The Bumble Bee and the Baboon

[drunkwombat]

DAY ONE-DUNGOG TO WALCHA​

DUNGOG TO WALCHA-GOOGLE MAP LINK​

It is always a bright day when a good mate drops you an email in your inbox letting you know he has a few days off that line up with your own. Leave pass approved and I eagerly awaited his arrival. Lloyd had his new GS Adventure that hadn't tasted dirt yet and I'd picked out some sweet roads.

...and then the rain came. Nearly 6 inches over the weekend and wet and shitty forecasts were planning to ruin the next day or so.

But the sky gods were merciful, holding off for the world to dry out a little bit. and we were ready to go from Chateau de Wombat in Dungog.

The Bumble Bee

The Baboon (cos its got a red arse)

Cockpit layout:

Lloyd, rather dashing in his matching leathers, while I look the scruff in my kevlar jeans and generally not of a manner becoming of a BMW rider (Ha!)

Out through Monkerai, we hit the dirt...

And Lloyd started to familiarise himself with magic traction control buttons. We stopped and did some drag racing starts with the TCS on/dirt/off. It started to make sense pretty quick.

Its really pretty round this time of year around Monkerai.

After about 1/2 hour we were back on the Bucketts Way. A decent sports bike road.

The Bucketts, near Gloucester. Rain and gloom on the horizon...

Filling up the Beamers, with me tendering my opinion. We were curious to see how both bikes compared on the fuel consumption front.

Out of Gloucester, heading north and upwards, the Thunderbolts Way (named after the Bushranger, Captain Thunderbolt) had sign after sign warning of the perils of riding a motor sickle on this road. Thank you nanny state, at least I know it'll be fun if you have that many warning signs.

So, much fun was had as we proceeded in contempt of the Traffic Act...

Over the Barnard River.

The sky gods turned against us with some drizzle and rain. Good chance to stop at Carsons Lookout, about halfway to Walcha.

A wonderful view, apart from the horrid fence!

Cos its a scary cliff...or slope...

The western/northern half opens up a bit more from the tight twists, and good progress can be made.

The vegetation changes as the road get higher on to the northern table lands. We left the coastal forests behind for the prime beef and sheep country of the New England.

The temperature was dropping into the single digits celsuis (we're Aussies, our cold is different to American cold!) and we looked forward to getting to the pub.

We got to Walcha just before sunset and found cold Coopers beer and a warm bar. Quickly got a room sorted (pub accommodation is great!). There were 3 blokes on Super Teneres who had been hitting all the gravel back roads up the ranges all the way from Nowra and having a damn fine time of it. The barmaid told us we could lock our bikes up round the back of the pub for the night.

Apsley Arms Hotel Walcha. Beer. Food. Bed.

After a damn fine feed of lamb cutlets, and another night cap of beer. We turned in for the evening and fell into a coma.

NNNN

 

[drunkwombat]

DAY TWO-WALCHA TO DUNGOG​

WALCHA-DUNGOG-GOOGLE MAP LINK​

Well waking up to a glorious morning in Walcha, and watching the Tenere lads roll out of town (hell, we weren't in a hurry to be anywhere!)

The bustling metropolis of Walcha

The bikes, guarded by strange parrots.

We filled up at the petrol station. It was interesting to see that over the 150km from since the last fuel stop, the GSA had only consumed about 1/2 litre more fuel than the GS. We picked up an NRMA touring map. Sufficient for our needs...

Departing Walcha on the Oxley Highway. Not a cloud or a care to be had. I love this helmet.

Walcha

The Oxley Highway is a popular bike road and the Western End has some sublime sweepers and long straights with excellent visibility to stretch the legs of the big boxers.

We stopped to have a look at Apsley Falls. I hadn't been there since I was a kid.

BMW parking area.

Apsley Falls and gorge.

Spring is here is Australia, with the wattle out in bloom.

Back on the glorious Oxley, and the twists started to tighten and the fun really began. The road surface (by Australian standards!) is beautiful and smooth.

The tablelands gave away to the forests with these tree lined corridors.

For a pair of semi-offroad touring bikes, these bloody things can really boogie through the corners!

After belting through some magnificent corners, we stopped at the Gingers Creek Road House for a break, only to discover it is closed on Tuesdays! Oh well. We had a snack packed anyway.

We got out our trusty, newly acquired map, to plot our next move. I picked out a road that would take us through the National Park to Wingham, through some good looking forest roads. We turned on to Doyles River Road (which also had a hand painted Knodigbul Rd sign under it...mmm...hand painted signs...should one be cautious?)

We rode in on the fairly decent gravel road. To the first intersection where we rapidly started to find the limitations to our map. We needed topo maps, and the iPhone google maps are useless with no phone reception.

Blue Mountain Creek Rd. Not the last time we would see that sign...

After a little scratching of heads and considering we had heaps of fuel, we took inspiration from Robert Frost's poem THE ROAD NOT TAKEN and headed for the more overgrown one. No worries!

Somewhere in the wilds of the Bulga NP. Great fun throwing the big bikes through the gravel.

There was the occasional WHERETHEFUGAREWE??? moment as we stopped and looked down tracks at intersections. These were mostly old logging tracks from 80-100 years ago, now only occasionally frequented by 4WDs and bikes. There was a lot of clanking and banging as the sticks and rocks belted the bash plates. We had a couple of good slides on wet orange clay. BMWs don't like Orange...


Oh look! a lovely creek.

After an hour or so, we popped out on what looked like a main road. We turned left and after 15 minutes found the intersection we'd first turned off at...

Lloyd experiecning Deja Vu...

Having established where we were and which was the correct way to go, we swapped bikes and headed south. We wanted to check out a fire lookout I'd seen in a ride report on here.

It was my first ride on the current model GSA and it was interesting to compare it to the GS.

I found the GSA to definitely feel heavier and more deliberate than the GS. I set the ESA to the same as my GS (low mountain/hard). Couldn't pick much difference between them to be honest. I love the seat on the GSA, and you feel like you sit 'on' a GSA whereas you sit 'in' a GS. But ultimately, they are both brilliant bikes, and ya con't go wrong either way. Lloyd loved chucking round my 'little GS' (He's 6'4" where I'm only 6'0").

We found the Blue Knob fire watch tower.

Kinda interesting to imagine being on duty up there during a big bushfire, calling in the unfolding mayhem.

We were kinda heading in this direction.

Pushing on, considering my leave pass was approaching expiry, we headed south and eventually started seeing fences and cows and other hallmarks of civilisation. We also saw signs to the LEGENDARY Ellenborough Falls, which with a glowing endorsement like that, how could we resist?

Well they did have a kiosk that sold pies, and that bit was worth the stop alone. After that, we went looking for the waterfall.

Well this is where it goes over the edge. Not really much to write home about...

Walking round to another viewing area: Thats more like it!

Legendary? Well I'll at least give it 'impressive'. As far as waterfalls go.


Next item on the agenda: Filling hungry belly. Luckily we found a trendy cafe in Wingham to park out bikes in front of and drink cuppacinos. Damn fine sandwiches though.

Had a look at my rear tyre. Barley 3000km on it and nearly rooted. As sticky as Tourance EXPs are, I think I'll go with the normal ones next time.

Fuelled up again, still the GSA slighty thirstier, on onwards home for tea.

More lovely country around Wingham.

We got out onto the Pacific Highway at Nabiac for a transit section. Good chance to relax, apart from watching out for officer Plod.

We were bound for the Wootton Way. Once upon a time, the Pacific Highway had wound up over the ranges north of Buladelah. This twisty road took all the big trucks and traffic, and as a result had a lot of accidents and fatalities. About 10 or so years ago, a big bypass cut off this 22km section.

So what is left is a National Highway standard road, three lanes wide in most places, with incredible corners.

And no traffic...

Swinging off the utter boring highway, we attacked the Wootton Way like men possessed.

There is a lot of leaf litter on the road which was kicked up into these wonderful vortices behind the bikes. Bloody magic.

But the fun was over too soon, and we passed through Buladelah, Girvan and back into Dungog Shire.


Oh look, the sun is going down. Just like it did yesterday.

Nearly home.

And finally back in the drive way, just in time for tea.

What a brilliant 24 hours it was.

DW


NNNN

 

[David Nimrod]

Nice RR

 

[roadrider]

enjoyed that.



Can you tidy the fence up a bit for next time please

 

[Nutty]

Nice ride report.

Too much traffic there for my liking!

 

[polecat]

Enjoyed that. Brilliant location