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Well I'm still not sure how it all happened. I'm guessing
the usual combination of several small things.
Wet and dark, maybe something slippery on the road, very smooth
bit of surface, new tyres (about 400km), travelling on cruise control.
Not one of them significant by itself, but all together.....
We had felt the bike move a couple of times since Toowoomba and
I had commented to Charleen on the occasional slippery patch.
We had also seen a few pieces of aluminium on the roadway and had
dodged a couple of them, run over one. I was on the lookout
for more and that might have been why I was on the left track.
Here's a shot of the bit of road in the dry from Google Streetview.
That strip on the left of the road was where it started.
We finished up beside the tree with me in the middle of the road
and Charleen and the bike in the ditch on the right. Yep,
the bike and pillion went across the road to the wrong side.
Thankfully, nothing was coming.
The most disappointing and scary thing about the aftermath was that
several vehicles did not stop. The Goldwing was still lit
up just off the road and we were standing up and waving, albeit
wearing black raggedy rain gear.
Boy were we happy to see the first bike come along, and even happier
that it was my good mate Paul Purcell on his first FarRide.
Soon after came two more FarRiders, Greg Rohweder with Nigel Butler.
These guys stopped, patched us up and stayed until we left in the
ambulance. Another few riders stopped but I didn't get
who they were. All the time there, an hour or more,
no car or truck did more than slow a little.
When it began to rain again and Charleen was forced to lie down,
Nigel lent his Driz-a-Bone to keep her warm. That was so much
appreciated. But it would have been nice to be able to put
her in a dry place for while we waited.
Another mate, Camo got out of bed to come up and pick us up.
He and I went back to the site while we were waiting for the Docs
to do their thing on Charleen. Found my Ipod (broken) but
couldn't find SPOT. Looks like it is lying on the other side
of the road and as of tonight still putting out track signals.
I'll go get it in a couple of days. It should stop about 3am
on 30th.
Thank you for all your messages of goodwill, they really help.
Here's some obligatory photos of the bike, taken at the towies shop:
Upshot of it all is the bike is to be replaced and Charleen and
I are healing well.
Clint
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