Saturday the 6th of November 2010
Today whilst I was getting ready to go I discovered that a plague of ants have decided to inhabit my bike seat, yes you have read it correct they Ants really have taken up residence in my seat. I’ve tried spraying them, drowning them, and even cooking them but still they breed.
I’m not particularly religious but I think that Armageddon is really here!!!
Firstly: we rode through torrential rain.
Second: I got the first plague of ants,
Third: the plague of Cane toads living under our cabin last night,
Fourth: we rode into a plague of locusts,
Finally: we rode through a fire (all be it a small one)
So as you can see Queensland has a problem of biblical proportions, thankfully it would seem that help is at hand, I read sign just outside of Mount Isa which inferred that Jesus was coming. I’m a little curious as to when he will get here and if it’s only Queensland he’s going to save or if like me he’s just planning on passing through.
Whilst I was riding through the locust plague a pretty interesting thing happened. I was riding with my heals on the forward controls with my feet splayed outwards when a locust hit the instep of my right boot it then flew up along my leg and hit me in the chin and finally got sucked forward (there is a vortex created by the windscreen) until it hit the windscreen and fell down the forks. I couldn’t tell if the little critter was alive by the end of it but that would have to be the unluckiest locust ever.
We stopped for lunch at the Burke and Wills Roadhouse, it’s an interesting spot but I couldn’t live there it’s seriously in the middle of nowhere. We discussed how and why people would choose to live there, but I’m glad they do because if they didn’t I wouldn’t have got any fuel.
As it turns out Premium Unleaded fuel is the big problem, standard fuel is easy every station carries it. What I’ve had to do is put enough in my to get to the next town and then fill up with Premium, it’s a tad annoying but that’s just what you have to do.
A lot of the outback roads in Queensland have single lane sections which I don’t mind so long as the car or triple (truck towing 3 trailers, about 50 meters long) move over. The rules are that because it’s a single lane road so both vehicles need to move over to the left hand side when you pass each other. For anything bigger than motorbikes they will need to put one wheel in the gravel, which is in really good condition. You can tell the tourists because they are the ones who don’t move over however it does get a bit unnerving when they don’t.
I generally don’t slow down on these roads, in fact I only slow down for the cattle grids. Which I don’t know why they bother with them as the cows generally just wonder around on the roads and if they want to avoid the grids then they just use the shoulders…
The other interesting thing about cows is they just tend to stare at you as you ride past. So you have to wonder what’s going through their minds as they stare at you. In case your interested I’m thinking about Hungry Jack’s angus burgers as I go passed those cows.
Probably the only other interesting thing that happened today was Alan wanted to swap Harley’s for a while so I rode Alan’s Heritage Softail (he wants to a Rocker C, I think the ants choosing to make their home in my bike seat over his was the last straw). The amazing thing about Alan’s Harley is the windscreen works properly in comparison to mine. It was like riding in the Cone of Silence, there was no wind noise and you didn’t get a battering from the wind. The other nice thing was the footboards I was wondering how I could fit them to my Harley with forward controls.
Cheers
a
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