So, 2022...How did That Pan Out ?

 

Here we are, starting into 2023. So how did the taunt in the last line of my review post on 2021 pan out I hear you ask...?

"Roll on 2022......DO YOUR WORST!!"

Well, actually things picked up a bit. We still had rolling Covid restrictions as each State's Premier tried to fcuk with the Federal government's plan to get us clear of the pandemic (it was a political pandemic, not a health one it seems ) but they eventually became less and less restrictive once the population came to realise it was time to move on and stop the politicians playing politics.

I was still picking cherry tomatoes on a friends farm to help them out as their regular supply of pickers were still locked out of the country. It is hot, hard, backbreaking work that is hot. Did I mention how hot it is? Well, standing in a paddock in full sun in a Queensland summer is hot, m'kay?

We must have picked hundreds of thousands of these little buggers. This was just one morning's worth.... and it went on for weeks.....

I attended a rider training day in early January called "How To Keep It Upright" that was sponsored by QLD Police Service and hence only cost participants $50 to attend. Having been subjected to MUCH training for work over the last 20 years or so it was an eye opener at how unreceptive and defensive most of the other participants were. The organisers (who were not police) spent a big portion of the classroom session just trying to put people at their ease.

I definitely took something away from the day but it was more a refresher on things I already practice when on the bike and very much aimed at newer riders. It was certainly no California Superbike School day but I guess that is reflected in the price. Did I mention how hot it was doing the on-bike drills? No, well it was almost dangerously hot just standing around in all of our riding gear (and that is from someone who had been picking tomatoes all day in the summer sun for a few weeks and was used to it!).

Deano and I were planning on riding the Victoria Divide 550 in late February so I was trying to get some cycling fitness happening. This was a struggle as it was proving to be a very wet summer. At least it is warm here in Queensland!

Unfortunately, Deano contracted Covid early in the new year and it did a number on him. The lingering effect on his fitness meant we had to scrub the Vic Divide. Bugger - but I had some leave coming up, so what to do?

What to do? I set the Africa Twin up with new chain and sprockets, plus an automatic chain oiler then had her put through a 24 000km service in early February. All of this was in aid of a cunning plan that a mate at work and I had hatched to get our bikes to Tasmania for some riding, making the most of our bunches of days off work while the flying was still spasmodic. I set off southbound on the 7th of February with no particular route in mind, just a destination of Forbes to visit my Dad.

This ride would turn into a seven month epic!

  I jumped on the ferry in Melbourne and kept the bike in storage in Launceston and then later, Adelaide. I flew in on my days off (one of the few benefits of working for an airline) to "ride like a local".

This allowed me to see much more of Tassie than the average motorcycle tourist who maybe spends a week or ten days circumnavigating the island state. 

It.Was.Awesome!

My whole "Not A Midlife Crisis" trip, which includes Ride With GPS route maps, can be found at this link - 

Start here ......

...and just keep clicking "newer post" at the bottom left of each post. It is quite an extensive series of posts covering 20 000 kilometres of New South Wales, Victoria, Tasmania and South Australia rides.

As a result of all of this travelling to ride the Africa Twin my cycling was very much neglected. Combined with plenty of Tassie pub food, washed down with some fine beers, my fitness declined at about the same rate as my girth expanded. I was probably the most unfit I have been in 15 years and definitely the heaviest I have ever been. My Strava stats for the year back up my lack of exercise with only a lowly 2386 kilometres for the year. Less than a third of my normal output.

I did start pedalling much more vigourously from September onward as the motorcycle was finally home and Deano and I were going to have another try at the Victoria Divide in December. This would make the stats for the year look better than they actually were.

In May I rolled up my sleeve - quite literally - and did something I have been meaning to do for years. Giving blood is pretty simple and as much as I hate needles, I am thankful to be a very healthy person so the slight discomfort is easily bearable for this worthy cause. I even got a sausage roll and a coffee for my efforts!

I got a bit of a surprise mid year when out of the blue my daughter booked herself in to her Motorcycle Learners licence course! While I have always had a passion for motorcycles I deliberately steered the kids away from them while they were growing up. Sure, we did TONS of mountainbiking together and I did have an R1 in the shed but I barely rode that bike until they were in their late teens. I had basically left it up to them when they were old enough to make their own decision.....so she did and acquired herself a mighty CB125e (a great choice to learn the basics) and began to gain some skill and confidence.

It wasn't long at all (about 8 weeks) before she was dragging me along to check out a very low kilometre Kawasaki Z400 for her. It was immaculate and the price was right so now she had two bikes! 

Around this time I thought it might be prudent to grab another dirt bike for my son as he has shot right up and is far too big for the little TTR230. A very low kilometre SWM300R came up for sale and basically being a ~2012 Husky 300 design, thought it would be perfect for the price. So, now that we had two dirt bikes the kids were out at Willowbank MX park having a ball! (I may have snuck in a ride or two as well 😇)

Not surprisingly, Will was soon booked in for his motorcycle Learners course. Passing it with no problems, I had a slightly proud Dad moment when I took both my kids on a road ride! 😎

September saw a new mountain bike enter the fold and an old faithful move on to a new owner. I had the opportunity to purchase a well maintained Santa Cruz Tallboy at well under half retail price so I grabbed it. It is very different to my Cannondale Habit and might take a bit of getting used to.

Unfortunately, the Habit was moved on. I loved that bike and after six years and 6000 kilmotres off road it was hard parting ways.

Getting into the theme of trying new things, an Aprilia test ride day for their new Tuareg came up and I thought why not go for a look? My impressions were posted here but the day got me thinking.

Watching a few Tuareg reviews on YouTube, I came across reviews for the new Ducati desert X. This was to be Ducati's first proper foray into the adventure bike scene. I must say, it looked pretty bloody ugly but going by the positive reviews it was getting, I thought I might hunt one out for a test ride anyway. 

That test ride got me thinking....... and this thought process led me to considering thinning out my fleet. The photo below from November proved to be my last ride on my Tuono. I advertised it and a few weeks later it was on it's way to a new owner from New South Wales. No sadness on my part. It had been a fun bike and a good dipping of my toes into Italian bike reliability waters. I hadn't got frostbite or lost a toe....

The above test rides certainly got me thinking about where I want to go with my ADV bike riding. As much as I LOVE my Africa Twin, being the best bike I have ever owned by quite a margin - it did get me thinking about it's weight and how it carried it.

Hmmmmm....🤔

I rounded out 2022 with a couple of mountain bike rides with mates. I managed to catch up for a beer ride with Deano (he got Covid AGAIN so we had to cancel Vic Divide - again😔 but the weather was abominable so he did us a favour😏) where we possibly inappropriately chugged a beer as we watched them load some poor schmuck into an ambulance on our local mtb trails...

Goodbye 2022. 

You weren't bad but you didn't have much competition from 2020 or 2021..... I have a few plans in place for 2023. Lets see what pans out.

Roll on 2023!

Cheers.

Not A Mid Life Crisis, Just An Extended Tour (Part XXXII) - Homeward Bound- Part Two

 DAY 45 

After a short stay in Forbes it was time to hit the road again. Heading off at midday I was certain of rain but needed to get going. I decided to stay off the Newell highway so once through Parkes headed out the Renshaw McGirr Way to Yeovil and Wellington. This road proved to be a good ride and the road surface was in relatively great condition considering all of the wet weather NSW has suffered this year.

Rolling into Yeovil I stopped for a quick photo and wished I could have spent longer there. It was a pretty little town.

Following the GPS out of town I feel like I didn’t take the “optimal” route to Wellington but whatever the road was (turns out it was Bournewood and Curra Creek roads) it was fun and interesting. Probably better than the route I had intended actually!

 Rolling into Wellington I made a quick stop outside the Cow and Calf hotel. Shame I couldn’t stay….

Taking the Saxa road out of town as a cut through to the Dunedoo road it began to rain finally. Then I happened across some of the WORST 50 kilometres of road I have ever encountered in NSW. The sealed surface was completely smashed for many kilometres and where it wasn’t smashed there were long sections of clay repairs which were quite slippery in the wet conditions. All in all, this was a bloody horrible bit of road when combined with the rain and I stopped in at Dunedoo, as much for the break as for the fuel.

I was going to grab a coffee milk to help with the revival but when I spied the $6 price tag on a 300ml bottle I almost had a stroke! That gave me enough of a wake up!

Dunedoo boasts some silo art so I needed to check that out before I rolled out of town.

As a bonus it is on both sides of the silo.

I then put my head down and powered through Coolah, Tambar Springs, Mullaley and Gunnedah. I though briefly about finding a room in Gunnedah but was keen to make some more miles even though I was getting over riding in the rain. As much as I could hide behind my big screen, the concentration in the  cold and wet was starting to get to me.

I decided to press on, up another “new to me road” past Lake Keepit to Manilla. Once off the main highway at the Keepit turn-off my will to live improved as it does most times I get off a main highway.  I enjoyed this back road as it wound it’s way through rolling farmland.

I made it to Manilla at about 5pm and decided this would be far enough. Cruising the main street there were 3 pubs to choose from. 

I decided on the Royal Hotel in the middle of the Main Street as it looked OK. Pretty much as soon as I walked in I regretted my decision. The place was extremely run down…..but the owners were so nice I couldn’t extricate myself from the place without feeling bad for them. 😕

This carbuncle decorated the wall in my room…. and lets not even mention the showers/bathrooms.....nearly needed gumboots to negotiate them!

This place was an absolute knock down. 

Fcuk! 

What happened to the awesome, well maintained  pubs of Tassie?! 

The bar was pretty busy on this Saturday night so I put in an order for dinner and settled back editing photos on my phone. After what was quite a while I looked up and the pub was pretty much empty and I still hadn’t eaten. 

I grabbed another drink and politely enquired as to the food. I was ushered to the dining room and some apologies were given for the delay. It turned out it had been two hours since I ordered and they had fcuked up the order. I had nowhere to be and hadn’t starved to death so suggested they chill, I was fine. The food was actually good and when I went to pay the owner, he apologised again and said “that’ll be $100 for everything “. Room, drinks and dinner for $100? As shit as the room was, that was still a bargain as the steak was $40 on it’s own, plus a few drinks…..so the room was basically free. Maybe this is why the place is verging on a knock down?

470 very wet kilometres to this hovel of a hotel but at least the bed was comfortable (or I was buggered) so I slept soundly. Tomorrow would be the last day of a trip that started in early February but there wasn't any sadness. I just wanted to get home now.

DAY 46

I was up early to get home at a decent hour, plus I didn’t want to be in this pub a moment longer than necessary. Loaded up I took a minute to get a photo of the pub and along the Main Street.

It is a pleasant road north out of here toward Barraba and Bingara. The silo art on the road into Barraba is another cracking example.

Rolling into Bingara I grabbed some fuel at the little Shell servo. Asking the old bloke behind the counter if there was a cafe open in town for a bite to eat he said “no, nothing is open but we have pies here”. Taking him at his word I thought it was better a bird in the hand and so grabbed a pie and iced coffee. 

When I rolled 200m down the road I passed a cafe advertising coffee and breakfast…..fcuking prick! In a small town like this he WOULD have known it was open….so, I suggest anyone coming through Bingara avoid buying fuel at the Shell petrol station on the southern edge of town. He is a lying bastard. 😡

From Bingara I cut across some dirt back roads through Myall Creek, Delungra, Graman and Ashford to the Bruner Highway. This was very pleasant dirt road riding through country I had never seen before. I only overcooked one tight right and puckered a bit as I tried to brake hard and turn on the crushed granite surface......slow down tiger!😅 

I turned right on the Bruner to follow the border eastward. This also proved to be a lovely ride and I will be back here again to explore more in the future. There was evidence of the flooding earlier in the year and a bridge that was out illustrated how much water must have run out of the hills along here. It also highlighted why it isn't a good idea to ride through flood waters, even if they don't look too deep!

Rolling into Tenterfield I fuelled up and decided to take my favourite road north, Mt Lindsay road. This is a great little piece of back highway that discourages over use by method of a couple of small sections of (good) dirt.

At Legume I turned east for Woodenbong. There has been much roadwork done on this section. Mostly it is for the better but some of the new stuff is already falling apart with all of the wet weather and the rest is patiently waiting it’s turn for improvement works. But when on an Africa Twin this isn’t a problem at all. It is just made for these shitty Aussie roads!

Koreelah bridge.

The rest of the way home is pretty stock standard, so not much to say there. It felt a bit funny to finally be riding up my street after so many months, but here I was, home after 20 000 kilometres and 8 months of part time travelling. 

I had been very lucky to do this ride and especially loved the time I had in Tassie. I would go back there tomorrow if I had the chance. South Australia and the Flinders in particular, was a nice surprise but not on the same level as Tassie

Thanks for following along through all of these posts. It has been a looong, drawn out ride but very much a fun one. I have discovered many places and interesting things I wasn’t aware of and I hope this may help others in planing rides through some of the regions I have travelled.

Here is my Spot tracker bread crumb trail of where I rode. Hmmm. Tassie might need a closer inspection..... 🤔 😆

Looking forward to the next trip….. 😉

Not A Mid Life Crisis, Just An Extended Tour (Part XXXI) - Homeward Bound- Part One

DAY 43

I had another run of four days off, so again, jumped on a jet and made my way down to Adelaide. This would be the last time though as I had decided it was time to bring the Twin home. I had a plan to drop in and visit my Dad for a day in there so it would be roughly a 2500 kilometre trip in three days. This was a bit tight as I also wanted to ride some roads that are much less travelled but I would see how it went.

The Adelaide weather had been quite wet and cold all winter. I had somehow managed to jag mostly good weather with each trip down here (let’s face it, if the forecast looked certain of rain, I didn’t come down!) and today turned out to be probably the best day of the lot! Clear and cold after the previous day’s downpour, I rode up into the hills heading for Cuddlee Creek and it’s cafe’ where I was to meet an old work mate and his wife for breakfast. But first I needed to stop for some photos of this crisp morning.