On xmas day I was speaking to my uncle in QLD and he said to me “you ride everywhere, when are you going to ride up and visit us?”. When my Australia Day long weekend plans were cancelled I decided that would be a good opportunity to head north. My mum was up there visiting and leaving on Sunday 25 Jan so I decided to rock up Saturday afternoon, spend the night there then start making my way home Sunday. I wasn’t going to tell anyone that I was coming, but in the end I let my mum in on the secret.
I left work about 4:45pm and the forecast had been for chance of storms everywhere I was going. When I got to Yass it was looking very dark but I managed to ride pretty much parralel to the storm clouds. There was some roadworks on the road into Boorowa and this is what it looked like when I stopped at Cowra for fuel.
I don't think my hugger is supposed to look like this...
I continued on… still with the storm clouds to my left and they very quickly obscured the sun so a quick stop in Canowindra to swap visors then onto Molong for a break at the driver reviver before getting into Dubbo for fuel, then onto Gilgandra for a quick smoke break then into Coonabarabran about midnight where I checked into the Poplars Motel.
I had stayed here before, but this time it was… interesting. I got into my room and turned on the light switch… the fan came on but no light. I went around to the bedside lamps and they wouldn’t turn on either. Bathroom light worked okay so just got out of the bike gear, and tried to turn the telly on… that didn’t work either. OK just bed then… went back towards the bed and there is a panel there with switches on it, hit the first one, the bedside light came on. Hit the second one and the telly came on… awesome! Was soon fast asleep. When I woke up Saturday morning however, none of the switches would make the lights come on, even the bathroom light didn’t work anymore, but the telly still had power??? at 6:47am all the lights came on. Strange.
Anyway, hit the road and headed up to Narrabri. Stopped at Narribri to pull out the MP3 player, then continued up the Newell to Moree where I stopped for fuel and a smoke break.
At Moree
Then onto Goondiwindi and I was a little hungry so thought a cheeseburger might be a good idea as it was 10:45 and I thought breakfast was over… got inside and the breakfast menu was still up… maybe breakfast is til 11 now? Duh, QLD is an hour behind, it was only 9:45! Sweet! So a sausage and egg mcmuffin and I was on my way again… new territory now.
Headed east towards Warrick, stopping in Ingleburn for fuel. Along this road I came up over a crest to see flashing disco lights and a customer slowly pulling away… copper hung a u-turn behind me with the lights still flashing but he must have stopped because I never saw him again.
Got into Beaudesert and stopped to get fuel. A dude on a ZX12R pulled up beside me and we got to talking, as you do. Ended up having quite an extended break there chatting away, which was quite welcome as it was HOT!!! and muggy, eww. Eventually got going again, headed for Canungra, then towards Monterey Keys to see the family. One last map check then I was on their doorstep (after going past their street first try LOL).
My 13 year old cousin answered the door, now I haven’t seen him in years but he recognised me straight away. He says to me “Sue (my mum)’s not here but you can come in and see Dad if you want”. Cheers dude. He took me out the back and my uncle was very surprised! He got me a cold drink while I shed the jacket and then I took him out to show off the bike (he rides as well, an XT600 though he’d really like a beemer to do some touring!) Then some of his friends turned up so we sat around chatting for a bit until my mum and aunty got home… surprise No. 3! hehe. A short while later mum, my aunt and me jumped in the car and headed over to my grandmother’s house. I hid around the corner while they went inside and got her, then she came out, she said hello to me, then did a huge double take and pointed at me “oh my” she says hehe. Surprise no. 4! Lots of hugs, and she showed me around her house then back for an evening of catching up with the family. It was really good. My other cousin came home briefly as well and it was really good to see her as well. Played some guitar hero with Sean before heading off to bed.
Was up bright and early Sunday morning as we were going out for breakfast to this place called Aqua which was overlooking the water and Surfers Paradise. Lovely. Krissy made an appearance as well, after being out clubbing all night, what a trooper! Then back to the house for some relaxing (and a bit of a swim) and my uncle took my bike out for a little spin and then took my aunt and my cousin for a short ride up and down the street. All too soon it was time to go, so I set off with the clouds looking rather threatening.
I headed back to the M1 and was going to take that as far as Coolangatta but didn’t feel like getting off there so continued on until I saw a tourist drive “Tweed Coast Highway” yep that’ll do so I followed that road through to Pottsville. The sky was threatening and just coming into Pottsville it starting to come down in earnest. I pulled up under a tree for a smoke and a map consult… I decided to jump back onto the Pacific Highway and take the turn off for Byron Bay. The rain got really heavy on the Pacific Highway and the cars were throwing up a lot of spray - I still didn’t bother with the wet weather gear as it was still really hot! I got a good soaking through my jacket but my legs stayed dry… guess the 9 is good for weather protection YAY!
I got fuel on the outskirts of Byron Bay then pulled up in the town where I met a bunch of Ulyssians out on a day ride. I had a bit of a chat with them before taking off to go up to Cape Byron and visit the lighthouse. MISTAKE!!! It was so busy up there, just crawled up the hill and inched into the car park. My bike was getting really hot so I just picked a little spot behind a car and stopped there - you are supposed to pay to park there (and I was parked illegally) but when the parking dude came over, I told him that my bike was too hot and I just wanted a photo. He kindly said I could go up the path a little so I could get a good shot of the bike with the lighthouse but I didn’t want to work my way through all the cars to do so, so it’s a pretty poor lighthouse photo!
Lighthouse at Cape Byron
Headed back down, missed the turn to Ballina (didn’t see it) so went back out the way I came, back onto the Pacific Hwy for a short stretch before turning off for Bangalow and onto Lismore. Had a good run through here, it was still fairly wet and there was a bit of traffic but I wasn’t behind it for long :o) Stopped in Lismore for a little break, the weather was still looking fairly ordinary!
Lismore
James had told me about the Bruxner Highway, that it is a good road to ride so I was headed for Tenterfield. Rolled through Casino and the countryside was really lovely. Stopped at Tababulum(sp??) at the driver reviver for a coffee and the lady there told me to be very careful on the way to Tenterfield, if the corners were marked 35 do 35 or less and take extra care on the “fish hooks” (hairpins… I like fish hooks better!) as they had had a lot of rain and the road was quite greasy. Well that was a lovely bit of road (even at Mel Rain Pace) - leaving that town that I can’t spell there had been a car behind me which I quickly left behind (so I thought). Was a bit embarrassing when they were catching up to me in the twisty section :S. That road is now on the list of “to go back and do in the dry” roads.
There were some roadworks coming into Tenterfield, stopped at some lights for a little while then into Tenterfield. I had an eye out for the Tenterfield Saddler but didn’t see it, turned left to head towards Glen Innes (maybe it was to the right?) grabbed some fuel and continued on. The sun went down on the way into Glen Innes and I stopped there for the night, grabbed a motel room and some KFC for dinner then retired to bed watching some English period drama thing on the telly (that I quite enjoyed!).
Was up about 7am on Monday morning - my original plan was to go down the Gwydir Hwy to Grafton then that little squiggly road towards Ebor, down the Waterfall Way, Pacific Highway to Port Macquarie (if I couldn’t find a backroad) then Oxley Hwy up to Walcha, Thunderbolts, Putty, Bells Line, Oberon to Goulburn and home. Well I looked at the distance and I think I wouldn’t have got home until about midnight so instead, down the New England to Armidale (where I wanted to turn left)
Left for Waterfall Way :o(But no, I had to get home so straight it was. Turned left at Uralla (I think that is the right town name) and into Walcha for fuel. Stopped at the same place James and I had for FarRide #6 for a photo with "that" sign (I have a photo of Jimmy & the Fuelstorm in the same place that was my desktop at work for about six months).Walcha
From here I headed down Thunderbolts, a road I haven’t done since December 2006 on my first solo trip. The start wasn’t as bumpy as I remembered but before long I was bouncing all over the place. Not long after leaving Sunny Walcha I hit fog. Fog in the middle of summer! This cooled it down heaps (not that it had been particularly warm so far) The tighter section was unfortunately a little too bumpy for my tastes to have a proper go so it was all taken very slowly. I pulled up for a smoke break along the way and as soon I stopped Mr Plod came by (not that I had been being silly or anything). It was a very pretty spot, in fact the whole road is very pretty.
Thunderbolts Way
Bounced my way into Gloucester and continued on, was looking for a turn off for Dungog at Stroud Road. I got to the other side of Stroud Road without seeing the turn off so pulled into a rest area, and there were two other bikes there. Said gidday to the riders, as you do, and they asked if I would like a ham and cheese roll as they had one spare. Sure I said! So I joined them, ate my ham cheese and beetroot (it’s Australia Day, gotta have beetroot right?). They were Steve and Tony from Coffs way out for a day ride (more ulyssians!) and they had a lot of stories to tell which was cool. They told me that the turn off I was looking for was a little further down the road so off I went and I found it before long. Nice bit of road at the start but before long it was really bumpy again (I was getting a sore back from all the bumps by now!) Parts of it were looking familiar and then I realised this was the road that we did (coming the other way) on the KSRC Gingers Creek trip back in June :o) Rolled through Dungog then East Gresford and after I left those towns behind I looked at the fuel and thought… hmmm perhaps I shoulda got fuel back there… ah she’ll be right not far to Singleton. I got into Singleton with 325km showing on my trip meter and I still hadn’t gone to reserve (was 0.5L off it though) :o) Sweet!
Got my fuel and found a tree to park under to have a drink and smoke break and realised I was across the road from the Singleton bike shop… ok photo for the TAG files :o)
Singleton
Alright - Putty Road time! The road was very quiet and I had a really good run through the twisty section with very little traffic. From there I just cruised along sitting just above the limit, I was expecting Constable Care to be out in force but I didn’t see any. I wasn’t ready to stop at the Halfway Roadhouse so continued on to Colo Heights where I stopped for a snack (chicken chippies) and an icy cold can of coke (it was hot again). Into Wilberforce for fuel and looking at the time I decided to skip Bells Line of Road and just take the M7 through Sydney and the Hume home.
It was an uneventful trip down the Hume and I pulled into Goulburn to get fuel and was pulled over, they were doing RBT just as you come in off the freeway. I passed (of course) and had to wait a bit to get across two lanes of traffic to get into the right turning lane (which was right where I was). The copper was waving at me to go (as the left lane was clear) duh! Pulled up next to the pump and a ute pulled up at the pump beside me “what a stupid place for RBT when you just want fuel” he says and I have to agree. Another drink and smoke break and it’s time for the final stretch. I picked a car keeping a nice pace for the run into Canberra along the Federal (again uneventful) and got home just on dark.
Another great weekend out on the bike!
:o)
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