As I was working on another side-stand puck for Miss Scarlett in the garage on Saturday arvo, there came the familiar roar of an approaching STeed. A shiny, candy red ST1300 pulled up in the front yard. David (DBfive) had arrived
, introducing himself and his bike before the next day’s RTE. Then it was cups of tea, mugs of coffee, comparing the finer points of our nearly identical candy red STeeds, exchanging thoughts on how we’re going to get to Perth, when and where to meet. With that all sorted, DBfive was off to his overnight accommodation.
Sunday was perfect weather for the RTE.
Our meeting place, a local Shell servo, was a conglomeration of bikes, with the Mackay British Vintage Motorcycle Club co-incidentally meeting there for a ride as well, so we were able to introduce DBfive to some of the other fine motorcycles to be seen around Mackay.
One of the riders at the servo decided to join us for what turned out to be, a short portion of our ride. He peeled off midway to our first destination, leading a following DBfive astray, into unknown countryside!
Luckily we were able to double back and retrieve him before he’d gone too far, and get back on track to our smoko destination, The Old Station Teahouse.
It’s a wonderful old former railway station building, set down in a tropical setting. We took possession of a small pavilion in the grounds, claimed it in the name of OzSTOC, planting the FNQ flag, named it… whatever... the coffee, scones and carrot cake have arrived. Anyhoo, with smoko behind us, we then mounted up and headed for the Eungella Range, and The Chalet at the top.
Our route took us through the sugarcane fields by means of some interesting and occasionally testing curly roads, with some blind bends to really keep you on your toes. The sugarcane harvest is in full swing, so you also needed to be on the lookout for slow moving haul out tractors, bin trucks and cane trains.
The Eungella range is bend after hairpin bend with waterfall causeway cattle-grid crossings, challenging riders to remain upright if they’re wet. But no heart-stopping moments for us today and judging by the smile, none for DBfive either.
Lunch at the Chalet consisted of a large and satisfying gluten free steak sandwich for Kate and BLTs for DBfive and me. Some thought was given to how pleasant the sunshine was, the comfortable temperature, what the other 899 OzSTOC members were missing out on, the view down the Pioneer Valley and other RTE ideas (Airlie Beach, Bundaberg). So it was with some reluctance, we started the journey back to Mackay.
Conversations will continue, centered around next year’s Perth Rally. How to get there? How to get back? Who else from NE Australia is thinking of going? Cars, trailers, tents, bikes... a convoy is not out of the question. We’ll be staying in touch over the intervening period, and we hope DBfive will find an opportunity to head this way again, because there’s still plenty to see and do around here.
Now, when can we ride again? By all means check out Marty's thread
http://ozstoc.com/index.php?topic=9655.0
