Deane & Jack's Motorcycle Trip in
Australia and New Zealand
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Deane & Jack's Motorcycle Trip in Australia and New Zealand |
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April 8 - Mount Isa, Northern Territory to Charter Towers, Queensland 822 km (493 Miles) |
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Well, this 500-mile day wasn't as bad as we thought it might be. Riding 500 miles on a Gold Wing is not a big deal, but the bikes we have don't have much of a fairing, quite a minimal windshield, no cruise control, and a seat that is only just adequate for a long ride like this. However, the little V-Strom bikes did very well, and other than a sore behind, the ride went very well. We started by going over a mountain range which separates the Outback that we've been talking about in the last few days, and an a portion of the Outback which changed character. First, we saw miles of extremely dry pastureland. Their drought really showed here. However, next came what I would characterize as like the "Great Plains" of the United States, before any plow had turned over the prairie.
The above picture shows this "prairie" as having dry grass because it is Fall now. Farther on, the character started to change to more green area, with trees, as we started to cross "The Great Dividing Range". The temperature also started falling, from a high of about 90 degrees F at noon, to the lower 80's as we got into the mountains. This was a beautiful ride, as quite green forest started to show up.
On the way, we finally found a "Road Train" standing still. It wasn't a very impressive one, having only two of its three trailers loaded with big tanks, and the third trailer just being pulled empty, but with the following photo showing the tractor of the tractor-trailer rig, with its designation of "Road Train" on the front bumper, it gives an idea of the size of these things. The tractor looks like any standard one, but it must have a very powerful motor to pull the three and four trailers.
Here is the front of the Road Train.
Look at that Kangaroo guard on the front of the truck. Unfortunately, when these trains get going, there is no stopping or dodging for Kangaroos and Wallabies. Every day we saw several road-kill animals - sad, but a fact of life. For the "Wildlife Report", Jack saw four Emu's, but didn't get a picture, and Deane didn't get to see them. We are now back in the State of Queensland, from which we started our long tour. We have now been in all of the Australian States except Western Australia, (and time and mileage didn't allow us to go there - it occupies about 1/3 of all of Australia, with very few roads and very large distances). The five of six States, besides Western Australia, are: Queensland, New South Wales, Victoria, Tasmania, and South Australia. These are Very Big states, if you consider that six states and three territories constitute about the same land mass as the whole of 50 states of the USA!! We also have been in two of the three Territories, Canberra Australia Territory (ACT) and Northern Territory. (The third territory is very small, just a bit of river front at the sea to provide the ACT with a seaport.) By the way, in riding in these States and Territories, today we passed 10,000 km, or 6,000 miles, in our tour so far!!! We'll easily ride another 1,000 to 2,000 miles before we get done. From here, tomorrow we ride to the far northeast coast, to the town of Cairns. |
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