or, Boldly Big Things or Big Boldly Things ….. and as much as I mused over the title, I just couldn’t work out what it should be, so it remains as is.

Some history.
A new position (read permanent promotion) became available at work and after some discussion with various managers, I threw my hat into the ring to see what’d happen. That was just before Christmas.
Short circuit a bit and I’d made interview stage, and while away on a job, received a phone call to ask if I’d like to accept the new role. After picking myself up off the ground, I made the bold move and accepted in principle. A weeks worth of discussions followed as it meant leaving my current team and my beloved Radars behind.

Now there’s a silver lining in every cloud and mine was a couple weeks TOIL (time off in lieu) prior to commencement of the new role.
What to do? Well, big bold move made so why not theme a ride around big bold things.
Scour the net for big things in Australia and build a ride plan. Why not chuck in a big IBA ride as well?

I had an invite to a friends place in the Brisbane area. After a number of iterations, I’d settled on a BB2500K, BigBold 2500K (or as its properly known, a BunBurner2500K) that would land me on the doorstep in a suitable timeframe.

The ST1100 is still in stock form, with the only exception being that of a GPS and, at the last minute, a set of 25mm bar risers. No extra lights, USB charging, cruise control or any other sort of creature comforts.

By Thursday morning, the rain had cleared and I headed to the servo for a start docket. 07:24 is the official start time. 36 hours to get this done. Stop screwing the pooch, you’re burning daylight!

5km up the road sees me stop to get the big flower above our local florists shop in Yarra Junction.

300km later, the Big Magpie in Euroa.

Then it’s off to Glenrowan for Big Ned Kelly and Rutherglen, to get the Big Wine Bottle and some more fuel. I love the fuel range of this bike!

The bike is running great, returning almost 20km/l. Not bad for an old V4 ST1100.

Another 90km away is the Big Strawberry at Koonomoo. Then there’s barely enough time to get the bike warm before stopping at Tocumwal (10km) for a photo of the Big Murray Cod.

There’s a Big Playable Guitar in Narrandera that’s next on the hit list. And it’s BIG! and yes, I did pluck a string or 2.

A short ride to Barellan puts me in front of the Evonne Goolagong Big Tennis Racquet.

The next couple of hours, I get to kick back and listen to some podcasts on the way to Canowindra. High side / Low side gets a run on this leg. Always entertaining listening to the boys waffle on about all things motorcycle.
The GPS directs me to where it thinks is the location of the Big Peg in the Paddock. Not there. I waste valuable time looking for it and have all but given up when I finally spot it. Yep, there’s a big clothes peg in the paddock! Everybody needs one….

Lunch is well overdue so when a suitable roadside stop comes into sight, time to break out the lunch bag.

From here, I head to Young for the Big Cherries. I’m also acutely aware it’s getting dark and the lights, while adequate, aren’t anything to write home about.

I roll into Young and spend some time backtracking coz I missed the mark.

Rightio, cherries gathered, onto Cootamundra for Don Bradmans Bat and Stumps.
It’s well and truly dark when I arrive at Bradman oval and there aint a hope in hell I’m going to photograph anything here. Crikey, I cant even find them! After 15 minutes or so, I admit defeat and head toward the Hume Highway via some very dark and sketchy backroads. Fortunately no roos or other wildlife are spotted.

Along with the dark came the cold. Find a roadside stop and start adding layers. At the same time, remove the comms from my helmet and plug into a battery bank. Should be charged in an hour or so.

I arrive in Goulburn and grab a photo of the Big Merino and refit the comms to my helmet. A bit of music for the next leg will be great.

I’m on pace for the IBA ride but my back is really starting to hurt. A couple panadol and keep moving.
Kate rings and says that she’s organised a bed in Mittagong. It’ll sure be nice to stop for a while.
Sometime around midnight I find my room and call it quits. A check of the lunchbox residing in my pannier reveals some food that I refer to as dinner. Then climb into bed and call it a night.

I wake at 05:30 and my bloody godfather. I can barely move, my back is frozen. It’d been giving me more and more grief yesterday and I put that down to lack of ride fitness on this bike.
I’ve still got 1200km to do today to complete this ride and I’m not sure how I can achieve this with my back hurting so bad. I muse over this for a bit and decide to call it a day on the timed ride. Bugger.
Back to sleep for another couple hours then wake and spend half an hour in a hot shower trying to free my back.

I’ve also sent a message to another friend who rides an ST and enquire as to whether he’s tried bar risers on his. Answer came back, yes, fitted them, then took them off, iterated through this process several times and left them off as it caused lower back pain.

Yep, same for me, lower back pain plus sciatica pain as well. I keep this in mind and decide to give it another shot, albeit not on the clock anymore.

I run up the freeway, dodging roadworks, texting drivers and the never ending speeding kills koolade signs every 2km. A couple hundred km later I arrive at my next destination of Kurri Kurri to get a photo of the Big Kookaburra.

Moving on and not far down the road, is the Big Sundial in the township of Singleton.

My backs hurting again so more stretching and bike yoga takes place on the run to Tamworth. To distract myself, I kick back and start listening to an audio book by Mark Manson titled, The subtle art of not giving a f*ck.
Before long, 200km has passed without too much discomfort and I’m soon in front of the Big Golden Guitar in Tamworth grabbing happy snaps.

Still a bit early to pull up so I decide that I can make Inverell without too many issues. As I head through Uralla, I spot a nice roadside stop and pull in. Surgery time for the bike. My back is killing me so I decided to remove the bar risers. As I dont have the original bolts with me on this trip, I use the now defunct bar risers as really big spacers.

Bike reassembled and back on the road heading for Inverell via thunderbolts way. The first thing I notice is how much more connected to the road the bike feels. The vagueness that seemed to plague the front end has disappeared being replaced with a level of sharpness previously felt. It’s still not a sports bike though!
My back also thanks me and the sciatica has reduced in severity. Who’d have thought moving bars by 25mm could cause so much pain!

I enjoy playing on Thunderbolts Way, being acutely aware that the sun is setting and skippy could be around any corner ready to greet me.
An hour later, I’m in Inverell being handed a key for my room at the Top Of Town motel. Great service and a mega comfortable bed!!

My phone makes a binging noise…tic toc MOFO tic toc is the message. My mate in Brisbane is hassling for me to get on with it

I swing past a cafe on the way out of Inverell and enjoy a delightful eggs benny with a nice long black.

Breakfast done, only 400 something km to do today, refuel and onto the next big thing.

A leisurely 2 hr run has me in Tenterfield for a quick coffee before a brief stop at the Queensland border and more happy snaps. Bike is the correct color so….. QUEENSLANDER!!! (for those not in the know, its a Rugby League State of Origin thing).

I roll into Ballandean and make an unscheduled stop to take a photo of the big dinosaur. It wasn’t on the play list of big things to collect, and, as far as dinosaurs go, he’s probably not that big but he’s green and looks ferocious, so that’ll have to do.

Right, time to get moving, I’ve got places to be!
Embarking on the next leg to Thulimbah, where efficiency reigns supreme, we’ll traverse all of them 33km with the precision of a well-oiled machine!

A few minutes later, I’m in front of the Big Apple.

I had the Big Watermelon Slice at Chinchilla penciled in but decided to give it a miss as I had a better offer.
With 200km to ride and the promise of beer after that, time to move. I put on another podcast and listen to a couple crazy’s talking about some super long distance ride and something about a Guinness world record as the towns pass by me. Before long I’m at my final destination with the last Big Thing (Tabledrain) and that beer I’d been promised.

Ian had given me a hand to buy this bike some 12 months ago. It didn’t look anywhere near as pretty as it does now. He promised beer if I brought it up so he could have a squizz. How could I refuse?

I spent the next couple days enjoying Drain and Col’s hospitality, catching up with Drains brother, Geoff (XS 1100 guru) and also surprising my old mate Tack, who had no idea I was turning up.
The serenity was awesome, company fantastic, beer cold and we didn’t get into too much strife when left unsupervised. (No really, we didn’t do dumb shit in utes…)

The rain had stopped,well, at least momentarily. Gear up and get on the road. Nah, wont bother putting my wets on, it’s all blown past.
An hour later, a very soaked Phil was ruing that decision. 4 hours passed before I rode out of the rain somewhere around Texas. By the time I called it quits at Coonabarabran, I’d damn near dried out. No big things on this stretch apart from the rain.

The sun’s shining and there’s a 1000km between me n home. Time to get on with it.
I make a short detour to the CSIRO Radio Telescope near Parkes and spend a good half hour wandering around. My interest in this place had first piqued way back in 2000, after watching the iconic Australian movie, The Dish. I stopped here back in 2001 on my way to Alice. (I’d borrowed the wife’s little Yammy Fazer 600 for the journey)

I stop for a quick bite to eat and a refuel at West Wyalong before heading to Urana. Whilst its not on the hitlist of big things to capture, I take the opportunity to photograph my last big thing, George the spider. He’s big. (I dont know what the spiders real name is)

Another tank of fuel and 300km later, I roll into the driveway. 5000km covered, lots of fuel through the tank, good company and a totally knackered rear tyre. What a great way to spend 6 days.

Or, what you do on a motorcycle in 10 days.

A 12JE class reunion had been on the cards for several years. Thanks to covid, it remained unfinished business until now. After near on 40 years between drinks for some of us, we’d finally managed to lock in a date for mid January, 2024.
I couldn’t pass up this opportunity to attend our reunion, catch up up with old friends, incorporate a shakedown ride of the new to us Honda ST1100, as well as chase some silo art for the IBA Silo Art bronze challenge.

It’s Friday afternoon, it’s hot, we’re lacking energy after recovering from a dose of covid, the procrastination level is high and we’ve got a Sunday afternoon deadline to meet.
Kate starts loading the bike and hands me a can of concrete. I stop sooking about manflu for 5 minutes, make a quick phone call to my old mate Ron and suggest we stop in for a cup of tea on our way past. That soon escalated to dinner and a bed with the promise of an escort down the GO (Great Ocean) road the following day. Sweet.
As this is our first 2 up outing on the ‘new to me’ Honda ST1100, it came as no surprise that I discovered a few gremlins in the bike and consequently, spent a bit of time resolving minor issues on our way to meet Ron n Marls.
We had a great evening chewing the fat followed by a leisurely start to the following day.

The GO road was mostly as I remembered it, but we should’ve taken notice of the congestion leading into Lorne. There was a festival in full swing and by crikey, was it well patronised!! It took some time to negotiate our way through the main street before the traffic thinned, allowing us to be on our way again.
We came across a few vehicles that needed to learn what the slow lane was for, but apart from that, we enjoyed a pleasant ride to our lunch stop of Lavers Hill.

Lavers Hill with Ron and Kate

Lunch done and we said our goodbyes. Ron peeled off at Princetown Rd, returning home to Ballarat.
5 hours later, after more roadworks than I can poke a stick at and cross winds of 60km/h plus, we’d arrived at Mt Gambier. We found a motel, declared beer o’clock and called it quits.

We awoke to a sunny and somewhat warmer Sunday morning. A better day for riding. While the wind remained strong, the direction had shifted to more of a tail wind making life much easier. Coffee consumed and we’re back on the road. We arrived in Adelaide mid afternoon and spent a couple hours catching up with family.

After checking into our motel, we headed off to my reunion, not really knowing what to expect. All I can say is that we’re grown up versions of our teenage selves. Most of us look a bit older, may be a bit more responsible and have had a few life lessons. There were some interesting stories told. It’s both enlightening and inspiring to understand how people handle life’s curve balls. 
It was one of those nights that could’ve marched on forever, absolutely fantastic to catch up again!

Class of 84 12JE and partners

Monday morning and we’re back on the road. This time headed for our first silo art at Bute. As we approached the area, it didn’t take long for me to question where the GPS was taking us. No GPS, the big ST is not an adventure bike!

Anyway, a quick reroute and we’re heading in the right direction again, albeit still covering a few more km on the dirt before arriving at Bute. I reckon I need to go back because I didn’t capture all the images. 

Bute Silo Art

Next stop is Wirrabarra.
The artwork depicts the rich history of the area which has strong ties to the forestry industry as well as referencing the beautiful local flora and fauna for which the area is also well known for.

Wirrabara Silo Art

After leaving Wirrabarra, we headed off to Melrose and then to Pt Augusta via Horrock pass .

No sooner had we left the Horrocks Pass cairn, this scooter followed by an BMW1250RT came past. I bet I know who that was! Quick u-turn and chase said pair back over the pass to Wilmington. G’day Karl (Skidoo) and Alan (Hagar).
Now Karl is a bit of a bike nutter, having just ridden his little scooter to Perth (from Sydney) and was heading home. Oh, and he solved that time / distance equation in just a tick under 50 hours. Nice Karl, nice!

Karl, Hagar and Kate with the bikes.

More goodbyes and we venture over Horrocks Pass yet again. Oh, the humanity. Onto our next catchup, Davo. Our friend and the bloke responsible for setting up FarRiders in this country and herding them cats, them being the long distance riders of Oz. FarRiders – its just a road.
My bike is positioned to emulate the banner shot which sat proudly as the header photo of the FarRiders forum. The photo next to it, the plaque of remembrance.
We lost Davo in a motorcycle accident in 2009. Ride well my friend. Blue skies and smooth roads.

Banner Shot and Plaque at the Banner Shot Location

After taking care of some business in Port Augusta, we headed back to the Jamestown area to catch up with Reg and Daisy. It was nice spending a couple of days hanging out in air-conditioned comfort, enjoying their hospitality and catching up on everything since their big move to the mainland. Thanks again!

Next stop is Farrell Flat. Kate may have called the wind just a bit feral wind as she fought with hair and the rally flag. I swear I caught a fleeting glimpse of “The Doc”.
Completed in November 2020, the silo art at Farrell Flat depicts the last train to pass through this historic township.

Farrell Flat Silo Art

Next, a short ride up to Owen.

Owen Silo Art

Followed by Eudunda. This is quite a spectacular work!

Eudunda Silo Art

The suns rays dwindled as we made our way to Blanchetown and some home comforts at Kate’s Step Dads place.
The weather in NSW and Vic had turned to custard (no gliding), so we decided to delay our return home, instructed the kids not to burn the house down and came up with a new plan. Nothing quite like planning on the fly.

After a good nights sleep and a lazy start, we’d decided on a loop ride to go collect a few more silo arts.
A couple hundred km plus a fuel stop later and we arrived at Coonalpyn. The murals depict a magnificent tribute to five Coonalpyn Primary School children, whose images will now live on in the history of the town forever.

Coonalpyn Silo Art

Then a short backtrack, take a right at Yumali and head up to Karoonda. We find a cafe, have some lunch and pay a visit to the Karoonda Silos.
By day, one side of the Karoonda Silos is magnificent tribute to the heritage of farming in Karoonda. By night, an ever-changing display of art from South Australian artists lights up the main street attraction.

Karoonda Silo Art

Up to this point in time, we’d had a very easy run. Then things changed. Heading to the next silo of Copeville, the road surface became dirt. Fairly good dirt, but dirt none the less. I check with Kate that she’s comfortable enough to proceed at a leisurely pace. Thumbs up, lets go.
If I’d have planned this properly (no fun in that) I’d have realised we were in for about 90km of dirt to get the next 2 silo arts. Ah well.

We made it to Copeville without any incidents, albeit at a slowish pace. An interesting painting!

Copeville Silo Art

And then more dirt. The roads deteriorated a bit but it’s nice country out here with very few people around.

A few more km down the dirt road, we rolled into Galga and clamp eyes on the spectacular silo art. This place is well worth a visit. The Silo features local soldiers and pays homage to nurses, including POW Vivian Bullwinkel. 

Galga Silo Art

Time to get off these dirt road, well, in a bit anyway. The road is sealed from Maggea, and this assists in forward progress to Waikerie. I’ve driven and ridden past this silo art many times but never stopped for a look.
Featuring on Jimmy’s silo, is local native flora and fauna, including a giant Yabby and the endangered Regent Parrot.
I’d encourage everyone to stop for a look, these colourful images speak for themselves!

Waikerie Silo Art

A mere 50km had us back in Blanchetown and making like a pair of lounge lizards.

I need to be back at work Monday, so it’s time to bite the bullet and wind this holiday up, but not before a bit more fun. The SA Ozstoc (Australian ST Owners group) guys are having a get together in Mannum Saturday lunchtime. Ah, mere 100km down the road from where we are. I throw our names into the ring and say we’ll be there for lunch.
Now, to compound the fun, I’ve also said we’ll attend the Vic Ozstoc lunch gathering on Sunday, just 24 hours later.
I didn’t think anything of this but apparently there were some doubters. I figured I’d just stay quite, keep ’em guessing and attend both functions. Well, that was until another member outed me as a seasoned distance rider and suggested this was nothing more than a latte run.
Thanks for the welcome SA Ozstoc!

SA Ozstoc gathering, Mannum

It’s hot and I’m not inspired to get out there, but, we need to cover miles. Down to Murray Bridge, refuel and back on the road.
240km later we roll into Kaniva, grab a drink and admire more silo art. The design features the Australian Hobby bird.

Kaniva Silo Art

From here it’s a mere 58km and a detour off the main drag to Goroke. This silo features the Kookaburra (left) and the Magpie (right).

Goroke Silo Art

After a day on the road in 40 degree heat, Horsham became that place! Motel and beer and goodnight.

6am and stark contrast to yesterday. Overcast and cool. Put on a layer of thermals and lets go visit the Horsham silo art.
The mural is titled The Yangga Dyata which means ‘Walking on Country’  and it stands proud celebrating the significant story of Yanggendyinanyuk a Wotjobaluk warrior’s story of leadership, resilience and significant legacy.

Horsham Silo Art

A quick ride to Murtoa. This was a difficult site to access but the art is interesting.

Murtoa Silo Art

Short distances chew up time so we get our skates on and get over to Rupanyup.
The featured faces are those of Rupanyup residents and local sporting team members, Ebony Baker and Jordon Weidemann.

Rupanyup Silo Art

Then over to St Arnaud and the ghostly figures painted on the silos.
Titled ‘Hope’, Kyle has told the story of three pioneer residents of St Arnaud, a former gold mining town, situated between Ballarat and Mildura.

St Arnaud Silo Art

We’re in front timewise so agree that it’s time for breakfast, well, after covering another 60km down to arrive at Avoca.
Jimmi has painted two large images, one of the endangered Barking Owl and the other of the vulnerable Brush-tailed Phascogale, both local, native animals of the Pyrenees Ranges.
After leaving the silos, We stopped at the local bakery for a bite to eat. Sounds like the plan to attract people to towns is working!

Avoca Silo Art

Right, time to make the Ozstoc Victorian lunch meet. 4 hours and 300km to get to Dalyston. No worries!

We rolled in at the start time of 12:30 and were made very welcome. Now because I didn’t take any photos here, I umm, borrowed a couple from the website.

Dalyston RTE VIC

At 5pm we rolled into the driveway, bike shakedown complete and lots of friends visited and about 4500km covered. Job done. Until next time, have fun!!

Part 2 – Time to go home

I hear a BMW start. It’s 7am and Derricks away. I’m not moving yet, well, maybe a little, just to get a coffee.
Time to load the bike and get ready to cover the first couple km and catch up with my Darwin workmates and chew the fat. I get away by lunchtime with my sights set on Daly Waters.
All’s great till I’m 40km south of Darwin and run headlong into a police roadblock. There’s a small fire that’s covering the Stuart Highway. A copper walks up and inquires as to my destination. Melbourne I reply, to which he replies, you’ve got a few kays to cover, see that car over there? follow him down the detour and you’ll be fine. Have a good ride.
Quite refreshing really after dealing with the jackbooted thugs here in Victoriastan.
Anyway, detour done and spend the few hours getting to Daly Waters. Stayed overnight and got moving early the next day before Bob and Mabel got their vans on the road. There were plenty of them, most on the way to, or coming from, Dingo Piss Creek.

I’m approaching Renner Springs, having had an uneventful ride sofar, when I spot something that looks odd, very odd. As I get closer, I get that “oh shit” feeling. There’s a van on its side and from how I’m seeing it, looks like it’s been a head on. I get closer and breathe a sigh of relief when I realise it’s old mate and his family checking up on Bob and Mabel after Bob stroked his beard once too often and sent the whole shooting match into the sticks. Mabel didn’t look happy… not happy at all, Jan! No photos and I kept moving.

Another couple hundred kays, a refuel and I’d made it to the Devils Marbles for a late lunch.

30 minutes later and we’re south bound again. Barrow Creek rolls into view. I’ve always been fascinated by the ranges around here. The photos really don’t do it justice. Then there’s the Barrow Creek hotel. Used to be owned by a bloke called Les Pilton and was affectionately known as the Pilton Hilton.
Now if you stopped in there and Les decided to have a quick beer with you, you either stopped at one beer or you were there all night. Carry on, nothing to see here.

I arrived in Alice Springs and spent the next couple days catching up with Dad which he really appreciated. Age catches up with us all and Dad misses Mum and his mates. I also took time to go see Mum and have a chat bit of a chat. Unfortunately flowers don’t last long in the Territory heat.

I had about 4 days to get home so time to move. Heading out on Larapinta drive, I was reminded why I still love this part of the country. The Western Macs are just something else!

At the end of Larapinta Drive there lays the township of Hermannsburg, where I spent my childhood.
There is a memorial cairn 3 miles east of Hermannsburg for Albert Namatjira overlooking the landscape that inspired his paintings. We often used to ride our pushbikes out here as kids.

Some things have changed and others stayed the same. This is what I notice about Hermannsburg.
I looked longingly at the precinct that is now enclosed behind bars and attracts a fee to go in. I chose to remember things as they were.
In the photo below, I’m looking straight down our dustbowl we lovingly called a cricket pitch. How times have changed.

After an hour of poking around the town, I headed out to Palm Valley. Managing a heavy adventure bike on near road tyres proved interesting to say the least. Point and commit was how to get it done in the sand. Once again I was reminded why I still love this landscape. 
There’s always a downside though. The interwebz has taken over and you now need to book a campsite online. So handy when you’re out there. I left in disgust and while riding out, passed about a dozen yahoos with overloaded fully souped 4WD’s towing camper trailers. Maybe I dodged a bullet. Who knows.
I think I’ll remember the place the way it was. Maybe one day I’ll wander back out there when my head’s in a better place.

With my plan of camping at Palm Valley being thwarted by covid and modernization, I got on the Merinee Loop a bit earlier than planned.
If you haven’t done this loop, put it on the bucket list. The scenery is stunning!

After a few more hours of riding, I found a nice campsite at Gintys lookout.

This site gives a tremendous view of the back of Kings Canyon as well as a stunning sunset and sunrise!

Kings Canyon up close.

The following day I headed to Marla. After refuelling, I jumped back on da bike and nek momint Ima lying underneaf it. What happened you may ask? well, apparently BMW’s have sidestands are made from the same cheesium their rims are. I made necessary adjustments and called it quits for the day and went and drank beer.

That was pretty much it, all boxes ticked. I spent the next 2 days heading home, stopping occasionally to smell the roses. All in all, a very successful trip with the only failure being the sidestand. Gotta be happy with that!

Below. Acacia bush and Sturts Desert Pea