TRAVEL FEATURE - AUSTRALIA CRAIG BALDWIN
THE FISH WEREN ' T HUNGRY
‘
I love a sunburnt country a land of sweeping plains ’.
I ' m also a sucker for endless green pastures and undulating landscapes dotted with old homestead farms and cattle grazing fields . This ride had that in abundance .
Riding from my home in the Lockyer Valley in south east Queensland I was travelling down to visit family on the central coast of New South Wales . It ' s a trip I have done many times but mostly in the car and on the freeways . So , this was very different as I plotted a route that would see me zig zag down to the coast taking in many amazing country roads .
Setting out to ride down through Killarney and past Queen Mary falls , I had previously done this road and tackled the fourteen river Condamine track in my four wheel drive but it was a road I had since wanted to take on my bike . Unfortunately just as I was turning on to the road that would take me through to Queen Mary falls I passed an oncoming rider who gave me the thumbs down . A few hundred metres along and I was met with a sign saying road closed . I sheepishly decided to keep pushing on , however , shortly after , a second rider passed me and also gave another thumbs down so it was then I decided I would need to turn back and make the annoyingly round trip back out through to Warrick to continue my journey south . The road out through Killarney would have to wait for another day .
On the return trip I was greeted by an extremely indecisive guinea foul that darted out onto the road and proceeded to dance back and forth with the grace of a new born baby giraffe seemingly egged on by its half a dozen mates still on the road side . Thankfully it zigged when I zagged and I missed it by mere centimetres .
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