This all began about 8 weeks ago with a phone conversation with Diesel, and the idea was born for myself to do my first FarRide at Nambucca Heads (FarRide East #18).
So we dragged on with it, I put together a ride that looked to be worlds of fun, then of course it started raining! and flooding! so back to the drawing board.
Diesel, being the damn good Bloke he is, helped me out with the planning as I was under the hammer with work, so the plan was put into effect, did the best we could with all the road reports and the like.
On the Friday I was all packed and ready to go, apparently someone didn't want to go to school, but wanted to come on her first FarRide to
Diesel arrived about 10.20am, I was finishing the last of my packing and also making sure my RACQ was up to date. so it was the goodbyes from Teela (who had that look of "excellent the house is mine" in her eyes.
we rode up to BP grabbed ourselves a Coffee (ok well 2 Mocca's) Diesel ordered a "Mocca on Skinny Milk.....TerryDJ is already frothing at the mouth!
After coffee it was fuel up get our dockets, mine was on the money at 11.01am (to match with the NSW start time of 12pm) and it was on the road, Goondiwindi being our first port of call, after all this talk of Rain and getting wet, it was strange to be sweating it up in 34-35 degree heat for the day, so it was fuel and fluids at Goondiwindi
Back on the bikes and I was quickly learning that a throttle lock or cruise control would have been rather nice about now!
my wrist and arm was getting the tingles already, so it was an unscheduled stop in Inglewood, as I was struggling a little with the longer stretches and it being quite warm
I don't have any photos from Inglewood to Tenterfield, but I am sure diesel will have a few.
once we got to Warwick, we turned for Tenterfield and saw a Candy Red ST heading north, waves and lights flashing, the gents name escapes me, but they were all waving at diesel the whole way (Mr. Social Butterfly I tell you). we arrived in Tenterfield about 6pm QLD time, still daylight and enough time to setup camp, the Caravan park was nice neat and tidy $25 a site, but that included power and full use of everything, all my gear that I had bought on the cheap worked very well.
After setup we ducked down the local establishment to grab some cans and look for food, diesel advised me that the pub was a little on the rough side did we want to eat there....I said let's have a look, walked in took one look and we deiced maybe a burger was just fine somewhere else....
so it was fuel, burgers with the lot, and a can of mossie repellent as we were getting carried away! once we got back to camp we had a nice surprise a few of the locals down the street where having a rather loud and large Party, how good was that, dinner and a show, we discovered to our misfortune that the party went on, and on, and on, and was still going at top note when we crashed out, our plan was to get up at 2.50am (QLD Time) and get on the road, so I did the right thing and set the alarm on my phone.
2.50am and the alarm goes off! go and clean my teeth, get dressed, notice how well Peter's (Blue Heeler) reflective stickers looked on diesels bike, you should ask him about them
but there was no movement from diesel..strange so I knocked ( yes I knocked on his tent), woke him up, and then was advised my phone was on NSW time...oops....tried to go back to sleep...and discovered that party I was talking about was still going......I learnt a lot about them over the next hour, apparently everyone in the world are Useless #$#$%@, that was repeated about 40 times!
I would like to mention myself being the camping rookie was packed up much faster than the experienced Diesel, although he made coffee and I didn't have the gear to do it.
so we rode out 3.30am QLD time and headed out on the darkness, I followed diesel as I didn't have a clue where we were going, and some damn fine twisties in the dark was a lot of fun, we ran into Grey Beard one of the Farriders who said "there was a little bit of fog" we discovered that means a lot! went over one bridge that looked like a scene from the Headless Horseman.
Breakfast in Casino, and seeing I had missed out on Coffee I was rather looking forward to.
apart from a beautiful day to be riding, all the way down to Nambucca was quite uneventful, phoned Saaz, and found out he was close by so we caught up along the way, and three Honda ST, and Three OzSTOC shirts rode into Nambucca, right on time for a chin wag and check in......and this is where the fun began
So we lined up for check in 1,090km under my belt, I had worked out all my KM's written on my docket, odometer reading start and finish, circled docket time & date and I was feeling pretty damn proud of myself.....
so there I am, a Virgin FarRider, about to become one of them, I handed Clint my docket to get ticked off......
Clint looked at my docket, and said these words "what state did you come from?" I Said Queensland? about this time I started to feel a hand pulling my sleeve and shoulder and diesel says "step over here for a sec" and for some reason he was looking like a guilty school boy caught smoking behind the tuckshop? I am totally confused about what is going on....and diesel uttered these famous words " mate I think I stuffed it"
Apparently the check in time was 12.30pm to 1pm NSW time, so the start time was 12.30pm NSW time, and diesel miss read it and thought it was 12pm, so we started at 12pm NSW time in QLD being 11am.
at this time, all the people who knew diesel close by where trying to help me see if I could make up the time with a later docket, and also beginning to grin at Diesel (I might say he is still looking as guilty as sin at this point).
I didn't totally understand the rules but basically if your docket starts before the allotted time, you can only use the next most relevant docket, for me that was Goondowindi (300km down the road, damn the camel fuel tanks we have) so I didn't have time to complete the ride, so it was about know the disappointment started to creep in, then I looked at Diesel who was taking it harder than I was ( I will say that it is just as much as my fault, but if I had done the same thing diesel would have thrown me to the sharks as well!).
in the next couple of hours every table diesel walked past people said "oh your that guy" so I was feeling better and better! although people kept offering me a Farriders Cap and saying" oh that's right, you can't have one ha ha!
great food, and a couple of beers and it was bed time for me, 9 hours sleep and I woke up feeling pretty damn good, packed up, and went and found Diesel who was staying in a different cabin, and he was not well at all, something about homemade rum and bourbon and you don't feel so good
here is a photo of a Delicate flower getting on the bike
it was time to head off for breakfast, a good group to do it as well
fantastic place right on the water, first class
we could not go past the Banana for a photo for the ST in front of Big things!
we headed north, and diesel took me down this back road, great riding, lots of fun, then he waves me down, we were getting on a ferry......
I have never put my bike on a ferry before so it was a nice touch!
we had a fantastic run home, up through kyogle, Boona, and back to Toowoomba, I have put a couple of photos below, but to sum up, the bike went brilliantly, diesel was a fantastic escort (apart from one little moment). we covered 1,659.5km in three days, and because diesel is in trouble with Teela, I have a leave pass to do my farRide to Lightning Ridge! so all in all I win!
Cheers
Streak
My apologies for not many photo's i didn't really get time to take many but i am sure diesels ride report will fill in the gaps!
