Ride #4 - A Change of Approach
Murals are not hard to find once you start looking for them. Small country towns may only have 1 or 2, while larger towns and cities will have many.
Rumour has it that Philadelphia, PA has over 4,000 murals. If only 10% of those murals meet the "100 Yard Rule", then there are over 400 murals in just one city.
Mind you, riding around a large city is a miserable experience.
I know this because I was somewhat disillusioned after my last ride a few weeks ago to the point I considered concluding my Grand Tour there and then, and submitting my bonus photos to the Rally Master for scoring.
However, after some more thought, and a glass or two of my favourite PepperJack Shiraz, I decided to change my approach to this year's Grand Tour instead.
I will leave it to the riders in the northeast corner of the USA to bag the most points, while I will now focus on just collecting the largest murals in size, which are the Grain Silo Art Murals in the Australian wheat belt.
This belt runs from the Queensland border, down through the middle of my state, New South Wales, and into western Victoria, although the Victorian silos will require a significant gift to SWMBO to get a week-long kitchen pass.
There are 8 grain silos murals in NSW and 22 silos murals in VIC, along a straight line distance of around 1,400 km / 860 mi.
As a secondary focus, I have also decided to include Water Tower Art, with 28 murals located in NSW and 8 murals located in VIC.
Lastly, I decided to limit myself to only 5 points maximum per town, as a way to "encourage" more riding away from towns and cities.
I know that this decision will exclude me from any possible chance of a "Top 5" finish, but this "5 point rule" will hopefully result in more enjoyable riding away from large population centres.
This means that the ideal situation would be a town that had 1 grain silo + 1 water tower + 3 large murals for a points score of 5 points, although I will not be opposed to a town with only 5 wall murals.
And, as luck would have it, all the stars aligned and I was able to enjoy the first of my "New Plan" ride this week.
Joining me for this ride was Tim, a good friend on his trusty 1200GS.
At 06:30 am on Monday, I headed north on the M1 motorway to Freeman's Waterhole for breakfast, but as the B.O.M. had predicted daytime temps around 37*C / 98*F, staying hydrated was the order of the day. No coffee this time, just 600 ml of plain water plus a small doughnut for a sugar hit.
From Freeman's, we made our way along the New England Highway towards the first bonus of the day, a mural on a railway signal facility at Wingen, which had easy, and safe parking. This benefit was not to re-occur very often.
click on image to enlarge
From Wigen, we headed to Murulla, which also had a railway signal facility mural, and while Google Street view showed that there was a gravel driveway to the building, it did not show (or I did not notice) that the gravel was railway ballast stones, a little smaller than a tennis ball.
I am sure an SUV would have had little trouble, but the largish stones made for a rather difficult u-turn for me at the end of the driveway. This was one of those times when a reverse gear would have been handy.
From Murulla, we made our way towards Quirindi, pronounced Quir-in-die, not Quir-in-dee, for lunch & fuel and some more bonus points. There was a soft breeze and blue skies and the country road had very little traffic, so it was an enjoyable ride but it was getting rather hot with ATGATT.
Quirindi has the newest grain silo mural in the wheat belt. It tells the story of times before man, through the time of the First Nations people and onto the arrival of European settlers. There is also a nightly laser show that is said to be very good, so I will add that to my "to-do" list.
From Quirindi, we headed to Gunnedah about 85 km / 50 mi north-west across the Liverpool Plains.
This road is your typical 2-lane back-country road and is flat and as straight as an arrow. A "head down-bum up" type of road.
This area has rich farming soil for as far as the eye can see, which is under threat with a proposal to establish an open-cut coal mine there. I just hope the farmers win as you can't eat coal.
Gunnedah had my second silo, plus a water tower, and an impressive lane-way mural for a town total of 3 points.
The first wave of miners arrives at the pub at around 4:30 pm, followed by a second wave at around 5:30 pm and a third wave around 6:30 pm.
By 7:00 pm, the kitchen was flat out cooking pizzas and there were maybe 100 orange "work" shirts fronting the bar, and as Monday was the end of their 2-week rotation, they were going to enjoy a quiet a few beers late into the night.
Tuesday dawned to a red sky, as in "red sky in the morning is a shepherd's warning", meaning a cold front / low-pressure area was moving eastward. This was not unexpected, and after Monday's heat, was most welcome. Day-time temps for Tuesday were forecast to be in the more bearable 25*C ~ 30*C range with little chance of rain.
After breakfast, we headed towards Narrabri (no murals) and onto Moree, about another 100 km / 65 mi further northwest.
Moree does not have any Silo Art or Water Tower Art, but it is a designated Street Art Town with multiple building murals, so it was easy to achieve my 5 point town maximum.
They say that serendipity is finding valuable or agreeable things not looked for, and it was while I was enjoying a mid-morning coffee at the Cafe Omega that I had a serendipitous moment.
We had decided to sit out the front of the cafe to enjoy the fresh air, and while the waitress was serving the coffee she asked why we was visiting Moree.
I explained that I was on a treasure hunt for large murals. On hearing this, she gave a small laugh, smiled and explained that at the rear of the cafe, there was a small open-air courtyard and painted on the walls was this wonderful mural. Unexpected, but a very pleasant surprise.
Having bagged my 5-point limit in Moree, I headed to Warialda, about 80 km / 50 mi east as there were many "cartoon" murals on the main street.
Unfortunately, once there I realised that the 5 murals I had in mind probably did not meet the 64 sq-ft size requirement. Oh well, win some lose some.
Bingara was about 40 km further south and had 2 murals, followed by Barraba, another 60 km south.
Barraba has one of the best murals I have seen so far. It is truly impressive and the 3 dimensional effect that the artist has achieved in remarkable. My photo does not do it justice.
And to make things even better, there is a grain silo on the edge of town.
From Barraba, we headed to Tamworth, about 90 km / 55 mi south, for our overnight stay.
Tamworth has 2 Water Tower murals. The 1st mural involves a very long uphill walk and the 2nd mural involves a long walk across multiple football fields from the car park, but as it was getting late and I was hot and tired, I gave them both a miss. Maybe next time?
Wednesday again dawned with a red sky, which fitted in with the B.O.M forecast for possible showers in the later afternoon, but I was not concerned as I expected to be home before then.
From Tamworth, we headed to Murrurundi, a distance of about 90 km / 55 mi, for a breakfast of a freshly baked pepper steak pie and a mug of steaming hot coffee. I am not sure if they have meat pies in the USA as they are more of an English thing, but they are almost a "staple" food here in Oz.
Then onto the Dartbrook railway facility for the last mural of this trip.
This mural proved to be a little difficult as there were several work trucks already parked near the railway building. This meant that I had to park in the break-down lane next to the highway (never a good idea) and run across the highway's 4 lanes to get the required photo.
From Dartbrook, it was an easy ride down the New England Highway to the dreaded M1 Motorway. Have I mentioned how much I dislike this road?
All up, I rode about 1,300 km / 800 mi over the 3 days. Along the way, I collected 3 Grain Silos, 1 Water Tower and a few murals and did not exceed my 5 points per town limit.
I think I'm going to like my "New Plan" going forward, and I might start looking for some jewellery as a gift. It may just get me that kitchen pass I will need to go to the western Victorian Silos.
In the meantime, " keep the rubber side down, shiny side up and may your lid never skid "
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