Day 4: Carnarvon to Emerald via the Gemfields
13 September 2020
Master Map
As I struck my tent and set about packing my bags, the mystery of the chewed muesli bars was solved. I'd rolled the top of the bag and tucked it under the fly of my tent, but that hadn't stopped some enterprising rodent eating its way through the bag. I was quite impressed. It's quite thick and probably not all that tasty.
Heading out of the national park
I said my farewells to Valvoline, JoshKTM and CC who were making their way back to Brisbane then set out north in search of a road Valvoline promised had actual bends. I was a bit amazed. How had Pterodactyl and I — who have twice ridden in this otherwise flat-ish neck of the woods — not discovered this gem?
The road north to Emerald via Rolleston (where I refuelled having emptied the 5-litre container into the tank at Takarakka) has a mostly flat aspect.
But there are some interesting hills and mountains to keep one interested. I particularly liked this range near Springsure.
At a place called Anakie, I had encounter with the Big Emerald, another of Australia's Big Things.
At Cararvon I'd found a small, plastic child's toy on the ground. Apparently it's called an ooshie. It had a rubber suction cup on the base and I stuck it on the headlight of the bike. I thought no more about it. After something to eat and a tank of petrol at The Gemfields, I was surprised to notice it had survived cruising speed on the CB1100.
Valvoline had reported well. Just outside the Gemfields, there's a right …
… then a left …
… then another left …
… then a right …
… then a left.
It's hard to describe the joy experienced both by rider and the sides of tyres when they encounter corners in this part of the world. It's not completely flat, but there aren't many hills either and mostly the road travels straight or through corners so long as not to present a challenge of any sort.
I rode the rest of the way to Capella. Arriving on the outskirts, I nearly kept going down the long straight road back to Emerald as, after the corners, the road hadn't been that exciting, but I decided to ride it again as I'd missed an important photo opportunity.
I'm pleased I did. I enjoyed the ride more on the way back. The corners were also more fun when I wasn't preoccupied photographing them.
I also found another Australian Big Thing, although I managed to miss the Big Engagement Ring a little further down the road.
Back in Emerald, I stopped to refuel, get a cup of tea and find somewhere to stay. As I arrived I noticed a person climb aboard a heavily laden Kawasaki KLR650 and ride out of the petrol station.
I found accommodation at one of those places where you book online and they send you a code to get into the place and into the room. Having asked specifically whether they had a TV that received the full array of free-to-air television, I was more than a little irritated to find the TV would not get the one channel I wanted — the one broadcasting the MotoGP. I rang the man and he gave me the code to the next door room. It had been used so I rang him again. Third time lucky.
I walked up the road to get something to eat before the GP. I was sitting in the Irish Village pub, catching up on the forum or something and minding my own business when someone said, "Excuse me." I looked up to find a young woman. She asked me whether it was me riding the bike in the service station earlier. It must have been the CB1100forum.com t-shirt that gave me away.
I'll call her KLR_Al as she did want me to reveal her name was Danielle*. She's French, spending time in Australia — and probably happily stuck here thanks to COVID — and had been working on stations in far north-west Queensland. She was now riding south to check out Noosa before setting out on a circuit through northern Queensland, the Northern Territory and South Australia. As my route home would take me near enough to Noosa, I offered to accompany her the next day.
We agreed to make contact in the morning and I retreated to watch another of the extraordinary MotoGP races that has characterised 2020.
* Just kidding. Danielle wasn't her name either.
