After the Parkes Muster I rode down to the Canberra Airport to pick up Mrs Biggles who had timed her arrival from Brisbane for this rendezvous. I pillioned her to Tumut where our daughter, her husband and three of our grandkids live. A few days later I set off for home with stern instructions to call when I'd found my bed for the night.
I was late getting away, effectively negating my ambition to make a straight run for home. Departing from family somehow messed with my headspace, and after 160795 km on Honda ST1300s I didn't latch the topbox properly and 10 kays into the ride it left the bike at around 80 kph. I could hear it tumbling along the tabledrain. Fortunately it only hit the bitumen once and the rest of the time was on softer ground.
I love all kinds of bridges (a common trait among road travellers) and stopped for this shot of the Gundagai timber railway bridge which parallels an equally long abandoned timber road bridge.
I passed up some "gotta get sometime" photos along the way. The weather around Blayney was atrocious- 100 m viz in fog and bitterly cold. I reckon I'd have to get free rates and a big tax concession to live there. Things improved and I enjoyed the run up over Wattle Flat (gotta visit) and was intrigued to see a sign advertising a book sale in Sofala. By now I figured Tamworth would do for the night, so I had time to see if I could add to my motorcycle travel book collection, and see a little of another iconic historical town. The town didn't disappoint, with its single lane main street.
The bookshop turned out to be a very old two room house bulging with books. The owner had a very broad category system which failed to produce a suitable book in the 15 minutes I was prepared to spend looking.
The lady and her husband live next door in this old Lodge hall.
The next stop was Merriwa for fuel, where I arrived just after dark. My son-in-law had advised me on the route I was taking and said the next town would be Scone. As I left Merriwa I saw the turn-off to Willow Tree and figured that had to be better! Twenty six kilometres later the great surface turned to gravel, and in a matter of metres I was in deep trouble as the bike proceeded to slide off the road. I urged it back with the gentlest of steering inputs and the most fervent of prayers. Figuring that was an aberration I pressed on for another 500 metres before it all happened again. At that point I shakily made a 6 point turn and surrendered to the ignominy of retracing my track. A dinner break in Scone couldn't come quickly enough.
Upon arriving in Tamworth I skipped an expensive motel and, of course, the No Vacancy ones. Just after the by-pass (Calala Lane) I saw a very inviting motel sign offering $78 beds with free brekky and Wi-Fi. I gladly wheeled in to be told by the lass that their "No" lighted sign didn't work. Disheartened, I decided to try the motel at Kootingal where I spied a painted sign beside the office declaring a vacancy. I knocked and was greeted by a shirtless youth who announced through a narrow door opening that they had no vacancies. An appeal to the blatant sign was fruitless, and so I pressed on through Uralla (No Vacancy) until I found the fourth motel in Armidale willing to ease my pain at 10:00. It should be noted that by this time it was 5 degrees and wisps of fog were gathering.
I thought I'd like to share another road story with you, since I know others will identify with my experiences. I heard from my other daughter who had left Tumut two days before me to return to Brisbane by the same route, that they had decided to drive the road from Merriwa to Willow Tree and found it exceedingly slippery in their fourby. I derived a little satisfaction from that.
