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Striking it Lucky—Again!
I’d just had two good rides—see [url=http://cb1100forum.com/forum/showthread.php?tid=5014]here and [url=http://cb1100forum.com/forum/showthread.php?tid=5124]here—on two consecutive days. It was surely time to stay at home and do some odd jobs.
Then my wife got a call she’d been hoping for: a grandchild was about to be born and she must head south to Brisbane. Me too; but, as my presence was not required immediately nor for as long, we decided to travel separately. An opportunity for a ride? What a shame.
Even more of a shame, there’s some good riding country between my home and Brisbane and I was not in a hurry. Provided I was prepared to travel almost double the length of the trip I'd have to make on the slab, I should have an enjoyable ride.
The customary map. The thick yellow road to the right of my route from point B down is the highway.
[url=https://www.google.com/maps/d/edit?mid=zE2kuVEGplwI.kV7W0DOZjjsU]
I had a few things to do before leaving, so took the highway for the first part of the trip.
After a little more than 50 kms I turned off on to the Steve Irwin Way, named in honour of a curious Australian zoo-owner and TV naturalist who, sadly perhaps, lost a fight with a stingray in 2006.
I didn’t stay on the Steve Irwin Way for long, turning off quickly to re-ride the recently found Tunnel Ridge Road.
At Landsborough I turned inland to find the Bald Knob Road, also recently discovered. As I headed south, I realised I was doing some of my ride for Eric in reverse.
The striking Glasshouse Mountains from the Bald Knob Road. I very much doubt they’ve ever been troubled with snow
A ride along Commissioner’s Flat Road and the plain saw me at the Braisen Hussey Café in Woodford for a late lunch. I had an acceptable lasagne and salad in preparation for the splendour of the Mt Mee Road.
Commissioners Flat Road
Sharing a parking space at Woodford with two very shiny Harleys
Four kilometres or so south of Woodford, one turns off the D’aguilar Highway and on to the Mt Mee Road. After another 5 or so kilometres, there’s a fast stretch of twisties to take you up to the plateau.
As you can see from the pictures, I was stuck behind a car, so I swallowed my disappointment, tootled along and took some photos. At the top, I turned around and went back down again just so I could ride the upward section at a pace that suited me.
There are no photos of the second climb. I was hanging on too tightly.
The Pitstop Café is not always open. When it is, it’s very biker friendly and offers a great view southwards over the plain to Brisbane
Just after the Pitstop, I spied a damsel in distress being assisted by an officer of The Law. ‘What the h*ll?’ I thought and turned around to see if I could help. It appeared the elderly Harley, on which said damsel and her daughter were out for a ride, had started coughing and spluttering and then developed an electrical fault. The officer, who was tinkering with the battery, leapt out of the way until I explained that even his mechanical ignorance could not come within cooee of mine.
Pursuing the tried and true policy of ignorant wannabes the world over, we jiggled with wires and checked the battery terminals and played with the key until suddenly the lights came on and the engine turned over. The damsel meanwhile had borrowed the officer’s mobile phone and rung her father who had set out in a van to collect her. In spite of our success with the electrics, the bike still wouldn’t start. It turned out that the damsel was a dab hand with the Honda screwdriver I unearthed from under the seat of the CB1100 and she whipped off the float bowl of the carburettor and gave things a good clean.
B*gger me if the thing didn’t start. So we geared up and all set off in convey down Mt Mee to Dayboro where the damsel’s father met her in his van. The officer’s ST1300 was a pretty nice machine and I stayed out of trouble behind him as we made our way down the hill.
When we spied the damsel’s father, I kept going. I’ll never know whether the officer stopped and had a chat to her about the inadequate state of her electrics.
From Dayboro to Samford is pretty enough but not particularly interesting. It’s simply one of those bits of road that must be travelled if one wants to ride Mt Mee. At Samford there’s a roundabout and a decision—left along a much travelled, but reasonably quick, road to the northern suburbs of Brisbane; or right and along the winding road up to the road along the ridge of Mt Glorious.
The left hand route takes you through some pleasant enough country and the road could be a lot of fun were it not for speed limits and traffic. For that reason, and because I had plenty of time, I turned right onto the road to Mt Glorious. The first part runs along a plain. Although you can see hills there’s no real indication of what you’re in for as you arrive at the base of the mountain. It’s a steep and twisting climb through very pretty bushland. There’s a stream to the right and occasionally the chime of a bellbird can be heard. Neither of these photos really does it justice.
This close up from the map gives some sense of what fun the road is; what it doesn’t show clearly is the climb. I was travelling from right to left.
From the top of the hill, it’s a great run along one of Brisbane’s favourite motorcycle roads through Mt Nebo and down into the city where I was to come to rest for a couple of days.
I stopped to check out a lookout
Looking west from Mt Nebo. Somewhere through the haze is the great, flat Australian inland
Brisbane bikers out for a Sunday ride
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