Happy Birthday

nev

Super Térrarist
My Super Tenere was about to celebrate it's 2nd birthday, and so a ride was in order to mark the occasion.

Thursday I finished work by 3pm and by 4pm I was home and geared up and packed and ready to roll. Straight up the Hume Hwy to Thurgoona, then some backroads and some fog and arrived at the Walla Walla pub. This place was ok, but some of the locals looked like they were straight off the film set of "Deliverance". The room was comfortable and quiet and the food at the pub was pretty good. Only $15 for this feed of flathead tales.

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6am Friday I was on the road again. This photo taken just north of Collingullie at sunrise.

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and that was the first and last photo I took for the day....
I took the Mandaman Forest Road which got me onto the Newell Hwy just south of West Wyalong. I followed the Newell north only stopping for fuel in Wyalong, Dubbo, Narrabri, and Goondiwindi. I arrived at Goondiwindi right on dusk and when I left the petrol station in Goondiwindi I was riding into a setting sun on a very poorly surfaced road. I could barely see where I was going. It was only when i got out of town and the sun finally went down that I realised my headlight on lowbeam was very dim. I have 80watts of aux LEDs so high beam isn't an issue, but I had to slow down to about 70kph every time I needed to dip my lights for an oncoming vehicle.

Another top meal, the mixed grill at the Ramshead Hotel in Millmerran QLD.

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Again I was awake with the sparrows and on the road Saturday morning about an hour before sunrise again. I took some backroads and found my way to Toowoomba where I sourced a headlight to replace the blown unit. The super tenere runs twin H4 (single filament) globes with a mechanical reflector which adjusts the beam from low to high beam. The high beam is mostly crap. Low beam isn't too bad with both lights, but awful with only one.

The road from Hampton to Esk is a pearler, so i took that, then Gregors creek Rd was a nice find to avoid part of the D'Aguilar Hwy, then into the backroads of the Glasshouse Mountains, Postman's Track, great if you like steep hills, Kenilworth, ObiObi then through Nambour to Yandina.

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After first course of lunch in Yandina it was back into Brisbane, to a restaurant run by Jo's sister and brother-in-law who cooked me up a fine 2nd course of my lunch. Then I farewelled them and headed south towards Beaudesert. I really didn't have a route planned. I called a motel in Kyogle but they were booked out. I decided to head west and got a room at the Criterion hotel in Warwick.

Although I would have rather hit the hills, Sunday was the last day of School holidays in NSW, and that means that all of the traffic would be heading south towards Sydney. I decided to keep going west to avoid that, and just make a beeline for home.

2am Sunday I woke up, and by 2:30am I was geared up, packed up and at the 24hr servo filling up. I headed west along the Cunningham Hwy. For the first hour or so I pretty much had the road to myself, aside from a lot of furry spectators along the way. I probably saw 100 kangaroos along this section, but all were standing off the road in the grass, and none even moved, except for the one I tooted at because I was bored. The temp was in the single digits, it was a full moon and I was feeling fine :)

First fuel stop was in Moree. Shortly after I stopped to take a photo of the dawn.

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In Narrabri the temps were down to 1° or 2° and a layer of frost over everything.

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Coming into Coonabarabran I really started to feel the cold as the temps dropped to 0° or perhaps a few degrees lower. The temp gauge on the dash normally reads 4 or 5 degrees higher than the ambient temp, and it was showing 1°.

I got off the Newell here and headed through Mendooran. The servo there only had 91RON and although the Yammy "requires" 95RON I figured that the 1/3 of a tank of 98 I still had should dilute the 91 up to about 93, (and besides, I don't think fuel octane was going to be a problem in this cold weather).

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A sculptors garden in Brocklehurst.

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Around Tomingley I was starting to feel a bit weary. I stopped in a rest area and sat at a picnic table and put my head down for a few minutes. About 30 mins later the heavy eyelids returned so I took a side road, and rode about 1km off the hwy to an open farm gate and a better spot for a rest. The tarp went out and I had a quality shuteye. Total stopped time here according to the GPS was about 14 mins and 45 seconds, so deducting a few minutes to unpack and repack a tarp to lie down on, probably means a solid 10 minutes of uninterrupted sleep time... which was enough to keep me going for the next 750km.

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Another petrol stop in Wyalong. I sent a txt to Jo to give my 8pm ETA.

some short roadworks around Nerrandera. I missed the rain fortunately

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After my last fuel stop in Jerilderie,

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..back into Victoria, and the last of the sun as I roll into Koomoonoo

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Katamatite probably didn't expect that 22 years later they were still going to be riding on the coat tails of Glenn Crawford all these years later.

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Rolled into the garage at home about 7:50pm. A tad over 1500km for the day, just under 3700km for the entire weekend, and a total of 59470km for the 2 years I've owned the Super Ten.
 

dougman1

Part of the furniture
Nev, youse got yourself an Iron Butt.
Damn fine little ride you had there.
Very Impressive. :clap:
 

twowheeler

two wheels are best
Love the pics Nev, don't know how you do those miles.

For decades of Brisbane in-law roadtrips, we've used the Mendooran detour. I reckon it saves 30mins at least and it doesn't seem to be favoured by caravans/motor homes.
 

TimC

Tour Pro
Love the pics Nev, don't know how you do those miles.

For decades of Brisbane in-law roadtrips, we've used the Mendooran detour. I reckon it saves 30mins at least and it doesn't seem to be favoured by caravans/motor homes.

Ssssh! Locals' secret, you're not meant to know about it!

(I was dawdling along at 100km/h one day, and had 3 cars and a policecar overtake me at 115km/h or so, 40km out. Saved the policeman 3 minutes on his trip back home -- not bothering to light them up until the edge of town and had all three of them lined up outside the visitor's centre)
 

nev

Super Térrarist
Ssssh! Locals' secret, you're not meant to know about it!

(I was dawdling along at 100km/h one day, and had 3 cars and a policecar overtake me at 115km/h or so, 40km out. Saved the policeman 3 minutes on his trip back home -- not bothering to light them up until the edge of town and had all three of them lined up outside the visitor's centre)

8 years ago I ran out of fuel 10km north of Narrabri. I parked the bike on the side of the road and stuck out my thumb and the first car that came along stopped to give me a ride. The driver was on his way to work in Coonabarabran. He told me about the Mendooran alternative route into Dubbo and suggested that if I used that road I wouldn't have to worry about my speed because there would be no cops on that road. How did he know this with so much certainty? I was in an unmarked police car. He was the Hwy patrol cop on his way to start his shift.
 

Williamson

Part of the furniture
Good effort Nev, than for the words and pics.

By way of comparison, the Mighty ST will be three years in a couple of week, it's done 30K. Might have to get out more.
 

nev

Super Térrarist
Good effort Nev, than for the words and pics.

By way of comparison, the Mighty ST will be three years in a couple of week, it's done 30K. Might have to get out more.

You've got a good excuse for not riding Michael... you're old and falling apart :p
 

robbieb

Tassie Daddy
Happy birthday to the S10

So the private road is still able to be used, or they're telling you where to go?

We've been getting frosts like that down here too, feels colder this winter than last.
 
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