The lead upWhen the talk started up about the rally I was excited - it sounded like a hell of a fun challenge. But the date… it clashed with the Barry Sheene Festival of Speed! But the opportunity of being a participant in our first FarRally was too great to pass up - so when the time came I registered and waited for confirmation that I could be a starter… and I was!
I received my rally pack and loose planning was started. Having never done anything remotely like this before I didn’t really know how to go about it but started by looking at the spelling section, how many of each letter I would need and possibilities of where I might obtain such letters. It seemed that I needed a ridiculous amount of I and R which I found quite hard to come by. But my Equal Distance Locations did my head in the most, well only the first one really - Jindabyne - my initial thought was to go straight there but then I was worried about the weather being cold etc etc etc.
I decided the best thing to do would be to take a little ride one day, take some pics, and time how long it took, to give me a good idea of how long it would take me to cover some distance stopping to take all these pics.
I was going to Tintaldra for a weekend with some friends, staying two nights, so instead of going out riding with my friends I planned a little 400km loop for my timing run. This was the weekend before the FarRally, nothing like leaving things til the last minute (I wasn’t even sure which bike I would be taking before that!). My ride took me out through Jingellic, Holbrook, Culcairn, Walbundrie, Rand, Burrumbuttock, Jindera, Albury, Tallangatta and back to Tintaldra. I found myself being a bit slack and not taking as many pics as I could but going out to Rand was good as I found a lot of points in that little town (including a much needed R and D!). It took me 6 hours to cover the 400km, including 5 hours riding time and an hour in “breaks” (I had been a little bit social the night before so wasn’t feeling 100%).
practice makes perfect, so they say....
Finally I worked out a plan where I could comfortably get five words (FLOOD, MARSBAR, BENDER, TOWTRUCK and DIPSTIG), visit my ED locations and get to Wellington in good time, getting a lot of the other points in along the way. I submitted my words on Tuesday afternoon and that was that.
Wednesday before the FarRally I decided to get an early night, went to bed at 9:00pm. And proceeded to lie there thinking “I could go here, I could go there” at 10:00pm I got back up and onto Google maps and started working on a new plan. My sister came home at 11:45pm to find me still madly muttering at Google maps!
Thursday I scrapped that plan and came up with yet another one.
Thursday night 10:00pm and the first curveball came… get three extra locations for a huge amount of points. Back to Google maps and I plotted out a course that would see me still get all the other points I was hoping to get and also get the first curveball points. It was going to be hectic but I thought manageable. It was about 1:00am before I finally went to bed, where I then lay thinking about all the things I had forgotten to do.
Friday 1 April 2011 - Day 1 FarRally
Friday morning the alarm went off at about 5:00am and I scrapped the Curveball idea!! I slightly modified the previous ride plan slightly and decided to go with that.
I woke up with one very annoying headache, so took a couple of paracetamol and had a coffee and finished getting all my stuff together (including my rider ID!!! Nearly forgot that one), got everything on the bike, parked it curbside and waited for 7am. It finally arrived and I somehow managed to jam my rider ID in near my odo for the start pic, did the other seat thing, my ‘text’ in and off to the servo 200m up the road for fuel and receipt. And we were underway!
Start
It was pretty chilly and thankfully there was enough daylight for the tinted visor. Rolled out of Canberra and onto the Federal Highway, first stop Sutton for an S. I didn’t like the “Sutton” sign (nowhere to park) so continued past the school, kept that in mind, and then found “Sutton Rural Supplies” that’ll do so a quick pic and back to the highway up to Collector for an R, and up towards Goulburn for another R at Run-O-Waters. I was a bit concerned that Run-O-Waters was only a locality, but the internet had told me it had a population of 650 so I figured that was good enough. Actually I expect the highway used to run through the town, but since they built the Goulburn bypass it doesn’t go there anymore. It wasn’t a ‘directional’ sign so I figured it would be acceptable!
Into Goulburn to the first servo to use the bathroom and buy a marsbar and just have a little break as the headache was still bugging me then slabbed it back to Canberra Motorcycle Centre to try and get an FJR brochure. (In planning I had found all the Yamaha dealers in towns that I might be passing through and thought about calling ahead to see if they sold FJR’s and had brochures but I wasn’t sure that this would fit in with the spirit of the game so I decided to just wing it… and I decided CMC was the most likely so made sure to come back to Canberra after they opened at 8:30am!). I walked in and found a salesperson. We briefly chatted about how cold it was and then the conversation went like this:
Me: “do you sell FJR’s”
Him: “Yes”.
Me: “do you have a brochure I could have?”
Him: “Sure, are you looking at upgrading, or convincing someone else to upgrade?”.
Me: “errrrrm, no. (inside I said HELL NO hehe)”.
I briefly explained to him what I was doing and then he asked how many people were participating and I said about 23 - he became a bit alarmed as he only had two brochures left after giving me mine! But I assured him that I thought only two of us were from Canberra so his brochure collection was probably fairly safe.
CMC Mitchell
I was going to get fuel at the Caltex around the corner but there was a queue!! So ducked up to the Gungahlin Cemetary for a pic there and then into Lyneham for my second fuel receipt.
Through Canberra and onto the Monaro Highway, way later than I had thought I’d be there. Oh well. Michelago for an O, then Bredbo for the bathroom again as well as a B and an O, Polo Flat for a P and another break, the headache was coming back with a vengeance now. Through Cooma, keeping my eyes peeled for a CBA/ANZ branch or anything else that would get me points but nada. Berridale for a B and an E then out to Dalgety for a D and I found my first rural fire station there but it was before the 6 hours. Bugger. Got held up at some roadworks heading to Jindabyne, and where I was stopped at the red light, across from me was another rural fire station, looked at the time, bugger, still about 15 minutes too early (yes it took me that long to get to Jindabyne!!!!!!). Oh well, into Jindabyne, fuel and another marsbar, an E photo, and a ride around the shopping centre looking for anything useful (it was after the 6 hours by now) but nothing. Another rest and some more paracetamol and I continued on, hoping to spot a boat out in the lake but nothing! As I was heading up the hill towards the dam I looked down and there were a couple of little boats tucked away there but nowhere to pull up, as soon as I found somewhere I could pull up I couldn‘t see the boats anymore. Went into one of the little villages on the other side but couldn‘t see the boats from there either. Bugger. Continued on.
Back through Berridale (no stop) and into Adaminaby for an A and for my first pub shot. No police car was at home at the police station. I decided that a giant trout could be defined as a statue so pulled up in front of it and took my photo, walked up the road a fair way (I don’t know how far 100m actually is so I just guessed, hope it was good enough!), and just had a bit more of a rest.
Up ahead was one of my favourite bits of road, a section of the Snowy Mountains Highway, affectionately known as “The Awesome Road”. I had a good run through there, though the second set of tight bends I was stuck behind a 4WD… grrr. Oh well, continued on, past the Kiandra turnoff, it was a bit strange to be going straight there, I don’t know that I have ever gone straight from there! Down the hill to Talbingo and got a T and an O and the police car was home there so got that pic as well. No boats in the water either! Another rest (this was getting ridiculous!) and onto Tumut - only about three hours behind schedule now! Going past Lake Blowering and there is just this vast expanse of empty water… and all these cars coming the other way towing their boats. But finally! I noticed at the waters edge two little tinnies IN THE WATER! YOU BEAUTY! Dodgy u-turn (as I couldn’t see the boats anymore when I had finally pulled up) and I got my photo (and nearly got run over as I was so excited to take my pic that I forgot about traffic *forehead slap*). Took two pictures just in case and I really hope that our wonderful RM can see the little boats! (They were a fair way off and very small).
There are boats in the water at the edge there, I swear!
Continued on, and I was very, very pumped to have gotten my boat pic. By the time I got to Tumut the headache had finally mostly gone away but I was feeling pretty tired. Got a T photo at the Tumut Boys Club (no boys around though) and then got the Courthouse. Got fuel and across the road from the servo was a rural fire shed AND a railway station. I already had the courthouse so I got a shot of the railway station as well. It was suddenly hot (I had pretty much been cold all day up until then, up at around 1500m in the mountains it was freakin freezing!) So I lost the jumper and neck warmer.
My plan had been to go to Gundagai for an I and a G and to go to the Dog on the Tuckerbox for my statue… but I knew where I could pick up those letters and I already had the statue so I skipped Gundagai and got my G at Adelong instead, as well as a newsagent. When I stopped for my G photo two locals (almost) came running, wanting to talk, asked where I was going, I said Narrandera, they said “oh you want to go this way” telling me some way that wasn’t where I was wanting to go. “I have to go to Culcairn first” I said. “Oh you’re on a run are you” they said. They left me alone after that and wished me a safe ride.
Onto the Hume Highway and I got my D creek, DENNIS CREEK which I had prepared earlier (well found the weekend before). Then into Tarcutta for a T and an A then Holbrook for a K and fuel. It was dusk by this stage and I was feeling a bit dodgy about my plan….
I had a bit of a break as I was feeling pretty tired, a packet of chips (no pies at the servo *cry*) and a V, put the clear visor on, and the jumper and neck warmer came back out. I got into Culcairn and got my C and N pictures in the dark. I decided here that I was going to scrap the next part of my plan and just head for Narrandera (where I had a room booked) up the Olympic rather than going to Walbundrie/Rand/Daysdale/Lockhart/Urana like I had originally planned. I have been out that way in the day time and seen some pretty impressive road kill and yeah, didn’t want anything to do with that. I rang the guy at the motel and arranged for him to leave the key out for me and set off towards Wagga. It has been quite a while since I have done any night riding and it took me a while to settle in… but once I did it was quite enjoyable (though I’m still glad I skipped the other bit). I stopped at Uranquinty for a U and continued on til I hit the Sturt Highway and then got a tow off a truck into Narrandera (he was setting a pretty nice pace). I had been beating myself up a bit as missing those towns meant I was throwing away two of my five words, a big hit for points, but then I got a grip on myself, this is supposed to be fun, so I just dumped that out of my head and got back to enjoying the ride. Got into Narrandera about 9:45pm, got fuel and my final marsbar for the day, thought about getting some dinner but headed straight to the motel and had a marsbar for dinner instead!
When I got to the motel I parked the bike and as soon as I hopped off I heard a voice behind me which startled me a bit - there were three drunk boys there. I took off my helmet and said something in reply and that was when they realised I was female - then it was all “darling” this and so on… I had a little bit of a chat with them before making my escape to my room and getting out of the leather… and then I remembered! Photos for the rest bonus!!!!!! So I got my camera, got back out to the bike and thankfully the drunk boys had disappeared so I took a photo of my bike and of my odo and went to bed, after going on the internet briefly.
Saturday 2 April - day 2 FarRally
I had a smaller day planned for Saturday, as I had thought I would be getting my boat photo out at Lake Wyangan near Griffith and also picking up whatever I couldn’t get the day before in terms of points. With how far behind schedule I was the day before I had planned to leave early just in case but as usual I got up too early, so had plenty of time and then before I knew it I was late! LOL. Oh well, at least my headache was completely gone, even if I was feeling pretty sore everywhere else! (ride fitness is sooooo down). Left the motel after taking a pic of the odo and my bike, stopped at the Shell for a Cherry Ripe purchase (and got a very strange look off the lady when I asked for a receipt, doesn’t everyone want a receipt for their cherry ripe that they buy at 7am?? Hahaha).
Just as I was about to put my helmet on I got a text message “open the silver one” oh yeah curveball 2, I had forgotten about that! It was hard reading it in the semi-darkness but I figured out I needed to get a garter. The way I read it I wasn’t sure if I could buy one or not but decided to keep an eye out for a bridal or lingerie shop… yeah right! Hahaha.
Headed up to Leeton in the early morning light and it was cold but beautiful, it is so lovely to be on the road at that time of day and NOT be going to work!! I stopped at Yanco first for a grain silo, water tower and “Y” business photo (Yanco Service Centre).
Grain silos at Yanco
In Leeton I got an L (to make up for my missed Lockhart one) and cruised the main street looking for a chemist and a newsagent. Got the chemist but no newsagent. Onto Widgelli for an I and then Yoogali for an I and then I pulled up to have a smoke and a V and swap over my visors. I was heading to Rankins Springs from there and wasn’t really sure where the turn off was, continued into the edge of Griffith and then found the right turn off and off we went It was a lovely ride up to the Mid-Western Highway, the sun was shining, the road was rolling away in front of me with some lovely big sweepers and hardly anybody else about. Heaven.
It was while I was riding this stretch that I realised I had made a very stupid mistake and blown my rest bonus. I was supposed to take a pic of my bike somewhere that said Narrandera not just of my bike with random darkness behind it!! Dammit! Oh well.
Rankins Springs I stopped for fuel and got a cherry ripe. I asked for a receipt and she had to hand write me one! We had a bit of a chat and I explained a bit about what I was doing and she said “oh a fellow was here waiting for me to open up this morning, he came from Darlington Point then to Goolgowi before coming here, he must be one of you lot as you wouldn’t normally go that way” and I agreed that was highly likely, wondering who it might have been. Just before the servo I had noted a rural fire shed, so I rode across the road for an R photo, back to the fire shed for that photo then about 10 metres up the road for an S photo and a drink and a smoke.
Rankins Springs RFS
Passing through a little town of Weethalle and there was another rural fire station - beauty! Two down, two to go.
Into West Wyalong for a newsagent pic (I think, or it was a chemist! It’s all a bit blurry now!) then Wyalong for a W pic and a newsagent (before I realised I already had enough newsagent pics!!).
From there a cruise up the Newell into Forbes for an F photo, both the chemists I was unable to park out the front of, but I found a café so parked in front of that and had a burger and a coke and got Combo B (though there wasn’t anyone around to take my pic for me so it is a self-portrait!).
Combo B - at Forbes
I then remembered about the second curveball and re-read the instructions and realised it was to be done within 5 hours and the 5 hours was just up. Bugger. Oh well. Didn’t see any likely shops anyway.
While I was having lunch I was pondering my map and LO! Another “D” town magically appeared on my map! And only a very short distance out of Wellington. Dripstone. I was really hoping it wasn’t just a locality, but it was only about a 20km detour so I decided if I got to Molong and still had plenty of time up my sleeve I would go check it out.
I got fuel on my way out of Forbes (and another cherry ripe) the driveway attendant there is also a rider and wanted to chat chat chat but I had to go! I went out to Eugowra, a way that I haven’t been before and it was really nice, I really enjoyed the stretch up through there. Just big sweepers and hardly any other cars (a couple of horse drawn carriages though!!!!!). Nothing of any points value here, so I continued on for Cudal.
Stopped in Cudal outside a building labelled “Fire Station”. The lettering looked about as old as I am! It didn’t saw “Rural” but I figured you don’t get much more rural that Cudal so it’ll do!! Quick smoke and lost the jumper and neck sock here, it was getting hot!!! (I had switched to the summer gloves at Eugowra).
Onto Molong where I got an M picture and then a chemist shot and another marsbar. A consult of the clock said that I did have time to go to Dripstone so I set off up the highway, found the turn off and went up this dinky little road and the first thing I saw was the Dripstone Rural Fire Service! I kept going, there were a few houses but the only things I saw that said “Dripstone” was the controls for the rail crossing and another shed that just said “Dripstone”. I did another dodgy u-turn and tried to park in front of the shed (there was already a ute there) but the gravel was *really* dodgy so I parked just on the other side of the rail crossing and took a pic with the shed in the background and then ran up to the shed to get a pic that would definitely show “Dripstone”.
Dripstone
Back to the Rural Fire Shed for a quick pic and then back to the highway and down to the Wellington Caves Golf Club for my Golf Club pic (and to complete my ride record for the Dripstone pics, I was parked a bit dodgily for both pics so didn’t want to hang around in case a car came along). And I am pretty sure I attributed that D to BENDER instead of FLOOD *forehead slap* which will mean I still miss out on two words!!!! Hahaha oh well.
Got my ride record stamped and then followed Grey Gentry and someone else who I can’t remember now into the meet point at Wellington where Paul and Clint and a bunch of others were there already. I couldn’t stop grinning!!!!!!! That was just such a great feeling, knowing I was a finisher, it was almost as awesome as when I did my 1600 and Davo was there to cheer me on and sign my witness form at the end. The others all rolled in until all were accounted for. The bikes all got lined up and pics were taken, Paul did some speeches and we all hung around talking for a bit before heading off to our accommodations for the evening (well those of us who were hanging around).
My arrival
Bikes at Check-in
FarRally - The After Party
After checking in at the motel and having a shower we all converged on the local RSL. A couple of drinks and much talking over the FarRally and catching up, lots of laughs and some awesome food (even the Mystery Meat dish was fantastic!) Paul gave some excellent speeches, the jokes were read out, lots of laughing but funnily enough… just about all of us were fading fast, I think I was back at the motel by 9pm. I had a phone call from a friend back in Canberra to see how I had gone, so had a bit of a debrief before turning in for the night.
The Return Home
I woke up stupid early but was determined to have a sleep in so I stayed in bed. I heard either Tiger Bill or Nev leave (not sure which one, but they were both gone when I got up!). I got up when Bazz, Marls and Grey Gentry were leaving, said goodbye then eventually got myself sorted, and after having a lecture from the motel owner on the Perils of Smoking (I assured him I was well aware of how stupid a habit it is) I eventually got away, I’m not sure what time, all my clocks were still on daylight savings time! It was a glorious morning, didn’t even start with the jumper or neck warmer or winter gloves.
Years ago I got a map of South East Australia (NSW, VIC and a tiny bit of SA and QLD) which I stuck up on my wall and started highlighting all the roads I had ridden. I decided for my ride home to try and do some roads that I hadn’t done before so shortly after leaving Wellington I turned left towards Mumbil (what a town name!). This road also went to Dripstone and on this road there was the perfect “Dripstone” sign! I had to laugh. I went through Mumbil and Stuart Town, cute little towns! And then at Eucheera (sp?) I turned off for Molong. A bumpy old road but a great detour from the highway, I will remember that one! From Molong I went through to Manildra, another cute little town that I hadn’t been through before and into Cudal that way. The normal way into Canowindra and Cowra where I stopped for lunch at the pub ($15.00 for a very average chicken schnitzel) and fuel and then I headed out on the road to Young and turned off for a little town of Murringo. Another great little detour! I saw the cows ahead sign and thought this was probably a road that I would need to slow down on and sure enough a little bit further along I came across the herd of cows with the farmer herding them down the road on his quad bike. Most of them were along the fenceline on the right hand side of the road with just a couple on the other side. One was crossing in front of me, as I came to a near-stand still it just stopped and looked at me for a bit before ambling across the road. It was such a look! LOL.
<3 Rural NSW
Then into Boorowa for a little break and then home to Canberra.
In Summary
That was just so much fun. The planning, the putting it into action, the excitement of completing little tasks and getting to the end with everyone else, it was all just such a buzz!!!! And on top of that, particularly Saturday, it was just such a lovely ride.
A lot was learned, I am a bit disappointed that I missed out on so many of the big bonuses but at the end of the day, when I started I was going to be happy with just finishing and I definitely finished and even got a lot of the other points along the way.
A massive thank you to Paul and Allison for putting it all together, and everyone else who helped out.
I wish the next one was on 1 May!!!!!
