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The Great Western Ride has been an annual event
organised by my mate Noel for some years. This was an annual event on
the Queens birthday holiday weekend in June. This year I attended the
ride in memory of a fallen mate, Steven Bell, because I had been unable to
attend the 2002 ride which had been dedicated to Steve's memory. Steven Bell died in a single vehicle motorcycle
accident on the back side of Mt Glorious in July 2001. Steven loved
motorcycling and he rode often with his many friends. One of the last
organised rides Steve attended was the Great Western Ride.
To commemorate Steven's life and his love of motorcycling, the Great
Western Ride was renamed the Steven Bell Memorial Ride for 2002. In
that year, more than a dozen motorcyclists attended the ride and it was
marred by a serious accident in which two people were seriously injured and
had to be air lifted to hospital and two motorcycles were written off.
It was decided that in 2003 the ride would proceed as a smaller invitational
ride. Six riders planned to undertake the ride, however two (Darryl
and Nicole) came down with the flu the week before so they missed the first
part of the journey, travelling by car to meet the rest of us in Mungungo on
Sunday evening. That left Noel, Mark, Roy and yours truly to hit the
road on Saturday the 7th of June for the 2003 GWR.
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The players:
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Mark
BMW R1150GS |
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Roy
Honda VFR 800 |
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Noel
BMW K1200RS |
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Yours Truly
Triumph Tiger 955i |
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Darryl and Nicole
Magna - They met us in Mungungo. |
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In Memorium
Steve's plaque at the Mungungo pub |
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Day 1: Brisbane to Roma.
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After a light breakfast at the BP
Roadhouse at Burpengary, we headed to Caboolture then west on the
D'Aguilar highway via Woodford, Kilcoy, Moore and Blackbutt to
Yarraman where we turned left to head to Cooyar and our morning tea
stop. We then headed for a fuel stop at Dalby via Maclagan and
Kaimkillenbun. After fuelling up at Dalby we took the back road
via Kogan and Condamine where we stopped for lunch before continuing
on to Roma. We arrived in Roma around 4.00pm where we fuelled up
again and made our way to the Club Hotel for the evening. After
a few drinks and a typical country pub meal, we retired relatively
early for a good night's sleep before attacking the highway again the
next morning.
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Morning tea stop - Cooyar |
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The last cloud we saw. |
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Settled in for the night |
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The Club Hotel at Roma |
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Day 2: Roma to Mungungo.
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After breakfast at the BP Roadhouse at
Roma (a truckies favourite) we headed north to Injune at about 8.20am.
After stopping briefly in Injune for a stretch, we headed up the
Carnarvon Development Road with a short photo opportunity stop at the
Carnarvons. I must say the photo really doesn't do it justice,
its quite a breathtaking sight. Our next stop was Rolleston for
fuel and morning tea. We were surprised to find a real espresso
machine in the tin shed that is the cafe in Rolleston. We were
even more surprised to find that the coffee was even drinkable and the
cakes and slices edible. From Rolleston we headed east via Moura
to Biloela where we fuelled up again and had lunch at Emanuel's Cafe,
supposedly the best food in Bilo! After lunch we went south
towards Monto but turned east again to Cania Gorge. Again the
photo opportunity was too good to pass up. Noel then headed into
Monto and east to Mungungo via the bitumen while Mark, Roy and I did
the trip to Monto via the dirt backroads and then out to Mungungo via
the bitumen. We stayed the night in the very hospitable and
historic Waratah Hotel, which is about the only building at Mungungo.
Darryl and Nicole also joined us at Mungungo, although they were
travelling by car. Once again, after imbibing a number of
beverages and enjoying some fine pub cuisine, we retired at a
reasonable hour so that we wouldn't miss the pub breakfast the next
morning.
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The Injune Roadhouse |
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Stopped for a stretch. |
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Noel pulls up for a photo at the Carnarvons |
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The Carnarvons |
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Doesn't do it justice really. |
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Mungungo |
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The pub is all there is folks! |
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Day 3: Mungungo to Brisbane.
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After warming ourselves by the fire and a
hearty breakfast, we left Mungungo at close enough to 9am.
Heading west to Monto and then south to Eidsvold, Mundubbera and
Durong and then East to Kingaroy, Nanango (lunch), Yarraman, Blackbutt
and Moore where we said our goodbyes with the northsiders returning to
Brisbane via Caboolture and the southsiders returning via Esk and
Ipswich. We were all home safe and sound by about 4.00pm after a
very pleasant long weekend. We can't wait to do it all again
next year!
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Nanango |
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The peanut galley at the Peanut Van. |
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Overall Statistics: These trip stats
are from the GPS unit attached to one of the bikes so the distances
and speeds etc involved are for that bike. They would be
somewhat similar for the rest of us.
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The overall distance travelled was 1637.1
klms
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The total time spent travelling over the
three days was 19 hours 17 minutes of which 16 hours 32 minutes was
moving time and 2 hours 45 minutes was taken up by stops for fuel,
lunch etc.
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Our average moving speed was 99kph and the
maximum speed was 172kph.
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My thanks go to Mark, Noel and Roy for the
very pleasant company and a great ride and to Darryl and Nicole for
making the effort and their company on the Sunday evening and Monday.
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