The Cormanus Chronicles: FNQ

[Cormanus]

Far North Queensland

As the Pterodactyl flies, it’s a lazy 2,283 kms from Sydney to Brisbane to Cooktown. It’s a bit further by CB1100 which is happily constrained by roads.

I’d been contemplating a ride to Far North Queensland (FNQ) for some time and mentioned to Pterodactyl that I might do it while the weather was cool and he was away on the other side of the planet. Before I quite knew what had happened, it was happening before his planned departure.

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FNQ is further from Brisbane than Melbourne (just) and, like many remote places, people there feel very separate and under-appreciated. It’s probably fair enough: it’s a long way, the climate is different and they face entertainments—cyclones, crocodiles and irukandji (or box) jellyfish and the like—denied to those of us who live further south. And, of course, we just don’t understand them.

And so it came to pass that, on a morning early in May, after Pterodactyl had made the first leg of the trip—I assume as the CB travels, but who’d know—I met him at a service station in the northern suburbs of Brisbane. Laden with gear we pointed north and took a land-based route.

The map of the entire trip can be located [url=https://drive.google.com/open?id=1tkXBOyISHS9wGw_7Sajq0dJqhxySj-ro&usp=sharing]here. As usual, enthusiasts can select whichever day’s ride(s) they want and zoom in and out for more or less detail.

Day 1: Brisbane—Biloela (625 kms)
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[url=https://drive.google.com/open?id=1tkXBOyISHS9wGw_7Sajq0dJqhxySj-ro&usp=sharing]Link to the full map

After a few minutes on the national highway we headed inland through the very pretty Burnett region. The road’s are not particularly windy, but there’s enough turning and undulation to make it an interesting ride. It’s pretty, too. Just after Gayndah we passed a chap exercising his BMW 800GT. He hooked in behind us and joined us while we refuelled and ate at Eidsvold. I think he may have been a tad envious of our planned adventure.

We reached Biloela without further incident and took a room in a motel from which we could watch the Jerez master class delivered by Marc Marquez.
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Cormanus hits the trail

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Pterodactyl’s CB

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Brunch at Moore

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The Big Mandarin at Gayndah

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The road and topography earlier in the day

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The road approaching Biloela
Day 2: Biloela to Belyando Crossing (623 kms)

[url=https://postimages.org/]
[url=https://drive.google.com/open?id=1tkXBOyISHS9wGw_7Sajq0dJqhxySj-ro&usp=sharing]Link to the full map

Another glorious day saw us underway early and heading 70 kms or so to the Wowan Roadhouse where we refuelled the bikes and ourselves for the long and relatively straight day ahead of us. Heaven knows why Wowan exists, but the roadhouse had a good feel and we had a pleasant breakfast and conversation with a couple of travellers.

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The roadhouse at Wowan

There’s not a lot to tell about the day’s travel. This is open country with 100-200 kms between fuel stops. On the CB, that requires a little planning and continued application of NoRoomToMove’s First Law of Motion and Fuel Consumption. Conditions were great—sunny with mild temperatures and the bikes rolled along easily through Queensland’s coal-mining country.

The beaming faces of a multitude of un-made-up clowns seeking election to the nation’s Parliament on 18 May beamed at us from corflutes nailed to way-too-many trees. Likewise signs encouraging the opening of a new coal mine were prevalent. At Clermont, where we stopped for fuel, the pub was festooned with banners in response to an anti-mine protest that had had rolled through town a few days before.
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A milestone for Cormanus

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Somewhere on the A4 approaching Emerald

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Water and comfort stop on the A4

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There are fantastically long coal trains hauling their load across to the ports. I can never get over their sheer length.

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I finally got one of these mirror shots to work!

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I never got close enough to find out exactly what this bike was, but I think it was a modified 2-stroke carrying its owner home from work to Clermont

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One of many enormous road trains. They move a phenomenal amount of air and it pays to be right on the opposite shoulder when passing. I can’t imagine trying to overtake one in the rain.

Nightfall saw us at Belyando Crossing where there’s a roadhouse with motel rooms and a camp site and not much else. We took a room on the basis that it was late and we had another long day ahead of us.