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

Overnight Adventure to Uralla

Bruce was headed to Qld on a two week ride with a mate and had invited us to ride with him for as far as we want to go. For me it was a overnighter only and the other also did their own thing.

We met at Pie in the Sky on the old pacific hwy. I arrived about 7:45 for a quick breakfast then head off. D'oh it doesn't open until 8am so we wait and are first in line. A coffee and sausage roll hit the spot before we get under way.

Leaving our breakfast spot behind we get on the old road. Its so slow now with 60kmh speed limits, we come upon a bunch of 20 push-bike riders riding uphill into a bend two abreast taking up the whole road and they are doing about 25 km/h. Talk about a rolling road block, hold everyone up why don't you. Single file so other road users can get past safely you f#cking twats.

We ride up through Kulnura where it starts sprinkling. We pull in an I put on my wet weather top as I can't see it easing up anytime soon. I also put my phone away and do away with any navigation on my screen. Last time I rode in the rain with my phone plugged in it got water in the charge port and turned off, not going to do that again.

We ride out through Jerrys Plains and back roads to Denman in light rain. From here no one knew where they were going to get to Aberdeen. So I put my phone back on and started self navigating. If your going to lead a ride at least know where you're going. There was lots of turns in the next 30 minutes and would have been totally lost without gps navigation. I think a proper GPS setup would be much better idea than trying to use the phone. In wet conditions the phone it pretty much a fail a proper bike GPS is always on and waterproof.

We stop in Gundy at the pub for lunch where we meet up with Doug. He wasn't riding today as he was living nearby in Scone and drove along with us in the ute.

I had about 4 litres of fuel left and the next place was Nundle 80kms away. I was hoping we could make it. We found out that there was fuel in Nundle so I put 2 litres in just incase. I shouldn't have worried, when I filled up in Nundle I had 3.9 litres left, Plenty. It was sprinkling most of the way so didn't stop to take any photos. We head out of Nundle north along river road past Chifley Dam. When we get to the end we head left and up the main highway to Uralla and the Top Pub. It was getting late and I didnt want to be out on dusk riding amongst skippys. It was beer o'clock. The beer and food at Uralla Top Pub was as good as ever.

Next morning after breakfast the other guys went their own way, I was last to leave not exactly sure which way I was going to go. I head down back roads to Kentucky and onto the Oxley Highway and headed across to Walcha to fuel up. From Walcha I decide I'd head back down to Nundle and see from there, either do the 20 creek crossings or head back over Crawney pass and through Timor

The weather today was much better with blue sky's, but I saw lots of large puddles along the roadside so we must have got a fair amount of rain overnight. First stop was at Chifley Dam before heading into Nundle. I decide against the 20 creek crossing solo with a lot of overnight rain and take Crawney Rd.

The Crawney rd over Crawney pass to Timor is spectacular riding, mostly gravel for about 70 kms, but easy riding gravel with one water crossing on a concrete causeway.

I stopped at the top of crawney pass for a photo before descending the other side. Lots of pools of water on the side of the road. 

I come around a corner to see an echidna walking along the road. I pull over and grab my phone to get a quick photo of this little fella before he disappears.

The road follows the Isis river for a while with spectacular scenery along the way.

After a while the road opens up with long sweeping corners and straights over the hillsides.

Not far after Gundy I come upon the Allen Bridge Rd. I found this in the Sydney Adventure bike riders forum on facebook. Its a back road into Singleton so I decide to check it out.

The first 10km was narrow tar before it turned to dirt. The road wound its way up high into prime farming land following several ridgelines with spectacular views over the surrounding countryside. One thing I wasn't expecting as I didn't look much at the route prior but there was about 20 creek crossings and they were all concrete causeways. Some of them looked mossy and slippery, half of them were empty but I didn't have any moments. Steady throttle and through to the otherside. One of them had a 90° bend in the middle of the crossing. Top ride, will do this one again.

I got into Singleton at about 3pm and fueled up and headed for the Putty rd and home. It was monday afternoon and the Putty rd was completely deserted. I think I saw 1 car on the entire length of the road so had an awesome run, but did see 2 skippys on the road that were very close so took it easy most of the way home. Another good ride.

A story of Bikes, a Brewery and Australia's best Motorcycle Road

Currently we are in one of the biggest droughts in recent years, sounds great for riding motorcycles but not so much for our struggling farmers. We had a little ride organized to one of Australia best motorcycle roads, the Oxley Highway some 4 hours north of Sydney. We had 2 coming down from Brisbane, one coming up from Nowra and the rest from Sydney and Newcastle.

Day 1

So the morning of the ride what do you think happened? Yep you guessed it the largest amount of rain we've had in months poured down for 2 days in Sydney. There was talk of pulling out of the ride from the naysayers(not me, I wanted it). Some even delayed leaving until the next day(soft cocks). Their loss for not riding some great roads.

Here is the weather map once I got up in the morning. All that green rain is right over Sydney and extending 2-3 hours north. Well the good news was that it was only raining over Sydney. The bad news was it was torrential with over 100mm in some spots.

So armed with this intel I used the kids to help me do up my wet weather gear properly before heading off into the gloom and that worked quite well as hardly any water got in.

Meeting up with Dave and Stu we quickly ditched plans of riding the Putty road in the heavy rain as it would not be any fun and just a slow painful process of wet crotched misery. So we decided to take the main highway up to Maitland and try and get through the wet as quickly as we could as out the other side and on to Gloucester was all dry, and that's where the fun starts anyway. I think that's the first time in as long as I can remember wanting to take the straight highway over a twisty back road.

So we met with Jason and Troy near Hexham at the servo, but alas Troys bike was running rough so they returned home to try and fix it so we continued along in the rain until it finally broke and the sun started shining somewhere near Stroud.

Out of the rain and getting sunburnt

 The run up from Gloucester was a good one but a few bikes and cars flashed us warning of rozzers ahead. Now I'm all for the heads up about the boys in blue but not when they are like 50-60 kms up the road ffs. You got about a 10km warning area before stopping the warning flashes. Droning along at the limit for that many kms on that road is downright absurd.

We had pulled up in Walcha no more than 2 minutes before Rick and Andrew motored into view, how was the timing. They had been down the oxley today and were returning to Brisbane tomorrow, unfortunately flyboy couldn't make it with them. Something about packing his panty draw or something.

I had a nice pumpkin soup for late lunch before we hit the back roads via Kentucky on the way to Uralla and Geoff's famous culvert of 'DOOM' on our way to the Top Pub for the night.

Arriving earlyish at the top pub we noticed that the New England brewery was still open, it would be real shame to not let them take our cash. It's been closed every time we've been here so today was a good day.

We tried a sampler plate of beers, my favourite was the Hop Canon IPA, it went down well and we found this delicious local smoked BBQ beef jerky. Fabulous so we stayed until about 7pm when our table was booked for diner at the pub.

The boys that stayed behind today to miss the rain really missed out, as tomorrow's rain was actually worse than today's so we got an extra days riding in.

Stu trying some of the New Englands Breweries finest Ale

Top Pub Uralla

DAY 2

Discussions over diner the night before surrounding today's route which were we either just do the Oxley a few times and await the remaining boys from Sydney to catch up or to head up north through Ebor and do the Waterfall way as Rick and Andrew had to be home for work on Sunday. We took the long option and decided on the Waterfall way with the Queenslanders. First stop was in Armidale for a splash of fuel and then towards Ebor.

Beautiful country scenery along here but it is so dry. The drought is clearly evident everywhere you look and go up here. I've not seen so much road kill in a long time with dead roos every few hundred metres. It was the first day of spring with beautiful blue Sky's with a flowing road ahead coming into Dorrigo, there was even some late snow on the side of the road. Sorry didn't stop to take a photos, so 2 years in a row failed to photo bikes and snow.

Coming down the twisties east of Dorrigo we got caught behind a slow moving car, I pulled over to let them all go rather than let this great section of track er road go to waste.

Patience isn't my strong point

We stopped in Bellingen for a coffee but nobody seemed to be hungry after a big breakfast so we said our goodbyes to Rick and Andrew here. They continued on north to Brisbane whilst we turned south towards Wauchope.






Motoring down the freeway for 150kms on an R1 sure is a chore, these are the killer sections of any trip for me and usually my right wrist begins to ache due to lack of any movement. A cruise control would be bloody good here but alas maybe my next bike. I rode along for a while using my left hand to control the throttle, that's an awkward feeling trying to turn.






Arriving in Wauchope we fueled up and made our way to the cafe in timbertown, I forgot its name but motorcycle friendly but their service is so slow. About 1/2 hour later Doug, Craig, Troy and Jason arrived. They ordered big lunches, I still wasn't hungry and only had more coffee but regretted that about 1 hour later when the hunger pains kicked in half way along the Oxley.



We didn't stop at gingers creek today as it was getting late in the arvo so pushed on to get to Uralla, the brewery was calling again.

I must say the meals at the Top pub in Uralla are absolutely fantastic top notch pub grub. The spicy African lamb back strap was delicious as was the steak the night before. Discussions arose around adding an extra day to the trip, which to my surprise 5 out of 7 decided to do another night. That meant laps of Australia's best motorcycle road tomorrow yippee.

DAY 3

We tried a new cafe for breakfast this morning but I couldn't eat all my scrambled eggs on the sourdough toast. It wasn't quite right, the toast was too doughy in taste and texture.

We back tracked in through Kentucky and back roads down to the Oxley where we hung a right turn and continued on to Bendameer and took a right onto the New England Hwy down to Tamworth again taking a left towards Nundle. It was a cracking day for a bike ride too.

Doug must have been enjoying his new S1000R as he disappeared into the distance once we ascended the Port Stephens cutting. There was actual quite a bit of traffic out this morning including a truck on the cutting which surprised everyone due to the road being so narrow and blind along there.

We stopped again on the thunderbolts way where Craig and Jason left heading for home.

We fueled up back in Walcha before tackling the 54kms of twisty road that is the famous Oxley highway. I chased Dave down the mountain until the Mt Seaview turn off were I stopped for a break. Its hard work riding down hill fast on a sports bike, much easier on the wrists going up the hill.

So that's exactly what we did. We turned around and raced er rode carefully up the mountain and stopped in a Gingers Creek road house. I was dying to have one of their famous burgers for lunch and it didn't disappoint.

Bikes at Gingers Creek

The road house owner joked that our wife's let us out to ride for the afternoon on fathers day. When I told him we've been riding all day on a 4 day ride he almost cried.

After a fantastic lunch we got straight back into it and fanged it down the mountain for the 4th and last time. I think this is the best condition I've ever seen the Oxley Hwy in for many years. Billiard smooth, no potholes or bumps to speak of, no gravel on the corners.

We refueled again in Wauchope before droning down the freeway to our over nighter at the Coopernook hotel, another regular cheap but cheerful haunt.

We spent most of the night on the balcony with a few ales and some fireball whiskey to top it off with washed down with some pizzas.

Day 4

Today we were up early for the commute home. Being a Monday the roads were pretty much empty especially the back roads that we would be riding on. The chains were looking thirstier than we were the night before so they go a well deserved lube.

A continental breakfast was included in the cost of the hotel which is always good. We were ready to roll out at 8am, which is pretty good going seeing how late we were up.

More back roads this time out to Lansdowne and onto the road by Taree airport, where we slipped up more back roads to Wyndham and then on into Gloucester.

This wouldn't be a real bike ride if we didn't stop in at a bakery at least once on the trip. So Hebbys bakery in Gloucester was our morning tea stop of choice. The pies here are excellent by the way washed down with a cappuccino hits the spot. It's a wonder how I can still fit in these leathers.

Bakery Goodness

We then fueled up at the servo and it was here that we got a call that Doug's bike wouldn't go. Now that's strange being a brand new BMW so we headed back down to the shops. True to its word the beemer wouldn't start. Eventually it fired after the tank was opened. It must have had a fuel pressure lock in the tank or something. Very strange to say the least.

Doug and Troy headed back from Stroud via the Buckets Way and the freeway but Stu, Dave and I turned off towards the Gresford goat track via Dungog and on to Singleton where we would tackle the Putty road during a week day.

We stopped for fuel in Singleton before heading down the putty, stopping in briefly at the rest stop at the start of the 10 mile for a break and drink.

It was perfect conditions for a ride through the 10 mile today with very little traffic. 

We even managed to get home by 3pm and beat all the peak hour traffic so that was a bonus.

It was a fantastic 4 days away riding with da boys. Thanks heaps lads and can't wait for the next one in November. Right after Motogp.

Cheers