Day 2: Wauchope to Bingara
4 August 2020
Many say the Oxley Highway for 50 or so kilometres from west of Long Flat to the top of the Great Dividing Range is the best motorcycle road in Australia. It ticks a few boxes: generally, it has an excellent surface, the road is well marked and there are plenty of advisory signs, the bush is very attractive when the motorcyclist can find a moment to look at it, it twists and turns constantly as it climbs, and it's plain good fun. Sport bike riders may contend that the speed limit is ridiculously restrictive; for my part I couldn't ride most of it at much more than the posted limit. It also boasts the Gingers Creek Café, which I feel obliged to visit as it's in the middle of nowhere and can only survive on passing trade. It sometimes has petrol too which can be a lifesaver. We were a little worried that the combination of bushfires earlier in the year and COVID-19 might have forced it to close, but our host at the Wauchope Motel assured us it was open.
Thus is was that the plan to find our way north to ride up the Gwydir was thwarted by the fact that it was a glorious day, the Oxley beckoned and we could have breakfast at Ginger's Creek.
This is the fun bit of the Oxley with the Gingers Creek Café shown at point B.
It was a glorious ride to Gingers Creek and as we passed the rest area at Stockyard Creek, just over a kilometre down the hill from the café, I was really looking forward to breakfast and a cup of coffee. Which, I suppose, is why the café was firmly closed with a sad, abandoned look about it.
It's another 81 kilometres to the Walcha Royal Café with the first 24 kilometres being fun and the rest being a long, straight, undulating run across the plateau. At least it has a speed limit of 110 kph (about as good as it gets in Australia) so it's possible to make good time.
When we came out of the tree line and onto the plateau, it was glorious and sunny but there was a stiff and very cold westerly wind blowing straight at us. By the time we arrived at Walcha, I was cold and hungry and contemplating life without motorcycling.
A hot breakfast, coffee, and a seat in the sun cheered me up. An agreeable bloke on a snappy R9T arrived and told us Gingers Creek Café was always closed on Tuesday. Harrumph!
A fearsome dragon-like creature, made of old bits and pieces of agricultural equipment, inhabits the garden at the Walcha Royal Café. It's not nearly as flash as its cousin at Deals Gap.
Warmer, happier and with a plan, we set off west on the Oxley Highway. I wanted to refer to a ride Pterodactyl and I did in early 2017 when we rode the same road, but I couldn't find it. Apparently, I never wrote it. Anyway, the 2017 ride was on a very hot January afternoon and we thought to ride to Bendemeer. The road was so uninteresting we turned off for Woollun near the Walcha Road Hotel, thereby missing a most agreeable stretch of road. Not this time.
Refuelling at Bendemeer, we set off into the countryside not sure what we would find, but having agreed that, if we found gravel, we'd turn around and find another way. The road started most agreeably, winding its way alongside the Macdonald River. We made good progress but it soon, turned to gravel and looked awfully like it was going to be like that for a goodly distance. We turned back and then up another road that Google said would get us where we wanted to be. More gravel.
We retraced our steps to the New England Highway which we took to Uralla where we again turned left in search of the Copeton Dam. It was a pleasant, quick ride through bush and farmland. There were no truly memorable stretches of road but it was way more fun than a highway.
Just after 3 pm we found ourselves at Bundara where we stopped for fuel. It was a tiny town, but there was a pub and the smoke from the chimney looked attractive. It was cooling down and stopping for the night appealed. But the pub was full of shearers. That was, I confess, slightly surprising, but a good thing, both for the publican and the local community. We decided to leave Copeton and make our way to Bingara (where we'd been heading after Copeton) before Skippy and his relatives came out to play.
The final kilometres into Bingara, down through the hills and alongside the Gwydir River was a great little ride to end the day. The Imperial Hotel had a room, undercover parking for the bikes, beer, an excellent fire and was serving food. What could be better?
