OX-34
Active Member
- Joined
- Aug 20, 2011
- Messages
- 378
I haven’t done much riding of late and had no rides planned when I received the call on the Monday at 1900hr: a couple of extra days off work – sweet.
I decided to do a run from home in Newcastle on the east coast to Darwin in the north - via Port Augusta. And back again.
For you non-Aussies here's a couple of reference maps of the route. I had one hundred hours total to ride the yellow line west and north and back home again.
I fired up BaseCamp and 11 minutes later had a trip uploaded to the GPS. A text to my mates IBA riders TigerBill and Wombattle to see if they were free to sign me out in under 8 hours time (Yes and Yes
) and then a little trip out to the storage shed on the Honda CT110 Postie, loaded up the Tenere and rode it back home again. A couple of hours of bookwork and time for shut eye.
The last time I rode these roads was on a ride I called the LoCo CoCo off the back end of a ride-to-eat style FarRide to Renmark in South Australia 18 months or so ago.
On that ride the first 50CC (50 hours cost to coast) leg of 4525km (2812 miles) via Renmark in 49:59 hours, proved to be the undoing of the 100CCC. After I rested in Darwin and then had to contend with the night of a thousand kangaroos on the way back, I could only manage 105hours by the time I arrived back home in Newcastle.
This ride from Newcastle (anywhere from Sydney to Brisbane would do) via Port Augusta to Darwin is one I’ve been trying to get Mike Kneebone from the Iron Butt Association to accept as a new Australian "100CCC ride". Mike thought 60 hours may be more realistic for each leg, but I still reckoned 100 hours was enough for the out and back. So it remained sitting in my bucket list as the fourth 100CCC route for me to ride.
Familiar start. Up early, first gear to the start – the traditional sand and water sample at Newcastle Beach across the road from my place – a quick pic and then to the BP for a start docket (03:01 AEDT, GPS 0km). TigerBill was there and Wombattle arrived a few minutes later. Signatures and docket secured, a wave goodbye and up the Hunter Valley before the change of shift brings hundreds of coal miners in white Hiluxes out onto the Golden Highway. I felt compelled to count roos – I often do – and was a bit surprised. Just short of Gilgandra I like to pull up at a particular roadside stop, changed the visor, downed an iced coffee and left myself a voice message “59 roos, a couple of cows, 6 sheep and 4 divebomber owls”.
Running the auxiliary fuel tank means bypassing Gilgandra, onto the Oxley Highway, past Warren and Nevertire and first fuel at Nyngan ( 08:55, 549km). I didn’t have a precise spreadsheet like I usually do, so no real way of telling if I was behind or not. Wombattle asked me what the plan was and I said ‘back here with an OA of about 86km/h’. All I really had to do was hit Darwin before 05:01 AEDT tomorrow morning. Hold on – the morning after. Seems like ages away.
Back on the bike and heading for Broken Hill. Glared at the fuel station on the Barrier Highway in Wilcannia and kept on rolling. This gas station served up mud and water recently that stop a FarRider's mega ride in its tracks. These long rides mean lots of time just maintaining pace. I sat a little over and had enough company in the form of traffic to overtake that I was making good time. Broken Hill at 14:39hr, 1139km and time for a few work phone calls. I decided to take a few spelling shots along the way, so stopped at Olary and Manna Hill, then a few other places passing through Yunta, Peterborough and Wilmington for a banner photo and G’day at the memorial for long distance legend Davo Jones.
I decided to do a run from home in Newcastle on the east coast to Darwin in the north - via Port Augusta. And back again.
For you non-Aussies here's a couple of reference maps of the route. I had one hundred hours total to ride the yellow line west and north and back home again.
I fired up BaseCamp and 11 minutes later had a trip uploaded to the GPS. A text to my mates IBA riders TigerBill and Wombattle to see if they were free to sign me out in under 8 hours time (Yes and Yes
) and then a little trip out to the storage shed on the Honda CT110 Postie, loaded up the Tenere and rode it back home again. A couple of hours of bookwork and time for shut eye.The last time I rode these roads was on a ride I called the LoCo CoCo off the back end of a ride-to-eat style FarRide to Renmark in South Australia 18 months or so ago.
On that ride the first 50CC (50 hours cost to coast) leg of 4525km (2812 miles) via Renmark in 49:59 hours, proved to be the undoing of the 100CCC. After I rested in Darwin and then had to contend with the night of a thousand kangaroos on the way back, I could only manage 105hours by the time I arrived back home in Newcastle.
This ride from Newcastle (anywhere from Sydney to Brisbane would do) via Port Augusta to Darwin is one I’ve been trying to get Mike Kneebone from the Iron Butt Association to accept as a new Australian "100CCC ride". Mike thought 60 hours may be more realistic for each leg, but I still reckoned 100 hours was enough for the out and back. So it remained sitting in my bucket list as the fourth 100CCC route for me to ride.
Familiar start. Up early, first gear to the start – the traditional sand and water sample at Newcastle Beach across the road from my place – a quick pic and then to the BP for a start docket (03:01 AEDT, GPS 0km). TigerBill was there and Wombattle arrived a few minutes later. Signatures and docket secured, a wave goodbye and up the Hunter Valley before the change of shift brings hundreds of coal miners in white Hiluxes out onto the Golden Highway. I felt compelled to count roos – I often do – and was a bit surprised. Just short of Gilgandra I like to pull up at a particular roadside stop, changed the visor, downed an iced coffee and left myself a voice message “59 roos, a couple of cows, 6 sheep and 4 divebomber owls”.
Running the auxiliary fuel tank means bypassing Gilgandra, onto the Oxley Highway, past Warren and Nevertire and first fuel at Nyngan ( 08:55, 549km). I didn’t have a precise spreadsheet like I usually do, so no real way of telling if I was behind or not. Wombattle asked me what the plan was and I said ‘back here with an OA of about 86km/h’. All I really had to do was hit Darwin before 05:01 AEDT tomorrow morning. Hold on – the morning after. Seems like ages away.
Back on the bike and heading for Broken Hill. Glared at the fuel station on the Barrier Highway in Wilcannia and kept on rolling. This gas station served up mud and water recently that stop a FarRider's mega ride in its tracks. These long rides mean lots of time just maintaining pace. I sat a little over and had enough company in the form of traffic to overtake that I was making good time. Broken Hill at 14:39hr, 1139km and time for a few work phone calls. I decided to take a few spelling shots along the way, so stopped at Olary and Manna Hill, then a few other places passing through Yunta, Peterborough and Wilmington for a banner photo and G’day at the memorial for long distance legend Davo Jones.
