So I had a few days TOIL (time off in lieu) and Kate suggested (in the nicest possible way) that I head off on the bike for a bit. After considering this for a short period of time, I loaded the bike and was out the door.

As I have a big ride later in the year (just over a month away as I write this), this proved to be the perfect opportunity for a shake down of some new components.
I’d added a proper accessories fuse box to the BMW, even tapping into the CANBUS system so as to gain the proper accessories switch on/off. I was fairly certain the way I’d configured wouldn’t give grief but real world testing will soon let you know.
A Zumo XT had been added to replace my ageing Nuvi 500 (its only 14 years old) and I needed to learn how to drive it. (this was the driver to add a proper accessories fuse box because I couldn’t fit yet another set of connectors and fuses directly to the battery)
SPOT Tracker once upon a time ruled the roost as far as tracking went. I’ve since replaced my old SPOT with a Garmin Inreach which has 2 way communications via text message as well as SOS features and has far superior performance for a similar outlay of dollars. I needed to verify that the Garmin Inreach played nicely with Spotwalla, a 3rd party track hosting site. A number of us will be using Spotwalla to track our ride later in the year.
It’d be the first major outing for new riding gear I’d recently purchased. I hadn’t paid a lot so I wasn’t sure what to expect. For short rides, it’d been ok ……. sofar.

So where to go? I’d been looking at Silo Art over is South Australia and also here in Victoria. Given that I was heading that way in the not to distant future, I didn’t really want to head there this trip.

Ok, so whats wrong with NSW? Answer: Nothing! A ride plan was soon organized to take in all the Silo Art of NSW as well as incorporating one of the Virtual Solar System Drives into the itinerary.

I rolled out the gate about 10:30am Wednesday only to get a few km down the road a realise I’d forgotten something. Turn around, head home, collect said item and promptly drop the bike in the driveway. The F800gs is a heavy bike, even moreso when loaded. After some time had elapsed and some much colourful language used, I got going again.

Murrumburra was the target for day 1, just a mere 575km up the road. I’d have a nice campsite and a great sleep and a wonderful ride and that had changed by the time I’d arrived at Wangaratta, only 275km from home.
The Zumo XT didn’t like me deviating from the route I’d programmed and its ability to reroute was awful. Then Kate messaged me letting me know the tracking wasn’t working and I was sweating like a pig in the new riding gear. So much for breathable gear. Uncomfortable and annoyed, Davo’s voice popped into my head. Fix the problem then get on with it.
I rerouted to Tocumwal, 130km away, where I have my caravan setup onsite. Grab a shower, have some dinner and start sorting out problems. I emailed the Spotwalla guru and he had my tracking issue solved in minutes. Yep, I’d stuffed up a URL. I took heed of a few suggestions posted on the IBA Forum on re routing with the Zumo XT and also spent some time with the users manual and youtube. Doesn’t everyone use youtube to work out issues?

Thursday’s a new day. Jump out of bed ready to ride, poke my head outside and promptly return to bed. 4am and fog so thick I couldn’t see the driveway some 50 meters away. Bah humbug. Surface again at 7am and by 8 I’m heading north.
I rolled into Cootamundra and had brunch around 1pm. Is it still brunch at 1pm if you haven’t had breakfast? Could I have asked for a better day as I set my sights on the first silo art at Murrumburrah? I think not!

I rolled into Murrumburrah and got my happy snaps of the silo there.

Murrumburrah

Next stop, Bathurst, and of course, the obligatory lap.

Start line

Mt Panorama

Rightio, that’s enough mucking around on the mountain, time to get on with it. Refueled and on the road to Portland.
Kate rang to let me know she’d organised a pub room for me at Wallerawang. Nice. We’re having a nice chat while I rolled down the road until the dinner bell rang and skippy came out to play.
Crikey, I hadn’t seen this many roos for goodness knows how long. Anyway, disaster averted as I rolled into Portland to grab my second silo art photo of the day.
Leaving Portland, I navigated the short distance to the warm pub at Wallerawang and settled in for the evening. (I think it was the Royal Hotel. Good food, good people and warm).
600km for the day, better, but not in the groove yet, not by a long shot.

Portland

The world’s started moving outside, therefore, so should I. Friday greeted me with this pleasant sight, and no, the BM didn’t want to get out of bed either. Settle in for a cold ride son.

I enjoyed the run over to Merriwa, experiencing the temperature swings of -9.5c up to 10c as I wandered between open areas and cuttings through the hills. BMW kindly fit heated handgrips as standard, they were cranked up along with the ventura heated vest being set to medium. The thoughts of black ice had my attention, so boy racer remained contained. These had been the coldest temps I’d ever ridden in and while I was cool, I wasn’t overly cold.

The fuel station was a welcome sight at Merriwa. Stock F800gs’s (or however that apostrophe thing goes) have a shockingly poor fuel range of about 300km and hold a grand total of 16 litres. I do feel like pulling out an eye dropper sometimes. Anyway, fuel sorted fore another couple km, the bakery called. Hot coffee and the food of champions, the good old poi and sauce. Food done, silo art time. Sun position didn’t help the photo but I was certainly enjoying the ride.

Merriwa

Just a mere 130km or so up the road, Quirindi. This one is stunning. The artist has done a fine job.
There is also a light show in the evenings to compliment the art.

Quirindi

By this time, I’m starting to feel some form of riding fitness returning. Things have stopped hurting and I’m going with the flow. Helmet time is magic. It provides time to step away from life’s stresses and just chill.

A quick refuel at Tamworth (this thing doesn’t take long to fill, really) and off to Barraba for the next instalment.

Barraba

Time for a quick bite to eat at a roadside stop and then off to Gunnedah. Didn’t take long before the Zumo and me were at each others throats again. Crikey, for a smart GPS, they can be quite dumb, or maybe that’s the operator. A flick through menus to discover that the unpaved roads avoidance box is ticked. Untick box, GPS changes its mind and we’re off again. I reckon it would’ve been a grand total of 20km good dirt road, and another stunning day. The road gods were smiling at me!

I rolled into Gunnedah and grabbed the next photo.

Gunnedah

With time marching on, I got moving again with Coonabarabran being the next target. As I rolled in on dark, and given how cold it was the previous evening, I asked Kate to find me a pub room and holed up for the evening. Unlike the Royal Hotel in Wallerawang, I couldn’t recommend the pub I stayed in.
Just a smidge over 700km for the day and I was feeling ok. Sort of a gentle touring pace today. I’ll settle for that.

After a broken nights sleep, I loaded the bike and set off at sunrise, the Zumo XT leading the way. Now, I wanted to go to Siding Spring Observatory to start the Virtual Solar System Drive. Apparently the Zumo XT decided because I didn’t go there last evening, that I’d bypassed it and helpfully routed me out of town the wrong way. Wonderful. I restarted the route, selecting Siding Spring Observatory as my start point. Still going the wrong way but this time it wanted me to take a 15km detour. WTF is going on ???
Back into the settings and guess what? the U-Turns avoidance is ticked. Untick that and we’re friends again and heading for the Siding only half an hour behind time. Bah humbug.

A nice cool ride up to the Observatory to start the drive. Unfortunately they’re not open yet so no up close and personal shot of the “Sun”. It looks like this from a distance.

Sun

Just a kilometer down the road we find Mercury followed by Venus another 750 meters further on.

Earth is located 2.1 km away followed by Mars a further 1.5km on.

I keep moving, picking up Jupiter another 15km away. Given that I’m already behind time, I decided to stop in Coonabarabran again, top up with fuel and have some breakfast. Wow, breakfast before doing a couple hundred km. Crazy.

With breakfast done, niggles out the way and everything working as it should, I’m looking for Saturn just 20km away with another 38km to come up with all the jokes around Uranus. Lets just say there were a few comedians in my helmet.

Leaving Uranus (insert appropriate joke here), Neptune was next. Given I was trying to cover some miles, my thoughts turned to our riders/pillions that had just finished the IBR (Iron Butt Rally) over in America. They’d done 11 days of this type of riding, covering a heck of a lot more miles than I was. Can of concrete for me!

A quick break in proceedings to photograph the spectacular silo art at Dunedoo!

Dunedoo

Now back to the virtual solar system drive to collect the last planet, Pluto. Google maps had given me some bogus coordinates, so I went on a bit of a goose chase finishing up on some dirt back roads and thinking it should be a lot more obvious than this. Anyway, 15 minutes of mucking around and puzzle solved. Pluto, the planet nobody wants anymore.

Pluto

Right, I’d finally fulfilled my desire to drive the virtual solar system. Now to lay down some serious km and get to Grenfell some 300km down the track. Settle in and enjoy the ride.
Arriving at Grenfell, I was once again super impressed with the detail. This is another spectacular piece of art.

Grenfell

Back on the bike and find some more fuel, then head for my final silo art, Weethalle. Not too far down the road I pulled into a roadside stop for a late lunch and a cup of tea. It’s really quite nice being self sufficient and pulling over for something to eat and a cup of tea wherever you like. I highly recommend it.

Anyway, another hour on the road and I had Weethalle in front of me.

Weethalle

Mission complete, almost. Just gotta get home. I’d arranged to meet Kate in Tocumwal, about 275km away. I had 1 hour of daylight remaining so therefore night riding practice coming up, slap bang in the middle of roo country.

Heading toward Narrandera, a sunset photo opportunity presented itself. Nothing quite like a great sunset.

It wasn’t long before I was in that twilight time and then the dinner bell rang again. Me n Skippy were on a collision course. It would seem that telling a roo to “eff off ya bastard!!” when he’s 3 feet away from you works. He turned tail and bolted. Suited me just fine. Shortly after, I rolled into Narrandera, refuelled and headed for the highway. This time, the Newell, which is quite heavily trafficked at night.
The remaining 200km to Tocumwal didn’t see me lining up any kamikaze roos, althought the body count told me they were out there.
Arriving in Tocumwal, I’d covered just shy of 1000kmfor the day. I felt good and my ride fitness had returned to some degree. I headed home the next day, satisfied I’d got some riding in and feeling a lot more relaxed. Back to work and start prepping for the next ride.

Some Stat, because I forgot to include them.

Total Distance: 3048km
Fuel used: 154.57L
Economy: 5.1L/100km or 19.7km/l

And finally, a snapshot from the tracking map of where I went. Follow the orange line.