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Crikey, Doug! Are you sure you've done the right thing?
Those 1200GSs have suspension and brakes and power and all sorts of stuff that you don't really need.
But of course we'll still talk to you.
Hopefully there won't be any mud wrestling on the way out of the rally site this year (embarrassed grin here).

Hey Charlie, if there isn't a video or photo of the mud wrestling it didn't happen.

She'llbe wrote:Hey Charlie, if there isn't a video or photo of the mud wrestling it didn't happen.

Ah now, I'd like to imagine it didn't happen. I couldn't see anyone making a fekkin' documentary of my 'off' in the sticky clay on the way out of the rally site. It was great slapstick comedy as I kept slipping over repeatedly while trying to unpack all the gear and lift the bike. Fortunately Doug came to the rescue. I pack a lot lighter these daze.

I also had an 'off' on the way into the site, tipping over in the creek crossing. Managed to snag the right jug under a rock and broke the spark plug. Then managed to burn the toe of my right boot by the fire while trying to dry it out and had to hobble about with a very short boot all weekend. Since there are no photos of that, perhaps it didn't happen either.

I'll be heading off tomorrow morning, meeting up with Brother Ken and Justin of Benalla.
Pete can't make it to this one, nor can Hans. I've offered to get extra rat-arsed on their behalf, but might need help with that. I know I can count on Jeff.

Airbear wrote: I've offered to get extra rat-arsed on their behalf, but might need help with that. I know I can count on Jeff.

Ah yes, good old Jeff. I always look forward to seeing him at rallys.

Haven't got the heart tho to tell him he looks like shit, in the dunny mirror Sunday morning.

Ah Charlie!!
I wasn't going to mention the little iceberg escapade in the Goodridigbee River!.. and the flaming boots, and the boot surgery and the mud wrestling!! I laughed so much, I think i'd forgotten much of it!!
Hope youve made it intact this time and have a second pair of boots in your pack!... Well you never know!
The GS is a dream to ride.. but it does have a lot of bits that I'm not used to... lots of bits to go wrong, I suspect!.. but having hand grips that warm up is a delicious luxury!.. and its not even cold weather yet.
Doug

Dougal65 wrote:Ah Charlie!!
I wasn't going to mention the little iceberg escapade in the Goodridigbee River!.. and the flaming boots, and the boot surgery and the mud wrestling!! I laughed so much, I think i'd forgotten much of it!!
Hope youve made it intact this time and have a second pair of boots in your pack!... Well you never know!
The GS is a dream to ride.. but it does have a lot of bits that I'm not used to... lots of bits to go wrong, I suspect!.. but having hand grips that warm up is a delicious luxury!.. and its not even cold weather yet.
Doug

Yes, well, I thought it best to 'fess up.
Glad to read that the GS is a good'un. I look forward to seeing it.

The Alpine was great. The weather was perfect - quite warm during the day with the usual frosty nights. I didn't take many photos, and I know Jeff's camera gave up the ghost. Here's one of the prayer meeting I stole from ADV:



(right click and select Open to see the full picture)

The muddy hill provided great entertainment as usual on the Sunday.



Everyone was getting out, but most needed some help from bystanders. Many people fell over quite spectacularly. An interesting exception was Claude, who chuffed out on his old Matchless with ease.

And here's a quiet moment back at our camp-site:



On the way home I stopped at Kennedy's to wrap something up, and caught Brunhilde looking cute in the late afternoon sunlight. She did well. No tip-overs this time:



A splendid gathering of like-minded fools. I had a blissfully pleasant ride home. About 500kms for the round trip for me.

Hey guys... sorry 'bout the late belated post, but you know how it gets... life and all that...

Good to hear you had a good (mostly un-tip-overed) Alpine Charlie. Yeah, I decided against it this year for a number of factors, some of which are still on going (dammit)... but such it is, hey!

Anyhow - long story short - I've managed to put together some (long on word and picture) posts about my recent Northern Getaway... I hope you've got the time to take a look see, Lightning Ridge was a definite highlight (as you'll see)...

jeez I'm getting slow in my old age...

Posts to follow (once I work out how to link my flickr images, again).

pete

The Great Northern Getaway of 2014 or my recent trip up north
As mentioned above, due to circumstances beyond my awareness I managed to accidentally take a couple of weeks leave. And so, without any idea of just what to do, I eventually decided to grab the nearest available bike and head north.
To get away asap I headed up to a place I'm pretty familiar with: Barmah NP, on the banks of the mighty Murray river. The river level was way down. It looks like they're not letting a lot out of Hume weir at the moment. Probably holding off now for the winter rains to replenish the system.


I fell arse over when attempting to park in a sandy patch. Bloody near knocked me out when my head smacked the ground. Also damaged the visor attachment on my helmet, hopefully some superglue will fix that... A good start to the trip, me thinks!

But, notwithstanding the bang on the head, it was a beautiful night spent at Barmah, part of the Largest Redgum Forrest in the World, they say.

From Barmah I dawdled up through Berrigan and Lockhart and camped on what I thought was the Murrumbidgee river, but was probably Beavers creek now I look at some maps of the area. The Murrumbidgee was still a few k's north. Nice enough spot just the same. A few young blokes from Wagga were fishing the stretch without any luck. An old girl fishing with yabbies caught a 3-4 kg carp. There's probably 10:1 carp to be caught for anything remotely edible in that part of the world...

I'd invited myself to Mal's in Dubbo and now was the day to get there. But on the way Mal recommended that I check out the liquorice factory at Junee and the aircraft museum at Temora. So, morning tea at Junee (chocolate brownie and soya chai latte!), then off to Temora.
Managed to get there for a flying exhibition of one of their two Spitfires and a Vietnam-era jet engined Cessna (Sabre?). Both were suitably awesome, especially the Cessna (didn't know they made jet powered aeroplanes). The museum is definitely worth a visit, especially on a fly-day.

Sh!t, look at the time... time to get movin up to Dubbotown – no worries, only 450 or so ks...
Picked my way north via B & C roads and managed to get to Dubbo just before dark. Phew! Sure looks like bad roo country, and Mal has plenty of collision stories to confirm my trepidation.
Had a wonderful stay over at Mal & Jo's – thanks again guys! As Mal mentioned we managed to slip away for a quick spin 'round the neighbourhood. I've gotta say Mal has definitely got his bike very well sorted. It's a sweet ride, with plenty of ol time 1000cc grunt with a tight suspension setup, thanks mostly, I believe, to the emulators Mal has recently installed. Well done Mal!



A couple of fine German beasties...

From Dubbo I motored up to the infamous outback town of Lightning Ridge, home of the famous black opal, amongst other nefarious things. I caught up with a mate there who has a couple of mining leases and a numerous blocks in the town's industrial area. He spends his time coordinating his properties and digging for “colour” – keeps him busy.

Typical opal mine site at Lightning Ridge. The opal-bearing dirt is lifted to the surface in buckets via the semi-circular track from whence it's trucked to a washing plant (old cement agitator) and checked for gems.


My mate's man cave (home/workshop)


A little sample of what they're after – colour! This is a small sample of some of the colours down there. These bits are essentially just souvenir quality (excuses 'for the crappy image). Often opal can be found in sandstone lumps like those surrounding the skull – ya gotta check every lump!


Underground: where it's found.

Both my mate and his bro are avid machinery collectors, these shots barely give any indication of what's lying around... like eg, there's a V12 generator capable of powering a small settlement, any number of drilling machines, and countless (and I do mean “countless”) trucks...


The 30tn crane you can just see behind the tree cost more than $10k to be trucked to the Ridge from coastal NSW.


Another shot of the big crane with 3' drilling attachment. Agitators, like the red striped one in the background, are everywhere. They use them to wash the opal dirt in search of... yeah, you guessed it, COLOUR!


There's all manner of exotic machinery tucked away in hidden corners...