Skidmore’s Stanthorpe Ride
14th August 2010 - Skidmore Version
Well this has to be a 10 out of 10 bike ride.The ride started at Mobil Coomera 8am Sat 14th Aug with Phil and Vicki meeting up with Mike and Robyn. Rode on a chilly but beautifully sunny day to Yatala to meet with Trevor and Lee plus Larry and Annette. Onward bound to Beaudesert where due to a slight technical time miscalculation we arrived 1 hour before the rest of the crew. A warm cup of coffee was ordered and we all sat and chatted for a while.
By coincidence a gold coloured 1500 Wing arrived to fill up at the servo across the road. The rider was greeted only to find he was not part of our party. After a few more greetings Peter and Sue soon did become part of our party as they were going to the same destination on the 1500 Wing they only bought last week. What a lovely couple as they fitted in so well right from the start. 10.00 am and all 11 bikes were saddled. Sacrilege I know but 4 bikes weren't Wings.
It was OK as we made them ride a kilometre behind us just in case anyone saw us. Larry and Annette very kindly offered to be tail end sweeper.
Glorious ride through to Boonah and beyond towards Queen Mary Falls. This is where it started to get real good. The road up to the top was very very twisty with heaps of very tight bends. We even arranged an automatic bike wash in the form of 2 creek crossings especially for the wings as by now they had a few specs of dust on them.
We noticed Phil trying to turn around and lick a spot of nasty dust off the back of the Angel Blue ( or is it Angel Blew).
Stopped halfway up to admire the spectacular view back across the countryside. Motored on to frighten the crap out of the tiny little cafe owner on top of Queen Mary Falls when 22 mean looking and hungry bikers invaded his cafe for lunch.
All was well after we took our helmets off and he saw that all the guys were old farts but was pleased to see that we all bought our young chicky babes with us.
Great lunch and then it was off through wonderful countryside along great twisting country roads. Everywhere was very dry but it made it even more spectacular with the very long yellow grasses against the green trees and clearest blue sky you have ever seen. This road took us through Killarney and onwards to Warwick where we finished our journey to Stanthorpe along the New England Highway.
We arrived at the Boulevard Motel in Stanthorpe about 3 pm to a warm welcome from Linley the owner. Slight embarrassing moment when we realised that one Wing rider who didn't come hadn't cancelled his booking and we were up for his room cost. Luckily Peter and Sue took that room otherwise we would have all had to pay the other chaps $119. Please if you don't go then cancel your own motel booking.
We all rode out to a Lavender Farm to sniff the products and from here it was off to the Old Caves Winery for a limbering up session tasting pretty ordinary wine under the disguise that we were going to buy a truck load of their grog.
Back to the motel so that a few of us could scurry across to the local pub to see if country beer was any different to city beer. After a lot and I mean a lot of testing we all came to the unanimous decision that they are both the same. Didn't scurry back but kind of wandered erratically back to our motel for a scrub up and granny nap.
Linley arranged for the Stanthorpe RSL courtesy bus to pick us up and take us to the local club so we could again just check to make sure that they didn't have any of those different country beers. By 10pm we were quite confident that they only had that city beer stuff. Great country style meal and friendly folk was enjoyed by everyone.
Up the next morning to a mild 3°C to find poor Trevor had succumbed to some kind of sickness that had absolutely nothing to do with the beer testing the night before but was called "a Cold/Flu".
At this stage we broke into 3 groups with one loving and supportive bunch going back with poor sick Trev and Lee the quick way. Another 2 bikes and riders had to go back to the Old Caves Winery as one of them had in fact ordered 10,000 or thereabouts bottles of plonk. Heavens knows how he fitted them all into his panniers. Those dam Rockets must have more room than you think.
Hate to say this guys but you missed the best of the ride. We rode to a cafe for breakfast at Ballandean only to find it had closed down ages ago. So it was onto Tenterfield riding with rumbling tummies keeping beat with our humming motors. Breakfast was a very welcome affair at a little cafe in the middle of town. It was obvious that the other 2 riders had already reduced the 10,000 bottles down in quantity as they didn't see our bikes and rode onto Casino without noticing us. We saddled up and followed on behind them to the smell of fortified port.
The smell was soon forgotten as we started the 127 km trip to Casino.
The road had plenty of 55 - 75 kph bends going over a mountain range then it opened out into long sweeping open country roads then back to tight stuff going over another range then back to open sweepers ago. It stayed this way for the whole 127 kms and boy did we whip the horses. I chased a mad man on his Rocket 111 all the way while Phil was right up behind a Bandit pushing him through the curves. My old faithful 1500 had the Rocket in its gun sites the whole way and held it's own very convincingly. We all reckoned that was the fastest, most thrilling bit of road we had been on and when we stopped in Casino there were plenty of high fives and oodles of testosterone spilling out the bottom of our trouser legs. Boys will be boys they say. All the guys wanted to do it again but the "She's who must be obeyed" said NO. You can guess the rest.
We sedately rode on to Eureka to conveniently get lost at a very happy and noisy pub. We all thought it was a good idea to go inside and get directions. Don't think anyone remembered why we initially went in there as we stayed and had afternoon tea. It was then time to head home only to come over the crest of a hill at 100kph to find the main coastal road blocked with cars because a low loader was negotiating the steep decent in front of us. Of all days to do it on a Sunday afternoon. Those dam brakes on the wings work well but the brakes on the Hayabusa that came past us at at least 150 kph just before the crest of the hill must have worked even better. A funny smell was detected that was a bit like manure. I guess you can imaging where it was coming from. Slow progress home through slowish traffic.
I think I speak for everyone who came on the ride that the company was exceptional, the accommodation was good the weather was great but the ride was just simply fantastic.
As first timers Robyn and I would like to thank all the riders and pillions for making the weekend so great.
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