Not all who wander are lost

The girls were going out on Sunday and as I wasn't doing anything much I thought I'd join my two hobbies into one fantastic day. What could be better than a sunday ride through the Blue Mountains and take my camera along and take some photos. Photo's of what you ask? Well anything really I didn't have a plan on where I wanted to go or what I wanted to take photos of. I thought I'd just go with the flow as they say and see what happens.

It was going to be a hot day in Sydney today at 35-36°C so the Blue mountains was an excellent choice as it was only going to max out at 26°C. I thought I'd try out my new Dri Rider all seasons jacket today to combat the heat from the last ride where I was positively melting in my leathers.

Internal liners out and dry mesh jacket on, camera backpack on and then hit the road. Stopping to top up the gas tank was priority before tackling the Bells Line of Road up through the Blue Mountains. It was nice and cool in the ventilated jacket. I stopped to take a picture at Mt Tomah Botanical gardens, not wanting to spend too long I left my helmet on. Today I learned that you can't put your eye up to the viewfinder on the back of your DSLR with your helmet on as it is too big to fit in the helmet opening. Dang, fail.

Mt Tomah Botanical Gardens

So I quickly packed up and moved on to the next spot. I caught up to 3 bikes that got stuck behind a slow moving semi, then another 10 or so bikes came up behind. Looks like it was going to be a busy day out today. Next stop was down a dirt track to Mt Banks lookout. It wasn't a great spot for a photo so I left after grabbing this little gem.

View over the Banks Walls from Mt Banks(Not shown)

I made my way back to the main highway then continued along and found a spot on the side of the road were I could stop in the shade. I thought it might be a good spot to take some pics of any bikes that happened by. I was in luck as plenty of bikes came by. I'll post a gallery up a little later. Looks like I was under exposing most pics today by about 1 stop, better luck next time. Practise makes almost perfect as they say.

 A quick half hour break was good to test out my camera and take some snaps of my bike, which I'd not really done with this camera yet. Packing it away again I continued on until I got to Bell.

Not sure which way to go I quickly decided to head down towards lithgow. Coming into lithgow I saw a sign that pointed back up into the mountains that said Hartley Vale. I thought I'd follow this along and see where it went. I meandered through the foothills of the mountains. I found a little pub called the Comet Inn. It looked in great condition for a country pub but also looked closed.

Oh well, this road continued on climbing back into the mountains, it was only a little one lane road with 2kms of dirt, bumpy narrow and need to take a lot of care if anything comes the opposite direction. It popped back out onto the darling causeway between Bell and Mt Victoria.

I thought I'd like to go and have a look at Govetts leap, which is a lookout near Blackheath so I set off through to Mt Vic and the great western highway. I got a parking spot right at the entry arch to the look out. It was a beautiful day to be up that's for sure.

 I've been up here a few times, but I always like coming back. I could sit here and look at that mountain landscape for hours. Why? Because I can.

The sign says the Fall of water was named Govetts Leap after the surveyor of the same name discovered it. The Blue Mountains gets it name from the blue haze that can be seen in the air here. This is caused by the eucalyptus oil evaporating into the air from the tree leaves. And today it was particularly blue and hazy.

The hazy Blue Mountains

The sandstone cliff faces give off very different colours through out the day, in the morning and afternoon the cliffs glow in a bright hue of orange colours which can be quite spectacular.












I decided to move on and head around Cliff Drive at Katoomba and check what lookout I could get a good view for some more pics, Cahills lookout was that stop. It was starting to feel quite warm standing in the midday sun and I was getting hungry and thirsty. One more stop before I grab lunch. I met a older gent in the carpark who came up and looked at the bike and said" I could have sworn that was a Ducati coming up the hill from the noise it makes". I love the sound of the crossplane engine. It sets this inline 4 apart from every other mundane inline 4 cylinder engine.

Cahills Lookout

The views out to the south and west from Cahills lookout were also quite good. Amazing vistas and scenery up in this part of the world.

The cliffs are a shear drop off the edge, wouldn't want to wander around in the dark up here otherwise your could go straight over a 3-4 hundred metre drop.

What I didn't notice at first when I took the photo above was that there was something unusual about it. I took a closer look and then snapped this picture. Not for me but each to their own and I know they were out enjoying their day.

I was now getting very hungry and thirsty, it was after 1pm so time to get something to eat and drink. I was getting a bit tired of getting this big DSLR camera out. Get backpack off, open bag get camera out, put backpack back on take pics, reverse order again. It was getting a bit old. I think I need a tank bag I can shove it in if I take it out again to make it easier. That complaint over it does take some great photos, I just wish I knew how to take those one's hahahaha. Oh and if anyone wants to know, I don't use Auto either. It's all or nothing. The 300mm lense was to big for most of these shots today and was used between 70-200mm.

I headed off around Cliff drive past the 3 sisters no pics of that today, perhaps another time. I made my way through Leura. The smells from the cafes was now making me very hungry. One thing I love in the Blue mountains is the small pockets that have ever green tree's lining the streets, pines etc. The one's below are not ever green but still really beautiful.

 I finally pulled into Mountain Pies at Wentworth Falls for lunch. A pie, coffee and water to rehydrate was dispatched in no time. I cooled down a lit in the air conditioning before making for home .

Dropping down from the mountains into the outer suburbs of Sydney the temp skyrocketed from a balmy 26° in the mountains to 36° in the west, it was damn hot and I was glad I had the Mesh Jacket on but it was still stifling, lucky it was only 30 min to home. Another great day out on the bike and only 1 tank of fuel. Here's a quick map of today's ride.

Starting 2017 with a bang

How lazy am I? Its nearly the end of January and I haven't even been out on a ride yet, although I do have a few reasons for this. Someone take me out into the back paddock and just put me out of my misery, please. I've been busier than a blue arsed fly what with work and other family commitments, and the result is that riding has been on the back burner. Time to change that and quick smart. Too much work and not enough play. I organized a quick fang up to Tarlaga for lunch and then back again. A call to Bushpig and plans were hatched and we were soon under way, and he even invited his friend Saint Pat.

Meeting up at Bushpigs place we headed up out of Sydney along the Bells line of road, one of Sydney's classic biking roads across the blue mountains. We did notice however on the way across the Bells Line some of New South Wales finest hiding in the bushes with their hair dryers. Not sure if they were drying each others hair do's or trying to burn out our retinas at distance so we couldn't read our speedo's in the hope we'd mistake 80 for 60kmh, but none the less they stayed firmly where they were planted, in the bushes.

Riding across the bells line with its twists and turns I'd noticed that my bike wasn't handling like it normally would. You see I've been a bit lazy and still have the mismatched tyres on the bike. The rear is not the original size or matching brand for the front. It was tipping in nicely but the rear didn't want to follow at the same rate, a bit of a weird feeling really, but never the less I adapted and pressed on.

We stopped just after Mt Victoria for our first stop just past the lolly shop for a break and a bit of a chat. We turned into Cox River Road as I'd recently heard that it had been sealed all the way through, which turned out to be false. Cox River road still has a couple of kilometers of dirt on it, but its really easy riding dirt.

Three Gems in Little Hartley

Main Street of Taralga

We then continued on through to Oberon via Duckmaloi road for our first fuel stop of the trip. All the bikes had used within a half a litre of each other, so not much difference.

We headed down to Taralga via Shooters Hill road rather than the more direct and more boring route of Black Springs. Shooters Hill road is much more scene up through the pine forest to I might add so if you're in the area you have to pass through this way. Saint Pat and myself had swapped bikes at Oberon and were trying each others bikes out. The Ducati 1098 wheelies straight off the throttle coming out of town, weeeeeeeeeeeeeeee.................... It was a very narrow bike in comparison and handled very well. I don't think it turned quite as quick as the R1 but was still very good. Comfort wise seemed about on par and it also had a hard seat and it felt a lot like you sit down inside the bike and not on it like my R1.

Taralga Hotel

By the time we got to Taralga there was a bunch of bikes parked out the front of the pub and most of the tables had been taken. I jammed my hand under the screen of the ducati whilst trying to park it, between the bars and the screen on full lock it comes together which I thought was a bit dangerous.Lunches ordered we relaxed and  looked at the bikes parked out the front and any that happened by. I must say every time I've been here for lunch the meals have been fantastic, I can't recommend this place more.

Taralga

We spent about an hour in Taralga for lunch before deciding it was time that we got going. So I got back on my bike now and I decided I would lead the ride back up to Oberon as I'd followed the other guys on the way down.
The road through Abercrombie gorge is still dirt at the moment as they are doing road works to widen and smooth the road out. Should be good when they finish it which the signs said around April.

Abercrombie River

Saint Pat

On the way back to Oberon I decided I'd like to take the short trip up into the hills via one of the logging roads. This was only a short 8km long section before it turned to dirt and we would have to turn around and come back but is some of the most beautiful winding roads around in the area with elevation changes, sharp bends and spectacular forest scenery.

Along the way I checked my mirrors and about 2/3 the way along I didn't see anyone following. Funny that Bushpig and Saint Pat were there following me only about 2 minutes before. I didn't think too much about this as they must have pulled over to take a picture or something like that. Well after all I was doing the same thing. I got to the end and turned around and took a couple more pics. I waited for a couple of minutes and no one came along so I thought I'd better head back and see what where Bushpig and Saint Pat had gotten to.

Yes I know I've posted up photos of this road before but I love this piece of black top so much I just had to stop and take more pictures of it. Its motorcycling heaven, if only there was 30-40kms of this instead of 8.

I crested a rise and suddenly I saw Bushpig heading towards me, he started madly signalling me to slow down, well that's what I thought he meant so I did. It's a bit hard to tell what he was signalling really. I pulled over and stopped and waited for him. About 5 minutes went by and he came back into view. Very strange to say the least. He stopped and and I strolled over and I asked where everyone got to, he said follow me.


Over the very next rise there I saw 3 people standing in the middle of nowhere and a flash of red in the forest. WTF. It was a red Ducati. FUCK!. All you bike riders will know the sudden sinking feeling that I suddenly experienced.  Saint Pat had run off on one of the bends and into the forest, I immediately thought the worst. How could you survive that running into a pine forest. Luckily for him and everyone he was ok, more or less. A tree had broken his fall so to speak as well as one of his fingers.


The 3 people standing around were from a passing vehicle. The bike wasn't ride able the rear swing arm was smashed to bits and Saint Pat wasn't in a state to ride anyway. The bike could wait so we got Pat quickly into Oberon hospital via the passing vehicle. We loaded him into the front seat so he could go and get checked out and we could worry about what to do with the bike later, so we left a note on the bike to say rider was ok and taken to Oberon Hospital so anyone that found it didn't worry about what happened to the rider.


The ride home was a bit of a come down from the morning and was really just a boring commute across the blue mountains via the great western highway until we got home. About an hour out from home the R1's seat was rearing its ugly head and I was sitting from side to side to save my butt checks from the pounding it had taken during the day but in comparison this was very minor in the grand scheme of what had happened today.

RIP

Post Ride DAY +1:
Bushpig took his car with trailer in tow up to pick up Saint Pat and the bike.With a little help from some passing Adventure riding GS riders they got the bike into his trailer and brought it back. Saint Pat was out of hospital and on his way home. One very lucky bloke, one very unlucky 1098.