Beers at the Bendemeer

 Another stellar weekend away with the boys was on the card last weekend. With no real plan of where we were going drawn up we could alter it at anytime. We met the other guys at 7am at McGraths Hill Maccas and for a coffee hit. We were underway shortly after and headed up the Putty road. Stu had to fill up in Singleton but we continued until Gloucester and then filled up.

We stopped for lunch at the bakery, they have good pies at Gloucester bakery. We then took of up Thunderbolts way and I had to stop for irrigation purposes. Plenty of lantana growing around this area.

We continued up the mountain to the lookout. The road up the mountain had been resurfaced in was in excellent condition, best I've ever seen it which was inducive of fist full of throttle. We stopped at he look out for a short break to take in the views. It was getting hot but the temp dropped a couple of degrees as we went up the mountain.

Stu was going to cut across Port Stephens cutting to Tamworth and head up to Bendemeer, so the rest of us turned off at Nowendoc. There's not much in Nowendoc, a general storem a rural fire brigade and not a lot else. Here we took the Brackendale road which took us up through the Rikamukka Forest and out on the eastern side of Walcha. They were grading section of the road through the forest and it was in pretty good condition. I noticed there was plenty of dust and the others had dropped back to get out of it.

I waited for them at the Oxley Hwy turn off, whilst I waited I turned on my comms. From here to Bendemeer I was enjoying the music whilst the boring commute to our destination, it was only about 30 minutes away. Easy enough and to get going. It not quite loud enough.

A few well earned beers were in order once we reached the Bendemeer pub. It was quite hot(35°C) by the end of the day and the air conditioned bar was quite welcome. After it cooled down we sat in the beer garden, such a relaxing place.

After a big hearty breakfast we were on our way. Zammo asked if we could visit the Tamworth Motorcycle Museum. I seconded that as we only had a fairly short ride organised across to Coopernook today, plenty of time to do something like this.

It only cost $10 entry to the Museum, which was money well spent. Some very nice bikes in here.

We fueled up and then headed up Port Stephens cutting and out to Thunderbolts way. Stu headed back up to Walcha to do the Oxley Highway. We decided to head down to Nowendoc and head across to wingham on the Nowendoc road. There was a sign across the road saying road closed bridge out, we decided to ask at the general store. They were pretty clueless for locals, didn't know there was a bridge out and didn't know how far the bridge was. We decided to go down the road anyway.

The road descended ever down through the ranges through lush farmlands with magnificent landscapes. Cowes were roaming the hillsides and roads.

We stopped at a bridge to err..... fill the creek and take a break.

Not long after here we made it back onto the tar on a winding mountain road down into Mount George and then Wingham. We stopped at the Australian Hotel for a beer, Geoff said lets have another. As he sat down the temperature dropped and it got very dark outside. Great the predicted storms had arrived.

Downing the beer we rode out through the Yarrat Forest, Lightning was flashing behind us gotta get out of here before the rain turns the dirt to mud. It wasn't long before the rain started coming down hard. I couldn't see shit, flashes of lightning all around us. A couple of big booms right after the flash it was that close. I was following Zammo and notice a green flame flash and swirl around his rear brake area. That can't be good.

Pulling into the Coopernook Hotel in the middle of the storm we were soaked through. I said to the the bar lady she's going to have to clean up my wet patch, we both laughed.

Looking at Zammo's Trumpy the rear brake look like it was cooked, thegre was no brake pressure and the caliper had changed colour from the heat. He must have been dragging his rear brake all the way to the pub for the last 30min, all the fluid was gone probably what I saw catch on fire.

Next morning we had a continental breakfast and head out to Taree and Gloucester for a spot of morning tea. It wasn't long after here we all split in different direction and made our way home.

Thanks for the great weekend away lads. Let's do it again soon.

Barrington Tops Ride

So last weekend our Fearless tour captain organised a overnight ride up over Barrington Tops staying in Gloucester for the night. After all the problems I've had with Dad in Hospital the last 4 weeks I desperately needed a ride. I also was very keen to ride the Barrington Tops road as we always steered clear whilst owning road only bikes. Now with these adventure bikes there are so many more roads and pubs now open to us to explore.

Unfortunately for me my daughters softball grand final match's lined up on the same day. Damn why does this always happen? So plan devised to watch her first game and then get going, the wife could watch the next ones. Sorry little darling but motorbikes......

So I was running late by about 45min, I'd told the others not to wait and we would catch up. We got snapped by John Keogh from Keoghsvision on the colo hairpin along the way. I finally met up with Flyboy at Colo River where he had been waiting for me. 

From here we quickly continued on to see if we could catch up with the other boys. I lead Flyboy through the 10 mile twisties on the Putty Rd so he could use me as a reference and we could both motor along a bit quicker. Except there were 3 road works sections with traffic lights that we had to stop at, D'oh. But otherwise a fun run through the twisties. A guy caught up to us at the lights on a little 400 sports bike, we kept dropping him off and he would catch up again at the next set of lights.

A quick stop at the end of the 10 mile and a message came through from our tour captain, saying that the route plan had changed from the previous day back to the original route plan and we'd meet for lunch in Scone. I was good with that so we kept going to Jerrys Plains for fuel via the back roads.

I got to ride the Desert X along for about 50kms. It was a nice ride, plenty of overtaking power in top gear, narrow and easy to grip onto the tank and it carried its weight down lower than the AT. A horrible first gear feels like your going to stall and needs some clutch slipping/revs to keep it going, the AT is all torque straight off the bottom end. I wasn't a fan of the first gear faffing but the rest of the bike seemed quite good. The screen is also too tall and creates wind buffeting around your helmet visor area, especially annoying when your visor is cracked open it just vibrates madly.

Fuel in Jerrys Plains, then we headed for Denman following on to Muswellbrook and then Scone. It was pretty hot out today (38°C) so we made a bee line for woolies and 2 bottles of icey cold powerade before grabbing some lunch with the guys.

Next up was the plan of going via Gundy pub. We didn't end up stopping at the pub as it was crazily crowded with people and it was so hot so we kept going to Moonan Flat Pub where we had a refreshing ale before heading up over the mountains. Nice spot Moonan Flat.

It was 3pm now and time to head off, the temp was still up around 37°C but we were reassured with the knowledge that Barrington Tops is 5500ft and would be much cooler up there.

We climbed up the fairly steep incline for about 15kms or so with magic views over the valleys below. Pity I didn't stop to take more photos but was enjoying the ride. The road was in pretty good condition with a few corrugated corners but otherwise good easy riding. First stop was at the Dingo gate and the photo of Flyboy and his Desert X with stunning views behind.

After the Dingo Gate, which I didn't get any photos of but Flyboy did we stopped in at the Firs, which is literally 50m off the main track in a pine forest that spans both sides of the road in an unusual square pattern. Looks weird from google maps.

Here's a few pictures from within the forest.

From here the road flattened out somewhat with smaller elevation climbs or declines with some big long straight sections. You could get some big speed up on these straight bits of dirt road but had to watch out for errant 4wd's coming the other way.

I decided to stop and get a picture of the National Park sign just for something to do. After this was just undulating long straights and bends that worked its way to the Cobark Lookout where we stopped briefly. The temperature had dropped down to 23°C up here now and it felt like someone had flicked on the Air Conditioning. It was so good after the heat.

The road turned back to tar just down the hill a little bit and it was quite a fun decent down through the valleys. A few loose gravel spots on a few corners. We were soon enough staring down the bar of the Roundabout Inn in Gloucester. Man that first beer tasted soo good. 

The roundabout Inn is biker friendly with lock up parking for bikes which we didn't bother using, rooms are a little small but otherwise comfortable with A/C and fridge $100 for twin share, excellent value. Nice pub will stay here again. 

We awoke to fog the next morning, but that soon burnt off to another 38°C day, Flyboy and I decided we would head home down the freeway and get out of the heat. Another top ride away and some new roads and pubs explored. 

Not the Tassie Ride or The Great Northern Pub Tour of 2021 Part 1

In February-March plans were for another motorcycle trip around Tassie. COVID put an end to that with the uncertainty that it brings with snap closures and lockdowns. So the Tassie trip was cancelled and plans were made to head north instead. It not all bad at least Rick and my brother will be able to make this trip.

DAY1

The first day of the trip was going to be a big one, I was ready and raring to go and I left early at 6:45am to pick up Stu and the Callala Bay crew who stayed at Stu's last night to shorten the first day. From here our next meeting point was to be at Colo Height service station to pick up the rest of the crew.

We hit a few bits of road works en-route to meet the others and it was cool and pleasant out riding this morning despite this. We'd arrived within about 5 minutes of each other and the other guys were just having a coffee.

With greetings exchanged it was down to business. Bruce had bought himself a new MT-09 Tracer GT, Stu checked his chain tension then next minute out come the tool roll. What is it with these Tracers they overtighten the chains so that it is guitar string tight, same as the ones we hired in New Zealand.

No sooner had the chain been adjusted and we were on our way. Not much time for mucking around today as we had a lot of riding to do. So it was a quick Friday morning fang up the Putty Road. Brett, Dave and Myself had a very spirited ride on the 10 mile of twisties. Haven't had that much fun for a couple of years. Weekday rides are the best.

We picked up 5 more riders in Singleton at our fuel stop, which was only a quick slash of fuel and greetings then we were off to Gloucester for lunch via the Gresford goat track. I've said it before this road is a shit hole, but they have been fixing some sections. It would be no problem on one of the adventure bikes. We stopped briefly in Dungog for a wee break, and relieved the buttocks after the pounding received on the goat track.

Mmmm Africa Twin looks comfortable

A quick stop at the Gloucester bakery and café where I hoovered down a pie from the bakery. Brett had ordered a burger from the café, it was almost as big as his head. The kebabs were also gigantic sized and Doug couldn't finish his it just too big. Maybe should have called this post the great northern bakery and pub tour.....

Next up we headed up towards Wyndham and the back of Taree. We pulled in to fuel up for the last leg of the day. As we were waiting a local guy on a dirt bike thought it would be a great idea to wheelie out of the servo onto the road. What he didn't count on as he reached the road, was the hedge at the end of the servo blocked his view of a car coming the other way. It startled him and he dropped the front tyre back down but locked it up with a fist full of front brake and proceeded to hit the deck and almost roll underneath the car, seriously there would have been millimetres in it. All in his t-shirt and with no gloves. Troy and his brother went to help him pick up his bike. He was a bit shaken up, they later said he looked about 60. Damn old fool shoulda known better.

So from here we droned mindlessly up the freeway to Kempsey. Think I got so bored droning along at 110kmh that I could have shot myself in the head. From Kempsey we made our way out to Gladstone and the Heritage Hotel which sits on the waters of the Macleay River. Beautiful little spot to stop for an ice cold beer.

After we left Gladstone it kind of felt like we were going around in circles a bit. Doug had a great little back road route that allowed us to ride through some nice twisty bits and kept us well away from the highway until we got to our accommodation for tonight at the Ocean View Hotel in Urunga. It's a nice little spot, $50 rooms nice and clean with typical shared bathrooms. The top of the pub is a little bit of a maze of corridors.

Day 1 done and dusted at 655kms. Yeah I need a beer after that.

Ocean View Hotel - Urunga

A long day in saddle and some relaxing beers were a requirement. Many beers were had and tall tales told until the wee hours. The Ocean view did fantastic meals as well.

Day 1 Map Reference