The Renmark Hotel, base for the 2017 IBA Australian Muster, has an art deco style about it.
Right over the road is the prototype of the logo for the Muster:
And moored a short way along the port is this wonderful expression of Aussie humour:
The waterfront has recently been improved, as testified by this excellent fountain.
Enough of the tourist brochure- this is FarRiding...
I checked out of the Renmark at 8:30 and was on the road by 8:45. The historic Paringa lifting bridge was soon crossed.
Then it was on to Mildura for my first refuel. The wind must have been at least 50 kph. Luckily for me it was a tailwind but I passed a bicyclist riding westbound who looked absolutely stuffed. Every recently ploughed paddock was throwing its topsoil up into the atmosphere.
Sometimes for a kilometre at a time, visibility was down to 50 metres.
As I crossed the Murrumbidgee at Balranald a large flock of white birds rose from a tree (cockatoos?).
Just after that a black V8 Commodore with an ACT three digit plate passed me. I figured he might be fun to follow, and so we played tag with the B-Doubles all the way to Narrandera. My GPS has a new top speed in its memory. We enjoyed a brief chat at the Caltex before parting company.
I hadn't seen the new display of retired jet fighters at the RAAF Base in Wagga. I overshot the entrance and did a u-ey. That put my wheels off into the gravel and when I opened the throttle to get back on the bitumen, the rear wheel spun, then grabbed and tried to flick me off. Nice try, but I held her head up and got my photos.
The day's journey crossed the Hume exiting onto the Snowy Highway tracking for Tumut. The sign saying "Slow down- steep hills and sharp bends" appeared and I smiled thinking of the people who travel across the country purely to experience those terrors at their best possible speed.
My daughter's family live on the Wee Jasper road north of Tumut, bringing up a tidy 819 kays for the day.
May I annoy the agnostics with an amazing coincidence? I often pass the time singing old hymns in my helmet. I'd run out of my repertoire when I recalled a song from my Wewak days that repeats the word "majesty" as its key theme. I was in full voice when a caravan coming towards me had emblazoned across the top its brand- "Majestic". I think it's a moderately uncommon brand, and the timing was pretty special.
The next morning after a leisurely breakfast and a few final tips to the grandies about their chess strategies, I headed for home via the Brungle Road. This shot of the location my topbox came off in July last year was irresistible. The handle was properly locked down, but the latch underneath hadn't engaged in the mounting plate. Since then I do a thorough lift and shake of the box.
After refuelling at Gundagai South I headed up the Hume, only to encounter an illuminated sign warning of an accident north of Goulburn causing delays. The possibility of going into Goulburn to have a coffee and kill time was examined and dismissed in the best FarRiding logic that the task requires commitment. It wouldn't have worked anyway- the accident materialised as a rolled semi in the left lane, so there was a two hundred metre queue of traffic merging (and rubber-necking, of course). The workers had bobcats running in and out of the burst container cleaning up. No photo- I would have liked to pull over and snapped one but not in that tight situation.
The expressway traffic around Sydney was moving well, but Pennant Hills Road was as bad as ever, exacerbated by major roadworks at the top where it crosses over to the Newcastle Freeway. The fuel gauge started counting down reckoning I had 95 kays when it was 75 kays to my planned fuel stop. But I stopped at the Freeway Caltex for fuel and a snack. I hate watching the two numbers converge- it takes over my riding life! So I bail when the next servo comes up. A very friendly KLR650 rider heading for Kempsey was on for a chat. Back on the road I made a straight shot for the Taree service centre for a comfort stop. The place was over-run by Bush Fire brigades and scores of yellow suited volunteers. Apparently there had been a training exercise, and the were demobilising.
Fuel at Coffs set me up for a clear run home. Up through the northern riverlands the clear evidence at night of recent flooding was that awful smell that the mud has. Pity those who had been hosing it out of their houses!
I had SMS'd home with an ETA of 10:45, but by the time I negotiated all the nightworks on the Gold Coast motorway, it was 11:07 when I got my end-docket four kays from home- 1357 ODO kays for the day. My dear wife had Chicken soup waiting for me. She views with a jaundiced eye my riding nutrition.
https://spotwalla.com/tripViewer.php?id=13c4758e61d82658dd
