give me a home where the buffalo roam or

[old3bob]

 

give me a home where the buffalo roam or maybe a Kawasaki W800 and rides on open, uncrowded roads!

[Nungali]

I got one of those ... not the Kwaka*   (niiiiiice !  - by the way )  , but the home . 

 

parked at local shop having a drink ,  a couple of riders are refulling about to go 'up the mountain' one of the premier rides on the east coast .  One of them, to me " You are riding light ! "   ( no bags, back pack ,  no full riding suit ) 

"yeah ... I'm a local ."  

 

The look !        

 

Gotta mate that rides and lives in the city - 40 mins of traffic and lights to get anywhere enjoyable . 

 

*  mine ; 

 

 

But with lowered seat and hot dog muffler . 

 

TRy from 1:50  , going from the southern end of the plateau 'over the edge '   (down the mountain ) .

 

 

 

 

 

[old3bob]

 

Thanks Nungali for the open road ride video!  That put a smile on me face.

Btw, some of that area looked pretty remote,  with probably little cell phone service to call for help if one's bike or rig broke down?  There are still quite a few places like that in the US but one needs to make decent  preparation if going out into "boonies".  (as in a dependable ride, some water, food, basic tools a full gas tank and appropriate clothing for the conditions)   I've also found that some map apps can not be counted on 100% or to be very clear and could land one who knows where in remoter areas, or not even that remote of an area.  For instance I pulled a family car and the father out of a snow drifted road with my old 4x4 one winter.  The father somehow followed an app that took him, his wife and kids off the main highway onto a secondary road and then onto a gravel road (!) that had very little traffic where they got stuck for 2-3 days and freezing while staying inside their vehicle.  Lucky for him a sheriff that patrolled that area now and then found them and took them into town.  When they got to town they were helped out with a place to stay and food since they were almost broke.   No way the guy had $1000-1500 bucks for a wrecker to pull his car out which is when a local volunteer organization which I know of heard about the situation and asked for my help which I was able to give.  To top it off the father did not speak English and his wife only a slight amount;  but fortunately my bilingual neighbor came along as an interpreter when we went to pull their car out.  Speaking of the snow, the ice was even worse with spots where my 4x4 could hardly get traction, while I'm thinking to myself please don't also get stuck here!  Things ended up fine and they soon continued down the main highway after saying a nice thank you.

 

 

 

Edited July 8 by old3bob

[Nungali]

Most of this area , aside from the coast has little development . The whole country is a bit like that . Many don't realize, including Aussies .   Now we seem to have a mass of smaller National Parks all over the place . 

 

The green bits : 

 

 

Map Apps !    

 

Some one registered their business at our address and wanted it located on Google maps . Now the map shows a star where that business is supposed to be ... its way up the back of the property in the wild,  with no road or track to it !    The people that live  in the last house 'up the back ' have an old logging track  that goes behind their place up to the back ridge' .  Sometimes they notice a car going up that should not be - meaning a nice, new clean low car ... that gets stuck .  When asked why they were there , their satellite navigation directed them there   to go to the business . 

 

And a weirder one . I was looking at a map and if I do a run up the mountain, out to the north east , cut across some forestry, national parks and farmland I can come down the highland  and into Coffs Harbour at the north .  yet on the map, the southern extent  of  Coffs harbor  goes west .  Why did it never expand a bit more, over that ridge into the next area and valley ?  That valley runs north for ages , parallel to the coast .  That whole area is closed access  for everyone that lives there and getting farm produce out and supplies in , takes a long journey north up that valley , then around to the east to go down this  road north of the city .   A 1 km new road linking the two would make it a 10 minute  trip . 

 

Maybe the map  is confusing me , so I went to satellite map ... looks the same .... if one could just 'hop over that hill ' . So me being curious as I am  went for a ride out there to check it out .

 

So here is the gist ;   when I get there  ( from the city side )   .... the road ends  and looking up a grass hill I see a tree line . That is where, on the map, it goes down the other side  into this 'isolated valley ' , I am still flummoxed; 'Why did they never build that little bit of road ? 

 

Then coming back I see the property nearest to it has  some paddocks with cows in it and driveway that goes up in that general direction  and it has a big hand painted  angry looking sign .  'private property , this is a driveway to my house  NOT to the valley on the other side  SAT NAV IS WRONG !  DO NOT enter .  '

 

One gets the impression that several people have been  directed by sat nav up there ,.  So how did THAT get into the system ... did  sat nav AI (or whatever the hell it is ) look at the map like I did and decide a road SHOULD be there ... so it 'is '  ?    Weird ! 

 

I want nothing to do with it !  Once I had to drive a work van full of  high tech very expensive camera  equipment from Brisbane to Sydney ... half way the God dam thing is screaming at me that I have gone off road and driving through  farmland , the map screen is flashing and you can see the road way over there away from the car . 

 

But my own senses are telling me I am driving down a  four lane highway ! 

 

Its the beginning of the end  I tell ya !

 

We need Magnus !

 

 

Damn AI sat nav BS ... take  this ... and this .... 

[old3bob]

 

I'm a hell of a long ways from the ocean which I miss a lot but at least we have a lot of nice lakes around here although along with their hungry mosquitoes'!   (and watch out for those nasty little ticks!)

 

the image below is an exaggeration but at times it does not seem so ;-) 

 

Is it like that where  Mark or Nungali live?  We once got eaten alive by these little critters near some northern California lakes!

 

When I lived in Alaska it was a great relief after we had a couple days cold enough to finish off the buggers for the rest of fall !   (at least until they came back the next year)  Btw,  my surfing sojourn in much warmer Hawaii didn't give that kind of relief from them including the other crawling critters that live there.

 

Edited Thursday at 12:15 PM by old3bob