Easter 2011

For Easter 2010 - it was time to take Smooch on a serious off road ride.  This was to her used to camping of the bike and to see how we would go on dirt roads two-up.

The trip was to be up to Kroombit Tops to Beautiful Betsy a wrecked WWII Liberator Bomber that had crashed on a passenger to run to Brisbane.

After visiting my mate Tim we headed out to Esk and rode around Wivenhoe and Somerset Dams and on to Kilcoy.

From Kilcoy we headed up the Range to Jimma and some easy dirt to Goomeri via the Kilcoy-Murgon road.  Not wanting to overdo it for Sharon on the first day, we pulled into Goomeri for the night and setup an early camp.

Making a Cuppa

The next morning it was off to Gayndah for nice Sausage Roll.  From Gayndah it was time to try some more serious dirt.  The road I chose would take us into the back of Monto and the creeks were still up from some rain during the week.  The first creek that we came to had some high sand and was following fast, being a little unsure I asked Smooch to hop off and walk across.  As it wasn't too bad we just rode through the next the couple.  During the whole time Sharon was an absolute legend, nothing we rode over or through worried her.

Just outside of Monto we had the rear wheel bearing let go, fortunately we had one with us and so I whipped the back wheel out.  Unfortunately when removing the stuffed bearing the centre came out of it and I needed some one with a workshop to weld it out.  A quick call to RACQ meant that someone was on the way to help, but the lady on phone insisted that the bike needed to go on to a tilt tray.  Mmm that would be a pain considering the back wheel was out of the bike.  I asked her to get the local guy to call me before heading out.  He wasn't that keen but after explaining that it would take longer put it on a tilt than it would to come and get me and pull the bearing out in his workshop I soon had him convinced.

All in all it took about 3/4 of an hour from broken to fixed.



So a fuel up and a drink in Monto it was off to Cania Gorge to look that dam and scenery.

At Cania Dam we ran into Rob Turton, he was out doing an Overlanders tour up to Kroombit Tops. One the guys that I was doing the Cannonball with Gary was on the ride getting 'bike fit'. We also met a bunch of others that were riding including a nice German Couple that we hope to meet on our trip around the world next year.

We camped the night a Cania but the Caravan was packed and expensive. Not really recommended.  But the Facilities were excellent.

Getting up the next morning we checked out the spillway at Cania before heading to Kroombit Tops.

The run to Kroombit was to be a simple one - Fuel at Ubobo head up then back to Ubobo to stay the night.  That all went pear shaped when the fuel shop at Ubobo was closed.  So it was off to Calliope Cross Road for Fuel and Lunch and then up to Kroombit Tops.  The run in was great, crossing a little creek 10 or times, then the climb up to the top of the range.  The track into the bomber has some big mud holes that made for some interesting riding two up.  Smooch was just great yet again.  When we reached the bomber we ran into the Overlanders guys yet again.  We spent sometime looking at the bomber and then headed out on an equally as snotty track, which included a fall on a rocky uphill.  Smooch as good always just took it in her stride.  Sorry no pics.

We headed back to Calliope to camp for the night.  Caravan park was quite run down, but cheap as chips.

Camping at Calliope.

The next day we headed to Mt Perry and on to Biggenden for lunch.  After a nice steak sandwich it was on to Marybourgh to meet up with Vicki for a coffee.

The Lookout at Mt Perry

We then rode down to mate's place at Tiaro to spend the night with at his farm. It was a great feed and great company for the night.

Leaving mid-morning for a nice lazy trip home we headed out to Widgee and across to Glastonbury Creek we rode up the winding dirt road and down through a nice deceptively deep creek crossing.  Coming into the back of Amamoor we headed across to Kenilworth for a quick bite to eat and them home to Brisbane and our warm beds.

Lunch at Kenilworth.