In lead up to FarRide #9 I had a few email exchanges with Skip who was doing an Iron Butt ride for his FarRide. I wasn’t going to, was just going to do like last year, leave after work Friday, ride through to Taree, up early, Oxley, Waterfall Way and into Nambucca (but would overnight there this year). Miss Indecisive at the last minute (well less than a week I think) beforehand to have a stab at the BB2500/36, 2500km in 36 hours. I had a great route planned out taking in a mix of major highways and minor back roads but then I saw the weather forecast - rain showers rain rain rain so decided to stick to the major highways.
Finished up work on the Thursday arvo and went home, packed, relaxed for a bit then into bed. Took me a while to get to sleep but eventually I did. Alarm went off at 11:30pm I hit snooze, that’s a bad habit. Eventually got up around 11:45pm, had a V and a smoke and a bit of a chat with my sister. Got my tank bag onto the bike and I was ready roll, a bit later than anticipated.
I had though the Caltex at Watson was 24hr so I rolled past Gateway… got to the roundabout and nope, Caltex closed so back down the road to the Shell Gateway. Filled up, got my receipt, 12:43am. I headed off up the Federal, it was cool but clear, little bit of cloud here and there but the moon was out. Very little traffic (not surprising). Got past the NSW border and thought “it’s the middle of the night, I could open it up a little” ha. Not. About two seconds later saw the party lights (on the other side of the road, with a customer already). OK maybe I’ll just take it easy…
Cruised through to Pheasant’s Nest and made pretty standard time there (was inside paying for fuel at 2:40am). I had been getting a bit cold so had a toilet and smoke before setting off for Wyong, the next fuel stop. M7 through Sydney, there was an oversize vehicle taking up both lanes which I got stuck behind for a while. Got a few spots of rain but nothing much, and the roadworks on the F3 didn’t bother me at all.
Got into Wyong and was feeling hungry - yay maccas was open and serving breakfast so I had a sausage and egg mcmuffin… I wonder what time they start serving breakfast? This was about 4:45am! Finished my breakfast, it had been raining a bit while I stood around and had a smoke, saddled up and off I go.
Very soon after leaving Wyong the heavens opened up and the rain came down. It’s been ages since I’ve ridden through rain that heavy. At first I was quite comfortable, my wet weather gear was holding up very well so I just cruised along after picking a car setting a decent pace to follow.
Turned left to head towards Singleton and came pretty much to a stop. Traffic. I guess it is all the people that work on the mines out there??? anyway crawled along at walking pace for a while, occasionally getting up to about 60km/h. Before long my wet weather gear gave out (my rain off gloves were flopping around as they were filled with water, it was quite a funny sensation and I wonder what the drivers around me thought as I’d wobble my hands around and laugh). I was also sitting in a puddle of water… ewwwww.
Just before Singleton I turned off for Dubbo and got onto the Golden Highway. Got a bit cold once I got up to speed and the novelty had worn off my hands soaking in the water trapped inside my gloves so I pulled up at a servo *somewhere* and tipped out the water and managed to get about half a smoke in before it was too wet to smoke any more. Wriggled back into the wet stuff and continued on to Merriwa, the next fuel stop. Hit some roadworks along here which were a bit muddy and gross but got through it okay :o) Fuelled up at Merriwa at about 8am…. made awful time along that stretch! Fuel, toilet, smoke and check my messages - had a few birthday wishes come through along the way :o) Underway again, the weather sometimes raining and sometime just overcast… but now the wind was kicking in and I had some interesting fights with the bike to keep on the road.
Passed through Dunedoo and before me was some of the blackest clouds I have ever seen in my life. Wind was still blowing me around heaps and these clouds just stretched as far as I could see South to North. Damn. Is this really how I want to spend my birthday? LOL. I kept going for a bit, I was pretty cold by now and getting hungry, so I pulled over into a small side road to have a smoke, look at the map and a think. I decided fark that! Hopped back on the bike and rode the 36km back to Dunedoo to the White Rose Cafe for a big breakfast and a coffee :o)
This was my turn around point:
This is what I had been riding towards. The camera just doesn’t do it justice, it looked NASTY.
Felt better after a huge breaky… but then I was bored. Plan B was to get my fuel receipt at 12:30pm, put in about 500km that afternoon getting to Taree and the continuing on with the original plan Saturday morning. I got so bored I decided I could get my receipt at 12:oopm instead… but it was 11:53am. Bugger. (I think they’re register might have been a bit out of sync with my phone but who really knows). Set off towards Coolah and on the way overtook a dude on a shiny red Hyosung 650 thingo. Before long more ROADWORKS…. grrrrr. Dirt as far as I could see. I pulled over thinking about going back the way I came and then the dude on the hyo came past… fark it if he can do it so can I. I don’t like mud. But eventually it came to an end and he pulled up in Coolah - turns out he was headed for Coonabarabran and his mum was following him in the car (that would be why he had no luggage! LOL). I think he wanted to chat… perhaps I shoulda stuck around for that :o) ah well, no matter, kept going and pulled up a bit up the road at one of the black stumps.
Photos and a smoke then on my way, headed for Quirindi. Just sat behind a ute and a yellow car who were both setting a decentish pace (I can’t wait to get stock gearing back on my bike… I hate having such an inaccurate speedo/odo). Rolled through Quirindi into Willow Creek(?) where I topped up the fuel and had a bit of a break. I hadn’t had any rain for ages, in fact I was getting a bit warm! Set off down the New England which was boring, through Singleton, Maitland then Raymond Terrace. I was gonna get fuel in Raymond Terrace but I got lost and ended up on the freeway… so kept going to Karuah.
Pulled into Karuah, paid for my fuel and back to the bike… a girl on a GPX250 was there and a reddish ZX12R… dude on the 12R recognised me from KSRC - he’s 98ninja, hi! Was good to have a bit of a chat with someone (he used to have a 9 as well). Stripped off the last of the plastic gear here, even though I was warned it was raining at Taree. It was an easy cruise up to Taree from here and it felt great to not be wrapped in plastic! Sure enough it was raining once I got into Taree but ah well. Found the motel, checked in, then up the road for some KFC (Taree KFC is even slower than Hawker!) back to the motel room to eat, shower, then into bed.
Got a drunkend text message at around 1:30am which woke me up… ooooooh pain in my belly :o( and where the hell is Skip? Tried calling but went to voicemail. I promptly fell asleep again, phone rang… no idea what time, after 2am??? Skip was there. I opened the door, said gidday then fell back into my bed and knew no more.
Alarm was set for 5:30am and it duly went off… peeked out the door and it was still bucketing down and raining… just five more minutes in bed please!!!! Debated what to do… I decided that the Oxley was a stupid idea in this weather… so what to do now? Straight up the Pacific to make up kays and then turn around and head back to Nambucca or sleep in and forego the farride? I decided to sleep in but after about two minutes was disgusted at myself so up I got and up Skip got and then Skip laughed at me when I told him not to rush as I had to do my hair LOL. Was just getting daylight when we rolled outta Taree and onto the Pacific Highway. Lots of rain and lots of water and before long I was sitting in a puddle of water again. Grr. My rain off gloves held up better than the day before though!
Stopped at Kempsey for fuel and a smoke, both of us were going alright. Passed Nambucca Heads… and into Coffs Harbour. Coming into Coffs Harbour (well really after I passed Nambucca Heads) I’m just thinking “WTF am I doing out here?!?!?!!! this is madness”. Stopped at some lights in Coffs, said to Skip “I’m bailing” (he was doing SS1600 so he kept going) and I did a dodgy u-turn and headed back towards Nambucca Heads.
Stopped at Urunga for a sausage roll breakfast and a bit of a break… wrung out the gloves (abandoned the rain off gloves here) and sat down and watched the world go by for a bit. Looked at my odo here - it had been reading 58493 when I left Dunedoo the day before and now it was reading 59410 so just over 80km and I’d have 1000km (well on my bike anyway, I suspect the gearing has been changed as it is over reading something chronic) so I set off past Nambucca Heads, through Macksville to a point down the road where I did another u-turn and back into Nambucca with a final reading of 1005km! (I later worked it out and I really did 917km) but I knew it was wrong so I just put down 850km as a guess at the check-in. There were *heaps* of people already there when I got there and they just kept rolling in. 51 finishers in the end plus a few who were late and me who didn’t make up the kays. (Spewin about that now… but ah well).
Lunch was very social and I got an award for the FarRider game of Tag… YEAH! I was just thinking I better move my bike around to the cabins when Skip presented me with a can of bourbon yummo so bike moving was delayed. Eventually made it back to the cabin out of the wet leather pants and into the dry jeans (not for long) before heading back up and then it was movie time, not that I watched much of it, too busy chatting so will have to wait for the DVD to come my way.
The socialising continued into the evening though I didn’t really have much bourbon. All too soon we were being kicked out of the pub so it was off to bed.
The heater was on all night and woke up stinking hot just as the sun was beginning to come up so outside for a quick smoke/cool down and then back into bed but I was done with sleeping so tried to sneak around to pack up my stuff (which had all been spread out to dry) trying to not wake up Richard but failed, he woke up (sorry!) bit of a chat and I was on the road about 7am. I needed fuel so pulled into Macksville and I also got a V and had a smoke. While I was smoking three boys approached me, one carrying what looked like a sack of blood (ew). He proudly displayed his 10 litre sack of goon. eeeeew. LOL. He said I had a “mad” bike. Asked what size it was, I said 900 and he’s all like “wow man that puts me to shame as a bloke, I’ve only ever ridden a 250, a chick on a 900 woooow” lol yep they were pissed. Finally they left me to get kitted up and off I went.
Soon after Skip overtook me so I fell in behind him. His indicator had come on at the Port Macquarie turn off…. I had been going to stop at Kew for a break to try and find this Far Kew lighter Charlie had been talking about… but I needed to erm stop then so pulled in as well and Mick and Dee and a couple of others were there as well. I found the toilets, then had a smoke, the guys were all having breakfast so I kept going.
Stopped at Bulahdelah for fuel, lots of comments from the drivers about how mad I must be being out on the bike in that weather. I had been getting cold coming into town so I had a pie to warm myself up and the boys all came past while I was eating my pie. Took off again, next stop Wyong. Didn’t see Skip again, but I caught the rest of them just as I was coming into Wyong. Fuel then I moved to have a smoke but ended up hanging around chatting for a while. Mick and Dee were going to head off towards Lithgow to get off the freeways for the rest of the trip… nah I thought I just want to get home so continued down the freeway. It didn’t rain going through Sydney and then out the other side I only got a little bit of rain here and there… but I was getting cold. Pulled into Marulan for fuel and thought about getting something to eat but there was a huge queue so stuff that. Messaged my sister asking her to put the hot water on for me, put the dry winter gloves on and continued on my way. Along the Federal the sun came out, so I had a warm right side where the sun was shining on me and a cold left side where the wind was hitting me LOL. Got home around 4pm, stripped off out the front as all my gear was still saturated and pretty much straight into the shower.
It was a bit of a failure of a weekend but it was good anyway.
I think these guys do it much better though 
