“…IN 2023, THE TOWN ITSELF WAS CELEBRATING ITS 100TH BIRTHDAY…”
Any long-distance motorcycle ride encompasses myriad emotions. The optimist in us envisions the joy, the excitement and perhaps elation, but the more experienced or battle-weary are fully aware there will be uncertainty, anxiety, even fear. And after riding our adventure bikes from Brisbane to Mt Isa and back, I can assure you my mate Danny and I were in touch with all of those emotions and more.
The first moment of pure clarity and elation for me came as I saw the sign advising we were crossing over the Great Dividing Range right in the heart of the Carnarvon National Park, some 460m above sea level, along the wide and undulating road between Roma and Emerald, eight hours after leaving Brisbane at dawn earlier that day.
It took that long for it all to sink in, and appreciate, that Danny and I were on a trip that had been planned for over two years. The fact neither of us had ever done anything like this in the past was probably why it took so long to fully appreciate the adventure ahead.
After surviving the early-morning winter frost and consuming what will go down as the best omelette in the world at Dalby's Café 63 (aptly named the Elle McPherson), the temperature in the early afternoon was perfect, my CFMOTO 800MT was purring along beautifully, I was comfortable behind the windscreen, the countryside was lush, the multiple views as we crested various hills beautiful. The fact that we had knocked over the best part of 900-plus kilometres in a single day added
