Route Here:
https://goo.gl/maps/OJQWQI found a camper trailer after looking around for a bit that suited what I was after.. only problem was it was in Warwick, I was in Atherton.
After getting stuffed around with transport quotes, I decided to take a weekend ride...
Day 1: - 1746kmAtherton - To - Toowoomba.--------------------------------------
I decided to do this section as an IBA1600 day, in winter... yep, i'm clever... :-)
I departed Atherton at 1:00am, planning to head inland via Charters Towers, Emerald, Roma, to Toowoomba..
Outside air temp when I departed was a nice 4 degrees, I had my new heated gloves & jacket on, set to low to see how they went and off into the darkness I rode. After the first 20 km I pulled over and wound the jacket up to the 2nd highest setting, and set the gloves to the hottest as the temperature had dropped to 1 degree and I was heading into colder weather.
I arrived at mount garnet (about 100km into the ride) at just after 2am, where I pulled over and put my OzStoc jacket over the heated liner to cut down on the cold spots from the wind.. (I didn't have my jackets regular winter liner in, and I wasn't turning around to get it... woops). Gave the bike a quick walk around to make sure nothing had moved and discovered a liquid coming out of my RH Pannier. I better check it as I had a 5L jerrycan in there, all good.. Seems I accidentally left a can of softdrink in a bag I had packed.. I guess I wasn't ment to have that one.. All good, so off into the dark again with the next stop 400km away.
The next few hours were uneventful, the new lighting setup was working well, given that when I overtook the odd truck I came across my lights were better than theirs. Not much wildlife out tonight, which is nice.. a few bunny rabbits, and the odd roo but they all seemed to be staying on the grass so I managed to keep my speed up... I noticed the low fuel warning come on about 120km from Charters Towers, my next fuel stop. No worries I thought, I have the 5L reserve as I was expecting to be on vapor, or short 20 or so KM.
70km from Charters Towers I found the fuel limit... The engine just died. Seemed the bike was drinking more than I planned. Oh well, throw the 5L in and off we went.. Low fuel warning flashing all the way into the service station.. that was a bit close for comfort...
I arrived at 6am, so the 500km leg was perfect and ahead of time... Refuelled and filled the jerrycan. 31L, woops that was close.
Had a quick bite to eat, then back on the road.. The service station attendant thought I was crazy riding in 0 degree weather, at night on those roads.. I personally prefer it to doing the same trip at daytime when the idiots in tin cans are on the road.
6:30am - Charters Towers to Claremont.----------------------------------------------
The next boring part of the trip, 380 odd km of nothingness with a service station in the middle.
This was uneventful as well, a top of 12 degrees, the heated jacket and gloves got turned down a little but I was nice and comfortable for the whole way. I stopped at the Belyando rest area for a quick snack and drink then continued on through to claremont.
I arrived at Claremont just after 10am,. Went around and filled up, had a snack and drink and continued along my merry way after a quick photo opportunity. The bike was still drinking too much fuel, but not much I could do here so decided to keep on going and just plan fuel stops around the new *cough* economy..
11:30ish I got to Emerald and pulled in at Supercheap and grabbed a bottle of injector cleaner as the bike was still drinking a bit much fuel, so refuelled and after another quick check of the tyre pressures to see if I could see any obvious reason my fuel economy was down.. they were ok, so back on the road to see if the injector cleaner was going to help.
12:30ish I arrived in Springsure, a quick lunch break and topped the tank up with fuel and the last of the injector cleaner. Had a walk around, drink and bathroom break. The next stop was planned as Roma.
4PMish. I arrived at Roma, fuel economy had been improving which was nice. I decided to have an early Meal here just incase the weather was crap in Toowoomba or there was issues and I decided to camp somewhere along the road. Filled with fuel and back on the road. A quick call to family to let them know I was going ok, and I was still planning to get to Toowoomba that night.
8pm. Arrived in Toowoomba, the plan was simple… ride up the main road and get a room for the night.. I hadn’t booked accommodation in advance in case I didn’t get there in time..
That proved to be a mistake.. finally found a room around 8:30 after taking a few wrong turns and getting myself lost in traffic-light hell.. Parked up, had a bite to eat and settled in for the night..
Saturday: - 630km - Toowoomba - Warwick - Gin Gin via OzSTOC RTE Woke up 6am for a early start.. walked outside to start packing the bike and found ice on my seat, and rest of the bike… urg.. started to load everything up, then while I got my gear back on started the bike to warm it up.. -2 degrees.. no wonder it was cool.. off to the servo, told once again I was nuts by the servo attendant. Off to warwick I go.
Got into Warwick around 8am, met up with the owner of the trailer. Went around and did the paperwork, hooked it up to the bike and got a quick run-down on how the trailer worked. Lights checked. Then back on the road, time to head down to the OzSTOC RTE.
9am, back on the road with a trailer.. Never towed with a bike, this was interesting. Nice & Stable at 80, 90, 100.. so far so good. Straight down a mountain range, and on the ipswitch motorway.. next second wiggle wiggle wiggle from the trailer, eyes open wide.. 105km/h and it snakes.. urg. Pulled over when I could and moved some weight around. Head off again, all good.. ahhhh..
I arrived down at Kenny's At Mooloolah Cafe – Mooloolah just on time after getting stuck in traffic…
Had a good lunch with a great bunch of people, a nice rest and some relaxation before hitting the road again.
Fueled up, and ready to go.. off through gympie and rather than taking the highway the whole way the GPS showed a nice alternative through some backroads.. no dirt roads according to the GPS, so lets do that..
No dirt roads….. it lied.
Come around a corner at 100k over a crest and my nice double lane road turned into a dirt goat-track… after I got my breath back, and go the bike under control again I had to decide to either turn around and loose two hours going back around the long way, or see how far the dirt went.. (No signs anywhere to be seen)… Stuff it, I’ll take the dirt and see where it takes me.. thankfully it was only 20km worth, then back onto the black stuff..
I arrived in Gin Gin around 5pm, refuelled the bike, had a bite to eat and decided to have an early night after looking at wiki-camps with not many good free-camps up the road I settled in at the Gin Gin rest-stop for the night. Nice clean place, good facilitys.
I set the trailer up in about 10 minutes, so ate some more food, got changed and after a call to family it was time for bed. God it was nice not having to setup tents after a long day on the road.
Sunday: 890km - Gin Gin to Home HillA nice relaxed day planned today, Gin Gin to Home Hill to visit some family. I got back on the road by 6:30ish. After a bit of riding enjoying the nice roads and weather (Well, nice as it was 3 degrees and the heated clothing was good )
I took some back roads and enjoyed staying away from the straight roads, soon enough I arrived into Rockhampton, pulled in for some breakfast, fuel and to remove the winter clothing at it had warmed up quite a bit now I was back on the coast…
Rockhampton – Mackay was as expected, I’ve travelled this road a bit over the last few years but I was enjoying the weather and just being out on the bike.
I arrived into Home-Hill around 5pm and setup camp at the Caravan park where I had some relatives staying. I didn’t use the powered part of the site as I hadn’t checked the trailers wiring over and at first glance I wasn’t entirely happy with it. No problems tho as the battery had only been used for one night since being charged. (The charging wiring from the bike wasn’t hooked up either)
Monday: 453km : Home Hill back to AthertonA very relaxed day ahead, on the road around 8am. No sense rushing the last leg. More roads I’d travelled a bit, but I used the time to my advantage and took a number of rest stops to check out some of the free-camping spots for future reference.
A fuel and food stop in Cardwell, and sat on the beach for a bit well, because I could. Had a look at a few more camp spots on the way home, and arrived home about 1:30pm.
Overview:A great ride, where nearly everything went to plan. I’m yet to work out why my fuel consumption went so bad for a while but running the injector cleaner through the system seems to have helped. The bike is due for a service now, so I will give it a good once over when I get a chance and see if I can find anything strange.
How did I find doing the IBA section of the ride?Surprisingly Easy.. I had done similar on the way to the national rallys the last two years, so knew what roads were good, and where roughly I could take breaks, get fuel etc. I’m actually looking to hitting the road with the trailer and racking up some more trips in the future
