TRAVEL FEATURE - AUSTRALIA
PHIL LALOR
" HE ' S PROBABLY RIDDEN A FEW BEFORE ME "
With everything going on in the world at the moment - war in Ukraine , petrol prices through the roof , devastation wrought by floods and storms , the need for some helmet time was greater than ever . An adventure doesn ’ t have to involve massive distances , and sometimes the best adventures can be in your own backyard .
With that in mind , I fired up Garmin Base Camp and focussed on finding as many dirt and back roads as possible , mapping out a route that would take me to the Royal Hotel at Capertee for Saturday night , then through Bathurst and Orange the following day .
Saturday morning came around with clear blue skies and a perfect autumnal temperature . With a press of the starter button , the boxer engine of the GSA , fired into a smooth , yet agricultural rhythm . Finding the familiar groove onboard the bike , the switchgear fell easily to hand , and the gear changes were positive and smooth . Single kilometres quickly turned into tens of kilometres , the GSA my perfect bike for comfortable adventure touring .
With a brief for ‘ back roads and dirt roads ’, the back roads soon morphed into dirt roads . Residential areas soon turned into paddocks . A mix of stubble from recently harvested crops , the stalks of straw pointing straight toward the deep blue sky . Freshly cultivated earth – shades of red dirt , brown dirt , and black dirt , neatly arranged rows of dirt appealed to my OCD , and the rich smell of broken , freshly ploughed earth filled my helmet . Closer to the Macquarie River circular rings of irrigated emerald , green leaves swayed in unison like the hands of instrument players in an orchestra , a gentle breeze moved across the open ground .
TRAVERSE 21