As you may or may not be aware, I have been sent from my lovely hometown of Brisbane to a just as lovely town of Townsville (from end Oct 02 - May 03)

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Now my original plan was to finish my V6 Baja, and then bring it up here. Then I would be free to explore North Queensland (very quickly!). But things didn't quite go to plan, and then I decided it was best to leave the Baja in Brisbane where I could finish it properly.

So what was I to do. Me, my girlfriend and her Mazda 121 ready to explore North Queensland. Hmmm, I don't think "Mazda 121" and "explore north Queensland" should be used in the same sentence.

What I need is something that is as much fun as the Baja offroad, something I want to get out and about on/in. I know, I'll buy a bike! I have always loved bikes and been riding them from the age of about 12.  So that's exactly what I did!

I bought a '95 model Honda NX650 Dominator. It seems to be in very good condition, had room for a pillion, a 25L long range (400-500km!) Acerbis fuel tank, and a Gearsack on the back. Perfect for touring around this popular tourist region of Queensland. Even riding to work is fun.

So far I have taken it south to Magnetic Island, Ayr, Home Hill and Alva beach. I wanted to ride on Alva beach but it was high tide. A near full long range tank, pillion, heavy bike and soft sand don't really mix. Soft sand is Baja territory. Below I will add some pics and details of my trips on the bike, for those people addicted to my site that need something to read

So we meet again
I was starting to get withdrawals from not going offroad in something. I found the sand and high tide got the better of my on the bike, and scared me back to the bitumen (I want my Baja, then I'll show the sand whose boss!)

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A VW parked next to me on Magnetic Island at Horseshoe Bay, so I just had to take a pic.
Me, Meegan and the Dominator on Magnetic Island with Townsville in the background. usanddomonmaggy.jpg (85919 bytes)

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I went up to check out Harvey's Range on the weekend (16-2-03). It's quite pretty up there, and a fun road up the range, but there's nowhere else to go up there. Still a nice little ride.
And you thought there was a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow...

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8-3-03 Trip from Townsville to Burdekin Falls Dam

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Today we went for a ride to the Burdekin Falls Dam. I also decided to go the long way. We went south to Ayr, west to Clare, west some more to Ravenswood, then finally south to the Dam. From Clare to Ravenswood is dirt. It crosses many small creeks and near the end rises quite high where you get a nice view of the surrounding cattle country.
Riding through the cattle country we noticed a white section on the hill. It looked like a sand blow on Fraser Island, but we were 150km inland! On closer inspection it was a very large formation of quartz. It apparently was originally formed 5km below the surface and somehow got pushed through to the top.

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The real reason I wanted to come out was to see the dam overflowing. The spillway is 504m wide, and it was flooding 1.04m over the spillway. 

Unfortunately the DNR had to closed the road to the base of the dam (safety reasons), so this is the closest I could get.

Just to the left of the picture above is I guess what is the Burdekin Falls. It was like a mini Niagara Falls. The whole trip was about 500km, so we were a bit sore afterwards. 

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15-3-03 Trip from Townsville to Wallaman Falls

wallaman falls sign.jpg (35169 bytes) The falls details. 
The falls. Pretty spectacular view. 

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We were silly enough to walk the 2km to the bottom of the falls. A hard walk (mainly on the return journey), but well worth it. If you look at the full size pics you will see some game tourists swimming. The rocks were huge and made it difficult to actually get to the water. 

16-3-03 Trip from DSMRA club ride

Sunday I went on a Dual Sport Motorcycle Rider's Association club ride. 23 bikes at the start, 20 at the end, and one broken collar bone.

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There weren't many opportunities to stop and take pics, because I was usually flat out trying to keep up with the real dirt bikes. This was a nice creek crossing we stopped at. The bike shown is supposed to be a Dominator.
My big heavy dominator out of place among the real dirt bikes. Still fun though. The sandy / rocky sections were giving me real trouble. It made my bike plough and wander everywhere, which made it very tiring and scary to ride.

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Dominator from Hell. This used to be a dominator once, but is now a wild custom bike that shares more in common with an XR650. It has an XR400 headlight, and partly a XR250 rear shock (custom made parts). The owner was kind enough to give me a ride, and it felt like a completely different bike. Heaps lighter. 

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