Travelling to the Flinders Ranges - Part 1

My brother had organised an adventure bike ride of Epic proportions around the Flinders Ranges of all places. Where are the Flinders Ranges in Australia you ask?  I'm glad you asked, the Flinders Ranges are located in South Australia about 450km north of Adelaide and about 1600km west of my home in Sydney as shown on the map below. 

That's over a third of the way across Australia. So the plan was for Dave to travel down from Brisbane towing the bike on the trailer to Dubbo where I would ride the 430kms to meet him at the starting point and load my bike on the trailer and we would drive to Broken Hill some 750kms west then start the ride from there. 

 

Sydney to Dubbo

I had the week off before the trip which was good as it gave me plenty of time to get everything ready and packed(Overpacked). I was leaving early on Anzac Day. It was cool this morning and thick fog was covering the Sydney basin.

Riding out in the western plains of the Sydney basin visibility was down to about 100m or less in places.

As I began the climb up into the Blue Mountains I stopped at Bellbird lookout to check my new Moto Nomad luggage straps were still tight. Looking out over the Sydney basin you could see it covered in cloud.

My plan was to ride out to Capertee and turn off on the Turon Gates Road to Sofala and Hill End. No time to do Bridle Track today as I need to make it to Dubbo before dark. I wasn't pay attention leaving Lithgow and missed the turn for Capertee, oh well I'll make a slight detour through Wallerawang instead won't take much time. Wallerawang is a town built around the coal fired power station but that has now closed and the town now has no real purpose and will slowly decline with the loss of all those jobs.

One problem with my detour, it was Anzac day today and all the streets were blocked off for the Anzac march. I found a way around thanks to Gaia maps. Oops forgot about the Anzac day road closures.

After a quick splash and dash at the BP in Capertee where I also got some lunch for the road I would be able to make it to Dubbo on 1 tank via back roads, effectively bypassing any major towns on the way to Dubbo. I was expecting Turon Gates road to be busy as it was Anzac day and school holidays. I wasn't disappointed, as there were plenty of slow moving idiots in 4wds out today, the type that can't drive and won't move over and just shower you with dust.

The road was very dusty today and the 5 creek crossings were empty, with only a small amount of water on one of the final causeways. 

I was making good time once I'd passed the camping spots there was no one else out here just farming land and sheep, I think I saw one car after the camp grounds.

I was going to stop by the creek and have lunch but wasn't hungry yet so kept on riding. Check out how green the water in the Turon river was with algae, it was that bright. Due to lack of rain the water was not flowing and has allowed algae to build up..

The next crossing I came to was also dry, there was a couple of 4wd's camping right next to the water just off the bridge. The water was bright green and slimy looking here too.

I didn't stop in Sofala today and just kept riding through. I was in for an real treat today as I rolled into Hill End the tree's were in full Autumn bloom with bright oranges, stunning yellows and greens making for spectacular viewing.

I made my way up to the pub for an Anzac day beer and have some lunch. The pub was heaving with people today. I'm glad I bought a sammich from the BP in Capertee to go with my beer.

Lest we Forget

Plenty of wreath's placed on the War memorial this morning, which is directly across from the pub. Seems everyone shifted from here into the pub after the ceremony had finished.

After finishing my sammich & beer I headed north out of Hill End. I passed by Dixons Long Point crossing. I decided against this road, it was a rocky creek crossing about 100m long, it could go bad here if I fell in the creek and I was by myself. So I decided to go via the back of Lake Burrendong via the 12 Mile. Some scenic back country in here.

As I left the 12 mile I went right at the T intersection without looking at my GPS. A few kms down the road I could see I was off the map and no longer following the route. However it did appear I was heading the same direction just further north than I was expecting. I was nearly collected by a hooning P plater who was completely on the wrong side of the road in the dirt. A brown trouser moment...... 

I came onto the road near the Wellington prison. On the left hand side of the road was the mother of all solar farms. It must have been the largest solar farm I've ever seen and stretched over the hills as far as I could see. I had to ride a few kilometres around it, it was so big.

I press on, it was 4:15pm and I still had about 30 minutes to go until my destination in Dubbo, and then we had to load up the bike on the trailer. As I was riding along about 10 minutes out of town, half in a zoned out state I saw a Ducati sitting on the side of the road as I zoomed past. Oh it was Dave he'd come out to meet me, I was riding into the sun on auto pilot and didn't register until I rode past. He'll catch up I thought.

As we got into town Dave said theres a brewery here, lets stop for a beer. My bike was on autopilot as it was already veering for their driveway, straight up to the brewery doors for a quenching ale.

Micro brewery beers with my bro

Back at the motel we got the bikes loaded up for the trip in the morning and went out to the local RSL for diner and a couple more beers.

Dubbo to Broken Hill

We were up early to hit the road — with 750 kilometres between Dubbo and Broken Hill, there was no time to waste. After a quick breakfast, we set off on the long drive.

We stopped in Nyngan, Dave was looking for a bakery but would you believe it, a country town with no bakery. That's un-Australian. We settled on some fruit from the supermarket instead, strawberry's, Blue Berry's, Bananas and muesli bars.

The local water silo was in the process of being painted and it's now featured on the Silo art trail website. The mural took about 2 weeks to paint.

Leaving Nyngan behind I drove the for a while. I was followed by the highway patrol for about 20 kms before he took off. It had been raining on/off for a bit and there was large streams of water forming in the table drains by the roadside, then we came through a whole bunch of causeways across the road filled with water.
 

Next stop was Cobar some 297kms later, where it had just started to rain as we came into town. We had to have the Obligatory photo by the Big Cobar sign when coming into town, then back in the car in search of coffee. No bakerys were found or harmed in this town either.........

 Did I mention that the Barrier Highway is very long, very straight and very boring. There's not much out here for miles and miles in any direction.

I was surprised to see thousands and thousands of goats roaming along the roadside all the way from Cobar to Broken Hill and beyond to Yunta. They were everywhere, over 650kms of goats.

Reminded me of this lil fella.

A few hours later.................. we were almost there.

I think we were both glad to finally be rolling into Broken Hill, not long before sunset. Time to unload the bikes and then head into town have a look around and get something to eat, ok beers. We were staying at the Outback view holiday park, where we could leave the car & trailer until our return. It wasn't a flash place, probably 2.5 stars but it was adequate.

Broken Hill seemed to be a strange place, it was so quiet, virtually no one about the place. Could have fired a gun up the street and not hit anyone or anything. Saturday night on a long weekend I suppose everyone has gone camping because they weren't here in town.

We wandered into a pub to have a beer, only to discover that it was one of the filming locations for Priscilla Queen of the Desert. I've never seen the movie but have seen the trailer, not my cup of tea. But amazing old pub.

We had beers and diner at the next pub up the road we came to and then got a few take aways and headed back to the room so we could watch MotoGP on the big screen and do a pre ride briefing over beers...er ok we just looked at the map and drank beer, not so much on the briefing.

 

May Mudgee Muster - Adventure Style

It's that time of year again when our May Mudgee Muster arrives where several mate's all gather for a giant piss up....er motorcycle ride, yeah that's it. Rather than the usual nowhere ride to Mudgee I decided to kick it up a notch and do the mudgee adventure ride and take roads much less travelled.

It pissed down rain here for nearly a week and I got text from Scotty saying he's not keen on doing any dirt roads after this weather. That's fine you do you, we got about 100mm here but you didn't bother to look at central western NSW weather, where they get stuff all rain. Sofala/Hillend had less than 15mm and that was a week ago. So yeah thats not going to be any problem.

We met at maccas McGraths Hill as usual and the usual suspects started arriving. Stu and I got going earlier than the others as we were doing the adventure ride whilst the others were heading out to Oberon then O'Connell for lunch. It was freezing cold this morning with 7°C displaying on the dash across the Blue Mountains. It was so cold I couldn't make it to lithgow before my bladder was going to explode.

Stu creating puddles

Stu and I rode through to Capertee where we fueled up as there won't be another fuel stop until we get to Mudgee. We decided to get an early lunch here so we could pass through Sofala and keep going. Only small towns out here in the central tablelands.

Our route was to take the Turon Gates road through to Sofala. Then from there head down the turondale road and take Box Ridge Road to the bottom of the Bridle Track. We encountered four 4wds at the start but they moved over and let us through which gave us a car free run through. There was hardly any signs of rain out here it was dusty but there was the odd wet patch near the river.

We stopped after the first creek crossing to take off a layer as it we were getting warm now we were going slow. It was a cracking 13°C by now.

It wasn't far before we got to the next water crossing which was a concrete crossing and the water level was pretty low and I ploughed through. I filmed Stuey riding through but no shithouse moments to report.

The next crossing wasn't far we ploughed through no problems it was pretty easy going so far.

We take a right turn just after the crossing towards Sofala and through the farm lands. The road isn't as steep through here as before but still very spectacular scenery.

Sofala was very quiet this morning as we passed through. We take the Hill End road and ride through the superb tar twistys here, much better than I remember and the surface was in fantastic condition. We then take the Turondale Rd for about 10kms then turn onto Box Ridge road. The first 4-5kms is tar on the steep bits then turns to dirt.

I stop to open the first gate on the road and let Stuey through. Beautiful scenery out here.

I quickly catch up to Stuey as he has just opened another gate over the next hill. Then he had to change gloves.

Riding Box ridge road from the farm gates seems like an endless down hill section with sweeping corners and rolling hillsides.

Box Ridge Road

It wasn't long before we get to the bottom of the hill where the road intersects with the Bridle Track. We take a right turn onto Bridle Track and start the final section of our adventure ride.

The track was a bit more rocky and a lot more loose dirt on the hill sections with a lot of loose rocks. Looks like the rain and 4wd are starting to deteriorate the track. It was still fairly easy run along the way. Just had to pay attention on the steep sections on Monaghans Bluff and Hawkins Hill.

Views from Monaghans Bluff

The creek crossing was pretty easy with not too much mud on either side. Not long after starts the climb up out of the valley starting at Hawkins Hill. The first 50m is steep then levels out to a easy graduation. I had to wait for three 4wd's coming down the hill before going up.

I got to this lookout and there were 3 dudes there on their dirt weapons. I had a quick chat with them and they proceeded back down the hill whilst I went up to the pub whilst slowing for another 4 or 5 4wds just before the top.

The road at the top pops right out in Hill End only 2 streets away from the pub where Stuey was waiting for me.

We didn't have to wait long before I heard the sound of bikes coming and the rest of the crew started to roll up, literally 2 minutes after I pulled up. Time for a beer. At $10 a beer and 14 of us here plus a few others the publican was raking it in.

The Mudgee Muster crew was only a couple of minutes behind us, impeccable timing.

Plenty of autumn colours on the road out of Hill end makes for spectacular riding through there.

The ride from Hill End to Mudgee is a great little run that only takes about an hour. Plenty of twisty bits all tar, but there are many shadows on the road this time of the afternoon and need to take it carefully. There's plenty of Roo's around out here and we saw a couple standing on the roadside.

We were staying at the Oriental Hotel again. It's a really good pub with great food, great ambience and a great crowd of people and with a great selection of beers on tap. It was $60 each for a shared room, nice clean rooms beds are a bit soft. Can highly recommend the beef brisket, yum!

Next morning there was a frost so it was a tad cold. Riding out of Mudgee was in 8-9°C temps just after 9am. My phone went flat so no more photos for today's ride. It was a good ride back via Bylong Valley and Putty Road to home. I've posted many photos from those rides before.

Cheers and thanks for reading.