Post Reply 
 
Thread Rating:
  • 0 Votes - 0 Average
  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4
  • 5
No Moon Tonight, From Summit to Sea, and More
Author Message
Cormanus Offline
Moderator

Queensland, Australia
Posts: 20,659
Joined: Dec 2013
Post: #31
RE: No Moon Tonight, From Summit to Sea, and More
Pterodactyl started this report. Norromtomove and AussieFlyer have added to it. Just to round it out, briefly, here are the bits of the ride I did on my own.

Day 1: Brisbane to Wauchope
İmage
Link to Map

Crossing the border from Queensland to New South Wales in the summertime means putting your clock forward an hour. Queensland, with good reason, declines to participate in the daylight saving adopted by other Australian states.

On Australia Day (January 26) I was in Grafton, NSW with the clock on the bike saying my normal lunch time was over due, but not yet feeling hungry enough to stop. I was also in the process of deciding to abandon the day’s plan to ride up the range to Glen Innes. I’d been out of sorts all day and I just didn’t feel like it, even though I’d originally been keen to get up on the range. It was very hot on the flat in the coastal hinterland and I hoped height would bring cooler air. But it was increasingly overcast and a check of the weather app on my phone showed rain falling all over the alternative route I was pondering.

The bike was (relatively) clean, I was hot and I didn’t want to have to do battle with my wet weather gear (which would just make things even hotter). To make matters more complicated, either alternative ride up the Great Dividing Range would mean a longer wait for food than I wanted.

On a whim I decided to go to Nana Glen, nearer the coast, where there had been a motorcycle friendly café the last time I passed through. While that would mean the slab after lunch and an overnight stay near the coast, the consolation prize was a ride up the Oxley Highway the following morning.

Australia Day’s a public holiday, and when I got to Nana Glen the café was firmly closed. I pushed on to Coramba where I found food but no fuel. That would once have worried me, but application of Noroomtomove’s First Law of Motion and Fuel Consumption reassured me I’d be fine to get to Coffs Harbour.
İmage
Stopped for lunch at Coramba

İmage
An afternoon milestone just south of Coffs Harbour

Later in the day, after an unremarkable trip down the highway, very hot but at least dry, I pulled into Wauchope where I found a room at the Hastings Hotel. It was comfortable and clean, but it wasn’t until I lay down on the bed that I finally found the power point.
İmage

Day 2: Wauchope to Scone
İmage
Link to Map

The section of the Oxley Highway that runs from Wauchope to Walcha is rated by many as the best motorcycle road in Australia. I’m not sure I agree, but it’s still a fabulous ride. As you pass the Wauchope town boundary you are immediately into a delightfully winding road that passes through the bush until it emerges onto Long Flat. Long Flat is more undulating than flat, but it’s open farm land and smooth, fast road.

Then you start to climb and there is a sign warning you of 44 kms of winding road. That’s 8 kms more than the sign photographed by AussieFlyer (seehere, but I’ve no photographic evidence. This time. The speed limit drops to 80 kph and you are into the bush, climbing the Great Dividing Range. The road surface is excellent, the corners great and the challenge for a medium grade rider like me is to stay as near to 80 kph as you can all the way to Gingers Creek.

Before we get to Gingers Creek, though, a word on the speed limit. Traffic authorities in Australia are convinced the only way to reduce the road toll is to reduce the speed limits. While they may be right, I’m not completely sure how much evidence there is that it’s actually working. The decision to reduce the speed limit on 44 kms of the Oxley Highway that winds up the mountain side has been hotly contested and the subject of great criticism by many a motor cyclist and local. I don’t know what to think. While I’m not sure I can see the need for it—roads dictate the speed at which intelligent people will drive or ride them—it’s hard for me to sustain a much higher speed for much of the road. I’m also not sure I want to be confronted by people blasting out of a corner at much higher speed.

The riders are unhappy and, I’m sure, certain amongst them will continue to blast up the road at the best speed they can manage, scaring the bejasus out of the rest of us for the time they retain their licence. And, I must confess, above Gingers Creek the road starts to open up a bit and the 80 kph speed limit feels a little restrictive, even to me.

Gingers Creek is the place where you stop for a cup of coffee and, this day anyway, breakfast. You can theoretically buy fuel there, but the supply is not guaranteed so it’s wise not to count on it. I had the place pretty much to myself and enjoyed the peace, the birds and a plate of eggs and bacon before moving on.
İmage
Alone at Gingers Creek

İmage
Breakfast

İmage

Just up the road a tree had fallen blocking half the road. There was no phone reception so I took a photo with my phone to get a GPS fix on the place then kept riding till reception returned when I pulled over and rang the traffic authority to tell them. They already knew, but I still had a virtuous feeling from making the effort.
İmage
That tree

From the end of the 44 km stretch, the road straightens and the speed limit is lifted to 100 kph then 110 kph for the run across the plain to Walcha. I refuelled and then spent an hour or more trying to find a clip for the strap that holds my bag onto the bike that I’d broken when I got fuel. I found one at a saddlery run by a bloke who had an old 650 4-cylinder Kawasaki. He’d been out for a ride when I first called which was why I had to wait around.

Why I did this, I can’t explain. I had a perfectly adequate alternative. I suppose there’s some sort of challenge in there that I can’t resist.
İmage
Parked for Coffee at the Royal Hotel in Walcha. I got away with it.

Luckily, I think, I recalled in the nick of time that Australia’s premier country music festival was on in Tamworth. I’d been planning to ride there on my way to Dungowan and Nundle—a road listed as one of the top 10 in NSW. The trip down Thunderbolts Way to the turn off to Dungowan is a good ride anyway, and the ride from that turn off to Dungown through the Port Stevens Cutting is also great.

The road from Dungowan to Nundle was a pleasant ride, but I was down off the mountain and it was getting very hot when I stopped for lunch.
İmage
Chaffey Dam on the way to Nundle. It looked and felt very dry.

After lunch the weather became more and more foreboding and when I stopped for fuel in Scone, the weather radar showed a storm closing in and I decided to stay dry.
İmage
Hydrating while deciding whether or not to run the gamut of the rain

I put up at the recently renovated Thoroughbred Hotel to escape a drenching. It fizzed before it got there and very little rain fell, but I was tired and glad to be off the bike.
İmage
Lamb cutlets at the Thoroughbred Hotel, Scone

I fell asleep before the end of the women’s final at the Australian Open. If I ever found out who won, I’ve since forgotten.

Day 3: Scone to Sydney
İmage
Link to Map

Leaving Scone, I made my way through Broke and the road to Wollombi on the grounds that it would get me to Sydney faster than the Putty Road. It’s also a great ride that I’d done most recently on the way to the MotoGP in 2017. It’s the home of Lemming Corner about which much has been written in the past.
İmage
A coffee stop at Jerry’s Gourmet Kitchen & Café at Kulnura. A favourite weekend biker stop

İmage
A milestone on the way into Sydney

I was in Sydney for lunch with my son and his wife and spent a most agreeable afternoon and evening with them.

Day 4: Sydney

Perhaps the most taxing riding day of all: about 6 kms across Sydney to Chez Pterodactyl where I passed another pleasant afternoon and evening.

Days 5 – 12
Pterodactyl and Aussieflyer have covered the events of the days that followed earlier in this thread, while noroomtomove has added photos. For those interested, here are the maps of each day’s ride and a photo or two just for fun.

Day 5: Sydney to Braidwood
İmage


İmage

İmage
These are for Inhouse Bob. It wasn’t like this when we were here together

İmage

İmage
Pterodactyl on the Seacliff Bridge at Wollongong

Day 6: Braidwood to Khancoban
İmage
Link to Map

İmage
Pterodactyl and noroomtomove at Charlotte Pass. At 1,835 metres, the highest point in Australia you can reach by road

İmage
Two fine specimens and Cormanus at the Charlotte Pass lookout

Day 7: Khancoban to Bright
İmage
Link to map

İmage
Pterodactyl performs on the Bogong High Plains Road

İmage
Meeting Aussieflyer at the Bright pub. Those who remember The Great Race will note the connection between Pterodactyl’s bike and The Great Leslie

Day 8: Bright to Bruthen to Mitta Mitta

See Aussieflyer’s report here for the maps of Day 8. I’ll say only that I’ve never ridden a motorcycle so fast for so long as I did chasing Pterodactyl and Aussieflyer up the Omeo Highway! I might even have scraped a peg or two.
İmage
At breakfast in Bright

İmage
Aussieflyer heads to Bruthen on a rare straight stretch of the Omeo Highway

İmage

İmage

İmage
A rest stop at Anglers Rest on the Omeo Highway. The serious riders compare notes

İmage

İmage

İmage

İmage
Some Omeo Highway scenes

İmage
Dinner at the Mitta pub

Day 9: Mitta Mitta to Leather Barrel Creek
İmage
Link to map

İmage
Tumut Dam in the Snowy Mountains

İmage

İmage
Alpine riding

İmage
Pristine camp site at Leather Barrel Creek

İmage

Day 10: Leather Barrel to Gillards Beach
İmage
Link to Map

Our final stop before Gillards Beach was the seaside town of Tathra where we refuelled and bought the odd supply for the camp. We were forced to buy liquid supplies at the local club as the bottle shop had burned down not long before. Tragically, less than two months later in mid-March 2018, a major bushfire tore through the town. 65 houses and 35 caravans and cabins were destroyed, with another 48 houses damaged.

İmage
Pterodactyl blitzes the mountain

İmage

İmage

İmage
On the way from Leather Barrel Creek to Gillards Beach

İmage

İmage

İmage
Some of the locals at Gillards Beach

İmage
The beach itself was a bit crowded

Day 11: Gillards Beach to Abercrombie River
İmage
Link to map

İmage
The camp at Abercrombie River

Day 12: Abercrombie River to Gloucester
İmage
Link to map

İmage

İmage
We pretty much had the place to ourselves, although it was a bit of a ride to the shower block

Day 13: Gloucester to Ebor
İmage
Link to map

After a late breakfast, Pterodactyl headed south. I’d decided to take a new route east (rather than north) from Gloucester which would take me back to the coast, up the slab and give me another go at the 44 kms of bends on the Oxley.

From Gloucester to Taree was a pretty ride through the hills along The Buckett’s Way. I contemplated going via Nabiac where lurks the National Motorcycle Museum of Australia, but abandoned the plan on the basis that I wanted to make a reasonable distance that day and it would involve a detour not to mention time in the museum.

From Taree to just after Herons Creek was freeway. Not unattractive but not interesting riding. At Herons Creek I turned off onto a much more interesting back road that took me to Wauchope and back on to the Oxley Highway. In places it’s beauty and motorcycling appeal were slightly offset by the poor road surface. But then, I suspect all road repair money in this shire is probably spent on the Oxley.

Another wonderful ride up the Oxley to Gingers Creek.
İmage
Lunch at Gingers Creek

Then I pushed on to Armidale where I stopped at the local Honda dealer to consult a mechanic about what appeared to be a slight leak in the master cylinder for the front brakes. He looked, tightened something, said that if the level dropped further I should replace the diaphragm and suggested I keep an eye on it.

I’d planned to stop at Armidale, but it was early and a pleasant evening, so I decided to head for Dorrigo. I had a great ride across the plateau on a road made for fast cruising. As I rode into the tiny town of Ebor I noticed a motel I must have seen a dozen times before but never noted. I realised I was tired and decided to see whether there was a room. There was and I had a pleasant enough evening doing my bit for climate change.
İmage

Day 14: Ebor to Brisbane
İmage
Link to map

It was a glorious, but chilly, morning. There was frost on the bike. I rode the short distance to the Ebor Falls for a look. There wasn’t much water, but it was very pretty and I was pleased I took the time for a look.
İmage
Ebor Falls

As always the Armidale Road to Grafton was a great ride. It was appreciably hotter in Grafton than on the range and stayed that way all the way home. The road is pretty enough, but a bit light on for really enjoyable bits of road, with the exception of the stretch between Wiangaree and Rathdowney, which is a cracker of a road. Buoyed by the enjoyment of that ride, I decided to put Noroomtomove’s First Law of Motion and Fuel Consumption to a serious test. When I reached Beaudesert, I was still going strong after 254 kms (around 160 miles) and had another 2 litres in the tank. As a footnote, I feel inadequate beside noroomtomove. At one stage on this trip I had a text from noroomtomove saying he’d travelled 302 kilometres on a tank and was still going. There’s no way I could get that sort of economy.
İmage
Crossing the border

When I got home, I’d ridden 5,386 kilometres, used 270 litres of petrol at a cost of AU$382 and averaged 20.25 kilometres/litre. Even better than that, I’d seen little more than a couple of drops of rain and had a great couple of weeks in the saddle. What could be better?

Thanks Pterodactyl, Noroomtomove and Aussieflye for your company. It adds greatly to my riding pleasure to spend time with these CB owners en route to exotic places.
(This post was last modified: 04-29-2018 10:15 PM by Cormanus.)
04-29-2018 10:04 PM
Find all posts by this user Quote this message in a reply
Aussieflyer Offline
Running Like a Top

Melbourne Australia
Posts: 418
Joined: Nov 2013
Post: #32
RE: No Moon Tonight, From Summit to Sea, and More
So that's how it went before and after joining you guys ... huge distances by a couple of hard core tourers, very nice. Thanks again mate, I'm looking forward to the next opportunity to catch up.
05-01-2018 10:26 PM
Find all posts by this user Quote this message in a reply
pdedse Offline
Been There

Oregon
Posts: 3,243
Joined: Dec 2013
Post: #33
RE: No Moon Tonight, From Summit to Sea, and More
Great photos and a nice write up. I've got a sister who has lived in Adelaide for years and I still haven't made the trip yet. I'd love to have 6 months and bike to explore a bit. Thanks for taking the time to show us your corner of the world!
05-01-2018 10:59 PM
Find all posts by this user Quote this message in a reply
Cormanus Offline
Moderator

Queensland, Australia
Posts: 20,659
Joined: Dec 2013
Post: #34
RE: No Moon Tonight, From Summit to Sea, and More
pdedse, time for a visit, methinks. Plenty of bike rental places. Some of us may even come to meet you somewhere.
05-02-2018 07:41 PM
Find all posts by this user Quote this message in a reply
Inhouse Bob Offline
Road Warrior

NoVA
Posts: 1,955
Joined: Jun 2015
Post: #35
RE: No Moon Tonight, From Summit to Sea, and More
(05-02-2018 07:41 PM)Cormanus Wrote:  pdedse, time for a visit, methinks. Plenty of bike rental places. Some of us may even come to meet you somewhere.

Highly recommend that you take them up on it! Great guys, great country.
05-03-2018 05:59 AM
Find all posts by this user Quote this message in a reply
curlyjoe Offline
High Mileage

Massachusetts
Posts: 1,323
Joined: Jul 2014
Post: #36
RE: No Moon Tonight, From Summit to Sea, and More
Excellent pics and prose guys. Thanks for sharing!

2013 CB1100 ABS
2008 ST1300
05-04-2018 09:22 AM
Find all posts by this user Quote this message in a reply
Post Reply 


[-]
Forum Friends
Premium Exhausts & Unique Parts from Japan

[-]
Recent Posts
Triumph Thruxton RS Final Edition
CRISIS During the time that the Triumph . . .misterprofessionality — 11:25 AM
CB1100 Monthly Photo Challenge
Nah, just routine - catch, flip on back . . .Gone in 60 — 10:13 AM
CB1100 Monthly Photo Challenge
Did you administer your cats a sleeping . . .peterbaron — 10:04 AM
CB1100 Monthly Photo Challenge
That's cool, Tev! Somehow, when my . . .Gone in 60 — 09:44 AM
Tire Options for our CB1100
This explains why I liked the T32s then. . . .misterprofessionality — 08:52 AM
What did you do to/with your other bike?
Rode the Yami over to a friends bike sho . . .Charlie Bravo — 08:29 AM
CB1100 Monthly Photo Challenge
That's cool, Tev! Somehow, when my p . . .peterbaron — 05:38 AM
CB1100 Monthly Photo Challenge
That's cool, Tev! Somehow, when my pho . . .Tev62 — 03:36 AM

[-]
Statistics
» Members: 6,517
» Latest member: keedonald
» Forum threads: 15,974
» Forum posts: 329,755

Full Statistics

>
Forum Jump: