(G)Rumblin’ through Queensland—or (P)Terodactyl’s Terrible Trip

[Cormanus]

Day 4—On which honorary Rumblers Pterodactyl and Cormanus head north with a pack of cruisers and Pterodactyl finds a problem



Pterodactyl’s and my foresight in filling our bikes with fuel on our return from Banana turned out to be a tactical error. The owner of Taroom’s petrol station had decided to offer every Rumble Rider a tank of petrol in return for their contribution to the town. A number availed themselves of this generosity before we all rolled out of town heading north towards Capella.

Pterodactyl had a milestone in the offing and had warned me he was likely to stop to take photos—see [url=http://cb1100forum.com/forum/showthread.php?tid=7159&pid=133961#pid133961]here.

The Rumblers were good to ride with. They ride together lots and kept a good formation and distances. There was plenty of warning of the copious road kill and we made good time on a reasonably quiet road. The trip north took us again through the pretty country around Isla before passing through the bends at Theodore after which we immediately turned off onto a quieter back road that would take us to Moura.





Rumblin’ along

Shortly after we turned off, Pterodactyl stopped to photograph his 70,000 km milestone. He was behind me in the conga line so I didn’t know he’d stopped. He told me later he’d really enjoyed a spirited ride on what was a quiet and occasionally interesting road as he caught up.

We stopped at Moura for petrol.

After refuelling it became clear there was a problem and we moved our bikes a few hundred metres back up the road to the coffee shop. The bloke riding the Goldwing had realised he had a nasty slash in his rear tyre. He wasn’t going anywhere and, while his tyre choices were more extensive than those for the CB, there was none to be found in Moura.

I took the opportunity to ride around the corner to buy another groundsheet to use under my tent. The last one had vanished somewhere on day 2. I’m glad it flew away at a time when I was riding behind Pterodactyl as I hate to think what confronting an unravelling 8’ x 6’ plastic sheet at 110 kph would be like.

When I got back and parked, Pterodactyl invited me to take a stroll down the street to where his bike was parked. He then showed me his very threadbare looking rear tyre. Way back in Bingara he had mentioned to me that his rear tyre was coming to the end of its life and he would be replacing it when he got back to Sydney. It looked to me like it may well not make it that far.



Rumbler bikes at Moura. It was getting hot and the coffee was nothing to write home about

Our comrades on their Goldwing stayed in Moura to be rescued by the wife of another rider who would collect a tyre in Rockhampton 170 kms to the north east and deliver it to them. They had intended to leave us the next day anyway to do some work on the bike prior to the round Australia trip.

The rest of us rumbled on to Rolleston and then to Emerald through the hot, flat Australian low alpine outback.







Fuel stop at Rolleston









A rare bump


Emerald

I needed to make some calls at Emerald while the Rumblers rode the final leg to Capella. I joined them later having refuelled. Our hosts at the caravan park were very kind, gave us a discounted rate and organised the makings of a barbeque. There was beer and frivolity.