Friday.
Had everything packed on the bike ready to go by 8am, but I had to wait for the bank to open at 9.30 before I could slip around and pay a couple of bills before leaving.
Left Portland around 9.50 am, light showery rains and foggy misty conditions all the way to Hamilton. Medium traffic, mostly trucks.
I decided to let the GPS give me an alternate route, so I could ride on a few roads that I had not covered before and oh boy!... did it find some doozys! The original trip was to be 549 Km, but with the GPS allowed to lead, that stretched to 679 Km.
Little or no traffic on some of the single lane roads and no road markings at all because they are single lane. The three oncoming cars I did meet left me on the bitumen, and moved aside to the dirt as we passed. Almost 100 percent of my waves to traffic were acknowledged on the whole trip, cars, trucks and other riders.
So anyway... GPS led me the back way through the Grampians, Victoria Valley Road, lots of ups and downs and twisties every 100/150 metres or so, some closer together, mostly 20 kph second gear stuff, very light misty rain, hardly enough to get the road wet. Some glorious views across valleys that I had never seen before.
The rain ceased, and the fog cleared... beautiful travelling weather, and started to warm up a little.
Pulled back out onto the main road south of Mt William nearing Halls Gap. About 15K towards Halls Gap after that junction while passing Lake Fyans, four LARGE bush chooks raced across the road in front of me from right to left. I braked... hard..... and then two more... I really locked up, and came to a stop as these two crossed maybe 2 or 3 metres in front of me. There was a pothole at the edge of the road by my left foot, maybe a metre long, maybe half a metre wide, and about 150 mm deep. I had my right foot down on the roadway as I watched these two Emus bolt into the scrub to my left.
THAT'S when the hidden one on the right crash tackled me in the right shoulder. Like a rugby blocker. Powered by two 25 kilo drumsticks, there was no stopping him. Oom-ba-da-lip-sada-da-da !
Gravity is a wonderful thing, but it only works one way.
Down!
'OOMP! OOMP!' he said, as I was flat on the ground, the 1100 on top of my leg, pinned, because the drop bar fell into the pothole and the handlebar hit the ground. Plastic mirror guard/indicator left housing shattered to about 7 main pieces. Luckily, that is the only damage.
.... so far...(more details below)
Old man Emu trotted off towards his mates to brag about how he scored, maybe hoping for a few more feathers in his cap, but I called it FOWL!
Maybe a minute or two passed while I was trying to work out how to get my leg out when two cars rounded the bend in front, hurriedly braked, and 3 guys assisted by removing the gravitational horizontal hold that the bike held me by.
Many thanks were passed to them, after they ensured that I was not injured.
So, there I sat at the side of the road for awhile, had a smoke... pulled my helmet back on, flipped it open and decided one more ciggy before moving on. More minutes passed.
OK, time to get mobile again... just got back up to travelling speed, when my chin strap flapped me in the face, and I realised that I had not buckled my helmet.... too late....
Watched my helmet bounding along the highway behind me in the mirror as I braked and returned to pick it up.
What a mess!... gravel rash on all surfaces, screen included. Need a new one.
Apart from that minor mishap, the rest of the trip was gravy, I arrived at Balranald about 5 pm, set up my tent, and then sat and spun smalltalk with other members as they arrived.
A great meet, its terrific to be able to put faces and personalities to members from the forum.
Fantastic meal last night.. many thanks to Chris for giving me a lift to and from the meal... too far for me to walk with my gammy knee.
Rose this morning around 6.30, packed up camp and wandered over to the fire pit... more gasbagging for awhile, then dropped into the tail of Petes group as we left to top up tanks and hit the road around 8.30 towards Adelaide. I left the group at Ouyen and headed south for home, arriving shortly after 3 pm
