Well another cloud free, warm Saturday - it's hard living in Queensland - and more riding planned. Myself and my younger daughter, Cass, left home about 8:30am to meet with the rest of the crew at the Nudgee fuel stop on the Gateway at 9am - the ride there was uneventful but on getting to the top of the Gateway Bridge you could see it was gonna be a great day. Could see all the way up the coast and out to Moreton Island - always a good sign.
Got to Nudgee and Koff (Mean Streak) and Leon (HD FXR) were already there - not long after Grizz (with his new paint.....see the pic below) and Panda (VTX) pulled in. Only waiting for Dodge (Triumph) to get a new tyre fitted after a puncture the night before. Anyway he eventually pulled in about 20 mins later and we were off. Headed up the busy Bruce Hwy - first day of school holidays - and then turned off to pass through Caboolture. Continued through to the Mount Mee turn off where we had our first smoko. After wiping the drool from Dodges shin (chiki in shop with nice HOOTERS) we got back on the D’Aguilar Hwy and continued to the Maleny turn off. Some of the guys left me and Panda for a hard ride through the windys - caught up with them at the fuel station in Maleny for a smoko/piss break.
The road from Maleny through to Kenilworth is to me a great ride - few windy bits and good scenery - over the Connondale Range and passing a lot of dairy farms. The road is slowly inproving although there are still some sections of single lane bitumen - not to worry coz it wasn't that busy on the road out here. Cass was busy on the back of the bike trying to get the camera going - unfortunately all she got was a lot of sky and bush and not too much of the road and bikes. Not to worry - she will learn. Finally cruised into Kenilworth - not a huge place but it does have a fuel station and a pub. Grizz and Panda headed into Cowgirls Gallery which had its opening that day - Bridgit is a photographer who along with another artist has set up a type of motorcycle art gallery. The rest of us headed over to the pub for lunch. Great place to sit out on the balcony watching the bikes come and go - the meals are good too. A few riders that were at the pub had just completed the Souther Cross 5 day poker run - sounded fantastic - 370 bikes cruising all day and partying at the next stop at night - all over 5 days. He was saying that they got no rain - that would make it even better. Might think about doing that next year.
After eating we headed over to the gallery to check out the work - couple of nice shots of Grizz's bike on the walls - now we know why he headed up here!! Bridgit ended up coming out onto the road and taking some snaps of some of us before we headed off. I took Cass down the road to have a look in the cheese factory and after spending about 15mins cheese tasting decided to leave. We re-grouped out on the main road and then headed back to Maleny.
Another pass along the road between Maleny and Kenilworth on the way back - beautiful. This time we rode through Maleny and along the main track back to the hwy - scenery looking out to the Sunshine Coast was great. Grizz decided to take a detour via the Black Stump Rd which took us through lots of slow windys with great scenery and eventually onto the road to D’Aguilar. We stopped for a break at the D’Aguilar Pub on the corner of the Mt Mee turn off. From there on to Mt Mee - it is a great road but just not for high speed riding on my bike with a pillion!! Plenty of pipe scraping around some of the corners but did manage to keep up with the others. Cass was doing great leaning with me all the way - had to keep feeling for her coz I didn't even know she was there - great work for a 12 yo!!
Got to Nudgee and Koff (Mean Streak) and Leon (HD FXR) were already there - not long after Grizz (with his new paint.....see the pic below) and Panda (VTX) pulled in. Only waiting for Dodge (Triumph) to get a new tyre fitted after a puncture the night before. Anyway he eventually pulled in about 20 mins later and we were off. Headed up the busy Bruce Hwy - first day of school holidays - and then turned off to pass through Caboolture. Continued through to the Mount Mee turn off where we had our first smoko. After wiping the drool from Dodges shin (chiki in shop with nice HOOTERS) we got back on the D’Aguilar Hwy and continued to the Maleny turn off. Some of the guys left me and Panda for a hard ride through the windys - caught up with them at the fuel station in Maleny for a smoko/piss break.
The road from Maleny through to Kenilworth is to me a great ride - few windy bits and good scenery - over the Connondale Range and passing a lot of dairy farms. The road is slowly inproving although there are still some sections of single lane bitumen - not to worry coz it wasn't that busy on the road out here. Cass was busy on the back of the bike trying to get the camera going - unfortunately all she got was a lot of sky and bush and not too much of the road and bikes. Not to worry - she will learn. Finally cruised into Kenilworth - not a huge place but it does have a fuel station and a pub. Grizz and Panda headed into Cowgirls Gallery which had its opening that day - Bridgit is a photographer who along with another artist has set up a type of motorcycle art gallery. The rest of us headed over to the pub for lunch. Great place to sit out on the balcony watching the bikes come and go - the meals are good too. A few riders that were at the pub had just completed the Souther Cross 5 day poker run - sounded fantastic - 370 bikes cruising all day and partying at the next stop at night - all over 5 days. He was saying that they got no rain - that would make it even better. Might think about doing that next year.
After eating we headed over to the gallery to check out the work - couple of nice shots of Grizz's bike on the walls - now we know why he headed up here!! Bridgit ended up coming out onto the road and taking some snaps of some of us before we headed off. I took Cass down the road to have a look in the cheese factory and after spending about 15mins cheese tasting decided to leave. We re-grouped out on the main road and then headed back to Maleny.
Another pass along the road between Maleny and Kenilworth on the way back - beautiful. This time we rode through Maleny and along the main track back to the hwy - scenery looking out to the Sunshine Coast was great. Grizz decided to take a detour via the Black Stump Rd which took us through lots of slow windys with great scenery and eventually onto the road to D’Aguilar. We stopped for a break at the D’Aguilar Pub on the corner of the Mt Mee turn off. From there on to Mt Mee - it is a great road but just not for high speed riding on my bike with a pillion!! Plenty of pipe scraping around some of the corners but did manage to keep up with the others. Cass was doing great leaning with me all the way - had to keep feeling for her coz I didn't even know she was there - great work for a 12 yo!!
Rode into Dayboro about 4:30 and stopped at the Crown Hotel for a quick smoko - we then re-mounted and headed to Samford. Once there we stopped at the pub for coffee and a final chat. Gee Dodge is a funny bastard - always making us laugh - keeps us entertained when we're not on the bikes!! Said our goodbyes and departed about 5:30 - Koff and me decided to head down Enoggera Rd through town and home - the others turned off and headed for The Gap. We left Koff at a servo after his healight bulb blew and headed home past Suncorp and out Wynnum Rd.
Pulled into my garage at about 6:30 - what a fantastic days riding it was - no bullshit, no egos, just a great bunch of people who enjoy what I love doing - riding around South East Queensland on a perfect Spring day!! Look forward to the next one.
posted by Beaker at 7:14 AM
Return To Top
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home