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.

Waterfall Way Ride

"My vision was blurred badly, I couldn't see the road ahead, it was awash with a white haze. I raised a hand and wiped the back of my gloved finger across my visor to clear it. Some of the snow came off but it looked like it was also on the inside of my visor. What the hell am I doing here, this is insane!"

DAY 1

A weekend ride with the boys had been organized for a mid winter trip up the north coast and inland NSW ranges to ride some of the roads we infrequently visit. Both Rick and my brother were also going to be riding down from Brisbane to ride with us and we'd all meet somewhere in the middle.

Putty Road Rest Stop

Checking the weather for the weekend it was looking great with no rain predicted but with cool mornings it was looking like a perfect winters ride. Our route out of Sydney was up the Putty Rd to Singleton where we picked up our group captain Doug with Craig and Troy. With full tanks we made our way across from Singleton where we picked up another of Stu's mates en route to Gloucester for a spot of lunch. The roadies cafe is so slow it took an hour for coffee and cake for 8 of us and it wasn't that busy, will look elsewhere next time we are here.

Gloucester

From Gloucester we made our way up the buckets way through Wyndham and Taree and then the long boring slab work of the Pacific Highway to Macksville avoiding some of NSW finest constabulary.

Overnighting in Macksville we stayed at the Nambucca Hotel, which has pretty standard fare pub rooms for $50. Pulling up at the pub Dave was sitting out the front relaxing having a drink. We made straight for the off street parking and then inside for some refreshments. I was expecting to see Rick here but he wasn't. Interesting enough Rick was late and when we called to see where he was he had run out of fuel 20kms west of Dorrigo on his way down. Lucky he managed to hitch a ride into Dorrigo for fuel and back again. Did he cop some shit stirring when he arrived, later we moved around to the Star hotel around the corner which had fantastic meals and a band on and we over indulged ourselves until calling it a day at around midnight. Urgh this is going to hurt......

DAY 2

I was right, my head was pounding in the morning and after a hearty bacon and egg roll we were rolling out along the Highway again on our way to Dorrigo along the famous Waterfall Way. It was a barmy 16°C and I was looking forward to riding this road but was a little disappointed that there was quite a bit of slow moving traffic on the road and to be perfectly honest thought that the road was over with way too quickly. When will I ever learn not to drink so much on the first night? I blame Bushpig....and my brother.

Newell Falls - Waterfall Way

Don't get me wrong the road surface was good with 15kms of twisty mountain road. It just seemed far too short and it wasn't long before we popped out in Dorrigo. Dorrigo is a quiet little country town situated at the top of the mountain range. I'd like to come back here to do a bit more looking around one day.

Views from the Mountain

Dorrigo Hotel

Leaving Dorrigo to the west heading towards Ebor along waterfall way this road was like a big long roller coaster ride over the hills. This bit was a lot of fun and seemed to go on forever unlike the first twisty section with a bit of spirited riding along here. Lots of views of rolling hills and at one point you could see ocean and mountain ranges all in the same view. Beautiful scenery up here for sure. The higher up the ranges we climbed it started to get colder and was hovering around 10°C which was starting to get a bit cold for my liking. My feet were numb with the cold and my right hand was getting quite cold.

Lads on Waterfall Way

Ebor Turn off

We turned off and headed through Ebor and onto Armidale. The temperature didn't get above 10°C again for the rest of the day and we arrived in Uralla by 1pm. It was cold and the wind was blowing in hard from the south with up to 50kmh gusts. With weather like this is must be snowing down south to be this cold in the middle of the day. I was cold and hung over, not such a great recipe for a ride and I wasn't feeling the love. The BoM said it was 10°C but feels like 5°C with the wind chill.

Three of the guys called it then and there and stayed at the hotel for the rest of the day to get out of the cold. The others wanted to ride down to the Oxley Highway to do one of the best roads in this country. I was undecided but thought I'd ride into Walcha about 30 minutes away and then see from there what I wanted to do. It would be a 3.5hr round trip with few stops and would be getting colder by 5pm when it gets dark up here.

The ride was cold and I still wasn't feeling that spectacular. So four of us stopped in Walcha for lunch by the warm fire place to thaw out whilst Stu and the two Dave's headed down the mountain. I'm sure they will have a blast and my bro took some great footage on his gopro.

We ended up talking to a couple of bike riders at the cafe that told us about a newly tarred bit of road that runs out through Kentucky and drops you out on the New England Highway 10kms before Uralla. We gave this road a try and had to avoid two herds of stupid cattle that decided they'd like to run down the road in front of us.

Geoff also decided that his MT10 was going to be a stunt bike by jumping it out of a culvert at speed. In his defense the dip wasn't sign posted and you couldn't see it until right on top of it. Lets just say that I flew out of the seat of the R1 at about $1.30 but I don't think Geoff would be able to wear those underpants again....

We made a quick dash down to Bendameer Pub where we were able to get out of the cold for half an hour before making our way back to Uralla for the night. It was so good to get out of my leathers and into a hot shower. By then it was back to the bar around 4:30pm and the boys arrived back from the Oxley not long after. They looked a little tired and cold and in need of a beer or three.

Lads at Bendameer Pub

DAY 3

The next morning and we bid goodbye to Rick, Doug, Craig and my brother as they headed north towards warmer climates. Checking the BoM it was 3°C in Uralla and said it felt like -4.1°C. Great, just great. I put an extra t-shirt on this morning under my leathers, so I had a thermal and 2 T Shirts but in these temps I was still cold. A winter jacket might be the ticket I think, but I do so little winter riding.....

We debated going down the Oxley where it would have gotten warmer as we went down the range but mostly everyone wanted to take the fastest route down to Walcha and the thunderbolts way to Gloucester. I didn't really want to ride the Pacific Hwy after the Oxley so decided to stay with the group.

Fuel in Walcha

After fueling up in Walcha we made our way down thunderbolts way. About 15kms out it started to lightly sleet. I check the temp gauge and it had been 5 then went down to 4 then 3 and 2 before coming over a hill and I could see in the distance on the next hill rain or what looked like rain. I stopped to put on my wet weather gear  as the others continued on into the distance except Jason who stopped with me. I didn't want to be cold and wet. As I was putting them on it was starting to sleet on us. A few minutes later we were underway. The rain suit was doing a great job keeping the wind out and I felt a little warmer.

About 5 minutes down the road the sleet turned into snow. I was thinking of stopping for a photo as this was very unusual for us. Not much longer the temp had dropped to 0°C it was freezing cold and the wind was blowing hard, visibility dropped to about 100m at best and the whole road was covered with snow and our speed dropped to about 60-70kmh.
Looking left and right all I could see was white. Everything was covered except a small dam.

My vision was blurred badly, I couldn't see the road ahead, it was awash with a white haze. I raised a hand and wiped the back of my gloved finger across my visor to clear it. Some of the snow came off but it looked like it was also on the inside of my visor. What the hell am I doing here, this is insane

Snow started swirling up into my face, it was coming in through my open chin vent so I quickly closed it but not before snow had stuck to the inside of my visor. The one saving grace to this situation was that I decided to put in my pin lock visor for this trip and must say thank god as at least my visor didn't fog up at all. Not once.

Looking in my mirror all I could see was white with a single solitary black line carved through it from my rear tyre and Jason's headlight following.

I couldn't but help thinking that the Oxley Hwy now looked like a great choice but it was too late. Must just press on and hope to get out of this snow. This is fucking insane riding through the snow, WTF? I was constantly waving a finger across my visor like a windscreen wiper to remove the snow.

I couldn't see any other bike tyre marks in the snow in front which probably means the guys missed all of this snow by mear minutes. In hindsight a photo would have been great but there was no way I was stopping for one now. I just wanted to get out of there as soon as I could.

After about 15-20 minutes we finally got out of the snow and back to sweet black top tar and I couldn't have been happier, the temp came up and we got to the lookout where the guys were waiting for us. They only hit a little snow blowing in crossways that instantly melted as it hit the ground and so maintained a good pace of 100+kmh. We missed that window.

Barrington Tops Lookout

Snow over the ranges at Barrington Tops

Dropping down out of the hills we came into Gloucester for a spot of lunch, we avoided the Roadies cafe this time and had lunch elsewhere, lunch came out in 5 minutes with coffees and was fantastic I might add, we then headed back along Buckets Way to Dungog and onto Singleton. Dungog is still a cesspit of pot holes and patch work. Obviously Dungog council has no civic pride at all, the main street of town is a shit hole of epic proportions.

We also lost 2 more of the group here as they peeled off for home towards Newcastle as we then pressed on into Singleton for fuel and then the trip back down the Putty Rd and home. The trip down the Putty was good as it was almost empty today and no plod at all. Cheers boys thanks for the fun times and as always excellent to ride again with you bro, even though I ditched you on the Oxley. For me Waterfall Way is way over-rated, not long enough and too much traffic. If I was to do this ride again I'd skip Waterfall Way and just do the Oxley Highway as its a much better ride. You can read about my brothers ride down from Brisbane here.

Map Reference - missing the Bendameer loop

Australia's Greatest Riding Road: The Oxley Highway

I was invited along on a ride on one of Australia's best riding roads, if not "the" best riding road the Oxley Highway in Northern NSW. Most aussie bike riders know of this road, it's probably our equivalent to the Tail of the Dragon in the USA. The road itself starts from the coastal town of Port Macquarie and snakes it way up through the great dividing range and out to Tamworth and beyond. But the best part for us bikers is the bit from Long Flat up to Gingers Creek and beyond that.  This road has 54kms with over 300 bends which is an Aussie motorcycling mecha. When I got the invite I was like sign me up and when can we go.

DAY 1

This was to be a 3 day affair with us meeting up at McGraths Hill maccas. I'd met up with the Slomax and we rode out to Riverstone as I had to stop and vote in our local council elections before leaving otherwise they would have hit me up with a fine for non voting and I'd rather keep the money in my pocket than give it to those bastards. Stopping early we ordered a coffee waiting for the polling booth to open, taking the first sip of coffee and it was like it had been made in the fires of Mt Doom. I think i'd burnt the taste buds on my tongue. Struth it was hot, it took 10 minutes to cool down to drink it.

Continuing on we arrived at our meeting point to find Doug and Dave waiting for us and no sign of Bushpig. About 15 minutes later he arrived. He looked like he'd gone six rounds with Mike Tyson blood shot eyes and all. We got it out of him he'd had a big night out at the pub the night before doing karaoke.

The ride took us up the Putty Road to Singleton, being a nice sunny day the blast up here through the 10 mile of twisties was fantastic and I was having a blast. I pulled over at the end for a little boys stop and let everyone catch back up and soon we were under way and on into Singleton for a refuel.

Dave's ZX-10R ballistic Missile

Putty Road Rest Stop

Road from Gresford to Dungog

After Singleton we headed out towards Dungog. This would be a fantastic little road if it wasn't so god damn rough. The bit from Gresford to Dungog and across to Stroud is an awesome area but the road is so rough it's no longer any fun. I'd say it borders on being dangerous. Some sections of this road you can no longer actually see the road anymore as it is just a series of patches upon patches until there is not road anymore just patches.  Note to Dungog council - Fix your fucking roads you pissed me off you bastards. I'll never spend a cent in your shithole of a town until these roads are fixed that's how pissed I am. I had to check I still had all my teeth when we stopped in Gloucester.

There was one sphincter puckering moment when the Slomax went to overtake only to find that there was someone coming the other way, I hope he brought a spare pair of undies because he sure would have needed them. Just goes to show you can never be too careful, and he is usually a super careful rider.

Dungog Turn off

After a lunch stop in Gloucester we continued on the Buckets way towards the coast foregoing the usually Thunderbolts way. I hadn't ridden across this road in about 15 years or more and it was quite a good bit of road winding up through the hills as we turned off up yet even more back roads to come into the back of Taree which is Troy Bayliss country. No wonder he was so fast with all of these roads on his doorstep but a hefty dollop of talent thrown in.

We decided to stop by Harrington which was on the coast for a quick beer on the water front before we headed to our digs for the night at the Coopernook pub which is just off the highway.

Harrington Hotel

Hotel Coopernook

Into the pube to spend the holiday monkey

Rick turned up about 30 minutes after we got there, he'd ridden down from Brisbane to meet us and had to contend with rain most of the way. Better him than us I thought!

Add caption

The Coopernook pub was a good little find just off the main highway, there was no noise from the highway and it was only $35 per person per room, with continental breakfast included. It was meant to rain over night so we put the bikes in under the front verandah for the night but it didn't do much more than spot a bit.  We sat out the front enjoying the warm weather talking shit and drinking some fine ales.

DAY 2

After breakfast we had a bit of a late start but that was fine by me as we didn't have a lot of kilometers to do today. We did a short section of the Pacific hwy to get us to Wauchope were we stopped for a coffee across from timbertown. There were a few bikes coming passed going up the mountain.

On the way up there was a heavy downpour for about 5 minutes just as we got to the first set of twisties. I could see blue skies on the other side of the cloud so we pressed on and the sun came out again but now the roads were wet. Fantastic, twisty wet roads.....

The Oxley Highway

The view from Mt Seaview

We arrived at Gingers Creek store just on lunch time and we were all famished. I'd ordered the bacon & egg roll on Doug's recommendation. Good call doug it was very good. Although the hamburgers that came out looked even better. Rick had trouble getting his mouth around it, it was that big no joke.

Doug decided he'd take a break and read his kindle whilst the rest of us left our gear at the store and headed back down the mountain. It was staring to dry up now with only a few damp patches here and there.

A lot of this was so tight and twisty that on the R1 I was riding most of it in first gear which allowed me to concentrate on corner speed and lines without having to factor in gear changes. There were only a few places I needed to change into 2nd or third but they were few and far between. This road is mostly 35 or 45kmh bends.


Coming around the Mt Seaview bend I could see Dave and Rick on the side of the road, I slowed to pull over but they waved me past, I hadn't seen Bushpig or Slomax so I pressed on.




As I came around a left hander what did I see on the side of the road but these two bums sitting there enjoying the sun shine. Taking my helmet and gloves off my hands were shaking with adrenaline, they both laughed at me as if I was some feeble old guy with parkinson's.

Slomax & Bushpig

Heading back up to Gingers Creek the road had dried out and I was getting my eye in now after two passes. By the time I got to the top I was starting to get a bit tired and thirsty after 80kms of hard riding on this winding road. Pulling back into Gingers Creek there were now a lot of bikes here in the carpark. I thought I better top up the tank as I probably wouldn't make it to Walcha. I was right I would have run out of fuel 30km out of town, this R1 is thirstier than an alcoholic on payday.

Dave & Rick at Mt Seaview

Ricks Tuono

Rick, Dave and I decided on a quick stop in to have a look at Aspley falls which is just off the side of the road. With all the rain lately the falls were roaring today. Time for a quick selfie.

Aspley Falls

It wasn't long before we got into Walcha for a fuel top up, a quick beer before the quick trip across to Uralla and the Top pub which was our stay for tonight.

DAY 3

Bushpig and I went for a walk around Uralla early to see what was open. Being a small country town and a Sunday there was sweet FA open so we headed back to see if the others were up yet. We did make one vitally important discovery on our walk but damn it they were closed. I had to stop Bushpig from licking the windows. Maybe next time then.

Brewery Goodness

After a big cooked breakfast at the cafe across the road from the Top Pub we got under way again heading down the New England towards Tamworth. We said our farewells to Rick as he was headed back to Brisbane as we went south. This was just boring slab work until we got to the turn off on the out skirts of Tamworth.

Top Pub Uralla

Nundle Road

Bushpig just chillin and catching some rays

Doug has shown us a new route to go down to avoid the crap top section of the Thunderbolts way. It starts from the top of Tamworth and heads out towards Nundle running in between some large hills and along beside a creek. The roads flows well through beautiful countryside here before suddenly coming up a tight twisting section called Port Stephens cutting quickly ascending the mountain side until it comes out on top of the plateau. It was rough and tight and there were plenty of picture opportunities but I was having to much fun to stop and take any photos.

It wasn't long before we'd popped out back onto Thunderbolts way near to Nowendoc. A few minutes after we stopped a Ducati 1198 and a BMW came flying up, they were starting to look for fuel so they headed for Nowendoc.

Doug on the Thunderbolts Way

Lunch At Gloucester

We stopped in at Gloucester for fuel for the bikes and ourselves. A large iced coffee hit the spot just right. I wasn't hungry after the huge breakfast I'd had. We headed back down the way we had come on day 1 through Dungog and Gresford. I had to wave Slomax through on one section as I had to slow down the road was that rough I was getting hammered by the road surface and hard suspension. I repeat it again, Dungog council get your fucking shit together before your crap roads kill someone.

Another slaps of fuel in Singleton it was the home run down the Putty Road back home. A quick stop at the top of the ten mile then we were under way again. The pace through here was good and I followed Dave and Slomax getting my knee down on Batman corner. When the road is in good condition this new R1 is superb but when its not it can be a nightmare. Such a big difference in surface conditions on this ride.

Putty Road

Stopping just outside of Windsor we said goodbye to Dave who was heading back down to Nowra, he had another 2 hour ride on top of what we had to do. Wonder how he felt at the end of that? I was shattered by the time I got home from the hammering I'd copped going through Dungog, it took me about two days to feel ok again after that ride.

Another top weekend of beer, bikes and bullshit...... er roads. Gents lets do this again soon!