Back Roads to Home

So I was due to go to Canberra for the kids softball tournament but due to the Omicron variant surging the tournament was cancelled and I had a couple of extra days leave. I was going to go home and visit my Dad for a few days to help out as he is in his 80's and not getting about as well as he used to. So I thought I'd ride the bike out there and take all back roads.

The weather wasn't looking great for Friday, I wasn't concerned as I wanted to test the water proofing of my textile suite, I've not used it in proper rain yet only a short light shower last Snowy ride.

First stop was for much needed coffee and a not needed hot apple pie from Mountain Bells Cafe. These apple pie's are superb.

I was the only customer at the cafe this morning, looks like the rain or threat of it has kept everyone away. 

Just after leaving I got into thick mist/fog with wet/damp roads and temp was a cool 15°C. What happened to summer?

 It was a bit hard to see far ahead. I turned down Darling Causeway and then turned again and went down through Hartley Vale and into the back of Lithgow where I made my way out past Lake Lyell and onto Tarana and the back roads to the west.

Through Barry, Neville and out at Mandurama the weather had cleared up and the temp was now rising up now to around 30°C. I didn't get a chance to test my gears weather proofing. Entering Woodstock it was 1pm the pub looked inviting. I rode past........

But soon did a u-turn and came back. I was hungry and thirsty. Man is not a camel.

I'd ordered one of their finest hamburgers and an ice cold beer. Yeah that beer tasted even better than it looked.

After my nice lunch break I did a quick look around. Not much has changed here in the last 20 years. 

I think I was illegally parked in front of the pub, as everyone else was parked around in the side street. I noticed a bus stop sign near the end of the verandah. Local copper must book all the locals parking out the front as they seem well trained. Not me I'm a slow learner.....

It's been a very long time since any trains have been through Woodstock. There were even tree's growing in-between the tracks.

Next up was the ride to Wyangala dam, this road I have ridden on many times as it was one of the nearest winding mountains roads near to home back in the day. Its a good little ride and quite scenic too.

All the cows were standing around looking at me wondering what I was doing. Nothing to see here, move along.

These rocky hills around Cowra on the way out to the dam are unique and beautiful, its a bit rare. I don't see rocky hills like this much around my travels in Australia. The dam wall is now insight.

The road across the dam wall has been blocked to all traffic and you now bypass through Wyangala township.

You shall not pass.

The dam levels is high at 100% now and was in flood condition in the middle of November due to all the rain. This year has been a very wet summer.

No water coming out of the spill way now however.

It was hot standing in the sun in black motorcycle gear and I was ready to get going. I was going to have to stop in Cowra for fuel. 365km for 15.4L, the petrol pump said I put in 14.4L. Could have come close to making the 90kms to Forbes from here, but didn't feel like pushing the bike in this heat just to prove a theory, there is beer to be had at the other end.

The last bit from Cowra to Forbes is quite boring as it gets flatter and the road straightens out. So I set the cruise control and droned along thinking about getting a beer when I get to Dad's.

Riding around the lake coming into town and I come across this beautiful site. The walk ways around the lake in Forbes sure is a pretty spot.

Backroads to the West

I was travelling to my parents for Christmas this year and to meet up with the family who had travelled a day ahead of me. Because I was on my own I decided that I would rather travel on some back roads than the most direct route through Bathurst and Orange. So I devised a route via google maps and loaded up the ute and headed off. I've ridden some of the roads from Lithgow to Tarana and to O'Connell but beyond that to Blayney I'd not been before.

This route makes for a good bike road but some of it can be a bit rough even in the ute so you need to ride with caution.

Taking the Bells Line of road across the blue mountains is a good start to some great motorcycling roads out of Sydney, crossing at Mt Victoria or continuing into Lithgow. Take Magpie Hollow road out past Lake Lyell from Lithgow. The road continues to Tarana but be careful as the road is narrow with many bends and elevation changes, perfect biking country with rolling hills as far as the eye can see, but the road surface can be rough in places.

Through Tarana follow Mutton Falls Road on to O'Connell. There's a nice little pub at O'Connell that I've heard does good counter lunches, but I've not stopped there before so can't comment. Turn right at O'Connell and then after about 1 km take the next left turn onto Young St which become Ryan road. This will bring you out onto Rockley Rd turn right and head into Perthville then left again towards Newbridge and Blayney. From Blayney turn off at Mandurama onto the Belubula Way. From here the road will take you into Canowindra(pronounced Can-noun-dra)

Belubula Way to Canowindra is quite a nice bike ride through farming land but it is also very hilly countryside so you are constantly going over crests of hills with a blind curves. Be careful at dusk and dawn as this is Kangaroo country, with tree's lining right up to the sides of the road in places.

Canowindra is your typical small outback country town. I decided I'd stop for some lunch. There's about 5 pubs to choose from and an small RSL club. Typical pub food with most prices being under $20 is a bargin, washed down with a refreshing beer.

Following the Nangar Road out of town you head towards another small Town of Eugowra(U-Gow-Ra). Not much in Eugowra and you won't get any fuel after midday on Saturday so be careful. This little town shows its civic pride with a lot of the buildings being painted in Murals, If you've ever been to Sheffield in Tasmania you'll know what I mean. The road from Canowindra to Eugowra slowly straightens out and becomes less hilly and is not quite as good as the Belubula Way but still a good ride.

From Eugowra its' only a short trip to Parkes, Forbes or Cowra from here. These 3 towns are much larger around 8-10,000 population so accommodation and fuel options are much better. See map below for the route from Lithgow to Eugowra. The riding further west becomes flatter and much straighter. Best option here would be to head towards Cowra and out towards Wyangla Dam.

Don't believe everything you read in bike magazines....

One of the magazine subscriptions I read is Australian Motorcycle News which has some good articles and news and events on all things motorcycle. But a couple of issues ago I came across an article in the AMCN rides that I couldn't believe made it in there.


AMCN have a section called AMCN rides which is a write up on good bike roads to ride on. This particular article was on a section of road I know all to well. Its the Lachlan valley way.




Here's one of the pages blatantly stolen from the issue showing the route.








I grew up and lived in Forbes for 28 years in the central west of NSW. Now I can assure you that the rides/roads they have listed to ride here are some pretty crap and straights roads that would bore the shit out of most hardcore touring bike riders.  Yeah the way to fight the boredom is either drink yourself stupid until you see dead people or ride somewhere more interesting. The road from Forbes to West Wyalong and beyond is completely straight with only a couple of gentle bends which has lots of trucks on it as its a main arterial route between Melbourne and Brisbane, and the Lachlan valley way to Lake Cargellico is also a fairly boring run most of this area is flat and straight with not that many hills about.

If you want to know where the best roads in this area is for bike riding you need to go east of Forbes anywhere between Cowra, Wyangala Dam, Canowindra, Mandurama. Towards Orange you have the highest peak between the blue mountains and the western NSW border, Mt Canobolas at 1395m(4577ft) not one of the highest peaks by any stretch of the imagination but its high enough to get snow up here every winter. The surrounding areas are very hilly which makes for good road bike riding as you get that uphill down dale effect, not a twisty stretch but a road with nice flowing curves.

The map below shows some of the better roads in this area, with some twisties between Cowra, Wyangala and Woodstock, with the other roads nice hilly flowing roads. The road between Canowindra and Mandurama is a bit of a favourite back road of mine.



Along the way on this route is the little town of Eugowra which has recently had a lot of cool murals painted on the the sides of the buildings in the middle of town, a little like the town of Sheffield in Tasmania.

One good thing AMCN did touch on though was the McFeeters motor museum in Forbes which is on the Newell Highway just over the bridge near lake Forbes. The museum houses plenty of classic cars and a few bikes. If you want to go to a bike museum go to Nabiac instead as you can't beat the motorcycle museum there but if your riding past its well worth a stop. They have a cafe on the side with great sausage rolls and pretty good coffee too. There's also a working bee hive out the side that you can actually taste honey straight off the honeycomb which was fantastic.

Model T ford, this car photograghed was the same car that we used to take us to and from our wedding reception and photos.

Model A ford, which they had several

MV

GSXR & Katana early 80's

It's not all boring straight roads out west, you just need to know where to go to find the good motorcycle roads, because there are miles and miles of straight boring crap out that way, and lifes way too short to have a crap ride.