East FarRide #6

Been a while since I did a blog so here goes… be warned, it’s likely to be a big one!

Well it all started a few weeks ago… in preparation for the Iron Butt ride in November we need to HTFU.  We knew of the upcoming FarRide to Eat in February but thought it was too close to really get to… LOL in true form, stuff that, we decided to do it.  So Saturday 9 February 2008 we needed to be in Nambucca Heads for lunch (about 750+km from Canberra directly).  If you don’t know about the FarRiders, well the FarRide to Eat rides are basically there is a spot you go for lunch.  You do 1000km in a 24 hour period to attend that lunch.  Doesn’t matter where you start from or if you do say 100km to get there and then 900km to get home or whatever.  We decided to leave at 5:30pm on Friday after work, do as much as we could and make up the remaining kays after lunch.

In true form the plans kept changing, I can’t remember how many changes were made LOL.  Finally it was decided to leave Watson 6pm Friday and ride through to Taree.

FRIDAY 8 FEBRUARY 2008

I finished work and went out to Bruce’s to buy some oil to top up the bike before we left… filled up and was back at the bike at 5:35… finished checking everything, still no sign of James, so grabbed my first can of “V” (hereafter known as go-go juice) and had a smoke.  James rolled up, filled up, a quick smoke then we were on our way.  First stop Sutton Forest!

Rolled up the Hume at a steady but reasonably sensible rate, passed another rider with pillion along the way who ended up just tailling us… pulled into the Shell at Sutton Forest - no premium!  Damn.  The Fuelstorm definitely needed feeding so filled up, smoke then on our way again - next stop Pheasant’s Nest (about 50km up the road or something).  About 20km before Pheasant’s Nest it started raining… great.  So filled up at Pheasant’s Nest, donned the plastic gear and on to Sydney. 

Took the freeway into the city, before ducking through some backstreets and across the bridge and up the Pacific Highway to Maccas at Waitara.  A quick meal then a quick scoot back down to find a servo before heading off on the F3 towards Newcastle where the next fuel stop was planned.  Was very uneventful apart from some tool on a BMW doing silly things… dunno what he was doing… James eventually pulled over cuz he couldn’t tell whether it was me or the BMW dude behind him.  Dude came sailing past as we were pulled over… right - let’s give chase!  Didn’t quite catch him before he turned off, but saw him turn off … somewhere…

Rolled into the BP at Raymond Terrace about 11:30pm, where the car park was full of patrol cars!!!! Filled up, and another can of go go juice and a smoke, the coppers had started to leave but didn’t see which way they went… didn’t see any out on the highway though!  Next stop Taree for the night.

Kept on going up the Pacific Highway, more rain, pulled into Bulledelah so that James could clean his visor before pushing on to Taree.  I felt really good for the whole ride until about 20km before we hit Taree… then I got really tired.  Pulled into the Motel at about 1:20am.  Had a smoke and chatted for a bit before hitting our respective beds for our huge three hours of sleep!

SATURDAY 9 FEBRUARY 2008

Alarm went off at 5am… eventually got up, I had coffee James had go go juice, a couple of smokes and we were on our way.  Filled up at the local United (it was the only thing open!) and were on our way at about 5:45am.  Took a little longer than anticipated to get to Wauchope where we stopped for fuel and another go go juice!  Decided to haul arse where could along the next stretch… the Oxley Highway!!

Oxley Highway

And what a beautiful stretch of road that was… mostly.  Stopped for the obligatory photo under the “45km of heaven” sign before heading off… the road was mostly wet or damp but dry in sections (usually the dry sections were the corners… how awesome is that!) but there were some pretty dodgy repairs on the road so that combined with the wetness meant we didn’t push it too much along here at all.  Came out the other end with 50km to Walcha… well we made up for lost time here! LOL.  Pulled into the servo at Walcha to refuel before heading a few metres up the road for go go juice and smoke break.  We covered the 171km in 1 hour and 25 minutes  Passed Davo and a few of the other Far Riders heading in the opposite direction.

Walcha

Refreshed and refueled it was time to head north again - took the northern section of the Thunderbolts Way to Uralla which was pretty straight so we held a pretty good pace through there.  Had a bit of a moment along here, had gotten stuck behind a car that James had overtaken, finally go around so went to chase James down, hit a lefty, hooked in, hit gravel in the lefty….oh SHIT! haha but it was okay just wobbled about for a second before continuing on… slowed me down a little though LOL.

Another stop in Armidale to top up the fuel again.. (the Fuelstorm is very thirsty) then stopped at a rest area where we met yet another FarRider.  He stayed for the toilet and James and I took off again - time for the Waterfall Way.  Had a pretty good run through to Ebor, then just after we turned off for Dorrigo, something went wrong in James’ head so the pace was much slower.  Refueled again in Dorrigo (well James did - once again, no premium!) before finding another park to enjoy another refreshing can of go go juice and another smoke.  We still had plenty of time to get to Nambucca so took it pretty easy.

Then OMG one awesome road!  From Dorrigo down the hill - just beautiful.  We were behind a 4WD for a little bit, come around a righty and there in front of us is one spectacular waterfall which just pours down the cliff then goes under the road! WOW!!!  There was no where to pull up but soon enough there was another waterfall - not as spectacular as the first but there was a little rest area there so we pulled up, pulled out cameras, click click click and we’re off again. 

Waterfall Way

Heaps of traffic going down now and even more coming up so couldn’t push it like I wanted - surface of the road seemed great even if there was no signage for the corners!

Got back to the Pacific Highway then onto Nambucca.  Found another dude on a V-Strom (I think) so followed him and sure enough, he led us to where we were supposed to be.  There were heaps of bikes already there! a quick check of the time and ODO showed that we had done 1097km in 18 hours - was 12:00pm.  Spotted Tex so walked over to say gidday and had a camera in my face for a bit, don’t like that (well not when I’m sober anyway).  Was great to meet a whole bunch of new people, though when I signed up nobody had said anything about public speaking!!!! Luckily James had to go first so all I really had to say was my name, what my bike is and that I rode with him  

Nambucca Heads

We hung around in Nambucca for a while, got my handshake off Davo (and also a hug!!) before we headed back North towards Coffs Harbour for a piccy of the bikes at the Big Banana.  Got there - now feeling dead as.  Had been feeling really good all day up until Nambucca. 

The Big Banana

I made the suggestion that perhaps we should just grab a motel there at Coffs - sleep for 8 hours then up and off again… James reckoned we should just keep going South for a couple of hours then re-assess so back on the bikes and off again.  Pacific Highway up that way sucks arse by the way.

So we rolled south, pretty much on the speed limit as there are about a million speed cameras and we didn’t want to push our luck too far after the antics in the morning.  I started to get very sore on this stretch in my right wrist, it really hurt and I had pins and needles in my two smaller fingers and shooting pains up to my elbow.  We stopped at Kempsey for fuel (actually I had no idea where we were until I read James’s write up!) where I had two paracetamol tablets as well as a Celebrex.  After a bit of a rest we were on our way again and thankfully the pain went away. 

We were riding towards some pretty black looking clouds, and sure enough we hit it ( or it hit us) anyway there was a bit of hail and lots of rain and lightning and thunder so we pulled into a servo near the Port Macquarie turn off.   The storm had eased and the servo dude said it had passed, we’d be right from there on so didn’t bother donning the wets.  Another can of go go juice and back on the highway. 

I think I had too much go go juice because I ended up with the hiccups.  At least that made the time go quick as I was trying to get rid of them.  Reached Taree in what seemed like no time at all, hiccups stopped miraculously as soon as we hit the first round about… filled up again, then back to the highway and the hiccups returned LOL.  We had plans to do the old section of the highway through Wootton so turned off - I still had tinted visor on and it was pretty much dark by this time.  I couldn’t be arsed stuffing around changing visors so just stuck the sunnies on (they are a fairly light tint) before we headed off again.  Before long the dark clouds overtook whatever daylight remained in the sky and it was raining again.  I couldn’t see jack, I was just following the tail light in front of me, I could only read the advisory signs on the corners when I was right on them so it made for a very interesting ride through there.  I loved it anyway, can’t wait to go back and have another bash at it in the day/dry! LOL James hated it and I think he thinks I am insane.  He’s probably not wrong.  

I stuck with the tinted visor for the next stretch which was Bulledelah to Raymond Terrace (where we had decided to stay for the night).  It absolutely pissed down on this stretch - still hadn’t put wets on and was already wet by this stage so stuff it.  Again couldn’t see much but the tail light and the road markings so was another interesting stretch! It was a really different kind of perception because usually you know you look ahead at what is coming up etc, but I couldn’t see anything so just following a light - it was a totally different concept of riding. 

Pulled into Raymond Terrace, a quick stop at KFC for dinner before finding a Motel (requirement - hot shower and two beds) we each had a hot shower then I was asleep in about two minutes I think.

SUNDAY 10 FEBRUARY 2008

Up at… I have no idea what time! LOL up the road to quickly fill up before heading down the freeway again - James missed the turn off for Sydney - I had gotten excited, thought we were gonna do Putty Road!  But nope, so a u-turn then back to the freeway.  Passed the first Peat’s Ridge sign and I’ve gone  before remembering that we’ve gotta go PAST Gosford before turning off 

Took the Old Pacific Highway turn off and opened up the bikes - Jimmy was singing, the sun was shining, the road was mostly dry and empty apart from a few cyclists.  Hooking into some of the beautiful corners and oooops across the road is a stream of water, hit it, arse stepped out… ooops!  Pulled into Road Warriors for quick smoke and photo before heading off to Sydney.

Road Warriors

Aitken’s Motorcycles were putting on a free suspension day for KSRC members so rolled out there (James knew exactly where it was thankfully cuz I had NFI).  The BBQ was already going when we got there, Tony was there with my knob for the Ohlins so got a free bacon and egg roll for breaky as well as sausage on rolls for lunch - champions!  Dude looked over my bike, reattached the Ohlins… got to catch up with the Sydney crew which was cool, talked a bit about the upcoming Supers at PI (YEAH! ) drooled over all the bikes (the ZX6R looks quite nice in yellow - I didn’t think I’d like it!) hung out there until… ummm maybe 1pm? (EDIT - James informs me it was about 3pm we left ) 

Aitken's Motorcycles

Before hopping on the bikes and heading back to Canberra.  Just did the M5 to Mittagong (stopping at Pheasants Nest for refuel again) then rolling through the Southern Highlands Way to Marulan then the backroad through Bungonia to Goulburn.

Refuel and smoke at Goulburn then off to Breadalbane… I love that road - it’s the old Hume Highway and I don’t know when they bypassed it but it must have been a long time ago - all the old signs are there and they look OLD, there are overtaking lanes and such but they are so faded you can hardly see the road markings.  Anyway the road is a bit bumpy but it is totally empty - I don’t remember passing any cars this time (last time is a different story where a certain girl on a certain ZX6R executed a certain “dodgy overtaking manouvere” on a 4WD with caravan on a 45km/h bend)… actually that particular 45er is now my favourite corner!  

Anyway was a spirited run into Gunning before stopping for another smoke and farewells before continuing on to Gunning then Sutton, then I turned off for Canberra and James kept going to Queanbeyan.  Rolled past Watson where we had started from at about 5:35pm - having done a grand total of 2,057km in the past 48 hours. 

It was a totally awesome experience and I found myself in the last few kays before home already thinking of more huge rides that can be done!