Kroombit Tops - Day 1

I have been wanting to do this ride for a couple of years now but that silly pandemic and having no job for a while sort of got in the way. Another hurdle is that ADV riding isn’t much fun in the heat and with winter days in Brisbane being in the low 20s Celsius, heading anywhere north of there is going to be somewhat warmer- even in winter which makes for a small window of attack.

Anyway, I decided that I needed to get it done this winter so put in for some leave for late July. Work being the thoughtful place it is, my leave got bumped to the first two weeks of August. Close enough!

I had some commitments in the first week of leave so that done, promptly caught a cold and felt like shit.😔

I really struggled to motivate myself to get organised for this ride. I had wanted to go mid week as I find you get most campgrounds etc to yourself rather than sharing with the hordes on a weekend. Well, as I said, I couldn’t motivate myself especially as I had a new set of Mosko Moto Reckless 80s that needed fitting then nutting out how to pack everything I needed. Sounds like a first world problem I guess but in my defence the Andy Strapz Avduro panniers that I have used for the last few years are so easy to mount and carry so much gear with ease that I was really unsure if I liked the Mosko gear.

I eventually got it all sorted and of course, the Mosko gear looks as sexy as all getout - however it doesn’t hold as much gear as the Avduro panniers - which is possibly a good thing. Too much space means one tends to pack too much stuff.

 I found a route that looked interesting on the Trans Australia trail site and managed to chop it up into Gaia maps and get it onto my gps - no easy task as I had to covert the Gaia route in Basecamp, then still add dozens of points to make it route over the “borrowed” route from the TAT site. Phew!

I was eventually on the road late morning and buzzed up to the Sunshine Coast where I exited the highway at Palmwoods. Following the pink line I twisted and turned around lots of little backroads/trails until I popped into Pomona. I stopped here for a late lunch at the supermarket and topped up the tank. I was heading for plantation country for a while and wasn’t sure when I would next see a fuel stop.

Just out of Pomona I got to stop for a while at what is a very common occurrence here in Australia the last few years - roadworks.

I buzzed past Kin Kin and into the massive pine plantations south west of Tin Can bay which don’t seem to have a name. 

Then I proceeded to zig and zag my way along grassy Forestry roads, hitting the odd sandy spot here and there. I had been unsure about the feel of the front tyre all day so far. In fact, I rode the bike to a coffee meet the day prior (and a day after fitting the new rubber) and thought the front felt terrible. I put that down to new rubber as I had read that the Motoz Rallz needed a few hundred kilometres to bed in. That still didn’t dispel the feeling that the front tyre felt a bit flat.

It felt pretty ordinary on the rocky climb out of this creek crossing (the Noosa River according to maps!) but felt ok when I stopped and tried pressing in on the knobs. I was also not in the plantations at this point, having passed a national park entry sign and noticing the trail getting much narrower and unkempt - just typical government administered road really.

However I was soon back on the forestry highways and really enjoying blasting along. This Desert X is much more confidence inspiring than my old Africa Twin, purely from a mass/height perspective.

It was getting late in the afternoon and I was really only about two and a half hours from home (if I had taken the Bruce Highway) My late, unmotivated start had a bit to do with this but the tight, twisty nature of the dirt route was certainly slowing things too.

I proceeded to blast through Toolara State forest towards Tiaro. I had to slow for a couple of groups of wild horses on the road through here! I have never seen wild horses anywhere but the alpine areas of Australia. Great. Another road hazard but much more dangerous than the usual kangaroos.

I fuelled up in Tiaro and decided not to follow the “route” through St Mary state forest and stuck to the blacktop to Biggenden.

I arrived in Biggenden just before dark and found a pub to camp in. I noticed the front end of the bike felt funny riding slowly around town but just thought it was from the load I had on the back. New to me tyre and first time fully loaded on this bike….yeah, the tyre is fine.

Time for a shower, a couple of beers and a bloody good parmy. Today was a Thursday and I found out tonight that Monday was a public holiday up here…..so cue the packed campgrounds I reckon…..🙄

I was pretty buggered as I wasn’t well, what with the head cold so hit the hay pretty early tonight. I set the alarm for first light though as I had some plans for some golden hour photography in the morning.

Cheers.

Day 2 here.