It's the dry season now in Far North Queensland, so it's safe to plan weekend rides.......
Friday night the weather looked a bit "iffy" and the Bureau of Meteorology said that Saturday would be increasing rain with "downpours" on Saturday night.
So we had planned a 350km ride to a little place called the Lion's Den, what could possibly go wrong?
Saturday it was pouring rain and I sent a txt to our riding companions to say that we were staying home and dry, they replied that they were at Mareeba (a small town on the nearby tablelands) and that it was bright sunshine. That decided s that the rain was entirely coastal and that we should brave a wet trip up the range to see the sun.
That was mistake No.1
Mistake No.2 was in not reading the txt that set up where to meet, they said "Palmer River", I read "Lakeland", only 60km apart but it meant that we sailed right past them and we never actually met up until we got to the Lion's Den.
The first photos are at the top of the De-Saillie Range, it is not a high range of mountains, but the brief 9% grade to get up the hill is a major thrill.
By the time we got to the Lion's Den, the rain had started in earnest. i didn't think to ask if there was somewhere undercover for the bikes. This was Mistake No.3
During the night the rain increased and over 250mm fell. It took two hours to get the ancient BMWs running on Sunday morning, water to drain from tanks and carbs and much spraying of WD-40 onto sodden electrics.
It didn't matter though, we were going nowhere.
We watched and waited for 2 hours and the creek didn't fall more than a couple of inches, we did try to persuade one of our number (Grahame, 2nd from the left) to have a go on the theory that one less Ducati in the world was a good thing, but he refused...
Bored and soaked we went back to Cooktown, at around 4:00 the roads were reported to be open and the others wanted to head off. We did some thinking and realized that leaving at that time and assuming there were n other creeks in flood would still leave us with 100km of Kangaroo, cattle and brumby infested road to cover after full dark. You don't get to be an old motorcyclist by challenging the road gods too often, we decided to stay and booked into a motel. Turned out we were their only guests and they graciously allowed us to park two BMWs in the corridor. Result - they started this morning without any problems.
And off we went home, not continuous rain, but enough so the wet weather gear stayed on all the way, it just didn't seem to be worth the bother to get it all off only to put it back on 30 mins later. only little drama was that we stopped at a lookout and took a few photos, we left and just after I settled into highway cruise - no Sylvia. I went back just in time to see her going back up the driveway to the lookout - she had left her glasses on the railing whilst she took a photo.
Problem was, when she stopped she somehow managed to lose the plot and hopped off without first putting the stand down. over Sylvia and R65/8 went, with a mournful little howl from the engine shortly before the Bings ceased supplying fuel after they went past vertical. only casualty, aside from Sylvia's pride, was the clutch perch. i removed the mirror and Sylvia was able to use the clutch well enough, so off we went, the poor old girl blew smoke for the first few hundred yards, but was fine after that.
Going away again next weekend, this time on the "modern" bikes.
