Day 3: Wauchope - Nundle
7 August 2024
It was a glorious, sunny, but chilly morning as we made our way west out of Wauchope and headed up the Oxley Highway to the New England Plateau. What can I say about it? It's 163 kilometres of well-made and maintained road between Wauchope and Walcha. There's a 44 kilometre section in the middle that boasts not much but corners and very attractive bush. Towards the top, the corners start to open up and become faster with the final 56 or so kilometres being relatively straight and undulating. Of course, on a cool winter's day travelling at 110 kms/hr, that makes it quite cold.
It's almost mandatory to stop at the Ginger's Creek Café and Resort 81 kilometres from Wauchope. It's pretty much the only stop after Long Flat, petrol can mostly be had there and it's a popular meeting place for bikers riding up and down the Oxley. How it stays open, I don't know, but I'm always pleased it does. We stopped there for a bacon and egg roll and coffee, and met a couple of bikers who used it as a turning point after riding up the hill. I guess you would ride up and down lots if you lived nearby: it's a road that would become more fun the better one got to know it.
CB1100s at Gingers Creek Café. In the background is one of the blokes who rides up to Ginger's Creek and then turns around just because he can.
We refuelled the bikes and had a cup of tea at Walcha and I found an entry for the monthly forum photo competition.
The GPS told us the quickest of the routes we wanted to take would take us along something called the Forest Way. We turned off and were met with a well-sealed, pretty country ride that promised a pleasant ride. It was probably about 5 kms in that the seal converted itself to gravel. Nah. We retraced our steps and rode down the pretty Port Stephens cutting into the Dungowan valley.
Our final stop for the day was at the Chaffey Dam where we stood in the sun and admired the mirror-like water.
It was hard to see what was going on at the foot of this structure near the dam wall. As the next picture shows — I think — it's the outlet for when the dam is full.
Sixteen kilometres later we were at the Peel Inn at Nundle.
