Day 2: Walcha to Coramba
16 January 2019
Master Map
I wake early, listen to the birds for a bit and fall asleep again for an hour or so. We make a leisurely breakfast and engage in idle chatter with a bloke living in his van while he rolls around the country taking photos of roads and points of interest for a digital map layer. I wish I could remember the name of the company he worked for.
By the time we get around to packing up, it's getting hot and the forecast is for high temperatures on the range. We decide to head inland briefly before making our way towards the coast and maybe camping somewhere we can take a swim.
Did I mention it was stinking hot?
On the way back into Walcha I notice a stand of eucalypt that's been trashed by a storm. Trees uprooted and huge branches snapped off. I'd overheard a farmer the day before saying he'd had 89 mls of rain but it had done awful damage. I understand.
Storm damage
I'd buy one just for the sound it makes
After coffee in Walcha and a chat with a bloke with a Kawasaki Z900RS (gee they sound good) we make our way to Ebor where we'll be almost at the end of the CB1100's range and will refuel both the bikes and ourselves.
As we get off the bikes at the service station, Pterodactyl says, "Fusspots is closed. What about my lunch?"
I notice the sign on the door of the service station: "Closed due to power outage".
Ebor is not quite in the middle of nowhere, but it's 70 plus kms back to Armidale and about 40 plus kms on to Dorrigo. We've done at least 230 kms and application of NoRoomtoMove's First Law of Motion and Fuel Economy makes clear quickly that we're not going to make it to either place. It's also really hot by then and the prospect of cooking by the side of the road while we wait to be rescued is not enticing.
On the positive side, there's a pub in Ebor and it's open. Failing all else we can settle in for a cleansing ale or two and sort ourselves tomorrow. It's hot enough for that to be mildly appealing.
We reckon we have about 30-35 kms left in the tanks. I recall there's always appeared to be fuel at Tyringham, 29 kms away, but it's a one shop town and I've never had occasion to stop. A quick search on the phone gives up the number and I ring. No answer. I hang up and start thinking about the pub. The phone rings and it's Alice from the Tyringham shop. Yes, she has petrol and yes the power is on.
It's always fun to push the limits so we set off and make it easily to Tyringham. I rack up the furthest distance I've made between refills—265.9 kms—and put 12.94 litres in the tank. I had just under 2 litres remaining. Pterodactyl puts less fuel in. We would have made it to Dorrigo.
Alice tells us she's not allowed to serve food—she sells petrol, booze and God knows what else, so I can't think why—so we buy water and a chocolate bar. She seems mystified that no-one told us in Ebor, and doesn't want to understand that we didn't really talk to anyone. The place was closed. We eat our chocolate, drink our water, converse with a man clutching a six pack of beer and a flagon of port and push off back down the Armidale Road. It's as good as the day before.
Our plan is to ride to Ulong where there's a pretty camp ground with a shower—becoming a necessity given the weather conditions. Pterodactyl has a horror story about travelling from Ulong to Dorrigo, but says it's worth the ride to Ulong.
It is. The 15 kms or so from Coramba to Ulong is a road rider's delight. Smooth corners: tight but not so tight that you have to consider first gear. Left, right, left right up the hill. Wonderful.
The camp ground is very pretty, nestling beside a river and there's plenty of room for us. The shop that collects the fee and hands out the key to the shower is firmly closed and we can't find the proprietors or raise them on the phone.
Reluctantly—well not that reluctantly given the road—we ride down the hill to Coramba and check into the pub for beer, a shower, more beer, food and sleep. The barman's a keen motorcyclist and gives us some pointers for good local roads we might enjoy.
