The Cormanus Chronicles: Carnarvon Gorge

[Cormanus]

Day 4 cont.

I rode the rest of the way to Capella. Arriving on the outskirts, I nearly kept going down the long straight road back to Emerald as, after the corners, the road hadn’t been that exciting, but I decided to ride it again as I’d missed an important photo opportunity.


I’m pleased I did. I enjoyed the ride more on the way back. The corners were also more fun when I wasn’t preoccupied photographing them.


I also found another Australian Big Thing, although I managed to miss the Big Engagement Ring a little further down the road.

Back in Emerald, I stopped to refuel, get a cup of tea and find somewhere to stay. As I arrived I noticed a woman climb aboard a heavily laden Kawasaki KLR650 and ride out of the petrol station.

I found accommodation at one of those places where you book online and they send you a code to get into the place and into the room. Having asked specifically whether they had a TV that received the full array of free-to-air television, I was more than a little irritated to find the TV would not get the one channel I wanted—the one broadcasting the MotoGP. I rang the man and he gave me the code to the next door room. It had been used so I rang him again. Third time lucky.

I walked up the road to get something to eat before the GP. I was sitting in the Irish Village pub, catching up on the forum or something and minding my own business when someone said, “Excuse me.” I looked up to find a young woman. She asked me whether it was me riding the bike in the service station earlier. It must have been the CB1100forum.com t-shirt that gave me away.

I’ll call her KLR_Al as she did want me to reveal her name was Danielle. She’s French, spending time in Australia—and probably happily stuck here thanks to COVID—and had been working on stations in far north-west Queensland. She was now riding south to check out Noosa before setting out on a circuit through northern Queensland, the Northern Territory and South Australia. As my route home would take me near enough to Noosa, I offered to accompany her the next day.

We agreed to make contact in the morning and I retreated to watch another of the extraordinary MotoGP races that has characterised 2020.

Day 5


[url=https://www.google.com/maps/d/edit?mid=1YPdFl_mvKBKzDOjC1qPJKOqvhs6Fs--r&usp=sharing]Map here
By the time I realised KLR_Al had sent me a text, she was under way. We’d agreed that she might start earlier than me as, having a larger capacity bike and carrying way less gear, I’d be likey to catch her during the day.

And I did. In spite of taking photos of ridiculous trucks for my grandson …


… and photos of ridiculous big toys …

I think they’re called minions

… I caught KLR_Al at the first fuel stop at Blackwater. As promised, the bike was well laden.


Refuelled, we proceeded at a more leisurely pace than usual largely due to the KLR labouring under an inordinately heavy load. It did ok, although hills were challenging.

The KLR under way

It was an uneventful trip except for a moment in Biloela. Our route require a right turn at a set of traffic lights. Realising KLR_Al hadn’t realised the need to turn, I passed her quickly and then came to a stop as the right turn light was red. Moments later, KLR_Al passed me to the left and turned right aiming directly for the place where the side of the car proceeding through the lights would be when she got there. There was a moment when I was sure it was going to be an almost perfect T-bone with all the attendant grief that would go with it. Miraculously she missed the car by millimetres. Did the driver see her and speed up? Was she going more slowly than I judged? I’ll never know, but she missed it and, unharmed (bar my shattered nerves) we chugged along happily for the rest of the day.

We stopped for the day in [url=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gayndah]Gayndah, a pretty town. An attempt to settle at the local camp ground failed to elicit any response from the proprietor, so we found a cheap motel with a couple of rooms and settled there. It turned out the husband of the proprietor was something of a motorcycle enthusiast. This specimen sat in the shop.