Post Flinders - Barrington Tops & 20 Creek Crossings

Today's plan was to travel from Dubbo to Scone where we would leave the Prado overnight, we would unload the bikes and ride over Barrington Tops and on to Nundle at the Peel Inn for the night, then come back the next day and pick up the car, where we would both head our separate ways from there.

So we've managed to extend our ride by another 2 days, yay for us. We got up early and got going as it was about 3 hours from Dubbo to Scone through kangaroo country. There was plenty of thick fog around this morning, hanging around in the valleys as we approached Scone.

With the bikes quickly unloaded, we loaded up our gear and got changed and took off for some fuel, grabbed some lunch at the supermarket and then headed into the hills. We were surprised to find that they have been tarring Barrington tops forest road almost all the way up to the Dingo Gate. 

Near the top we looked out to the north were we would be heading later today. We could see rain showers passing across the landscape. That had me a little concerned. How full will these creeks be?

We continued up to the Dingo gate, it was damp the further up we climbed. We could see dark clouds ahead on the route we were taking.

It started to sprinkle with rain and the temperature had dropped to low teens, we pulled over so Dave could put on his rain gear. Not me, I was going to find out whether this Klim gortex gear is actually water resistant. The road started looking pretty slippery but with our knobby tyres I didn't have and slips or slides so potentially it wasn't wet enough yet.

Dave said we turn off the main road in a couple of kilometres onto Pheasants creek rd. The single lane road went off into the bush, this concerned me greatly as he had never been on it and being wet it could become very difficult. Luck was on our side and it was nothing hard, but easy going.

We came out on the Tomala road near Tomala Station. We stopped here briefly before riding on. If was pleasant farming gravel road along here with superb views over the valleys to the north of Barrington.

We just had to stop and take in the views. We had our lunch here whilst looking over the valley. Dave puled out the drone and flew around chasing eagles thermaling.

It's a pretty steep drop down the hill from here for a couple of Kilometres, then we turned north on Hunter Road towards Ellerston. Passing by the horse studs we got to Barry Station and the first of crossing, a concrete causeway. I recognised this from multiple videos. This is the causeway that everyone crashes in due to being so Slippery, we rode through the very edge by about 1 foot then onto the grass and creek on the side, that 1 foot I was already starting to lose the front end it was that slippery.

We continued on through the 20 creeks, no problem whatso ever. Yes, that's right no problems at all, was a lot of fun. Anyone says anything else, is scandalous lies. Didn't stop to take any photo's until we were past the last crossing running alongside the creek.

The ride out of the 20 creek crossing is fairly steep, we were riding into the sun and there were a few skippy's about so took if very carefully.

We came to an intersection, Dave said lets go up here and checkout this a cool lookout. It was only a short ride but spectacular views down over Nundle to the west.

Dropping down the hill into Nundle we parked up and grabbed a beer from the bar and sat out the front. We soon unloaded the bikes and got out of our gear and tipped our boots upside down to drain the water from them, then head to the bar for a few more beers. The pub was packed today. Apparently it was their busiest day of the year, the local dog festival was on today.

Sipping a beer with my bro and watching the sunset was simply amazing after the last week of riding we have done.

The rooms at the Peel Inn are great, nice and clean, a little on the small side, but are air conditioned and nice comfy beds. Can't ask for much more, and you get a cooked breakfast comes with the room.

The meals were also top notch, fantastic tender steak was so good. I just had to try one of their deserts too, and wasn't it delicious Creme Brulee. I'm bound to put on some weight this week with all these treats and not much exercise. Oh well you have to live and have fun.

After a fantastic slap up bacon & egg breakfast we packed the bikes and headed down Crawney Pass. There was plenty of fog on the surrounding hills, gleaming in the morning light. The pass was clear at the top.

The valleys and hills around here were bright green, in stark contrast to the last week spent in the Flinders which was a dry as a chip.

We were riding in and out of fog patches for some time. Getting back to the car in Scone I helped Dave load up the Desert X and pack his gear. We said our goodbyes and I headed south towards Sydney whilst he went north to Brisbane. Before leaving I grabbed some fruit for lunch.

I went back home via the Putty road, I think I saw about 2 or 3 cars the whole trip. I stopped at one of the rest areas and had some fruit and muesli bar for lunch, that was enough after that huge breakfast.

Getting home I unloaded and checked the bike. It was looking a little sad, the rear shock was leaking oil and appeared to had no dampening. Great, wonder which days that broke on?

Cheers Dave, thanks for organising a great trip away to the Flinders Ranges. One of the best trips for a few years. Nothing for it but a celebratory home coming beer. If you got this far thanks for reading.

Cheers

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.