Tuesday, 16 February 2016

2016-02-14 To Finniss and Return

An attempt to get into bed at midnight as opposed to my usual 2am so I can get enough sleep before the early 6:30 am rise failed. True, I made into bed at midnight but one of the dogs had other ideas and I was op again at 2am and back in bed and still awake at 3am and then Heather woke me up as the alarm on the phone went off. The few items we need to take with us were ready to be loaded into the bike so it was almost a get up, get dressed and go ride morning.

The night before I had charged up all the cam and intercom batteries but I still hadn't got around to setting up Heather's cam on her helmet so the cams were left for another time. I took a photo of the bike's clock and odometer for my log book app's trip section so I wouldn't forget it; 7:37am and 183,732 and we were on the road at 7:45. About an hour later we were having breakfast at Burra.

The council office

 
Breakfast consisting of a pie for Heather and pasty for me was bought from one of the local garages. What we noticed as being rather amusing was a female who bought a drink from where we did then on our way out of town I noticed her filling her car with fuel at another garage which was more expensive.
 
 
Our way out of town along the main street.


Across the Burra Creek bridge the road passes some old mining cottages which are now used for holiday accommodation http://burrapaxtoncottages.com/wp/

 
Nothing really exciting between Burra and our next stop at Woodside other than riding along roads in the hills at the massive speed of 80 k/h because it's deemed unsafe to travel faster than the 110 k/h limits that used to be in place.
 
Heather wanted to get something at the supermarket but it took about 10 minutes for her to cross the road. Quite a few bikes going in either direction not to forget trikes (Spyders) and cars. Even saw another blue 1100. I would hazard a guess and say most Adelaide riders don't ride anywhere but the hills roads with all there twisty bits. These three were taken with my Galaxy S4 phone.


Main Street of Woodside from the way we come.


Main Street of Woodside for the way we need to go.


The Finniss General store taken after lunch http://www.finnissgeneralstore.com.au/


The group shot for the Ozstoc ride http://www.ozstoc.com.au/


and Steve with his ST1300


After we left Finniss we stopped for fuel at Strathalbyn and headed back to the old SAR railway station to satisfy Mother Nature. While there I took some pics or the now non used rail yards though the station might still be used for the tourist trains. http://www.steamrangerheritagerailway.org/index.php

Our fuel stop can be seen in the third pic.

 
 
 
The area in front of the station has been turned into a park.

Station Building


Some seating


A playground for the kids
 
 
And this was parked there. I'm guessing it's a Harley of an early vintage.


with a side car


After leaving here we headed over to Murray Bridge to visit one of Heather's friends and stayed for tea. We left there just before 8:00 pm for the final 302 (GPS figure) km trip home. A stop off at Truro where I took some night shots as a test for my new Nikon D3300 DSLR cam.

Into town from this end,


The roadhouse


The hotel that I parked in front of


and our way out of town


Before leaving Truro I mounted the GoPro to the bike and let the cam run until our usual rest stop at Burra. Mainly just to test the cam's night filming abilities in a built up area and for any changes that would occur between low, high and the added HID driving light beams when out on the highway.

We arrived home just before witching hour (11:56 on the GPS clock) travelled an indicated 666 km (The number of the beast) averaged 16.57 k/l on the way there and 18.03 k/l on the way back.

Ride Map http://goo.gl/maps/D6X3UU3GhMU2