Day 5: Emerald to Gayndah
14 September 2020
Master Map
By the time I realised KLR_Al had sent me a text, she was under way. We'd agreed that she might start earlier than me as, having a larger capacity bike and carrying way less gear, I'd be likely to catch her during the day.
And I did. In spite of taking photos of ridiculous trucks for my grandson …
… and photos of ridiculous big toys …
I think they're called minions
… I caught KLR_Al at the first fuel stop at Blackwater. As promised, the bike was well laden.
Refuelled, we proceeded at a more leisurely pace than usual largely due to the KLR labouring under an inordinately heavy load. It did ok, although hills were challenging.
The KLR under way
It was an uneventful trip except for a moment in Biloela. Our route require a right turn at a set of traffic lights. Realising KLR_Al hadn't realised the need to turn, I passed her quickly and then came to a stop as the right turn light was red. Moments later, KLR_Al passed me to the left and turned right aiming directly for the place where the side of the car proceeding through the lights would be when she got there. There was a moment when I was sure it was going to be an almost perfect T-bone with all the attendant grief that would go with it. Miraculously she missed the car by millimetres. Did the driver see her and speed up? Was she going more slowly than I judged? I'll never know, but she missed it and, unharmed (bar my shattered nerves) we chugged along happily for the rest of the day.
We stopped for the day in Gayndah, a pretty town. An attempt to settle at the local camp ground failed to elicit any response from the proprietor, so we found a cheap motel with a couple of rooms and settled there. It turned out the husband of the proprietor was something of a motorcycle enthusiast. This specimen sat in the shop.
