All participants met at McDonalds Wallan with bikes fueled up, keen to ride.
The first business of the day was to chat with Jeff, Hal, Pete and Bob who were all heading off on the big adventure to Cape York. Hal and Jeff are then going from Cairns to Darwin with the BMW Safari. Afterwards heading back via Daily Waters Tennant Creek, Mt Issa, Birdsville, Maree and then home via Adelaide. Good Luck Men.
John then gathered the riders to commence the pre-ride briefing which was concise and straight to the point. We then filed out of the car park in an orderly manner using the corner marker system along the transport section.
The day was overcast and cold, with no rain but only 8°C so the transport section to the start of the track was pretty cold. It dropped to 7°C for a while. All riders were compliant and held their positions throughout this session.
Once we hit the dirt they continued to hold their positions. For the first while the roads were fairly pedestrian, but wait we knew this wouldn’t last. The tracks became tighter and a little more challenging as we progressed through the ride.
It wasn’t long before we encountered our first challenge. A tight single track with a loamy soil surface. This track was lightly wooded and you could see all the bikes snaking through this section. I did see a couple of unnamed riders taking shortcuts through here.
The method of riding this track was on the pegs, balancing throttle and clutch control. Especially on the bigger bikes. I thought this was going to be a long day and wondered how long this was going to last. But before long we had completed this section.
On we went! The tracks remained interesting all the way until our lunch break at Heathcote. A pie and a coffee were appreciated.