"There goes the trip!"
Well we've had an incident already! For all those who predicted problems on the outset, we thank you. ;-)
We've had a fairly easy transition into touring life, the first two days were spent at peoples brand new houses, day one at Port MacQuarie, and day two at Nambour. Day three was a caravan park bush campsite at Tannum Sands just outside of Gladstone. A lovely spot in the middle of nowhere with a heap of nice new houses, so the local industry must provide excellent incomes. We had rain that night and the tents had their first test, even Scott's $30 mansion did the job.
We got off to an early start on Tuesday morning and were settling into the trip nicely. Bums were getting used to the discomfort, we all had a good nights sleep and it was a lovely day. Early in the stint towards Rockhampton we came across a few kilometers of stationary traffic caused by an accident further up the road. The GPS did it's job and found us a way around the problem, a dirt road that looped around to the back of Rockhampton, perfect!
We travelled the road and had our first test on dirt roads, and a couple of old creek beds which highlighted how awkward it is to ride a dirtbike with a 50kg load on the back, our bike bouncing and wobbling through the rougher patches. Overall the bikes were manageable and we were happy.
We entered Rockhampton at around 10:30am and were yabbering on the radio about past experiences here and the local sites, as we had through each location. About a couple of kilometers into Rockhampton Sam had been pointing out that MacDonalds was sporting a bull nose verandah in true Aussie style, at that point I was awaiting a response from something I'd said to Sam when I noticed he'd dropped back and I could see two orange things behind me instead of one. At this point Scott radioed through that Sam had fallen off. I ripped out a u-turn through a red light to head back to see what had happened. One more u-turn and I pulled up behind the accident to see a truckie running at warp speed towards were Sam and his bike were, at that point I new things were not looking good.
A little further up Sam and Scott were standing, thankfully, and looking at Sam's bike on the road. Sam had suffered a front puncture and the bike developed a tank-slapper which spat Sam off the bike and sent his bike heading towards the front of a truck. The front end of the bike was crushed and Sam and his riding gear suffered a bit of a beating. Sam's quote for the day as his bike was being hit by the truck, "There goes the trip!".
We're now a day in from that event and Sam is off at the medical centre with what looks like a slightly separated shoulder, but without an injury that will stop him from completing the trip. It looks like we may not meet up with Lee and Chris in Mackay for the two week Mackay stint as planned as we might be in Rockhampton for a week or so until his bike is fixed, but we had two weeks in our spare time budget for this very sort of thing so that's OK.
The bike shops here are not that helpful so far, but the insurance company has been OK. From our assessment we should be able to get Sam going temporarily, albeit a little uglier(the bike that is).
A special shout out to Mr. Green who apparently made several jokes about Sam going under a road-train before we left, well you may have failed this time as Sam only ALMOST went under a road-train. For all those who aren't now convinced of Greenie's true character, I'd also like to point out that he laughed quite a lot on the phone when we told him. Of course had the story been a little worse I'm sure he wouldn't have... :-)
We've had a fairly easy transition into touring life, the first two days were spent at peoples brand new houses, day one at Port MacQuarie, and day two at Nambour. Day three was a caravan park bush campsite at Tannum Sands just outside of Gladstone. A lovely spot in the middle of nowhere with a heap of nice new houses, so the local industry must provide excellent incomes. We had rain that night and the tents had their first test, even Scott's $30 mansion did the job.
We got off to an early start on Tuesday morning and were settling into the trip nicely. Bums were getting used to the discomfort, we all had a good nights sleep and it was a lovely day. Early in the stint towards Rockhampton we came across a few kilometers of stationary traffic caused by an accident further up the road. The GPS did it's job and found us a way around the problem, a dirt road that looped around to the back of Rockhampton, perfect!
We travelled the road and had our first test on dirt roads, and a couple of old creek beds which highlighted how awkward it is to ride a dirtbike with a 50kg load on the back, our bike bouncing and wobbling through the rougher patches. Overall the bikes were manageable and we were happy.
We entered Rockhampton at around 10:30am and were yabbering on the radio about past experiences here and the local sites, as we had through each location. About a couple of kilometers into Rockhampton Sam had been pointing out that MacDonalds was sporting a bull nose verandah in true Aussie style, at that point I was awaiting a response from something I'd said to Sam when I noticed he'd dropped back and I could see two orange things behind me instead of one. At this point Scott radioed through that Sam had fallen off. I ripped out a u-turn through a red light to head back to see what had happened. One more u-turn and I pulled up behind the accident to see a truckie running at warp speed towards were Sam and his bike were, at that point I new things were not looking good.
A little further up Sam and Scott were standing, thankfully, and looking at Sam's bike on the road. Sam had suffered a front puncture and the bike developed a tank-slapper which spat Sam off the bike and sent his bike heading towards the front of a truck. The front end of the bike was crushed and Sam and his riding gear suffered a bit of a beating. Sam's quote for the day as his bike was being hit by the truck, "There goes the trip!".
We're now a day in from that event and Sam is off at the medical centre with what looks like a slightly separated shoulder, but without an injury that will stop him from completing the trip. It looks like we may not meet up with Lee and Chris in Mackay for the two week Mackay stint as planned as we might be in Rockhampton for a week or so until his bike is fixed, but we had two weeks in our spare time budget for this very sort of thing so that's OK.
The bike shops here are not that helpful so far, but the insurance company has been OK. From our assessment we should be able to get Sam going temporarily, albeit a little uglier(the bike that is).
A special shout out to Mr. Green who apparently made several jokes about Sam going under a road-train before we left, well you may have failed this time as Sam only ALMOST went under a road-train. For all those who aren't now convinced of Greenie's true character, I'd also like to point out that he laughed quite a lot on the phone when we told him. Of course had the story been a little worse I'm sure he wouldn't have... :-)
6 Comments:
OMG fella's, you are going to send me to an early grave. Keep your chin up Sam and travel safe. We will pray for 'incident free riding' from now on. Just 'keep on keeping on'
Thinking of you all
Fitz
bummer of a start, though we should be grateful that it turned out how it did. At least the blogger is still blogging. Have you left Justin running the shop on his own?
Ride safe
Tim M (ex Reach - thankyou)
Sam, Glad to hear you are ok, as a mother of sons who are bike mad I think you really need to ring your mum and let her know what happened. (otherwise your dad is in strife)
So sorry to hear Sam! Don't worry, I have a nice photo of your bike in one piece at the beginning of the trip to remember. Hope the next bike serves you well.
Safe travelling guys for the rest of the trip!
Thank goodness for hair colour to cover the'going gray overnight' attack I suffered on hearing of Sam's accident. Now I can relax, after two stressful weeks for Sam. Finally,on his brand new bike he has coverered many kms to meet up again with Steve and Scott in Cairns, as planned. Safe journey boys, enjoy this amazing experience, and please keep your bums firmly in your seats. Sam's mum.
Heard Sam left Dalby, on a new machine, mid day saturday. Huge wraps for Dalby Motors. Stop over in Rockie for suspension bits then in Mackay for service arrived in Cairns mid day Thursday.
Keep off the white line fellas and stay vertical
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