Patriots Australia Townsville
- Andy :
- Mingela, 28 July 07, Saturday
Mingela trip was a memorable ride for all the wrong reasons, but although the weekend was a washout on the entertainment and Hungi fronts, every patriot/associate/supporter nevertheless had a bloody good time.
We started from BP Stuart at about 1130HRS Saturday 28th July and arrived in Mingela at the pub in the early afternoon. After pitching tents, swags etc Spence & myself set about putting a decent sized fire together. We all found ourselves partaking of the amber fluid shortly afterward. Coffee was soon pushing zzzz's having raised her amber level prematurely with the help of scotch whiskey. The merriment continued until dinner which was an enjoyable BBQ dinner followed by a game of pool in the outdoor area. After a few games of pool we all adjourned to the fireside and kept trying to raise our amber fluid levels further. Some succeded, some didn't.
We all had a good breaky on the BBQ and the Spences left to get back to T'ville. Coffee and myself mounted up and rode to the local rodeo ground to visit Craig Landy and Shirley who were making a historic journey along the cattle trail from North Queensland to country Victoria. We watched on as they exercised the Thoroughbred/Clydesdale horses in the rodeo ring. Back to the hotel and there we all lined up for the much anticipated Hungi. Enough said.
The trip back to Townsville was uneventful and all were happy to reach a shower and wind down from a hectic weekend.
Cheers,
tbags
- Bluewater Springs, 08 September 07, Sunday
The ride started at El Presidentes (Rod & Moyras) and headed for Herveys Range Road to the western side of Townsville.
Many riders had trouble keeping up on this early stage of the ride with traffic lights and offramps providing distractions and disruptions along the riverway and in Kirwan. The few of us who made it to the first re-gathering realised that Spence & Spence were petrochemically, not geographically, challenged as they took their detour at Rupertswood.
The hike up the side of the range was led by Rod and made interesting for tbags & Shorty by Moyra on the burbling yamaha 750. As we watched the back wheel jump sideways with every twist of the throttle on the steep climb we were inspired if not educated (This may be the type of riding she exhibits when "sharing" the road with Semi-Trailers).
Rod by this time had made a sizeable lead on most of us and continued to power toward the summit with nothing but blue sky and the crisp, clear morning air to take his mind off the climb. The rest of the team were making good time in my rear view mirror (haha).
The team regrouped at the top of the range on-the-fly and we continued for many kilometres past Alice River (where Wombat had a most unfortunate stoppage) to the single lane bitumen road after the 'T' intersection that Andy made into his own personal Kawasaki (Large) Road Bike dirt squirting extravaganza (No really - he says he just needed to pass us slow people).
Bluewater Springs Cafe was a welcome sight as some of us pulled in with needle-and-pin bums and a hard earned thirst. The obligatory photo shoot ensued providing some of the following pix.
A really good lunch was laid on by the cafe and after all were fed and watered and much talk of club matters, we made our way to the memorials erected on the road to commemorate the courage and persistence of the pioneers of this rugged part of the northern wilderness. Directly after this we arrived at Wombats blowout, er, Alice River? to find a very lonely trike on the roadside. After much ummmming and errrring the two articifers plying their trade were very happy to hear that a RACQ tilt tray was on the way. We were happy too because we were wanting to see the Cat-Poo-Coffee place and had run out of "Is there fuel" and "is there spark" jokes.
A few more followed suit and even Lyndsay on his BMW almost reached 3500 rpm as he throttled like a madman toward the bridge. After the remaining few had managed to rear-end the trike onto the RACQ truck Rod said we could ride like men possessed, er, have a free ride, to the cat-poo place.
Some of us raced, some of us sauntered but we all arrived at the coffee stop eventually and enjoyed cakes and coffee/tea.
As the sun was setting on a beautiful, clear afternoon landscape the rich cat-poo-swilling people in their Beemers and Porches left and then we decided to call it quits too. The ride down the hill, although much more scenic (for the pillions at least) was much less eventful. A bloody good day was enjoyed by all.
Cheers,
tbags
- Halifax, 23 September 07, Sunday
Well the ride to Halifax on Sunday the 23rd was attended by 14 bikes and four slightly hung over brothers from Cairns and they said they were the recovery vehicle more like they were the recovering, but it was good to see them and share a few long awaited stories.
The ride was delayed due to ????? road works well that's what President Rod and Moy said, funny how they drank water all day and didn't partake of the wonderful food at the Halifax hotel, but we were all there waiting to greet them, TC rode at the rear checking his repair work on his bike new suspension got home must have got it right.
There were two new riders with us sorry there names escape me but they were happy with the ride and how they handled the pack formation riding something you can only get better at with time.
I was impressed with the Harley riders as tale end Charlie, I didn't see any spare parts on the road at all, Tbags was lucky he had a helmet on the sun block didn't work all that well mate and no I'm not (I'm just naturally dark skined.)
no offence to all
TOP CAT
- Cairns, Smitty's Funeral
The Friday of Smitty's funeral started from Daisy's place and we collected bikes as we travelled to Robbo's. A few more bikes arrived while we were shooting the shit over the space of a couple of hours. We all left together for the church and parked at the back. The other bike clubs spread around the front of the church and many navy whites were visible in the sea of black leather vests. After the service Smitty's coffin was hoisted by a group of burly biker types to the front of the church and placed on a Harley Davdson powered sidecar for the trip to the crematorium.
The clubs all pulled together with organising blocking street lights for the procession to move through and I sincerely hope the street light cameras didn't waste too much film ;-) There was in excess of one hundred motorcycles following the casket to the crematorium. Another service took place and all said final goodbyes before heading to "Shinanigans" in the city for the wake. It was a solemn occasion with a great deal of dignity and decorum present in all aspects of the day. May Smitty's rides be long and peaceful forevermore.
We stopped at just about every watering point there was... Miriwinni Hotel, Innisfail RSL, Cardwell RSL, and Cardwell Hotel. We spent a really good afternoon at the Carwell RSL who were really good people and a hell of a lot of laughs. We ended up doing a tac ride up to the pub for dinner and realised later we should have pitched the swags at the RSL (had we known about the rooster in advance). We did another little tac ride up a backstreet to the local park overlooking the water and Hinchinbrook Island where we drank in the full moon on the water with a bottle of Daisy's best bourbon. The Rooster must have had absolutely no sense of time at all because it started crowing at 0310 and kept that up until we left. I think it may have been trained by the local police to move biker would-be-camper types along more easily. We left tired(ly) as the sun came up over Hinchinbrook but realised then as I do now that it was one of those rides I will remember fondly with a smile on me dial.
Cheers,
tbags
- Daisy & Milo's Nom ride to Mt Garnett
This was a great run from Cairns to Mt Garnett with us staying at Gaff’s family’s humpy at the MT Garnett Racetrack. This run was a combined nom ride for Daisy on the Saturday and Milo for the run home on the Sunday. It was a nice clear looking morning on the Saturday with people arriving under the big fish at Earlville Shopping Centre fo a 10 am depart. Daisy and Milo were there first with Daisy’s bike was looking extra shiny as always when a bird decided it needed a touch up, luckily only on the seat! Goldfish arrived with Daisy and Milo but couldn’t attend the ride but came to see us off anyway. Robbo and Gaff arrived just prior to our departure.Once we were all there, we left. With Daisy leading us we rode out of Cairns for our first stop at the Fisheries Falls Hotel.
It was a nice short stint just to get the blood flowing, and then a drink and chat about the ride ahead. The rain clouds started to come over the back of the mountains as Milo was greeted by some friendly Japanese tourists while adjusting bike bling. After all, its gotta look good going the road! After our drinks its was on the road again to meet people at the Mena Creek Hotel.
We arrived just in time for lunch at the Mena Creek Hotel at around 12 o’clock. After a drink or two and lunch, Rod, Moy, Roach and Vicki arrived from Townsville. We all sat around and had a chat for a little while and then left for Mt Garnett. Rod and Moy stayed behind at the Mena Creek Hotel as they had already organised to stay there for the night and return to Townsville early the next morning. The run took us back towards Innisfail and then towards Millaa Millaa and along the Palmerston Hwy. The scenery was beautiful but our attention soon turned back to the road as it started to rain on the descent towards Ravenshoe. It was cold rain too!
The run into Ravenshoe got better as the rain eased as we come past the wind farm. Not a bad view either if you hadn’t seen big windmills like that before. Mt Garnett was only a few km’s down the road but when we got there it was good to refuel and get a quick drink. As there’s not a lot in Mt Garnett the BP servo also became our milk bar, our bakery and our butcher! They kindly, and for a good price I might add, sold us some massive rump steaks which would go down a treat later that evening.
As we arrived at Gaff’s humpy at the racetrack, we soon saw how great it was. There were beds with mattresses, a kitchen, toilet and bathroom. It was great. We soon broke out a bottle of Daisy’s home brew and began to enjoy the night and relax. I was soon detailed off to the golf course which was also at the race track to get some coke for the drinks. So off I went, took the bike for a quick ride to the golf course bar and promptly returned with a whole carton of coke strapped to the pillion seat! They wanted coke, I got it! Dingo soon arrived not long after from Perth and so the night began.
Upon discovering that we had quickly drank 1 and ¼ bottles of home brew and to avoid running out, we made our pilgrimage to the golf course bar for a few drinks and to spin warries. Feeling happy, the golf course closed and we retired to the humpy for a few more drinks and to cook the meat from the servo. Gaff put on some music and the night went on till we fell asleep.
The next morning we had found it had rained a little overnight but nothing major as the clouds started to clear. We soon all woke up and started to slowly pack up and get ready to head back to Mt Garnett for breaky, at the BP, and for a quick refuel. Great bacon and eggs for 10 bucks by the way and nice service to go with it. It was my time to lead the pack as it was my nom today and after getting over a few nerves I was more than up to the task. It seemed like a clear run back to Cairns when all of a sudden the rain clouds revisited us and this time the rain was bucketing down. It was soon decided that pulling over under an old weigh station shelter was a great idea as Dingo and Robbo put on their Driza-bone’s and said goodbye to Roach and Vicki again as they were turning off just up the road to meet up with the Townsville members before heading back home.
We soon set off again to stop for a quick drink at the Garradunga Hotel before heading home to Cairns. What a great place to have a bike show or band for a night, plenty of room to throw a swag and camp out, really nice pub. Before leaving the Garradunga, it was decided that we would each go home and then go around to Las Palmas for an end of ride BBQ at 2 pm. Then it rained again, harder!
The BBQ went well for every one there to enjoy, Daisy had stuff to attend to at home. All in all, the weekend was a great one with a really good ride to Mt Garnett and back the next day. Big thanks to Gaff and his family for letting us use his humpy, definitely have to do it again sometime.
Written by
Milo.
- Home Hill 04 November 07, Sunday
The destination was decided at the last GM and the crowd assembled at the BP servo at Cluden and waited.
And waited.
And waited.
Someone rang Spence to ask if he was coming today, after all he is meant to be the Road Captain.
Not waiting any longer, we decided to make the run down to Giru and wait there. At least it was a pub. The ride down was uneventful and I would be able to tell you more about it but since I was on the z1100 with Lungers in the chair we didn't see much of the rest of the pack except for the occasional glimpse of them in the distance on the very long straight bits.
Doesn't matter as Lungers and I were having a good time. The z1100 is as old as some of your children and behaves like a cranky old bitch. Due to the enormous amount of camber on QLD roads it always wants to go around gentle left hand corners even when it isn't meant to. Add to that the fact that I had never ridden it with 80kg's (I am being kind aren't I Lungers) in the chair, and things were exciting to say the least.
We settled into a steady rythm and found the sweet cruise spot somewhere around 100 and ate up the road to Giru.
Formed up again and made the pilgrimage to Home Hill and Pattie's famous bar snacks, a few games of pool and some chat. Spence decided to move off about 2 and we spotted Skins heading into town. He caught us at the servo. A quick decision was made to detour to Giru once more and catch up with Skins but the message seemed to be lost in the wind as half the crew failed to turn off.
Heading into Giru, Lungers tapped me on the leg and pointed to the petrol gushing out of the fuel tap. No problems mate, we have heaps :) as long as we don't burst into flames it will be all good.
This road report is late because I am on leave and only just got around to it... Stay tuned for the next fascintaing installment.
Cheers,
Andy
- Mingela, 11 November 07, Sunday
This was totally unplanned and started as an email from Stomper who was going for a ride on Sunday but only if it didn't rain. A group email went round to meet up at Rod's place and head out to Mingela. A fair crowd turned up at Rod's and the only missing member seemed to be Stomper. Must have looked like rain I guess.
We headed off, well Lungers and I headed off as we needed to get a bit of distance in as I wasn't sure how far we would get with the z1100 and chair. All seemed good then about 40k's out of Townsville it started to fart and cough and ping like there was no tomorrow. A quick wiggle of the fuel tap seemed to iron out whatever the problem was and we roared off into the distance.
It wasn't long before Rod and the rest of the crew caught up and left us in their wake.
Admiring the beast
The old girl was cracking along as we approached the Mingela Range and I felt justified in giving it the berries up the hill to get a better idea of how it handled the twisties with a crash test dummy onboard. It did a great job but the added momentum made the sharp left turn into Mingela interesting and I had it locked up and hopping into the corner. I guess I managed it because Lungers didn't say anything about being flung skywards.
Lunch included some prime cuts of meat as well as the normal Hungi style of fare. I guess the crowd was unexpected and we did seem to double the numbers.
We headed off with a 10 minute lead so the pack didn't catch us so quickly and it wasn't till I hit the Mobile north of Woodstock that I remembered I was carrying the spare fuel... Oh well, I guess Tbags got back ok. As it was the pack didn't catch us till we hit Townsville so the chair definitely like the down hill runs.
Cheers,
Andy