General News
12 July, 2026
Lesson of the weekend: Listen to the locals
Owen Rule, resting after another few days on his postie bike, gives his weekend wrap on Carter's Legacy Ride to Queensland in honour of Carter Keeble and raising funds for Boort District Health.
Day 7: Zero tumbles but Ben's bike is down today with loss of ignition. Thankfully Lori's bike was sitting on a trailer as a replacement and Ben was able to continue.
I'll give the drum, one wasn't a happy chappy this morning pulling on damp socks and boots this morning after yesterday's dunking mid floodway. By 4pm the tops were looking dry but they still felt damp inside. Nice to let the feet dry and put some dry socks on.
Lovely tailwind for the 162km to Eromanga making the full distance on a thankfully evident with the 4.58 litres in to what I believed to be 4.5 litres so not many metres left in the tank.
Next stop Windorah but the road is closed and from the advice from a local we headed 70km towards Quilpie onto the Diamentina Development Road though running short of daylight we've decided to stop at a camp 130km short but it's nice to set up camp and prepare food before dark. Also a chance to dry the condensation out of the tent and off the tarp.
With the sun half an inch from the horizon it's time to put up the tent after the condensation has dried off then do something for dinner.
Thought for the day. Listen to the locals.
Total distance 310km
Day 6 - 11 July 11 - HUNGERFORD - NOCCUNDRA
Pushed off early just after 8,30 by ourselves this morning so let the Games begin. How far can Rhondda and I get before the pack catch us and how quickly can we chase Rhonda down? Well no luck today boys and girls.
Like boys are to soap Rhonda is to sand. She avoids it profusely and tries every other direction other than straight ahead.
Even after a couple of stops for photo shots, a major breakdown with the brake arm coming loose followed by the linkage rod from the brake pedal snapping and wrapping itself around and around the rear axle. Also stopping to help a bloke with broken down Toyota ute that wasn't carrying a tow rope so I could offer a tow and then running out of fuel. Still no one in sight so time to break out the Jetboil to make a coffee and wait.
Wish I had one of Jo's biscuits right now to have with this coffee.
What made you smile today? Ben showing me on a hard copy map where next year's trip might go and using two fingers on the map to zoom in made me smile. Hehe Benjamin.
Somewhere out there on the dirt between the sandy bits, jumping gutters in the washouts and going full throttle I imagined that I was part of the Finke Desert Race.
As promised earlier a little about Rhonda. Born April 1980. Honda C90 Deluxe. 90cc is about half the size as the average lawn mower. Single cylinder 4 stroke. None the new fancy CPU EFI CDI stuff on the new bikes. Rhonda runs on the old fashioned battery, CB points, ignition coil and a 28mm carburettor system and does just fine thank you very much ladies and gentlemen.
The Thargamundra Noccundra road has just opened luckily which is great except for a few floodways. The very last floodway was over 100 metres wide and up to 20cm deep which is fine except Rhonda hasn't been with one of those fangdangled waterproof spark leads and stopped in the middle because of the water requiring a push out to the dry stuff.
Thought for today. The slower the pace the faster the calendar. Go make some stories.
Distance travelled 308km
