Other than a photo opportunity at Cunnamulla today was little more than a transport leg home. I’d promised the family that I’d be home today and I was determined to be there before the kids went to bed. So with the Super Tenere packed and a packet of sultanas and pineapple eaten I was on my way east on the Bulloo Developmental Road (Adventure Way) to Thargomindah. This road too had a lot of single lane stretches and cattle on the road but again no traffic to speak of. I made short work of the ride to Thargomindah and took some time to have a bacon and egg roll and call the family now I was back in the land of 3G.
Here’s a pic of the Thargomindah Roadhouse
Fuelled up the next stop was Cunnamulla for a photo outside the hospital and some more fuel. Once again the temperature was up at 40 degrees, I drank 600ml of Gatorade while lined up waiting to pay for the fuel and headed straight back out into the heat towards Bourke.
That leg of the trip was pretty uneventful except for a stop at the cattle grid that separates NSW and Queensland for a quick photo in neverland. There’s a gap between the two signs that I can only assume is either still owned by the Queen, or there’s an interstate dispute about who should mow it.
So which State am I in here?
After fuelling up at Bourke, and having a chip at stupid woman who parked her car so close to my bike at the bowser that I couldn’t stand it up to move off, my next stop was Nyngan for fuel and a couple of chicken and lettuce sangas, which is my fave riding lunch where I can’t get a McChicken. Plenty of more water and Gatorade consumed with the food and I got cracking again.
I had in mind not to muck about this trip. Last time I rode from Gilgandra through Mendooran to Duneedoo at dusk there were way more roos about than I was comfortable with and also in the back of my mind was the area between Jerry’s Plains and past the army ranges in Singleton where the stupidly high wire fences create kangaroo carnage alley every evening.
So a splash of fuel at Gilgandra and a quick 600ml of cold water I was through Duneedoo in daylight, through Jerry’s plains in daylight, through Kangaroo Alley by the time dusk fell and out on to the boring New England Highway for the final part of the trip home with a fuel up at Greta.
I’m still trying to get my head around how much fuel the Super Tenere takes and uses, it unfortunately doesn’t have a distance to empty reading so the best I can do is watch the bars drop on the gauge and the average kilometres/litre reported resetting it every fill. The biggest issue I have is that when it hits the last bar the trip computer stops showing you how far you’ve gone and reports how far you’ve travelled since hitting the last bar. So if you didn’t see what it was when it changed you can’t work it out until you’ve filled it up and ridden off again. This, although trivial, is one thing that really annoys me about the Super Tenere. Fuel certainty is everything on a timed IBA ride and with all the flash electronics on this bike surely something so basic as distance to empty could be provided.
This time it reported 17.8 km/l I travelled 340kms from Gilgandra and it took 19.51 litres so at least the average seems to be close.
I arrived home at 9.20pm before the kids had gone to bed, perfect! 1340kms for today, 5812 for the five days, well 4.5 days if you use IBA days. I probably could have done another 500 or so before 10.15am tomorrow except certain areas of my body were feeling a little tender.