The Cormanus Chronicles: Remembering Jake and Elwood

[pdedse]

Day 11 — Blayney to Coonamble
[url=https://postimages.org/]
[url=https://www.google.com/maps/d/edit?mid=1TYCxvZiWMQORjl44JNaaO6Lz8Cf3hvo&ll=-31.23867797585635%2C149.97528875&z=6]Master Map #2

Of course I’d intended to get going early and of course I didn’t. I recalled that the son of old friends lived in Orange, just up the road and a place I’d never visited. It was a work day, so I sent a message to ask whether he had the sort of job that would allow him to slope off for a cup of coffee. He did, so I saddled up, rode to Orange, and passed a pleasant hour or so talking bikes and life with an agreeable young man.


Pretty old country railway station, Millthorpe, NSW

I don’t share the generally dismal view of younger generations. Sure, there are shabby, disagreeable layabout youths, but there were when I was young too. Just ask my parents. I find many young people who are whip smart, work hard and, if given half a chance would do a great deal of good for the world.

My plan after coffee was to ride north-west to Wellington and then retrace the route I took on the ill-fêted day in February 2020 when the CB slid gracelessly out from underneath me. (Scroll down [url=http://cb1100forum.com/forum/showthread.php?tid=15248&pid=262991#pid262991]this post to find Chapter 13 ).






Rural art work, north of Orange, NSW

Of course it didn’t work. I had a quick lunch in Wellington and headed off only to discover the road I needed to take was closed. All alternatives seemed to be dirt. What do you do? Keep going, of course and try to figure out a plan. And, I suppose, be grateful I’ll never find out whether the Gap Road would do for me again.


Striking clouds between Wellington and Dubbo

By the time I’d got to Dubbo, I’d decided to try to get to Narrabri for the night. Pterodactyl and I have stayed there a couple of times, and there’s a good road over the hills to Bingara which would take me home via Texas. I decided to go via Piliga around the back of the Warrumbungle National Park.

I thought this would take me over the putative boundary of the Outback. [url=http://cb1100forum.com/forum/showthread.php?tid=19065&pid=347038#pid347038%20]pdedse has since enlightened me. It looked a lot like the Outback: hot and flat. Will that do?


I’ve always liked old, brick chimneys. This specimen was on the way through Gilgandra, my last fuel stop before Coonamble




Gulargambone had any number of images of birds on poles.


An example of making old concrete silos more attractive. It’s happening all over Australia and likely in other parts of the world.

Half an hour later in Coonamble, I stopped to refuel and realised I’d had enough for the day. There was a motel directly across the road with a vacant room. Serendipity, or what?

That's a mighty fine statement with which to start the day. For every difficult student that I have, there are scores of other amazing young individuals who turn in things on time, are prepared, motivated and curious. I've told many of them over the years, "when I show up in your auto shop, at hour hospital, in your dentist chair, when I call your plumbing company, your roofing company, your ____...and I see you ...I'm going to relax and know that I am in very good hands". That always brings a smile.
...

Day 11 — Blayney to Coonamble
[url=https://postimages.org/]
[url=https://www.google.com/maps/d/edit?mid=1TYCxvZiWMQORjl44JNaaO6Lz8Cf3hvo&ll=-31.23867797585635%2C149.97528875&z=6]Master Map #2

Of course I’d intended to get going early and of course I didn’t. I recalled that the son of old friends lived in Orange, just up the road and a place I’d never visited. It was a work day, so I sent a message to ask whether he had the sort of job that would allow him to slope off for a cup of coffee. He did, so I saddled up, rode to Orange, and passed a pleasant hour or so talking bikes and life with an agreeable young man.


Pretty old country railway station, Millthorpe, NSW

I don’t share the generally dismal view of younger generations. Sure, there are shabby, disagreeable layabout youths, but there were when I was young too. Just ask my parents. I find many young people who are whip smart, work hard and, if given half a chance would do a great deal of good for the world.

My plan after coffee was to ride north-west to Wellington and then retrace the route I took on the ill-fêted day in February 2020 when the CB slid gracelessly out from underneath me. (Scroll down [url=http://cb1100forum.com/forum/showthread.php?tid=15248&pid=262991#pid262991]this post to find Chapter 13 ).






Rural art work, north of Orange, NSW

Of course it didn’t work. I had a quick lunch in Wellington and headed off only to discover the road I needed to take was closed. All alternatives seemed to be dirt. What do you do? Keep going, of course and try to figure out a plan. And, I suppose, be grateful I’ll never find out whether the Gap Road would do for me again.


Striking clouds between Wellington and Dubbo

By the time I’d got to Dubbo, I’d decided to try to get to Narrabri for the night. Pterodactyl and I have stayed there a couple of times, and there’s a good road over the hills to Bingara which would take me home via Texas. I decided to go via Piliga around the back of the Warrumbungle National Park.

I thought this would take me over the putative boundary of the Outback. [url=http://cb1100forum.com/forum/showthread.php?tid=19065&pid=347038#pid347038%20]pdedse has since enlightened me. It looked a lot like the Outback: hot and flat. Will that do?


I’ve always liked old, brick chimneys. This specimen was on the way through Gilgandra, my last fuel stop before Coonamble




Gulargambone had any number of images of birds on poles.


An example of making old concrete silos more attractive. It’s happening all over Australia and likely in other parts of the world.

Half an hour later in Coonamble, I stopped to refuel and realised I’d had enough for the day. There was a motel directly across the road with a vacant room. Serendipity, or what?

Where does the savana stop and the desert begin? When are the trees sufficent that now it is a forest? You say it's The Outback, I'm believing you, not some internet map.

Day 12 — Coonamble to Brisbane: Part 1
[url=https://postimages.org/]
[url=https://www.google.com/maps/d/edit?mid=1TYCxvZiWMQORjl44JNaaO6Lz8Cf3hvo&ll=-31.23867797585635%2C149.97528875&z=6]Master Map #2

[url=https://www.visitnsw.com/destinations/outback-nsw/lightning-ridge-area/lightning-ridge]Lightning Ridge is a remote opal mining town. It’s definitely in the Outback. The website says so even if pdedse’s map says it isn’t. I’ve always wanted to go there and it was pretty close to Coonamble and, at a pinch, on the way home. My wife encouraged me to take the opportunity.


That shadowy bastard’s back again!


Flat and straight. Big sky.


Welcome to Fairlands


Walgett water tower with a mural in honour of [url=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jimmy_Little]Jimmy Little, an Indigenous Australian musician.


What can you say?




Aside from having recently turned off the main road, I could tell I was approaching Lightning Ridge from the piles of mullock by the road.

By 09:45 I was in Lightning Ridge, had filled up with petrol and was enjoying a cup of coffee and something to eat. It’s an interesting place. Rusty cars, trucks and bits of machinery, piles of mullock and roadside signs offering to buy opals abound. There’s a hardscrabble feel to the place; houses are small and many need care. Covid and the current difficult economic circumstances may have hit it hard.



More metal art in Lightning Ridge.

Pretty sure that has The Outback written all over it.