After a crappy sleep I woke about 4:30 and started to pack up our gear. I woke Aaron about 5:30 and we were ready to roll by just after 6am. Not knowing just how far to the next fuel stop, we gave the Bird a drink and then ambled out of town.
We pulled up a short time later to watch the harvest of some sugar cane.
While you ride a bike you have a lot of time to entertain yourself and it can be strange what your mind will sometimes turn to. I looked at the Tacho, not for any particular reason, but it got me to thinking about how many times the engine will spin over the duration of the trip. Using the fact that most of the journey will be completed in top gear (doing 2000rpm @60km/h) and allowing a small percentage increase for warm up, towns and the mountains. I estimated that the heart of our big black beast will spin about 33 million times. Not that this has anything to do with anything, it's just what I was thinking of.
We stopped just before Bowen and took a picture of the Big Mango. Just as we left the parking lot and as I was putting my visor down I was visited by a horrible little bug with a REALLY BIG stinger (maybe a wasp). The little mongrel jabbed his stinger into my lip twice. (note to self. Visor down THEN move off).
We had breaky in Bowen but I was quite surprised to find there were no food outletts near the water. We did however notice that there were a number of murals (not graffiti) around the town, and in fact Bowen is known for them.
Once on the highway my mind wandered again. This time it was on old work colleague. Some of you out there will know him, others were not that lucky. His name was Keith Tobin. He was also a rider and loved his Suzuki GSX1100GKE. I wont bore you all with the details of my memories but the theme of it all centred on how Keith was a TOP bloke. Some may have found him a little abrasive but I think that rose from the fact that Keith didn't suffer fools. I remember though that Keith was not only generous with good advice but was a bit of a father figure to some of us young fellas. Keith was riding on his trip of a lifetime when we lost him and on reflection, we are all poorer for the loss. Ride on brother.
The ride up the coast was quite amazing. There are large areas of open cane farms that are boarded by sharply rising hills erupting from the ground. A heavy mist sat low over some of these hills as they stand in stowick silence providing a very imposing backdrop to the lush pastures and cane farms.
We filled the Bird at Ayr for the final run into Townsville and arrived a bit after 1pm. We have, since then,cooled off in the air con and written these notes , however I think it's time for a dip.
catch you all later
Marty..........................
After our swim, we spoke to a couple of the other riders, then had a tub and went for a relaxing stroll along the beach precinct that the locals call 'The Strand'. The weather was nice (24ish deg) but it was quite windy. We went to the Hotel Allen and had a chicken and pyjamas along with a, wait for it, $4.20 Coke. When told the price I asked the barman if I could borrow his phone. He asked me why and I told him I needed to call crime stoppers, I found Australias Most Wanted stick up man. He didn't respond as he walked away.
Anyway, that'll do for today
copul8r
Marty................
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