Cormanus goes to Texas

[Cormanus]

Sunday 14 February (Valentine’s Day) dawned bright and sunny, with a promise of unreasonable heat building up during the day. A night of curry and lubricated philosophy had left me just a little lethargic. I read bits of the forum over a cup of tea.

‘What to do with the day?’ I asked myself, mostly because there wasn’t anyone else to talk to, ‘I know. I’ll ride to Texas.’

Of course, I decided to do this only because I wanted to do something to offer hope to my snow-bound northern hemisphere brethren.

I’d always had a yen to visit Texas—Australia's Number One Motorcyclist Friendly Town. See here for information about Texas, although Pterodactyl will tell you this is more informative.

[url=https://www.google.com/maps/d/edit?mid=z5L5SB6CRw2M.kLviA1-MZPT8&usp=sharing]Link to map

I pulled out of Brisbane about 0900. It was a glorious day, but the temperature was already in the mid-high 20s and it was going to get hotter as I made my way inland.



As I wanted to ride one of the loops recommended by the Texans, I was keen not to take too long to get there. It was a 4-hour ride or thereabouts so I decided to take the fastest route, at least to Warwick, after which I’d turn south for what was said to be a good ride in from Stanthorpe.



Passing the turn to the Amberley RAAF base



I’m heading for those hills

The best bit of the ride to Warwick is just after you leave Aratula and the road becomes surrounded by bush. At that point you begin the climb to Cunningham’s Gap where the road passes through the Main Range. As you climb it gets cooler and you can hear the tinkling of bell birds for the final couple of kilometres before the Gap.



Leaving Aratula



You can see Cunningham’s Gap at the ‘V’ between the two hills



Approaching the Gap



Riding through Cunningham’s Gap

After Cunningham’s Gap the road is again flat as you run west-south-west to Warwick. I passed the turnoff to Toowoomba that I rode through the other way on my [URL=https://cb1100forum.net/threads/64366/]post new year ride. I like seeing signs that point me to more distant destinations—Sydney in this case.




From there to Warwick is a mere 13 kms and I was soon ordering coffee and eggs and bacon at the Bell Vue Café and guzzling water while I waited. It was about 1130 and getting very hot.

I was soon on the way again, turning south on the New England Highway for Sydney and Stanthorpe. The road is pretty and climbs through sparse bushland. It’s a quick ride and, towards the end you enter Queensland’s wine growing country. There’s a good few grapes grown in Australia, most of them originally in New South Wales, Victoria and South Australia. I’ve now lived in two states where a wine industry has emerged—Tasmania and later Queensland—and I remember the sneers of the older wine growing states. Tasmania now makes some seriously good boutique colder whether wines and one of the country’s leading wine critics has labelled a Verdelho from the Stanthorpe region as Australia’s best. It won’t be long, I suspect, before Queensland is recognised for the quality of particular varieties suited to it’s climate.

The most exciting thing that happened between Warwick and Stanthorpe was passing the aftermath of some sort of car-fest.



Stanthorpe boasts one of only two oenology schools in Australia, this one an interesting amalgam between a university, a school and a technical college. The technical college would be called a polytechnic in the UK; I don’t know what it might be called in the US but it’s a post secondary institution teaching important practical skills. In Australia, anyway, it’s a neglected education sector as everybody scrabbles to get a university degree in any possible subject. Basket weaving or tourism are both on my bucket list.

I filled up with petrol and turned off for what, in spite of the heat, turned out to be a truly delightful 100 km ride to Texas. It’s a secondary road with a good surface and very little traffic. It climbs through the bush before winding down into a valley cleared for farming. There are some good, long, sweeping curves as well as a couple of excellent patches of twisties to keep a bloke on his toes. The speed limit is 100 kph, good enough for an agreeable ride.


Climbing through the bush on the Stanthorpe-Texas Road



The valley ahead




It was stinking hot and the town was a hive of frantic activity; but, with persistence and patience, I managed to fight my way through the traffic and the crowds.



The town was a hive of frantic activity …
Lunch at the Texas Take Away will not rate a mention on EmptySea’s gourmet thread. The ham, cheese and tomato in the sandwich were at least fresh and a cup of tea went down OK. I then walked down the street to the Stockman Hotel and booked myself a room for the night.

The room was rudimentary, but I dumped some stuff, fought the temptation to have a beer, turn on the air conditioning and go to sleep before setting out to ride the western circuit. It was past 1400 and I figured if I left it too late, I could easily have the sort of marsupial encounter that neither of us would much enjoy.

Although you don’t ever really see it, the road takes you west on the north shore of the Dumaresq River and the Queensland-New South Wales border. It’s grass land and spinifex, dry country in spite of the endless floodways and signs warning of the risk of water.

Much of it is like this. Not a particularly exciting ride, but it would be glorious tooling along on a cooler day.







At Yelarbon, I stopped to fill the tank. The chap at the service station came outside, looked at the bike and said, ‘What year is it?’

‘Guess?’ I said.

‘Oh,’ he thought for a while, ‘about 1980?’

‘2011,’ I said.

‘Geez!’

Turns out he had his fourth CB750 complete with side car sitting in a shed somewhere. I never did get a look at it. He was pretty impressed and kept me standing in the melting sun talking bikes until I was saved by another customer.

Leaving Yelarbon, I immediately turned left and headed into spinifex country towards the border. Spinifex is the quintessential Australian outback plant—hardy, stunted and surviving almost anything. It’s the arboreal equivalent of the cockroach.



Spinfex Country

The bitumen soon ran out and I was on to gravel for the crossing of the Dumaresq River and therefore the border into New South Wales. To achieve this remarkable feat I crossed the historic Keetah Bridge. I’ve no idea why it’s historic, but it certainly looks like it’s been there for some time. A quick Google search revealed not much more than that everybody refers to it as historic. I suppose it must be.

It’s a pretty spot though.








I know the headers are disgusting, but it doesn’t really look like a 1980 model, does it?

East of the bridge I missed the turn. The distance between bridge and turn seemed wrong and the name on the sign for the road was different from the one on the printed instructions I’d picked up at the hotel. Watched by an indolent ruminant, I finally figured it and rode a pretty straight line along the New South Wales side of the Dumaresq.




Eventually I was greeted by this very welcome sight and rode quickly and happily along this narrow, deserted (I think I may have seen one car) country road where, although the surface is generally excellent, little tufts of grass peek through occasionally and, from time to time, the long grass verges encroach quite a long way into the road.

Again a glorious road for a tootle on a cooler afternoon.









Apparently, if you enter Texas from the south, you deserve a better sign that the one to the east.

I joined the Bruxner highway briefly before again turning north, crossing the river and arriving back in Texas.

A shower, a disgusting cup of tea (the local water), a bit of a rest and it was off to the bar for a complimentary beer. I had a couple before wandering across the road to The Texas Motel where the dining room was open. I was told I could have either red or white wine by the man behind the bar who, every time I looked at him during the evening, was pouring himself a generous Bundy and coke. I settled for white and a Chicken Parmigiana and salad (no fries).

I was pleased I settled on the white as it turned out to be what my children call ‘goon’—wine served from that marvellous Australian invention, the wine cask. In this splendid contrivance, 4 litres of vin ordinaire is loaded into an airtight plastic bladder complete with tap and then packed inside a cardboard box for protection and ease of storage. If you’re desperate, the bladders, if lightly inflated, make OK pillows and can also be used for making decent 4 litre ice blocks. Many of the red examples of goon are better used as paint stripper.

I was in bed early.

Endnote: A desperado drilling into the actual map of the afternoon’s ride, may notice that I appeared to walk all 137 kms of it. I didn’t; but, curiously, walking was the only way I could get it to agree to take me across the historic Keetah Bridge!

 

[OcciGuy]

Thanks Cormanus. It was very pleasant to be on your side during your story! You are a real writer. I like very much to read something so far from my daily habits.
Guy
Please what is the thing on your saddle ?

 

[noroomtomove]

Thanks for that, enjoyed the read.
I spent a few years in those parts in the 80's had a Suzuki SP370 back then.
I have been unable to find a photograph of it, long time ago.

Regards

 

[Django]

Thanks for this really nice again ride report. Enjoyed the reading and the pictures.

Good way, to get some impressions of foreign countries.

 

[Blockhead_imp]

Another job well done Cormanus...thanks for sharing.

 

[Rocky_imp]

Great story and pictures

 

[Cormanus]

Thanks Cormanus. It was very pleasant to be on your side during your story! You are a real writer. I like very much to read something so far from my daily habits.
Guy
Please what is the thing on your saddle ?

Guy, it's an AirHawk seat cushion (see here, http://www.airhawk.net/airhawk-products.aspx). It's cheaper than buying a new seat and makes the bike tolerable for longer than an hour.

 

[Lord Popgun]

+1 on the Airhawk!

I Googled the historic Keetah Bridge and the story on the river was most interesting. Wasn't even a river until you guys made it one!

 

[Cormanus]

popgun, where did you find the information on Google? I did make a bit of an effort but found nothing.

 

[rbike_imp]

Fabulous report, write-up, pics, and read Cormanus!

I almost didn't look at the post because been there done that, but I said to myself This must be a Cormanus spoof ....he is in Queensland not the US - maybe he is visiting getting ready for the June ride.

The ride reminded me of the rides I used to take in SE Texas (US) around Corpus Christi on a daily basis in the early 70s.

The Speedometer pic is interesting 4000rpm & 118mph (I know clicks, 118kph= 73.3mph). My 13CB @ 4000 does 70mph (113kph). The small difference is probably due to camera parallax(angle).

FYI, I must point out, one needs to put a space around (on both sides) weblinks or the link will not work correctly http://www.airhawk.net/airhawk-products.aspx the way it was originally posted, the ")." gets copied as part of the url.

 

[Chapomis_imp]

Nice report Cormanus. It must be wonderful to live in a world without traffic. Oh, if you ever decide to pursue basket making....I might be able to help.

 

[redbirds_imp]

Wonderful George. The title of your post threw me off a bit at first, has Cormanus come back to the states unannounced? Never occurred to me that there would be a Texas in Oz. It is fitting that the local scenery and heat remind me of many places in the Texas that I know. Thanks for another entertaining and informative post.
:beerchug:

 

[Cormanus]

rbike, thanks for correcting the link. Should have done it properly!

 

[the Ferret]

Nice!

Saw part of it last night before bed (you had just gotten to Texas) and was waiting for you to finish it up.
so neat that I can wake up to another snow covered driveway, but close the garage door, turn on the puter and visit a country thousands of miles away..baskin the sun, soak up some warmth, share a cup of tea and go for a ride with my buddy Cormanus.

Nice!

 

[Lord Popgun]

popgun, where did you find the information on Google? I did make a bit of an effort but found nothing.

I just searched on historic Keetah bridge and a number of links came up. This one: http://caravanersforum.com/viewtopic.php?t=43113 has a link to a .pdf in the second post. Here is the link:

http://www.upstreampaddle.com/media/Dumaresq River Winter 08.pdf

And has some great pictures of the river, the weirs, etc and some explanation. On one site it says that the bridge is to be upgraded. Is that so?

 

[CA200_imp]

Great pictures Cormanus , I just know all that heat will help melt some of the snow here.

 

[Inhouse Bob]

Lovely report. Thanks for taking me away from the snow for a few minutes.
Something about the word spinifex that makes my head spin and fill with dreams of visiting Australia. I think I've read too many Nevil Shute books

 

[metallyguitarded_imp]

I really enjoyed that! Thank you, Cormanus!

 

[Cormanus]

popgun, where did you find the information on Google? I did make a bit of an effort but found nothing.

I just searched on historic Keetah bridge and a number of links came up. This one: http://caravanersforum.com/viewtopic.php?t=43113 has a link to a .pdf in the second post. Here is the link:

http://www.upstreampaddle.com/media/Dumaresq River Winter 08.pdf

And has some great pictures of the river, the weirs, etc and some explanation. On one site it says that the bridge is to be upgraded. Is that so?

Thanks for the link popgun. I scanned that but didn't see anything about why and when the bridge was built. I'll have another look. I didn't see any signage that suggested the bridge was to be upgraded.

 

[Cormanus]

Day 2
I was awake way too early, so I checked in on the forum only to get tangled up in a conversation about the odd behaviour of Photobucket. Eventually, enough was enough, and I decided to try to get a few kilometres under my wheels before the worst of the heat. Just before 0730 I was on the road retracing my steps east.



Texas was busy again as I rode into the sunrise

Just outside Texas I had to make a choice about which road to take: a shorter route which would bring me out at the Kenyon Dam, or the longer way which would take me down the eastern side of the dam. I had a vague recollection that the first option promised dirt and decided I couldn’t face it first thing in the morning, so I retraced my route for around 35 kms. I’m glad I did. It’s a great bit of road and it was again very quiet. At one point I was startled by a small kangaroo heading diagonally towards the road. I realised the long grass by the road meant I may not even see a small one until it bounded in front of me. A few minutes later, I stopped to make sure a bloke fiddling with his tractor was OK. He was the mowing contractor who would be slashing a single mower’s width of grass away from either side of the road. We agreed the grass had got very long and he told me the local authority had no money for maintenance. He’d had to wait ages for work and even now he was only to cut a single width where normally he would cut two. Our leaders would have us believe otherwise, but times are quietly getting tougher for many Australians.

And he was fine; just getting set up.



A small kangaroo could easily hide in this lot before playing kamikaze with a passing motorcyclist

I took the detour into look at Kenyon Dam partly because the young lady who gave me a complimentary beer at the Stockman Hotel said it was worth a look and also because I like water and lakes and dams. Moments before I took the photo below I was joined briefly by a kangaroo, but he or she vanished before I could fire up the camera.


Kenyon Dam. The road I didn’t take would have brought me along the top of the dam wall. It looked good and I’ll try to ride if I’m ever that way again.



The CB and Kenyon Dam from the top of the dam wall. You can see how low the water level is by the height of the tree line above the surface







As I looked out over the dam I was reminded that, in Australia, water is so much more precious than gold. The weather which brings it to us is terribly fickle. Not for us an annual dumping of a large amount of snow that finds its way into rivers and dams. Nor, in this part of the world, is there any guarantee of a serious wet season where metres of rain can fall. Yet almost everywhere I rode I saw signs warning of the possibility of flooding. Measuring posts by the side of the rode give an indication of depth. Sadly, they fail to stop idiots driving into fast moving water when it floods. Clearly, when it rains properly, the whole place will become an enormous lake. Meanwhile the water level in this dam was well down with no guarantee of rain this year. Or next. Or the one after that.

Leaving the dam to return to the road, I started to get ever so slightly nervous about fuel. I needn’t have, but I was at the top of a modest hill and it was fun to put in a bit of time in angel gear.



The neutral light’s a bit of a give away.

Soon I was on the Bruxner Highway. I expected it to be strait, mostly flat and boring. It wasn’t at all. There were lots of long sweepers and next to no traffic so it was a joy to ride to Tenterfield.

Note to self: never, never, never, ever carry anything containing liquid in your top box, no matter how well secured you think it is. The water bottle I’d thought so secure, wasn’t and many things in the top box were very wet. Luckily a camera and an iPad were not.

I’m pretty sure I’ve written about Tenterfield before. It’s an agreeable town with a strong connection to the birth of the Australian federation. It was also the birthplace of Peter Allen, a musical Australian boy who fled to the US, married Liza Minnelli and wrote a song or two with Carol Bayer-Sager and others. He wrote this one about his grandfather before going on to become the subject of a musical in which he was played by Hugh Jackman. I mention this connection because there’s another amusing reference to Hugh Jackman in a subsequent link.

I had a belated breakfast (more eggs and bacon) in a quaint country restaurant before setting off down the street for the public facilities. I discovered that the recently appointed Deputy Prime Minister of Australia had an office there.




The Honourable Barnaby Thomas Gerard Joyce MP is also the Minister for Agriculture who, quite rightly, told Johnny Depp to pack up his dogs (Pistol and Boo) and send them home to the US or else they would have a premature introduction to their maker. That episode resulted in this brilliant report from that much loved American, John Oliver. Warning: the following program contains offensive language and death threats.

The CB had acquired some company while I was away



Heading east from Tenterfield

Then it was back to the Bruxner heading east. I was uncertain about where I’d leave it, but my next stop was Woodenbong and then I’d ride over the border on the Mt Lindesay Highway. My options were to turn off the Bruxner near Mallanganee and head north to Woodenbong, but I was tormented by memories of doing the trip in the other direction with Pterodactyl in 2014. Although the road was sealed, it was badly corrugated and one of the more uncomfortable rides I’ve had on the CB. The alternative was the longer round trip via Casino and Kyogle. The appeal of that route was tat it left open the option of missing Woodenbong and going home via Mullumbimby on the basis that the road there from Kyogle is also a delight.

This would be the third time I’d ridden the Bruxner, the first was with Pterodactyl on our second outing (see [URL=https://cb1100forum.net/threads/60673/]here); the second was returning from that ride ([url=http://cb1100forum.com/forum/showthread.php?tid=3856&pid=56933#pid56933]here.) It’s a great road. As you head from Tenterfield across the plateau of the range, there are some great sweepers before you get into about 35 kms of winding road as you make your way over the summit and down the eastern side of the Great Dividing Range. The surface was good, there wasn’t any traffic to speak of, the bush (such of it that you can see when you’re concentrating on the road) is pretty and there are some fabulous corners. What a great way to spend an hour or so.



Settling down to work on the Bruxner

The main excitement of the Bruxner ends just short of Drake which boasts the wonderfully named Lunatic Hotel where Pterodactyl and I once had a cup of coffee and admired a couple of CB1100Rs (see [url=http://cb1100forum.com/forum/showthread.php?tid=3809&pid=56189#pid56189]here).

In the end I rode past the turnoff to Woodenbong at Mallanganee and kept going to Casino and Kyogle. It was a longer ride, but all the fillings remained in my teeth and I let myself enjoy a spirited ride from Kyogle to Woodenbong. It’s a great bit of road and the CB was in its element. I stopped for a moment to take this photo of a mountain



At Woodenbong I refuelled the CB with ethanol-free unleaded petrol. Cormanus refuelled with a modest example of the traditional Australian meat pie and tomato sauce (ketchup).

As I mentioned, my plan had been to ride the Mt Lindesay Highway over the border to Rathdowney, turn left for Boonah and then make a run for home. At Tenterfield, though, I’d toyed with the idea of riding to Woodenbong via a back road. I’d not been able to find out much about it from the Internet; what I had read was not all that encouraging. The couple running the café where I had breakfast sealed the decision when they told me there was 100 kms of dirt. They did me a favour because I had a fabulous ride.

I looked at the map again at Woodenbong and realised the back road would allow me to ride to Stanthorpe or Warwick from where I could do the run home. What the hell? Might as well take the opportunity to ride somewhere new. So I set off west.

The road makes a good start: good surface, wide enough, pretty, but no centre line marking. It then deteriorates to a narrower track with not such a good surface. It’s still pretty, but I’d met a truck on the good bit of road and was slightly tormented by visions of arriving back in Woodenbong as a bonnet mascot.

It’s a variable road. The good bits are great and was worth the ride.


A good bit out of Woodenbong



You can see the road winding away up the hill. This was a very good bit



The CB with the Great Dividing Range in the distance. There are some lovely views from this road

At Legume (isn’t that a great name for a town) you make the choice to head south to Tenterfield and Stanthorpe or northwest to Warwick. I took the latter. The road widened and improved and I made good time, As I rode down the hill into Killarney, I saw a sign directing me to Boonah via a waterfall or three. I rode past it and on into Killarney, a country Queensland town, balancing the relative tedium of the road from Warwick to Brisbane with the possibilities of a new, unexplored road. By then it was very hot.

I turned around and went back to Spring Creek Road. It was slathered with delicious warnings about being narrow and winding and unsuitable for trucks and buses and other large conveyances. It was very pretty indeed and a good ride to the top of the range, although it is marred by an unnecessarily low speed limit which has been applied indiscriminately.



Brown’s Falls




At the top of the mountain—part of the Main Range and not far from Cunningham’s Gap—you come to a place called simply The Head. You get off the bike and walk to the lookout and look over the agreeable valley through which you are about to ride. You get there via an amazingly steep, narrow road. You learn that, if you look the other way, you’ll see where the Condamine River begins its journey into the Darling River. The Darling flows through Queensland and New South Wales before joining the Murray River on the New South Wales-Victorian border. I was at the source of the Murray-Darling: Australia’s most important river system and central to the health of its agriculture. On my very first ride with Pterodactyl we visited Wentworth, NSW, and surveyed the unprepossessing junction of those two mighty rivers (reported with pictures [url=http://cb1100forum.com/forum/showthread.php?tid=3294&pid=47965#pid47965]here).




Off I went down the hill. It would be much, much more fun to ride up it as it’s very steep and the brakes smoke. Even going up you’d have to be very careful. It’s narrow and there are plenty of blind corners. But it’s lovely.

I’m including the next really crappy photo because if you look very closely, on the right had side of the road, you’ll see the vague image of a dingo (Australia’s native dog) which ran across the road in front of me. I’ve very seldom seen them in the wild.

Much of this area is national park and I suspect dogs are a problem as I saw a sign warning walkers of dog traps.






The steep downhill road

There’s a pretty run through the valley and, lo and behold, you reach the Boonah-Rathdowney road where you turn left. It’s not too long before you’re catapulted back into a world of wide roads, flat lands and a gradually increasing volume of traffic. You ride home through it and arrive, very hot but happy, with almost 1,050 kms on the odometer.