BACK IN THE DAY

I saw them just in time. The kangaroos appeared out of the trees on my left-hand side and bounded across the road in front of me. In the pitch black of night near West Wyalong in NSW, it was only because I had a spotlight mounted on the left crash bar that I was able to see them ahead of my weak high beam. Things seemed to go into slow motion as I swerved onto the edge of the bitumen just behind the mob’s last kangaroo, all the while praying that none would turn back or any more would jump out to follow them. And then I was past them. My mate Steve was riding behind me and told me later he was sure that we would come to grief. We both slowed down a bit after that.

0er road bikes that were considered mid-size in a time when the largest capacity machines on the road were 650s and 750s. That year, we had already done a return trip from Sydney to the Hume Weir motorcycle races near Albury and then five of us, all on 350cc bikes, had ridden to Rockhampton and back. Our touring gear was simple. My sleeping