Charge Of The Midgets_Cape York Posties Pt.1

glitch · 06-05-2008, 10:40 AM

“WHY????”

WHY the hell do you wanna go touring on an ex-Australia Post Honda-Postie with 2 big tourers in the garage??

If you’re really serious about that question…. you’re missing the point of what motorcycling is ALL ABOUT!!!

Let’s try a few off-the-cuff replies then:

Because life at 50kmh on a spindly-legged, totally underpowered bike makes you SEE things along the way.

Because slow travel creates a FEEL for the countryside and places travelled, rather than skimming past at warp-factor and being oblivious to all and everything to the right and left of that strip of asphalt or dirt ahead.

Because it’s a challenge in a lot of ways…..and because there’s so much time to really soak things up, think about them and enjoy the warm feeling of actually being part of it…AND LIFE!!

One of the biggest perks though is slipping through the time-continuum… the perception of someone travelling on a tiny bike (and a well-known and loved Postie-bike at that) makes people along the way stop and react and behave like “in the good, old days” of the ‘50’s and ‘60s… where one had a lot more time for each other than in today’s world.

The public interest in enormous…. waves and smiles from truckers… pedestrians old and young… local tradies and fisherman… and just about everyone else.

City or country-hamlet…. everywhere!

There’s no hesitation at all to walk up to the rider and strike up some conversation, tell life-stories and feelings like between old friends…and all that from the first second of contact.

You NEVER get that when travelling with a “big” bike!!

The locals smile rather than scorn you when the postie chuffs out onto the jetty (“Pedestrians Only!!”)… waves and thumbs-up when chugging through fenced-off areas and local parks where even dogs aren’t allowed…

You just get away with MURDER on a little CT110!!! All you have to do is to show up and smile….they LOVE you for it!!

If all that, and another dozen or 2 reasons, are incomprehensible to you…GREAT!!

Keep chasing the latest model scratcher for that extra poofteenth of a horsepower and this season’s Dainese-Clownsuit for the sake of beating the wind-drag at the 100kmh speedlimit…keep scouring Ebay for some Titanium earplugs to offset the $4000 Yoshi-howl….and leave touring the real, full-of-human-warmth-world out there for the slow traveller on a Postie (or whatever)… we’re THANKING YOU FOR IT!!

I hope, the following story will bring some of those points across.

It’s a tale of deep joy, of desperate situations, of lots of warmth and the best of human interactions.
A tale of making mistakes (and learning from them)…of “impossible” routes and nearly getting beaten by the circumstances.

Of busted engines, T-shirt-riding along 90km beaches and cruising the twisties through the sugar-cane fields and banana-plantations of Northern Queensland.

Of getting bogged… running against incoming tides and ferry-departure-times….of saving the precious camera while sinking rapidly into sandy creeks, arse first.
Of shivering into the sinking sun on the washed-over decks of the barge to Hervey Bay in a half-meter swell…and of meeting lots and lots of wonderful people along the way.

Best-Of-All??
Doing all this as an early celebration of our 30th anniversary with my best mate in life: Goodie !!!
(Yep, the contract has just been renewed

)

Enjoy…..

t.b.c. shortly..

glitch · 06-05-2008, 04:03 PM

EDIT:
If anyone wants any of the pics in a bigger size, just let me know.
As is, they're all resized to 800pix max. width.
I'll then replace the file with a higher-res one which can be clicked on, to display on a separate page.
__________________________________________________ ________

Old, unwanted and/ or disposable…that’s the state of our gear (apart from the bikes, of course

).
And it better have more than one function, too.

Will the trusty old nylon-chateau hold up on its last and final trip? There are more bent and buckled pegs in the bag than straight ones…and where eyelets used to be, there are multiple layers of duct-tape. They survived the last 2 years…

The old Frank Thomas Goretex boots….on their way out for years and the last 50.000km worth of rides…they won’t come back home this time!

The old socks and out-of-shape T-shirts…will all the stuff hold together for the next 2 weeks?

Nailed into the breath-expelling poverty-class Virgin seat, the 2hr. flight to Brisbane left plenty of time for disturbing thoughts and doubts about all sorts of things…

Would the bikes hold up?… how’d we go in the deep Fraser Island sand? Would we even make it onto the beach for the barge?… how’d the tiny engines go for days on end with the throttle pinned to the stop, lugging rider and a huge pile of gear across the semi-deserts of inland-Queensland on our way north to Cairns?

Perhaps the nay-sayers WERE right and this was a stupid thing to even think about…
“Dear passengers, descending into Brisbane now, occasional showers and 28C presently…”

Nightmare’s over, let’s hook into it!

Guy (saab463) has not only suckered Glen (loxsmith) into joining us for the
2.stage (Cape York) of the ride in August

…. but also promised to pick us up from the airport and get us across to the depot of Gilders Transport, where the 2 little CT’s are dozing away, strapped to a pallet.

The Gilders folks have agreed to open their store on a Saturday for us pick up the bikes and get going…so here’s a first BIG THANK-YOU in both directions.

Stuff, only the “net” can create…

The slats of the pallet have cracked in transport and the 2 bikes are leaning into eachother... no harm done, there’ll be plenty more scratches to come.
On go the mirrors and Guy gives us a hand getting the bikes off the timbers

Somehow I’ve got the feeling that he wants to hang around until we’re finally wobbling out of the yard….or really, rather join us for the trip.

First stop, the local servo to fill up all tanks…Christ, it’s steamy around here, it’s wet all around and there’s another fat blackbelly hanging right above us.

8k’s of local freeway turn me into jelly, crossing those on/off-ramps at 60 when the rest of the traffic runs at nearly twice that, takes a keen eye and some razor-sharp timing coupled with some bold moves

…and somehow we find our way to Gap Creek Road, a mostly sealed road to the west of Mt. Cootha, leading via some steep dips and climbs through the outskirts of the small National Park… bypassing most of the endless Brisbane suburbs towards Samford in the process.

Thanks Mr. Google Earth!!

Black skies drive us on towards Dayboro as a few sporties whiz past, eyes like dunny-seats at the sight of the 2 loaded-to-the-gunwhales CTs

and things get drizzly up Mt. Mee, leaving nothing to gaze at but woolly grey surrounds from the Rest Area at the top... as we climb into the wets.

A quick left at d’Aguilar (shaddap Guy/Glen

), then onto the Kilcoy-Beerwah Rd for a few k’s…
GE had spit out another road thought of as a dirt-shortcut running north from the hamlet of Stanmore towards Maleny…which turned out to be a dead-end.

With the black clouds pushing, we made a quick decision to try another tack…up the Bellthorpe Range Road!!!
OMG!!!
What a cracker of a road!!!

A tiny single-laner with some super-tight hairpins scrambles steeply (down to first here, cause if it ain’t steep, the corners are too tight for anything else) up the mountain, the wafts of fog add an eerie spin to the whole thing while fat drops fell out of the canopy above….the Mystical Mountain Way!

Onto Plums Rd and Broken Ridge, just as eerie but nearly a highway in comparison

And YES, the cows came home!

A rare moment: Some cracks in the cloud cover reveal the Glasshouse Mountains and coastal plains….and it’s still around the 28C.

Alongside the Maleny-Kenilworth Road, a bit further north

The pub at Kenilworth proves the only joint in town offering beds… we don’t really feel like pitching tent after a day like that.
Booked out by a Biker-mob from Bundaberg.

Lots of stares, lots of laughs…no beds!

At $120/night, the little BnB out of town is a bit stiff for us and it’s off for the 40odd k’s to Eumundi on the Bruce Hwy. (that’s about 45Min on a postie, folks

)…. dark clouds and fading daylight merging into indefinite grey muck… then dark, just as it turns out that Eumundi offers the same as Kenilworth: NO available beds anywhere.

Jeezaz, what is it with this place?

It’s Saturday…but not even a Long Weekend…and definitely no BrisVegas or beaches anywhere close!

We’re soaked, the high temps/ high humidity don’t help…the wet-gear is like a mobile sauna…it’s just after 6… pitch-dark…
....and raining again.

Nothing for it, we have to take the Bruce Hwy, Australia’s No1 Hwy. and ride the shoulder for the 8 k’s south to Yandina, a small town with a supposedly big Caravan Park.

It’s only 8k’s….but 8k’s of HELL. Traffic and Big Rigs barely see us and whiz past as we’re wobbling along the shoulder in the dark, trying to dodge walls of spray, specs so fogged up that the whole world seems to consist only of the sound of a million tyres swishing through endless puddles with the expectations of a major hit into the back any second.

It’s truly scary!

The reception closes straight after we toddle off, keys to a small cabin in hand

…and hugely relieved to have escaped the last 20 min. on the Fwy.

The Chinese in town produces some decent tucker, the rain has stopped, the walk back/ forth has done us good….as have the few coldies

.

The drizzle starts again as Bazza from the cabin opposite pokes his nose through the uprights of the veranda: “ Hi guys, can you give me some clues as in what to wear for a date out?…..and, hmmm….are those Postie-bikes? When I lived in Bright, we used to…..”

It was a bit strange for a ‘pickup-line’, but what the hell….nice guy!!

And Baz, if you read this: G-day, mate…and we made it to Cairns, buddy!!

warnabrother · 06-05-2008, 09:38 PM

...

cant wait for more...

Hytram · 06-05-2008, 11:57 PM

Every time I read the title I read it as "Muppets" instead of "Midgets"

Pete.. you're a Muppet!!

Swedish Chief?

moike · 07-05-2008, 08:44 AM

Ifery teeme-a I reed zee teetle-a I reed it es "Mooppets" insteed ooff "Meedgets"

Pete-a.. yuoo're-a a Mooppet!!

Svedeesh Cheeeff?

Swedish Chef?

06-05-2008, 10:40 AM	#1
glitch Always Here Join Date: Mar 2006 Posts: 5,320	Charge Of The Midgets_Cape York Posties Pt.1 “WHY????” WHY the hell do you wanna go touring on an ex-Australia Post Honda-Postie with 2 big tourers in the garage?? If you’re really serious about that question…. you’re missing the point of what motorcycling is ALL ABOUT!!! Let’s try a few off-the-cuff replies then: Because life at 50kmh on a spindly-legged, totally underpowered bike makes you SEE things along the way. Because slow travel creates a FEEL for the countryside and places travelled, rather than skimming past at warp-factor and being oblivious to all and everything to the right and left of that strip of asphalt or dirt ahead. Because it’s a challenge in a lot of ways…..and because there’s so much time to really soak things up, think about them and enjoy the warm feeling of actually being part of it…AND LIFE!! One of the biggest perks though is slipping through the time-continuum… the perception of someone travelling on a tiny bike (and a well-known and loved Postie-bike at that) makes people along the way stop and react and behave like “in the good, old days” of the ‘50’s and ‘60s… where one had a lot more time for each other than in today’s world. The public interest in enormous…. waves and smiles from truckers… pedestrians old and young… local tradies and fisherman… and just about everyone else. City or country-hamlet…. everywhere! There’s no hesitation at all to walk up to the rider and strike up some conversation, tell life-stories and feelings like between old friends…and all that from the first second of contact. You NEVER get that when travelling with a “big” bike!! The locals smile rather than scorn you when the postie chuffs out onto the jetty (“Pedestrians Only!!”)… waves and thumbs-up when chugging through fenced-off areas and local parks where even dogs aren’t allowed… You just get away with MURDER on a little CT110!!! All you have to do is to show up and smile….they LOVE you for it!! If all that, and another dozen or 2 reasons, are incomprehensible to you…GREAT!! Keep chasing the latest model scratcher for that extra poofteenth of a horsepower and this season’s Dainese-Clownsuit for the sake of beating the wind-drag at the 100kmh speedlimit…keep scouring Ebay for some Titanium earplugs to offset the $4000 Yoshi-howl….and leave touring the real, full-of-human-warmth-world out there for the slow traveller on a Postie (or whatever)… we’re THANKING YOU FOR IT!! I hope, the following story will bring some of those points across. It’s a tale of deep joy, of desperate situations, of lots of warmth and the best of human interactions. A tale of making mistakes (and learning from them)…of “impossible” routes and nearly getting beaten by the circumstances. Of busted engines, T-shirt-riding along 90km beaches and cruising the twisties through the sugar-cane fields and banana-plantations of Northern Queensland. Of getting bogged… running against incoming tides and ferry-departure-times….of saving the precious camera while sinking rapidly into sandy creeks, arse first. Of shivering into the sinking sun on the washed-over decks of the barge to Hervey Bay in a half-meter swell…and of meeting lots and lots of wonderful people along the way. Best-Of-All?? Doing all this as an early celebration of our 30th anniversary with my best mate in life: Goodie !!! (Yep, the contract has just been renewed ) Enjoy….. t.b.c. shortly.. __________________ Ciao Pete

06-05-2008, 04:03 PM	#2
glitch Always Here Join Date: Mar 2006 Posts: 5,320	Re: Charge Of The Midgets_Cape York Posties Pt.1 EDIT: If anyone wants any of the pics in a bigger size, just let me know. As is, they're all resized to 800pix max. width. I'll then replace the file with a higher-res one which can be clicked on, to display on a separate page. __________________________________________________ ________ Old, unwanted and/ or disposable…that’s the state of our gear (apart from the bikes, of course). And it better have more than one function, too. Will the trusty old nylon-chateau hold up on its last and final trip? There are more bent and buckled pegs in the bag than straight ones…and where eyelets used to be, there are multiple layers of duct-tape. They survived the last 2 years… The old Frank Thomas Goretex boots….on their way out for years and the last 50.000km worth of rides…they won’t come back home this time! The old socks and out-of-shape T-shirts…will all the stuff hold together for the next 2 weeks? Nailed into the breath-expelling poverty-class Virgin seat, the 2hr. flight to Brisbane left plenty of time for disturbing thoughts and doubts about all sorts of things… Would the bikes hold up?… how’d we go in the deep Fraser Island sand? Would we even make it onto the beach for the barge?… how’d the tiny engines go for days on end with the throttle pinned to the stop, lugging rider and a huge pile of gear across the semi-deserts of inland-Queensland on our way north to Cairns? Perhaps the nay-sayers WERE right and this was a stupid thing to even think about… “Dear passengers, descending into Brisbane now, occasional showers and 28C presently…” Nightmare’s over, let’s hook into it! Guy (saab463) has not only suckered Glen (loxsmith) into joining us for the 2.stage (Cape York) of the ride in August …. but also promised to pick us up from the airport and get us across to the depot of Gilders Transport, where the 2 little CT’s are dozing away, strapped to a pallet. The Gilders folks have agreed to open their store on a Saturday for us pick up the bikes and get going…so here’s a first BIG THANK-YOU in both directions. Stuff, only the “net” can create… The slats of the pallet have cracked in transport and the 2 bikes are leaning into eachother... no harm done, there’ll be plenty more scratches to come. On go the mirrors and Guy gives us a hand getting the bikes off the timbers Somehow I’ve got the feeling that he wants to hang around until we’re finally wobbling out of the yard….or really, rather join us for the trip. First stop, the local servo to fill up all tanks…Christ, it’s steamy around here, it’s wet all around and there’s another fat blackbelly hanging right above us. 8k’s of local freeway turn me into jelly, crossing those on/off-ramps at 60 when the rest of the traffic runs at nearly twice that, takes a keen eye and some razor-sharp timing coupled with some bold moves…and somehow we find our way to Gap Creek Road, a mostly sealed road to the west of Mt. Cootha, leading via some steep dips and climbs through the outskirts of the small National Park… bypassing most of the endless Brisbane suburbs towards Samford in the process. Thanks Mr. Google Earth!! Black skies drive us on towards Dayboro as a few sporties whiz past, eyes like dunny-seats at the sight of the 2 loaded-to-the-gunwhales CTs and things get drizzly up Mt. Mee, leaving nothing to gaze at but woolly grey surrounds from the Rest Area at the top... as we climb into the wets. A quick left at d’Aguilar (shaddap Guy/Glen ), then onto the Kilcoy-Beerwah Rd for a few k’s… GE had spit out another road thought of as a dirt-shortcut running north from the hamlet of Stanmore towards Maleny…which turned out to be a dead-end. With the black clouds pushing, we made a quick decision to try another tack…up the Bellthorpe Range Road!!! OMG!!! What a cracker of a road!!! A tiny single-laner with some super-tight hairpins scrambles steeply (down to first here, cause if it ain’t steep, the corners are too tight for anything else) up the mountain, the wafts of fog add an eerie spin to the whole thing while fat drops fell out of the canopy above….the Mystical Mountain Way! Onto Plums Rd and Broken Ridge, just as eerie but nearly a highway in comparison And YES, the cows came home! A rare moment: Some cracks in the cloud cover reveal the Glasshouse Mountains and coastal plains….and it’s still around the 28C. Alongside the Maleny-Kenilworth Road, a bit further north The pub at Kenilworth proves the only joint in town offering beds… we don’t really feel like pitching tent after a day like that. Booked out by a Biker-mob from Bundaberg. Lots of stares, lots of laughs…no beds! At $120/night, the little BnB out of town is a bit stiff for us and it’s off for the 40odd k’s to Eumundi on the Bruce Hwy. (that’s about 45Min on a postie, folks)…. dark clouds and fading daylight merging into indefinite grey muck… then dark, just as it turns out that Eumundi offers the same as Kenilworth: NO available beds anywhere. Jeezaz, what is it with this place? It’s Saturday…but not even a Long Weekend…and definitely no BrisVegas or beaches anywhere close! We’re soaked, the high temps/ high humidity don’t help…the wet-gear is like a mobile sauna…it’s just after 6… pitch-dark… ....and raining again. Nothing for it, we have to take the Bruce Hwy, Australia’s No1 Hwy. and ride the shoulder for the 8 k’s south to Yandina, a small town with a supposedly big Caravan Park. It’s only 8k’s….but 8k’s of HELL. Traffic and Big Rigs barely see us and whiz past as we’re wobbling along the shoulder in the dark, trying to dodge walls of spray, specs so fogged up that the whole world seems to consist only of the sound of a million tyres swishing through endless puddles with the expectations of a major hit into the back any second. It’s truly scary! The reception closes straight after we toddle off, keys to a small cabin in hand …and hugely relieved to have escaped the last 20 min. on the Fwy. The Chinese in town produces some decent tucker, the rain has stopped, the walk back/ forth has done us good….as have the few coldies . The drizzle starts again as Bazza from the cabin opposite pokes his nose through the uprights of the veranda: “ Hi guys, can you give me some clues as in what to wear for a date out?…..and, hmmm….are those Postie-bikes? When I lived in Bright, we used to…..” It was a bit strange for a ‘pickup-line’, but what the hell….nice guy!! And Baz, if you read this: G-day, mate…and we made it to Cairns, buddy!! __________________ Ciao Pete

06-05-2008, 09:38 PM	#3
warnabrother Senior Member Join Date: Dec 2007 Location: Pearcedale, Melbourne Posts: 101	Re: Charge Of The Midgets_Cape York Posties Pt.1 ... cant wait for more... __________________ CBR600RR8, DR650K9 This post brought to you by Warnabrother aka landyman

06-05-2008, 11:57 PM	#4
Hytram AusTouring's Mechanic Join Date: Mar 2006 Posts: 1,676	Re: Charge Of The Midgets_Cape York Posties Pt.1 Every time I read the title I read it as "Muppets" instead of "Midgets" Pete.. you're a Muppet!! Swedish Chief? __________________ Marty 950AdvS

07-05-2008, 08:44 AM	#5
moike Moderator Join Date: Mar 2006 Location: Brunswick Posts: 327	Re: Charge Of The Midgets_Cape York Posties Pt.1 Ifery teeme-a I reed zee teetle-a I reed it es "Mooppets" insteed ooff "Meedgets" Pete-a.. yuoo're-a a Mooppet!! Svedeesh Cheeeff? Swedish Chef? __________________ Mike Truth, Justice and the American Way... Pick the odd one out.

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