had soon acquired a tribe. They had no stamina, though, and abandoned us at the border with New South Wales.
Mt Warning
Valvoline and JoshKTM inspect one of Australia's better letterboxes.
JoshKTM's travelling companion
Somewhere along the Summerland Way.
JoshKTM
Valvoline in her natural habitat
Just as well her feet can't reach the ground
Oh, gawd, we were so clever. Carefully lined our bikes up in the shade at the BP in South Grafton and went inside to hydrate and eat. We came out after half an hour or so to find the sun had moved and the bikes were cooking. So much so that the petrol in the tank I'd just filled had expanded and some had spilled.
We stopped for a rest at Ebor Falls.
Looked to be a storm brewing as we rode to Armidale
We dodged this one
I'm a big fan of lateral thinking. Someone installed a new toilet in the Caltex Armidale and then discovered the door wouldn't close. Easy fix.
We didn't dodge this cooling shower on the Uralla-Walcha Road, but it didn't amount to much and was welcome. We passed a comfortable and suitably lubricated night in the Apsley Arms at Walcha. For dinner, I had lamb cutlets which would have been excellent if not drowned in gravy. But it was Australia Day and eating lamb is expected.
