TravellingStrom

I was sitting at home Saturday night playing with my new laptop, getting it set for on the road web updates etc, when I got a phone call from Bart. Do I want to go for a ride up to Byfield National Park, via the old back route that we had talked about a few weeks ago? It does not take much to twist my arm 🙂 He had told me about this road, and I had been on it as a pasenger in a 4wd cage years ago, full of piss and smoke etc, so my memory was a bit tarnished

So, met at his place at 9am, full of fuel and had a chat with his neighbour who had travelled through Vietnam, he knew about my proposed trip and mentioned that the largest bike over there is about a 250cc.

We took the back road along the river, nice and green starting to go brown, countryside

We were heading to his nephews place at The Caves, to see if he wanted to go for a ride, he had sold his GS but it was not paid for or taken away yet.

Mine and Barts bikes waiting on a decision 🙂

Another easy decision, Noddy joined us on his GS(still) and off we went through Barmoya until we hit the dirt. The first 100m or so was very deep and loose gravel, a bit of a heart starter. Plenty of potholes and dust. After a short distance navigating through some cows we got to Canal Creek

On we go and found another creek, nice countryside out this way, lucky I did not have to ‘blur’ the image there Bart, sorry m8, did not notice you filling up the waterhole 🙂

Hmmm, might bring a Crawchy trap next time 🙂

A bit further on we started to hit some damp spots, here is Bart showing the way through

Then we started to hit the outside edge of the Pine plantations at Byfield

Oooooops

There was a stretch of water about 20m long, I watched Bart take the left track and his bike was kicking and bucking with the rocks, Noddy took the right hand edge and stayed out of the water mostly, his track looked better so I followed him

Apparently, I strayed too far to the right hand side and hit the soft mud, schhloooop!!
Of course, I managed to get some photos 🙂 Bart waded in and helped me get it upright, then I coaxed it over into the water/track where it was more solid and rode it out. What do you reckon of my new biological farkle down near the brake lever, want one Mr.Farkles?

Tell you what, it’s got me beat how that jacket and gloves can be called DriRider, all wet, found out later my phone and pager got a drink too, but they work now after a dry out 🙂

After a laugh at me, on we went, some good views up here

Then we started to enter the forest proper

Not long after this we arrived at the byfield store, some sangers and a drink and a chat with Ian and Shane from the Ulysses club.

That’s the outdoor eating area behind the bike

We made a decision to take the Lake Mary road home, which is a wildlife sanctuary, very potholed this road, us having a rest

Before hitting the swamplands of Lake Mary, a few shots, the white bits are birds, heron and the like, also a lot of geese hiding down low!

The above creek system is always wet(well it has been for 30 years anyway) and has great swimming holes, people camp there all the time.

We had some fun with some of the campers kids who were riding dirt bikes, before getting to a turn off. Just before this we hit a concrete culvert/floodway with the leading edge having a step up and was washed away before it. With all the dust in the air I did not see it until late and although I took some weight off the front, the back wheel hit pretty hard. Noddy hit it hard with his front and damaged his rim, we checked it here

If you look closely at my rear rim, at around 8pm, you will see it does not look round

I did not notice this at the time, but only later when I was inflating my tyres while we enjoyed a well deserved ale 🙂

After that, we left Noddy at The Caves and headed home.

Thanks for the ride chaps, I enjoyed myself 8)

I even washed the bike when I got home, first time for a long time, it even had bugs from Tintaldra

Here is a GoogleMap of the tracks, we started out at the Red dot bottom left, followed the river then hit the highway heading up then eventually to the right, until we got to Byfield store at the top of the map, then backtrack a bit before heading towards Yeppoon, then left until we hit the highway again, where The Caves is, then down to home. I hope that makes sense 🙂

Cheers
TravellingStrom
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