2018 January-February Ride

Day 6: Braidwood to Khancoban

Pterodactyl:

Dawn came early and perhaps a little too bright. With only a hazy recollection of the aforementioned plan three CBs set out from Braidwood through the Deua Wilderness area (30kms or so of dirt) and then over the wonderful Alpine Way and on to the western side of the Great Divide. In the late afternoon Cormanus led us to Indi Bridge and we made camp for the night. Indi Bridge Camp is a reserve on the banks of the upper Murray River, favoured by those who care to fish, kayak or swim. The intrepid CBers chose to eat, drink and watch a total eclipse of the moon. A Blue Moon Eclipse. Spectacular, and considering that the next for Australia is 2021, and my advancing years, I thought it prudent to stay up and observe. Over a three hour period from 11pm local the Earth’s shadow glided across the Moon and, at totality, turned the moon to a beautiful blood red orb. Difficult to photograph a total eclipse with an iPhone but the lead up will give you an idea of the perfect night for it. The CBers were very, very, impressed, perhaps even a little awed.

Cormanus' photos

Pterodactyl and noroomtomove at Charlotte Pass. At 1,835 metres, the highest point in Australia you can reach by road,

Two fine specimens and Cormanus at the Charlotte Pass lookout.

2018 January-February Ride

Days 5 – 12

Pterodactyl and Aussieflyer have covered the events of the days that followed earlier in this thread, while noroomtomove has added photos. For those interested, here are the maps of each day’s ride and a photo or two just for fun.

Day 5: Sydney to Braidwood

These are for Inhouse Bob. It wasn’t like this when we were here together

Pterodactyl on the Seacliff Bridge at Wollongong

Pterodactyl tells the story:

In late January/early February, Cormanus and I embarked on a ride to the Snowy Mountains and adjacent coast. No real plan, just enjoy the ride and see where it took us. Accommodation would be split between camping and hotels, depending on weather and our mood. From Brisbane to Sydney return, Cormanus has another 2200kms and four days on the road over me, so we planned to spend eight days on our Snowy ride. In addition, Noroomtomove and Aussieflyer would ride northward from Victoria (Sale and Melbourne respectively) and join us along the way. Thus we anticipated that, at stages, we would have four CBs on the road together. Could be fun. And it was.

At the end of day one of our ride we meet up with Noroomtomove at the town of Braidwood. Staying at the Royal Mail Hotel we had our usual pub grub washed down by the usual refreshments. Experience has proven that these refreshments are absolutely critical to the proper and precise preparation of a perfect plan for the next day's ride.

2018 January-February Ride

Day 4: Sydney

Perhaps the most taxing riding day of all: about 6 kms across Sydney to Chez Pterodactyl where I passed another pleasant afternoon and evening.

2018 January-February Ride

Day 3: Scone to Sydney

Leaving Scone, I made my way through Broke and the road to Wollombi on the grounds that it would get me to Sydney faster than the Putty Road. It’s also a great ride that I’d done most recently on the way to the MotoGP in 2017. It’s the home of Lemming Corner about which much has been written in the past.

A coffee stop at Jerry’s Gourmet Kitchen & Café at Kulnura. A favourite weekend biker stop

Milestone on the way into Sydney

I was in Sydney for lunch with my son and his wife and spent a most agreeable afternoon and evening with them.

2018 January-February Ride

Day 2: Wauchope to Scone

The section of the Oxley Highway that runs from Wauchope to Walcha is rated by many as the best motorcycle road in Australia. I’m not sure I agree, but it’s still a fabulous ride. As you pass the Wauchope town boundary you are immediately into a delightfully winding road that passes through the bush until it emerges onto Long Flat. Long Flat is more undulating than flat, but it’s open farm land and smooth, fast road.

Then you start to climb and there is a sign warning you of 44 kms of winding road. That’s 8 kms more than the sign photographed by AussieFlyer (see here), but I’ve no photographic evidence. This time. The speed limit drops to 80 kph and you are into the bush, climbing the Great Dividing Range. The road surface is excellent, the corners great and the challenge for a medium grade rider like me is to stay as near to 80 kph as you can all the way to Gingers Creek.

Before we get to Gingers Creek, though, a word on the speed limit. Traffic authorities in Australia are convinced the only way to reduce the road toll is to reduce the speed limits. While they may be right, I’m not completely sure how much evidence there is that it’s actually working. The decision to reduce the speed limit on 44 kms of the Oxley Highway that winds up the mountain side has been hotly contested and the subject of great criticism by many a motor cyclist and local. I don’t know what to think. While I’m not sure I can see the need for it—roads dictate the speed at which intelligent people will drive or ride them—it’s hard for me to sustain a much higher speed for much of the road. I’m also not sure I want to be confronted by people blasting out of a corner at much higher speed.

The riders are unhappy and, I’m sure, certain amongst them will continue to blast up the road at the best speed they can manage, scaring the bejasus out of the rest of us for the time they retain their licence. And, I must confess, above Gingers Creek the road starts to open up a bit and the 80 kph speed limit feels a little restrictive, even to me.

Gingers Creek is the place where you stop for a cup of coffee and, this day anyway, breakfast. You can theoretically buy fuel there, but the supply is not guaranteed so it’s wise not to count on it. I had the place pretty much to myself and enjoyed the peace, the birds and a plate of eggs and bacon before moving on.

Alone at Gingers Creek

Breakfast

Just up the road a tree had fallen blocking half the road. There was no phone reception so I took a photo with my phone to get a GPS fix on the place then kept riding till reception returned when I pulled over and rang the traffic authority to tell them. They already knew, but I still had a virtuous feeling from making the effort.

That tree

From the end of the 44 km stretch, the road straightens and the speed limit is lifted to 100 kph then 110 kph for the run across the plain to Walcha. I refuelled and then spent an hour or more trying to find a clip for the strap that holds my bag onto the bike that I’d broken when I got fuel. I found one at a saddlery run by a bloke who had an old 650 4-cylinder Kawasaki. He’d been out for a ride when I first called which was why I had to wait around.

Why I did this, I can’t explain. I had a perfectly adequate alternative. I suppose there’s some sort of challenge in there that I can’t resist.

Parked for Coffee at the Royal Hotel in Walcha. I got away with it.

Luckily, I think, I recalled in the nick of time that Australia’s premier country music festival was on in Tamworth. I’d been planning to ride there on my way to Dungowan and Nundle—a road listed as one of the top 10 in NSW. The trip down Thunderbolts Way to the turn off to Dungowan is a good ride anyway, and the ride from that turn off to Dungown through the Port Stevens Cutting is also great.

The road from Dungowan to Nundle was a pleasant ride, but I was down off the mountain and it was getting very hot when I stopped for lunch.

Chaffey Dam on the way to Nundle. It looked and felt very dry.

After lunch the weather became more and more foreboding and when I stopped for fuel in Scone, the weather radar showed a storm closing in and I decided to stay dry.

Hydrating while deciding whether or not to run the gauntlet of the rain

I put up at the recently renovated Thoroughbred Hotel to escape a drenching. It fizzed before it got there and very little rain fell, but I was tired and glad to be off the bike.

Lamb cutlets at the Thoroughbred Hotel, Scone

I fell asleep before the end of the women’s final at the Australian Open. If I ever found out who won, I’ve since forgotten.

26 January 2018

Much of the story of this ride will be told by Pterodactyl, noromtomove and AussieFlyer I'll take over — briefly — to cover the bits of the ride I did on my own.

Day 1: Brisbane to Wauchope

Click on the map to see a Google Map of the entire trip.

Crossing the border from Queensland to New South Wales in the summertime means putting your clock forward an hour. Queensland, with good reason, declines to participate in the daylight saving adopted by other Australian states.

On Australia Day (January 26) I was in Grafton, NSW with the clock on the bike saying my normal lunch time was over due, but not yet feeling hungry enough to stop. I was also in the process of deciding to abandon the day’s plan to ride up the range to Glen Innes. I’d been out of sorts all day and I just didn’t feel like it, even though I’d originally been keen to get up on the range. It was very hot on the flat in the coastal hinterland and I hoped height would bring cooler air. But it was increasingly overcast and a check of the weather app on my phone showed rain falling all over the alternative route I was pondering.

The bike was (relatively) clean, I was hot and I didn’t want to have to do battle with my wet weather gear (which would just make things even hotter). To make matters more complicated, either alternative ride up the Great Dividing Range would mean a longer wait for food than I wanted.

On a whim I decided to go to Nana Glen, nearer the coast, where there had been a motorcycle friendly café the last time I passed through. While that would mean the slab after lunch and an overnight stay near the coast, the consolation prize was a ride up the Oxley Highway the following morning.

Australia Day’s a public holiday, and when I got to Nana Glen the café was firmly closed. I pushed on to Coramba where I found food but no fuel. That would once have worried me, but application of Noroomtomove’s First Law of Motion and Fuel Consumption reassured me I’d be fine to get to Coffs Harbour.

Noroomtomove's First Law of Motion and Fuel Consumption as applied to Honda's CB1100:

KR = KT/10 x 4

Where—
KR = Kilometres remaining; and
KT = Kilometres travelled

Because the CB1100's tank carries 14.6 litres of fuel and the reserve light flashes when approximately 3.6 litres remain in the tank, the formula should really be KT/11 x 3.6, but that's way too complicated to do in my head. My colleague, Pterodactyl, being naturally cautious and slightly harder on the right wrist than noroomtomove, so we decided on KT/11 x 3 as the multiplier to give us some margin of error.

So far so good!

Stopped for lunch at Coramba

An afternoon milestone just south of Coffs Harbour

Later in the day, after an unremarkable trip down the highway, very hot but at least dry, I pulled into Wauchope where I found a room at the Hastings Hotel. It was comfortable and clean, but it wasn’t until I lay down on the bed that I finally found the power point.