The Cormanus Chronicles: Remembering Jake and Elwood

[the Ferret]

Day 9 — Walkwa to Boorowa
[url=https://postimages.org/]
[url=https://www.google.com/maps/d/edit?mid=1TYCxvZiWMQORjl44JNaaO6Lz8Cf3hvo&ll=-31.23867797585635%2C149.97528875&z=6]Master Map #2

Having spent some of the preceding day pondering routes to delight Aussie Flyer, I was a little disappointed to learn that the cloth he’d tied around the offending shock absorber was soaked. His suspension man had good and bad news. The good news? The shocker could be rebuilt. The bad: a gentle return home on a nice, flat, mind-numbingly boring highway was now in AussieFlyer’s plans for the day.

Was it just to get even that AussieFlyer inspected my rear tyre and said, “That looks a bit worn.”

“It’ll get me home.”

“Mmm.”

To make sure he had no fun at all getting to said highway, Pterodactyl and I decided to supervise his ride along the pretty and curvaceous Murray River Road. Not even plenty of leaf litter could dampen our enthusiasm.







Still corners okay.


The bridge across the Hume Dam


It’s a poor photo shot over my shoulder, but one can see part of the Hume Dam that contains the Murray River on the NSW-Victorian Border.

At Bonegilla we had coffee.


Then to Wodonga to get AussieFlyer on the freeway.


Realising that we were the only ones left to do the job, Pterodactyl and I ripped back along the Murray Valley Highway (B400), over the Granya Gap, into New South Wales, along a couple of slightly unexpected backroads and on to Gundagai where we refuelled.

I must have been despondent about the band. I took no more photos except a couple of this guy I’d been chasing all afternoon

By early evening we were at the Boorowa Hotel, a favourite watering hole and resting place. My rear tyre was, to use a technical term, stuffed.

The band was again a duet.

Ahh shadow rider. I ride with him a lot!

Nice capture!

[Nachodaddy]

Cormanus, thank you for taking us along. Very enjoyable. Cheers!

[Cormanus]

Chapter Three

Band? What Band?
Day 10 — Boorowa to Blaney via Canberra
[url=https://postimages.org/]
[url=https://www.google.com/maps/d/edit?mid=1TYCxvZiWMQORjl44JNaaO6Lz8Cf3hvo&ll=-31.23867797585635%2C149.97528875&z=6] Master Map #2

At 0830, the motorcycle shops of the nation’s capital opened their doors. Pretty much ready to roll, I hit the phone to the Honda dealer and found a replacement 140/70. I was going to have to wait until the next day to have it fitted, but I booked in anyway.

Then the bloke rang back and said sorry, actually he didn’t have the tyre. Helpfully, he suggested I try the Triumph dealer, Joe’s Motorcycles. Joe had a Sport Demon 140/70 and didn’t take bookings for tyre replacements. Roll up and get in the queue, mate.

Pterodactyl, who was due home the next day, decided to go for honey points and get home a day early. But given this was our third adventure with a dodgy tyre, he kindly rode with me for the 100 or so kilometres to Canberra. We refuelled, found an agreeable coffee shop and then said our farewells. I found Joe’s and the CB was soon being rolled away to have the tyre fitted.

A palindromic reading on the way to Canberra

Heading north again, I took the alternative road to Crookwell. Who knew there was a sock factory there making fine merino socks? I bought my wife a pair. She was quick to tell me when I got home that they were a bit colourful even for her. I changed them.

Lake George to the north of Canberra has, in my experience, more often been a paddock than a lake. This was pleasant to see.

Then I took the new (to me) Jet Point Road to Binda, Trunkey Creek and the Black Stump Hotel where I hoped to stay. There was no accommodation there — it was just a watering hole — so it was on to Blayney where the pubs and motels were booked out in anticipation of a motor car race at nearby Bathurst. I found a cabin in a caravan park which did me fine.

Is a solo act a band?

Some pictures from Jet Point Road.







Someone once told me sheep were ‘meadow maggots’. I can’t get the image out of my head.






This bridge crosses the Abercrombie River that I’d crossed on Day 3 on the way south. It’s more substantial here.

[GoldOxide_imp]

In riding photography:

Well has Ferret taught you, yeas.

[Cormanus]

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?

[Cormanus]

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.

[Cormanus]

Day 12 — Coonamble to Brisbane: Part 2

I had a poke around, discovered that the Gecko’s family has a culinary outpost there (it was closed) and moved on.



Lightning Ridge real estate


A statue of [url=https://www.monumentaustralia.org.au/themes/people/industry/display/102932-charlie-nettleton]Charlie Nettleton who founded the black opal business at Lightning Ridge

[url=https://amigoscastle.com.au]Amigo’s Castle is a curious tourist attraction in Lightning Ridge. Built by one man, brick by brick over 20 years, it was closed when I arrived. And when I left too.



This much water is a happy sight out here.


Shortly before crossing the border. The road was very straight.



I crossed the border at Hebel, wound the clock back an hour, ticked Dirranbandi off my list of places to go and proceeded to St George where I needed fuel and lunch.

If I’ve told this story about Queensland and clocks going back before, I apologise.

Queensland has always refused to adopt daylight saving. It is also regarded by the inhabitants of other Australian states as somewhat reactionary, redneck and behind the times. That’s more because of the state premier of the 1970s and 1980s who held office thanks to a huge gerrymander and thrived on celebrating the state’s difference. He was deposed and his party lost office in 1989 after a corruption scandal.

The premier who succeeded him in office once hosted a retired Prime Minister from the 1970s who is alleged to have said, “I enjoy coming to Queensland now. I only have to put my watch back an hour not a whole generation.”

The spots in foreground are emus. Seldom seen in the wild by us city dwellers.

Somewhere before Dirrinbandi I came across a sign telling me there was water over the road ahead. Eventually I found it and took this photo which is so over-exposed as to be useless.


Luckily I slowed to take the picture and to have a good look before trying to cross. As I was slowing and snapping, a road train came around the corner ahead of me and the world lit up like being near a flash of lightning on a dark night. The driver had flashed the lights at me. Kind, I thought, he’s warning me of a Roller up ahead.

Then the truck hit the water. It was probably travelling at 110 kph. Had I been next to him I would have been blasted off the road by the wall of water he threw out. Roller indeed. He was warning me to stop.

(If the term ‘Roller’ makes no sense, see [url=http://cb1100forum.com/forum/showthread.php?tid=19065&pid=346962#pid346962]post #12 above. If that doesn’t help, PM Lord Popgun, the master of cinematic obscurity.)

Saint George is a pretty enough town, although I’m sure the general ambience was enhanced by the large quantities of rain that have fallen. There was good water in the Balonne River and I sat beside it to eat my lunch.


I stopped for fuel and cold water at Moonie, slightly weary from a reasonably long day and battling a head wind. Two women on Ducattis, who had passed me earlier making excellent speed, asked where I was heading. I said Brisbane. One told me earnestly it was too far away. I said I’d stop if I needed to.

Shortly after leaving Moonie, I turned off onto the Cecil Plains Road which proved more entertaining than the relatively straight roads I’d been on since Lightning Ridge. The scenery was different, there were more corners and some interesting short, sharp undulations. Some of the troughs had a light covering of water.

By the end, near Toowoomba, it again became flat and straight. My attempt to photograph a long line of telegraph poles that looked like they’d been deliberately erected a crazy angles failed, so I’ve nothing much to show.

There’s one telegraph pole at a strange angle in this picture, but of more interest was the storm cloud which, mercifully, was not travelling towards me. The shadowy bastard is still there!

I filled up at Charlton at the top of the Toowoomba by-pass and was home by 19:30. It was dark for the final kilometres which I enjoyed, although I need to adjust the height of the headlight.

I think I was on the road for about 13 hours. I know I rode 946 kilometres for the day. There’s something to be said for relatively straight, flat country roads in good condition.

Gee it was good to be back in the saddle giving the odometer a workout.

The band? It didn’t do so well. It was great to see the guys again, though. And to ride with them for at least a bit.

[Nachodaddy]

Thank you for taking us with you, Cormanus. Beautiful country.

[GoldOxide_imp]

Cormanus - an excellent share of some of the most interesting riding snaps we've seen here in awhile.

Also, congratulations on a successful personal trek.

[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.