Some of us are old enough and still have the capacity to remember watching the Moon Landing of the Apollo 11 crew in 1969.

Here in Australia the 50th anniversary is making the news due to the fact that the space tracking stations in the Canberra region were the first to receive the pictures and then relayed them to the rest of the world.

The Ducati Club in Canberra has apparently been holding the Apollo Rally every 5 years to commemorate the event (as good a reason to go for a ride as any other I suppose) and it is on again this weekend at the site (now decommissioned) of the Orrroral Valley Tracking Station.

So for our July getaway, Tom & I are going to knock out a 1,300km (+100 for Tom) round trip for the opportunity of camping out again in sub zero degC temperatures, meeting up with Waz and Al-58 and probably making new friends, gathering around a camp fire and drinking to those crazy people who jumped on a rocket and sped off to the moon. A bit like going to a motorcycle rally I suppose.

Plan is to overnight in a pub in Taralga on Friday night, then down some roads less travelled to the west then south of Canberra to the rally site. Sunday morning will see us heading up past Canberra on the main road to the Big Merino at Goulburn for fuel, hopefully arriving there in the 10:30 - 11:00am range. Waz will likely leave us there while Tom & I overnight on Sunday in Rylstone.

If anyone is interested in either the rally or crossing paths along the way shout out and it will be good to catch up.

Cheers

Slightly off topic, but re. the moon landing: I remember queuing for hours and hours as a young lad to spend ten seconds gazing at a sample of moon dust that NASA must have kindly distributed to the Weston Park Museum in Sheffield.
It was about a spoonful of grey dust, in a perspex cylinder. I was more puzzled than disappointed.

Funnily enough, I was at Weston Park Museum cafe again this morning, this time with my grandson. I got chatting to a lovely old dear, and I mentioned the above story, seeing as how it's topical. She looked straight at me, straightened her eighty-odd year old back and said;

"Well I'm a physicist, and that moon dust actually contained the same elements as earth, which proved for the first time that the moon had once been part of the earth".

Which kind of put me straight about things.

chris846 wrote:"Well I'm a physicist, and that moon dust actually contained the same elements as earth, which proved for the first time that the moon had once been part of the earth".

Which kind of put me straight about things.

Or proves that it came from Earth...I've been to Ascension Island (about as moonscape as it gets) and seen the film Capricorn 1...conspiracy theories abound!!

However, I remember being allowed to stay up late to watch those fuzzy pictures on a tiny, black & white television and I believed it was real. I also remember queuing for hours (British Museum, London - I think) to see about 5 small flecks of "moon dust". Now that was an anticlimax - it didn't even smell of cheese!

I also commend the film "The Dish" which tells Australias part in the Apollo moon landing - thanks to Stan for sending me two copies (one in Australian and unintelligible to my UK DVD player...I even tried to put it in the DVD player upside-down and one off the telly complete with Aussie adverts which were entertaining in their own right).

Good luck with the rally Gaz & Tom, sounds like as good a reason as any to get out on the bikes. I look forward to the photos and ride report in due course.

Born Again Eccentric wrote:However, I remember being allowed to stay up late to watch those fuzzy pictures on a tiny, black & white television and I believed it was real.

Remember that...

Born Again Eccentric wrote: I also remember queuing for hours (British Museum, London - I think) to see about 5 small flecks of "moon dust". Now that was an anticlimax - it didn't even smell of cheese!

Remember that...

Born Again Eccentric wrote:I also commend the film "The Dish" which tells Australias part in the Apollo moon landing

Seen that...



Bloody determined to get an 'Apollo 50' and 'Apollo mission patch' hoodies when I'm in Florida again next year.

Lucky enough to have visited Cape Canaveral back in 1982, I remember visiting the cockpit of the plane on the way over and talking with the pilots (couldn't do that now). It was amazing and I still love everything space related. Touched moon rock, stood under the Saturn 5 rocket, ate some space food! It was the best holiday a young English boy could ever have had.

I still sit in the garden with the telescope out watching the heavens, If the weather is to bad I sit inside with the live link to the ISS and listen to them talk and watch the cameras as the fly around the earth at 17500mph! 

Maybe we should see if Elon Musk fancies putting a K in to space (he's that mad he might!) I always think he's just one stubbed toe away from Bond villain.

Working Saturday but okay for a quick hello as you pass Canberra on Sunday. My shout, if you like.

It was a good rally. Cold-ish but not bad, the wind in the morning for packing up was an annoyance.  I spent some time with Woz, Gaz and Tom at their fire but went wandering and found some old friends that I have not seen for a verry long time, so that was that.  It's a great part of the country for riding especially when there's no ice.

The Dish is a great movie but it's version has made many people think that the Parkes dish was the first or even only Australian involvement.  The facility at Honeysuckle Ck (now pretty well demolished except for the heritage listed concrete) was the first to receive the signals from the moon, with Parkes taking over 8 mins later once it could recieve the signal.

Next week the Hat Rally, much milder, a pub within walking distance and Pizza deliveries to the rally site!  And I can take the mutts again.

Al

There's a good documentary kicking around (YouTube?) that does mention the part played by Honeysuckle Creek.

Been there...

Amen to that comment. It was all about winning the cold war.They are going back in 2024 using the same technology 55yrs later

Tom, Waz and I are all home safe from our weekend jaunt down to the Canberra region. Sorry there are no photos of the occasion as I found out the iPhone camera is not interested in working when the temps are down in the freezing zone.

Friday saw Tom & I head south down the Putty Road and over the Blue Mountains westward then track down to the south for our overnight stop at the Taralga Pub, complete with wood fire. It was a cold clear day so suitably kitted up we enjoyed the run.

Waz was already parked up at the pub when we arrived having journeyed up from the south and we got a message from indian036, Bill, that he intended driving up from Goulburn to have dinner with us in Taralga. So the four of us spent a pleasant evening dinner together catching up on all things 2 wheels.

Saturday morning was cold, as expected, as we set off westward for Crookwell then down to Gunning followed by a shortish run along the Hume highway to get us to Yass. From Crookwell south we were blanketed by a heavy cold wet fog which made for difficult riding conditions and by the time we got into Yass around 11:00am the temperature had only managed to crawl up to 2 degC. After warm snacks and coffee we were onto one of those roads less travelled that eventually brought us out at the Cotter Reserve west of Canberra then down the Paddy's River Road towards the decommissioned satellite tracking station in the Orroral Valley where the rally was being held.

First order of business when camping at this time of year is to secure firewood and a suitable space for the fire. Once that was taken care of we got tents up and ambled down to the official tent area to enjoy some of the catering that was provided by the organising club, the Canberra Ducati Riders. They did a great job providing food for Saturday lunch and dinner and Sunday breakfast. Since we had a fire there were quite a few mainly BMW riders, including Al-58, who gravitated to our campsite and the drinks and yarns flowed freely in the freezing clear night air with an almost full moon overhead. Bikes and tents were glistening with frost fairly early in the evening however sometime after we had all adjourned to the comfort of our sleeping bags a strong westerly wind blew up. The good side of that was that there was no ice on the gear in the morning but you needed a couple of helpers to hold everything down while tents we rolled etc.

During the run down on Saturday we had contacted Tackler who is currently working in the Canberra area and arranged to meet on our return trip on Sunday morning so once packed we headed to Canberra for that rendezvous. Waz had things to do at home so continued straight on while Tom & I wheeled off the highway to meet Tackler. As always it's good to catch up with fellow forum members in person so we enjoyed the yarn with Tackler over a coffee before mounting up and heading north.

Tom & I made good time up through Goulburn and into Oberon for lunch then via some more roads less travelled on up to the Globe Hotel in Rylstone for our overnight stop. Good pub, great wood fires, the beer was cold and the wine very soothing - what more could you ask for?

Surprise surprise - no frost on Monday morning but still quite cool so great weather for the ride through the Bylong Valley then a short coffee stop at Denman before rolling into the Hunter Valley behind some showers that were ahead of us but we were lucky enough not to catch up to them.

Another enjoyable ride with great company - thanks guys.

Here's a link to the route we followed.

I don't believe we landed on the moon because the shadows of the astronaut and motorcycle are at different angles.

Gaz,

Great account and a hardy effort by you Tom & Waz. Sounds like a great time had by all. Cold weather is do-able if suitably dressed for the occasion but cold and wet can be miserable, so glad the showers stayed ahead of you.

Pity about the lack of photos - so 50 years back they could beam back tv pics from the moon, via Oz. Today. With more processing power in your iPhone than in the lunar lander, you can’t get a pic because the battery is too cold. I suffer the same problem with my phone and it is really irritating when it shuts down through lack of power, yet can have up to 80% showing when it warms up again. No problem with cold here at the moment though...32 ºC  today and very muggy.

By the way, your route link just takes me to google maps and where I am...either the link is not to your route map or you were riding in very small circles in my back yard. Can’t say I noticed either your camp fire or the frost though! 
Post-Post note:After a little investigation, this issue is associated with the IOS operating system (iPad and iPhones) - the link shows me the route when accessed via my MacBook but my current location on both my iPad and iPhone (5S). 

We were advised to move fire drum off the old concete slab  because the old concete floor is heritage listed. I am still wondering why the concrete footing and slabs are heritage listed and protected but the buildings and everything else has been demolished. I would think the antener and buildings would have had more heritage value.
I am missing something.

Great write up Gaz and it was a very enjoyable weekend. Any excuse for a ride.

Waz, I'm with you regarding the heritage listing.  I suppose bits of concrete are easier and cheaper to maintain than buildings.   Cheers Tom

Just saw this in our local paper.

Maybe the next outing for the Eccentrics to search for the Moon Rock.

We don't only have Leprechauns and Crocks of Gold.