I haven’t done much on my blog in last 6 or 7 weeks since my accident but I will try now to get into it. hope you enjoy…mick…GEEE I AM TRYING TO PUT PAGES IN ORDER BUT I CAN’T GET 10 TO GO AFTER 9 IT INSISTS ON BEING BETWEEN 1 AND 2,,
I am sure you know already to click on the photos to enlarge them, click again makes them even bigger.
i was called out to catch this red Bellied Black snake in a disused fridge in someones carport at the Hull Heads
The secret of handling a Taipan is to be gentle but this snake had been poked with rakes and sticks to keep it under a pallet for an hour before I got there. I tried to let him calm down before I picked him up but the place was so restricted I had to move to get him or he was gone. I dropped him into the bag but I had the wrong bag it was too shallow he hit the bottom then came straight back out and up my arm and over my shoulder and was gone before I could get a hold of him again.
I love photography with my Canon digital SLR.
I love writing stories,poems,stories, novels anything really except this blog trying to fathom it out is driving me crazy, I will get better at it I am sure.
These bikes have to be ridden to be believed.
NEW POST.. I MISSED A TIAPAN LAST WEEK, (WEEK BEFORE EASTER) READ ON.
Gee had a great experience on Thursday last, 21st April. I had a call to catch a snake (they were sure it was a tiapan) at the local council depot, I arrived convinced it would be a Brown Tree Snake they had chased out of its hiding spot, it usually is. But low and behold it was indeed a tiapan and a fairly big one.
The snake was under a pallet loaded with bits and pieces and it was well and truly stirred up by several onlookers who were not going to let it escape, with no one there game to come close enough to help me shift it all. Anyway I did manage to get the stuff off the pallet and coax the snake out but owing to my motor bike accident I can’t bend as quickly as I once could and I missed his tail, he made it to yet another pallet and so more shifting stuff.
Anyway after much effort out he came and this time I made sure I had him, I picked him up by the tail and held him, he was not happy and put on a good performance trying to get away, I quickly brought my catching bag around under him an dropped him in, then it got interesting.
When I left home I grabbed the wrong catching bag this one was too shallow, I should have chucked it a long time ago, he was too big and too strong for the bag and no sooner had I dropped him in he hit the bottom of the bag spun around and was out again in a blink of an eye, he went over the handle and up my arm and dropped onto the ground and escaped never to be seen again, not really we did see him a couple of times as he raced from pallet to pallet in the crowed ware house but we soon lost him.
Someone there took some photos I will see if I can get copies to post here next week.
I love snakes , all reptiles really ,cruising on my motorbike, I have a Virago 1100and a BMW R1100RT ex police. I have ridden the east coast of Australia and around to Adelaide, most of it a few times. I will talk about my heart operation, bypass surgery when I puzzle out how to publish it on here.
I will one day work out how to add my short stories and some photographs too. I hope I can make it an interesting site, it is now 03-06-2010 see how I go by the time you get to read this, ok? Anyone out there who can help please do.
three picture from the trip north.
micknope
Quick Motorbike Ride from Melbourne to FNQ.
I’ve done the trip From Tully in Far North Queensland to Melbourne and back a few times but always on a virago and usually towing a trailer, this time I had bought a BMW R 1100 RT ex police bike on ebay and had to pick it up at Avoca a couple of hundred Ks the other side of Melbourne. I flew from Cairns to Melbourne caught trains to Avoca. I must
I have done the trip a few times on virago sometimes towing a trailer..hey these are forsale too if anyone wants email mick2010@tpg.com.au
admit to a few nerves as I began my first ride on this bike from Avoca through Melbourne down the penisular to Seaford but once I was on the move it was a dream. After a week or two at my daughter’s place I headed north on the BMW.
There is a lot of different between Virago and the Beemer of course to add a little drama Victoria and New South Wales were experiencing a heat wave, I had put my departure back a little to wait for cooler weather and it was supposed to be on the improve. I left Melbourne on 12th Jan 2010 the temp was not bad at six am, but before long it climbed to 45 and I am sure it just got hotter as I streaked across Victoria’s drought baked country.
The first refuel was at Bairnsdale the lady in the servo said it was the hottest day they’d had since Black Tuesday. I’d have rested there and waited for a weather change if I had a brain but instead I decided to make a run for my mum’s place in Ipswich, too hot for the tourist bit just go and get it over with.
I have no problem with just riding and eating up the ks especially on this bike with over four hundred ks in the fuel tank and such smooth lustful power. I turned north at Barnsdale and headed up the Omeo, it cooled down a little as I climbed up the range, I love that run and I can never resist my love of bush poetry as I followed the river I recited The Man From Snowy River and Clancy of the Overflow out loud as I rode, I reckon I sound pretty good in the echo chamber of my helmet. The health food at the bakery in Omeo was great. Pie and Coke goes down well. The only time I eat pies now days is when I am travelling, so I enjoy them. Then it was down the Great Alpine Way, a great ride though I enjoy riding up twisty roads more than riding down. The very strong, very hot wind after I dropped down the range from Hotham was a really something though frightening too as it swirled along the road ahead of me–like a whirle wind travelling horizontally along the road it lifted leaves and pulled down small branches adding them to the mix ahead of me, I was more than a little concerned that a bigger branch might suddenly charge into my path.
Anyway trying to shorten a long story a little, the heat wave followed all day (all of the trip really) so I enjoyed a swim in the pool at the van park in Young that evening, nine hundred and ninety ks that day.
Second day and still very hot I headed for the high ground again I loved the ride though the Bells Line of Road after 
Lithgow and what a charming young lady at the Apple Tree Store, when I got home I told the missus we must book into some accommodation along there and explore this area fully one day. Not far past the store it was a left turn to head up the Putty road and even thought I was climbing it was no cooler as I sizzled along, (talking about the heat of course) I had a little lay down in the shade of a tree near the burned out Halfway Road House, I was sorry to
Sad to see the burned out Half way House. I have nice memories of this place on the way to agms
see it gone I have met a couple of characters there over the years I remember one in particular My wife and I were riding south to the Green Triangle AGM I think, we stopped to refuel at the halfway house and started up a conversation with a couple of older ladies who were having a natter near the bowzer one told my wife and I the story of how she and her then young husband moved house shifting all of their belongings with an old Zundap motorbike and side car. The side car was apparently just a flat deck thing and they carried wardrobes and tables and chairs, everything, hubby riding the Zundap and wifie standing on side car holding the furniture they made many trips back and forth. We loved the story and we could see the gleam of a great memory in her weary old eye as she admired the Virago and trailer.
Getting back to my ride the best part of this trip was yet to come, it began in Tamworth, I refueled at the first servo on the south side of the town, it was so hot I drank one point five liters of water with my meal , after eating I decided to keep moving it was just after six Pm and I reckoned I could make Armidale before dark, gee now that was a great ride, I started climbing the range and this huge storm was building ahead of me, the sky was deep dark ominous Blue almost black and lightning streaked across the deep dark void, I wanted to beat the rain to Armidale but in reality I knew I didn’t have a chance. It was great just lapping it out and for the first time since I left Melbourne it was cool. I remember seeing signs, five kilometers to next overtaking lane and in what seemed no more than a minute or two there was the overtaking lane not that I was going fast I was just absorbed with the riding, hmm do you believe that??
I could have gone on for hours, it was smooth fast and cool, I had the electric screen lowered a little so I couldn’t see the bike and all I could hear was this beautiful smooth engine purring, it was wonderful riding just like I was flying a meter or so off the ground but the rain was starting with huge cool drops that hit the beemer screen almost like hail, regrettable I booked in for the night at a van park in Uralla, day two was over, eight hundred and sixty five ks that day.
Day three begins with me leaving at 6 am next stop is my Mum’s in Ipswich. I love the ride up through Tenterfield, Stanthorpe,Warwick and it gets better through the Cunningham Gap usually here on the top I rest and walk into the scrub to listen to the Bell Birds but just after Warwick I stopped for a lay down on a table in a rest area and my mobile phone rang, it was Cairns Base Hospital informing me that an appointment that had been made before I left Far North Queensland to have an angiogram had been bought forward I had even less time than I thought, today was the forteenth I wanted to stay a few nights at my Mum’s in Ipswich and now my appointment was for twentieth and I needed to be home a couple of days before that to have x-rays and blood test , I wasn’t a bit worried about the test I am very fit and healthy, I was only having the angiogram to satisfy my doctor and my wife.
I arrived at my mum’s around lunch time, 499 ks third day, I needed a rest, I had ridden two thousand three hundred and fifty ks in less than three days in a heat wave, I was tired.
The rest was short I had to be back home nearly sixteen hundred kilometers away in time to have the x-rays etc and leave for Cairns on the Tuesday so I could stay at my daughter’s over night and present at the Cairns Base Wednesday morning for pre-admition, I left Ipswich six am on Saturday sixteenth. I knew this road like the proverbial back of my hand. ESk, Nanango, bypass Kingaroy, then on to Gayndah, Biloela, I stopped for a feed in Biloela then on to the Bruce Hwy at Rocky, It was still very hot but now in Queensland a different heat. Not that dry blast furnace heat of the south, Queensland heat is all humidity and sweat especially with the gear I was wearing, not that I didn’t sweat further south, down there I was wet through but here I was wet through and dripping as well. I thought about stopping in Rocky over night but I was restless and it was still early so I pushed on, I paid the price I had been telling myself, don’t speed don’t speed but after a Virago that Beemer, geee, anyway I met a police car coming the other way – I had over taken two vehicles and just didn’t throttle back quick enough, I’m not going to say the speed I was doing but I did agree with what the Copper said, stupid speed. Anyway he was a good bloke but he still booked me and suggested I stop for a rest at the next room I found, he could see I had been pushing myself and I realized much later, after I got home and rested he could probably smell me too, all that sweat and days of traveling, of course I bathed every day and swam every chance I had but the m/bike gear had been sweaty for days It needed refreshing too but of course no way to do that as I travelled.
Anyway I couldn’t talk myself into stopping so I made Mackay easily. Stayed in a nice motel. Eeven hundred and seventy kilometres that day. The next and last day I was on the home leg I used to work at a mine at the back of Mackay and rode the Virago back and forth every five days so I was on very familiar territory, I knew it was around six hundred and fifty Ks to home, I was feeling good. The Bruce Hwy is not the most exciting ride but if I am on a bike I am enjoying myself, mostly anyway, and I did enjoy that last day as much as any other really. I arrived in Tully Heads at one forty five tired but happy, six hundred odd ks before 2 pm. The BMW R1100RT is some bike I love it but won’t keep it, it just feels so slow at one hundred Ks and hour. I’ll go back to the cruiser I think. I tallied up the milage 4185ks in six days, five days riding.
After all of that I did make my appointment and I did have the Angiogram and as fit and strong as I am I sit here at my computer typing this as I await a date sometime in next couple of weeks to have open heart surgery. I have several partial blockages and one artery completely blocked, I should have had a massive heart attack when that blocked but for some good reason the artery on the other side of my heart pushed through and supplied blood to both sides, lucky me. I am glad I do make my life so interesting you just never know when or where it will end, hey. Micklow..
Looking dopy
Here I am in intensive care next morning after heart surgery on 6th april 2010.
THE DREADED HEART SURGERY
I had my open Heart surgery on the sixth of April twothousand and ten at Townsville General Hospital, gee the nurses and staff there were so good I can’t prase them enough, Thanks ladies if you read this.
I had a couple of cancellations but that was ok the intensive care unit went to someone who needed it more at the time. Let me say to anyone who is going to have an operation like this, preparing yourself is so important, get as fit as your condition will allow, I walked and walked they would not allow me to do any thing else.
I was very lucky I had an exceptional doctor, and honestly it was a breeze. There was pain of course but I always say with pain at least you know you are alive. don’t think I trivilise pain, no I really feel for chronic pain sufferers, but pain you know you are going to work your way through can be handeled ok if you get your mind in the place and work at it. I did all of the things I was told to do and more, exercise wise. Six weeks after my operation I went back to weight lifting and three months later, twenty weeks after the op I was bench pressing eighty kilos and other lifts too of course.
What didn’t help was on the seventeenth of October a bit over six months after open heart surgery I was on my m/bike and was hit by a car travelling at one hundred Ks an hour about. I was thrown into the air did a few cartwheels over the car ( they tell me I don’t remember) and landed on the bitumen road on my knees and head ( remember that bit I must have regained consciousness as I landed.) This cause me much more pain then the op.
ON THE WINGS OF ULYSSES
In the fifties and sixties, the big bikes were twins,
Cars were long and low and had lots of fins,
There were Ajs and Beezas and Trumpies and such
Bikes had a kick start and cars had a clutch.
Bad boys were bodgies and had widgies as molls,
Good girls wore full skirts and blouses and looked just like dolls.
We did wheel stands, cut circles and were chased by the fuzz,
Our bikes had names on the front guard like El Lobo, or the Guzz.
Now the older we get, the better we rode,
The longer the trips, the heavier the load,
WE had wild times and good times and for some, time was short,
We rode with the wind, no helmets we bought.
Now don’t get me wrong, things did improve,
Bikes are more comfy and the ride is more smooth,
But we remember the old times, the friends and the fun,
The things that we did and with some left undone.
We’ll ride once again o’er the roads of this land,
We’ll go back to the freedom we always had planned
On the wings of Ulysses, thanks to old number one,
We’ll ride with our friends on into the sun.
With this great group of bikers we’ll ride through old age,
And on to the edge, then we’ll turn a new page,
So when we hear of a Ulyssian, a biker who’s gone,
We’ll know they have lived, and have just ridden on.
Micklow.
