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Netrider QLD - The Gold Coast Hinterland
(July 26th 2009)
Ride
Report by Sooty
This is going to be a long ride. I
had my doubts as to whether I had enough time in the day to
get down there and back, and even if the little GPX250 would
take it. All things considered there was nothing that was
going to keep me from experiencing the popular Gold Coast
hinterland on the bike with great friends.
A zombie
that had a somewhat similar appearance to myself emerged from
the den at 4AM. I fumbled around for an hour doing things like
attaching the bike camera and packing a small bottle of oil
just in case and then relising that I was still in my
underwear as I was putting my helmet on. I got out on the road
at 5AM and the visor instantly fogs up... So I cracked it open
a notch every few kilometres until it got to the point where
it simply condensated and I could see through the larger
droplets. I'm new to this early morning riding thing and a
breath deflector for the Shoei is on the short list.
It has been sometime since I had travelled along the
Gateway Motorway and the new routes and roadworks were a
surprise – scary too since I was the only person on the road
and I was expecting to ride straight off the end of an
unfinished suspended highway like something out of a Hollywood
movie completing the worlds greatest creek jump into the
Brisbane river. It wasn't until I had just popped over the
Gateway bridge when I relised that I'm an hour early. Arriving
at Springwood Maccas at 7AM for a 8:30AM ride start.
I
got comfortable with a brekkie roll and coffee. While scoffing
down the tasteless, yet filling, artificial produce I
remembered that Maccas have free wifi – out comes the phone
for checking the weather and the netriders ride thread preying
that the ride wasn't cancelled due to the drizzle outside, it
could have became a long way to get a plastic breakfast.
During all this I counted 6 Police cars – seems that this
Maccas is a favourite of the local constabulary. I did
consider fashioning a rear fendor out of a brekkie roll
wrapping and coffee cup.
About an hour later
Benjamin78au arrives, followed by Geeth, ScottsRR and then
TheBigD, Muttly and Tony. Ben and I went off to top up our
tanks, getting slightly lost in the process. Once we were back
we waited a little longer for any possible late comers and
then we started along the Pacific Motorway southbound heading
to Canungra.
This was mainly a 'transitional' route to
get us onto the more interesting scenic roads. However I still
found it interesting since its all new to me. The roads along
this section were good and it appears that they have been
upgraded to cope with the expanding housing estates that run
along it. Not long before Brisbane joins the Gold Coast in the
ever growing conurbation.
Arriving in Canungra we head
a little futher into town and stop across from the DJ Smith
Memorial Park just near the Outpost Cafe. Canungra is a nice
town and it reminds me a lot of Kennilworth just with less
cruisers. This is where I notice that the footage coming from
my bike camera is all blurred and fogged up, must be due to
the location of the camera or something. I gave it a clean and
hoped that was all it needed.
Once we were rested and
sorted we took off on the first leg of what can be summarised
as 'awesomeness'. This was the worlds worth of twisties lined
up ready to be cut into tidy lines with two wheels on a smooth
surface like a kind of biker drug... (Edit: carried away with
a metaphor...) It was an excellent time to practice hanging
off as I was following ScottsRR and learning a lot – he was
keeping good lines and was good to see where and when he setup
and hung. We finished this stint at the Two Pines Cafe which
was a slight change to the plan since the Valley View Cafe was
closed (I think the sign said “Open Sundays, sometimes”). We
looked for the rumoured Dinosaurs among the beautiful scenery
and then searched for TheBigD's keys – which ended up being
accidentally picked up by Tony as his Honda Transalp keys
looked identical the TheBigD's VTRs, Givi topbox key and all,
typical conformist Honda. We also chatted to a few other
motorcyclist who were smoking next to the old fuel pump... We
let them know we were from netriders and they said they'll
check it out.
We had our pies and coffees and set off
to Mudgeeraba along beautiful mountainous twisty roads that
have it all, single lane valley roads and wooden bridges
included. This is where I had a scary reminder of riding your
own path and not fixating on the arse of the bike in front. I
was just cruising behind the leader when all of a sudden on a
closing radius corner I thought to myself – I'm not in my
line, I'm in his! So I had to push hard to get the bike over
but I touched the inside boot down which caused me to go wide.
Should have had my toes on the pegs and kept to my own lines.
I continued along with a sheepish grin knowing that the group
behind were either laughing or hanging back a little further
than usual.
There were some road works along the
remainder of the section. Not usually an issue but I was
behind a cage at this stage and ended up covered with road
base mud. This stuff is like concrete and dried thickly on the
front guards and then flaked off onto the bike and forks. This
added to my existing paint chips and even got into my left
hand fork dust seal and expanded to the point of cracking it!
Ah well, new seals and fork oil for me; the mechanic and I are
on a first name basis.
Arriving at the Caltex Service
Station at Mudgeeraba I was of two minds of whether I should
fill the bike up or not since I had approximately 150KM
remaining. Of course I didn't! So I spent the remainder of the
trip doing calculations of fuel efficiencies in my mind – next
time I'll just fill up the damn thing. This was a short stop
over and we were soon on our way to Mt Tamborine for a special
lookout spot for a group photo.
Along this route we
came across a 4WD that was pulled up on the side of the road.
Nothing unusual here so half the group goes past then he just
starts pulling out almost hitting the lad in front of me and
causing me to brake rather heavily. He was oblivious to what
he just did – the Victorian plates might explain it (hehehe).
We made it to Mt Tamborine all in one piece and took
the group photo at the slight detour stop and then continued
to the designated stop at a hang-glider launch park which was
interesting for me because I've never seen one before. Nice
area too, lots of trees. By this stage I could feel the
fatigue really start to set in and my long distance riding
skills put to the test. The longest I've ridden before was
500km and this was about that mark but still with a couple of
hundred remining until home.
The final section took us
down off the mountain and back down to Springwood where we
started. I enjoyed Mt Tamborine and I look forward to doing it
again sometime however I hope to stay in Brisbane the night
beforehand so I can take it on while fresh. We all made it to
Springwood without issue and a few left us mid-route to head
home since they lived closer by and others stuck around to get
something to eat before heading on home.
I had to
leave after a small rest to beat the sun home but not before
filling up at the Springwood BP and only managing to squeeze
10ltrs into the 18ltr tank, plenty left! I stopped off at
Nudgee for a rest break and was about to head into the
disabled persons toilet and I relised my mistake and turned to
head for the correct toilet – however I failed to escape the
attention of an elderly man behind me who said “not yet mate
but soon” while pointing at my motorbike armour... touché.
Made it home at 5:30PM, finishing a 650KM ride.
All in
all it was a great introduction to the Southern Hinterlands
for me and I look forward to doing it again – not too soon
though. I believe everyone had a pretty good time as well and
there'll be more group rides to follow.
Thanks to Muttly for organising and
leading and to TheBigD for being the Tail End
Charlie.
Participants:
Benjamin78au
Geeth
Muttly
ScottsRR
Sooty
TheBigD
Tony |
