Iffie's Bodacious adventure

iffracem

The Phat Hairy Bloke
(shamelessly pilfered from it's place of first posting www.bikesandscooters.com.au, one of our partner forums)
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Well, wot can I say, bloomin marvelous...

Stattler and Waldorfs' (myself and Smack) trip to the GP was a good un, but a tad subdued, you see, I enjoyed myself way too much at that salubrious Hobart den of drinking, otherwise known as Joe's Garage.

TwinGirl, Techno and I were given last drinks on at least three occasions, saved twice by some silly bugger shouting the bar due to him becoming a grandfather.
:chug:

We got poured out of the cab at around 2:00 am.. Smack was much better organised... he knew he had no willpower, so got #1 daughter to pick him up after she finished work, bout 10:00 ish....

Next day Techno and I met the Smack at his garage of awesomeness around half 9 the next morning. As most here probably have not seen him, Techno is the guy doing the weird thing with the hands... and later holding the post up. For the benefit of "out of towners", or those few people in Oz who may not have met him, the hairy headed bloke is of course "the Smack", one of the worlds Top blokes :thumbs: In fact, they both are, and I'm a lucky bloke to call them friends.

No more pics of that day, I shoved the camera into the rack bag, we saddled up, then headed North via Hamilton, Bothwell (where poor old techno had to head back, cos he had work <shudder> to do) Poatina, then Devonport via the luurvlee little Hamlet of Sheffield.

Now the first part of the trip, to the "fat doe" bakery at Bothwell, was not great for me, I just couldn't focus for some reason, got all the cornering lines wrong, couldn't get a "comfy" position.. Dunno why :whistle:
Then a large and well needed Mocha at the fat doe and I was roarin'. That next leg I was in the groove baby!!! But by the time we topped up the petrol at Poatina, I was starting to slip again....

More coffe n cake at Elizabeth town saw me right till pizza at Devonport, then the boat, we got "upgraded from a two to four bunk berth, for some reason a lot of bike riders were taking all the two berths
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Anyway, we had planned to while away the hours by imbibing at the bar... but, like the piking piker I was that day, I collapsed into the bunk early
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so endeth the first day


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iffracem

The Phat Hairy Bloke
Next day we awoke to the dulcet tones of some tart telling us we should get ready to mount our bikes... bloomin cheek.

so we got up slowly, did our ablutions, got a coffee, and went to the bikes when we were good and ready
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I think it was "you should be there and ready to go by now" being tarted over the speakers by then....
We still had time to slowly put the bags on, undo the bike strappage, then sit and ponder why the HD riders were already revving their beasts... oh yeah, they could hear the potatoes echoing off the bulkheads... some got quite excited...

Smack and I sedately rode off the floating bar and into mexico.. headed to the nearest macca's where another coffee, "hotcakes" (I prefer to call them pancakes, the only edible thing I've found in a Macca's anywhere) and I managed a few minutes access on the pooter via wireless.

Smack headed off to the west.. Geelong I think?
I headed East to the Pooh Palace.. no, not the toilet, I means Jen's place.

Now being a dunderklumpin, I couldn't remember where Pooh lived. Was it Mt Martha? Or Mt Eliza? Bugger it, Eliza looks good, time for more coffee while the pooh was summoned.
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Noodie Pooh has a very nice place, replete with large stables for bike parking comfort, definitely has the Iffy stamp of accomodationary approval
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Bundy was produced.. yep, this man has style
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, preliminary business was undertaken (I checked out his watches, and undertook to swap money for a shiney red one)

Other people arrived, can't remember who or in what order, but they did arrive, including an exasperated Koala with Honda Regulatoritis..
We then did an Exclusive Noodie Pooh Tour of the Peninsula, including that wonderful Pig and Whistle.. very nice watering hole, very nice beverages
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Woodsy sorted out the regulatory woes, just had to wait for the replacement to arrive (next day) While we were jauntily jaunting along behind the Pooh, he went out and bought beverages, BBQ food, munchies etc.. wot a guy!!

After that.. the festivities commenced.. involving copious food, grog, fun, frivolity and sausages... but there's another thread about that.

After that, late to bed.. so endeth day 2
 

iffracem

The Phat Hairy Bloke
Roit-ee-o

Where was I? Oh yeah, Pooh's party was a hoot!
Assorted dishevelled bike riding types stumbled from sleeping places to greet the morning sun (some even cursed at it I believe
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) They consumed coffees, breakfasts, and first of the day coffin nails.

I gave Jens some hard earned in exchange for the watch, and had a personalised fitting of the band by the designer.. w00h00!

Belongings packed, bikes loaded, engines started, troops assembled in the driveway....

waiting..

waiting..

where's the pooh?

why he and beemer steerer were still.. dithering.
must be a German thing
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finally orf we go.. guided around back roads by Noodie Pooh. Only one slight hiccup where Fatals' rear tyre got tired of holding air.. in fact it became quite deflated.... offered up my repair kit, but wasn't needed. Squeezed some air in and it held it's breath long enough to get to Cowes, and more. Mind you, not much rubber left to hold any air in.

More coffee on the way, the troops split up to various places, I follow Daves' (Fatal) orange VTR to the shared house. Didn't need to actually see him, cos I could follow the zorst
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House was found, dumped the gear, said g'day to all there, and promptly rode away to get snotblock and cheesecake from Charmed at Mulwala.
Now that is a bloody good Cheesecake and Snot Block!!!

Where's that you ask? Why up on the NSW side of the Murray, across from Yarrawonga, west of Corowa. Close to a 1,000k round trip, cos I never go the direct way
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Went via gembrook, cock-a-too, woori yallock (wot the hell sort of name is that?) healesville, some spur thingy, alexandra, euroa, the boreway, "flash ya wangar atta", yarrawonga, and Chateau de la Charmed.

Nice people the Charmed people, although I never met Mr Charmed, thetramp64 and his better half kept me entertained until the k's and Bundy consumption @ the Pooh Place caught up with me.

Damn I'm getting old, wouldn't have happened when I were lad.. would've travelled 800 mile on one wheel to get cheesecake, then shagged every wench in site....

ahem...

Next day it's back by basically the same way (by the bejeebers they have lots of straight roads up there.. terminally squared off the rear tyre)
Somehow I ended up heading into Yea...

Now Yea is a nice place.. but I think the local plod didn't like red bikes.. no Constable, my name is not Stoner, no Constable, it's not a Ducati.. doesn't even sound like a VTR.

120
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...... if you say so Constable... (lucky he didn't catch me before I got to the corner
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) $220, 2 points gorn.. ah well, tis the wake up I needed.

Got back mid arvo, tired but thoroughly contented with the ride, after all, that's why I bought the viffer... to do the miles. I was a tad disappointed when I heard how good the house party was on Friday night tho....

Shower, bludge about the house, then a walk to the furthest bottle shop in Cowes (I was starting to miss the daily dawg walking, even fat bastards need some exercise). Back wiv beverages, sat on the veranda and enjoyed the sea breeze (aka Tassie sea breeze, locals called it a bloody cold wind)

Race go-ers returned, PARTEEEEEE!

Dave (FatAL) did a bleedin awesome job on the BBQ, despite the rain, wind and decidedly lazy efforts of the BBQ burners. Maate, those prawns
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I decided to be chief dishwasher, beverage replenisher, and cheesecake scoffer....... I felt a bit of a freeloader seeing that Steve (doit) couldn't make it and I inherited his bed space. So I was the skanky slave for the night. Bonus, I got a bed and to be slave
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I'd like to add at this time, that the two crusty muppets, aka stattler and waldorf, aka Smack and Iffy, aka Steve 'n Jim were the last to hit the farter, must've been that whole bottle of the elixer of life we drank, Mr Tull-a-More Dew's finest Irish Whiskey.

Now farter was the word, as Dave (FatAL) was apparently breathing in via his snoring nose, and exhaling via his sphincter.... so effectively that two people preferred sleeping on the floor upstairs.

Next day was THE race day, beeeeooootiful day, got burnt to a crisp.
Of course, the hat stole the show, even Casey wanted to wear it, fair dinks.. he wanted to swap his cup for a wear...
But sadly he just isn't special enough. Special people wear the hat, not riff raff racer boys

Hit the sack early that night tho, had some issues disturbing the grey matter I needed to get on top of... Should've got pissed instead.

Next day... ummm... Monday!

Helped the survivors clean up the house, packed the bike and headed East, in the general direction of Brisbane. The journey begins.

Stay tuned
 

iffracem

The Phat Hairy Bloke
Sorry for the lack of pic's but I like riding, don't like stopping.
sometimes I can force a break, but usually it also involves eating or drinking (as those who received phone-pictures you may have noticed)

Jeez, gimme a break, even Ewan and Charley took someone else along to take photo's
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so where I got a pic, I'll put it up, but otherwise, it's just my rambling.

So.. along with wot seemed like half the biking community of Oz, I headed out of Cowes, and up to San Remo, bejeebers there was a lot of bikes... and cars.. The locals were really friendly, waving goodbye.. or were they just relieved
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. Police were doing a good job, I gave em a thumbs up when I passed them. In fact I reckon the way they handled the "festivities" was a good lesson to the NSW gestapo. No threatening with water cannons, confiscating grog etc, just keep your fun in the usual fun areas, and all was sweet
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. Seemed to work, I didn't hear or see any incidents of note.

Turn right at the round-a-bout, Wonthaggi way. nuffin to see here.
Left at Inverloch, Leongatha bound. nuffin here either, but nice country.
Bloody windy tho.. or FatAL fell asleep again, one of the two.

Well, time for caffeine, and a pee.. yup, nice little bakery, park bike.
Got a message from Muttley, he was leaving Sale and heading West on his three week trip. He said he left late and was a bit behind, needing to be somewhere else at a certain time (damn those planning types...)
I assumed he would take the Princess Hwy, so I followed the Strz... Strez... strzelecki (can I buy a vowel??) to Morwell. That's not a bad road, very pleasant. Petrol and mars bar, check the phone..
He's doing the South Gippsland Hwy.. Doooh!
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No worries, it was a nice road, I'm in no hurry... back to Leongatha....
Found him and his better half @ the same bakery I frequent about 2 hours earlier. Swapped notes, told fibs, had a drink... went our separate ways.

He went west to Smelbum, no doubt to catch up with a gazillion bike riders heading places west from the island. I went east, to nowhere in particular, work it out on the way.

The Sth Gippy Hwy is OK, pleasant enough, but a tad too many straight bits for my poor squared off Pilot sport on the rear. Bleedin wind was a pain as well. Discovered a comfy riding position for those long straight bits.. pillion pegs down, shins rest on them, left arm across the tank bag, supporting chin.. verrrrrry comfy.

Got to Yarram, thought, this'll do and parked me arse for the night.
First stop, smelly clothes in the local laundromat...
Second stop... NO.. not food
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...
wash the bike, damn those custard bugs! back to the wash, put the stuff in the dryer.... when it came out I discovered they must use a kero fire heated dryer, cos everything smell of kero yuck....

Local pub made a beeeeooootiful peppered steak sanger 'n chips, coupla bundies and I was ni-night....

Toosdee.. rain.... bugger....

Ah well, on with the plastic pants, covered the bags with their plastic raincovers, off we go again... boring bit to Sale.. more coffee with raisin toast I believe.

Not that much to say about Sale.... But Gippsland is noice! I like the place, good roads in reasonable reach, nice people who don't seem to mind boikes, fairly clean air. Housing is cheap, but jobs seem rare... Ah well, can't have it all I guess.

Bairnsdale next... adopt the lying supported position, music on, brain in cautious auto-pilot mode.

A decision of sorts, Great Alpine road, or Monaro Hwy? Then I remembered, the cheesecake trays need to be taken back to the chateau de la charmed at mulwalla... GAr it will be, I'll do the Monaro some other time.
That's one berluddy nice road the GAr
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could do that a few hundred more times. Twisty bits, smooth sweepers, nice scenery, pleasant locals.. nirvana-ish.
Not far along I was overtaken by various riders, solo's, bunches, pairs etc etc.
No doubt I was in "driving miss daisy" mode, being 4 points short of a bus commuter, and well, not really feeling the need for speed, to much weighty stuff on the 'ol brain box to allow proper concentration and chicken strip erasing speeds anyway.
These others ranged in outlook from "I wanna make Rossi look slow" to "Lets go just fast enough to have some fun", their choice, live and let live.
There's a lot of nice places to partake country fresh snacks on that road, so I did. The "fun" crowd had the same idea, we had a pleasant game of "leap frog along the GAr".
The rain, and wind, had decided to do the decent thing, and farked right orf
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Along the way, not sure exactly where, as I was in a euphoric state of nice road, great bike, being "in the groove" and had a really contented digestive system, a friendly local interrupted his yard mowing to wave me down. Curious..
The nice chap wanted to tell me that there must have been a prang further up the road, as the wallopers had not long before gone flying up the road, lights a flashing, followed by what he described as the "funeral bus", no word of ambulances, that didn't sound good.

With profuse thanks to the guy, and the sage advice that a sheep would be less energy sapping on a yard that big, I tootled in the general direction of "away".

Bit further up, after glorious twisties and lurvely sweepers had made me almost forget the mowers musings, I came upon road works, and one of the group of "lets have some fun" riders. A few delays due to the stop sign wielders, good place for a swig of water, plain forgot about the camera tho.

A bit further up came caution signs, SES guys manning "slow down" signs, police, and a plain brown station wagon with serious looking aluminium boxes and even more serious looking men with rubber gloves.. the "funeral bus"
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Mr Plod waved me on, but when questioned an SES guy informed me that a motorcyclist possibly tried the corner way to fast, landed about 30 metres out, 10 metres down, and was very dead.
RIP mate, hope your family can get over the trauma quickly.

Euphoria temporarily abated, I kept my same, pleasant plodding pace up the range, stopping near the top to take stock and take some pics. (see below)

From here it was Bright, so I went to Bright
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, then Beechworth, where I decided a motel was a good idea.
It was too
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.
Next morning, the original Beechworth bakery beckoned for breakfast. MMM apple pie and cream, mocha, and sunshine!
Belly happy, off to Myrtleford, scene of many of #1 daughters early soccer triumphs (must ask the missus where the kids got their sporting prowess from.. certainly not this little fat duck
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)

There to "flash ya WANGAR ATTA" again, then Yarrawonga, and to the Chateau de la Charmed. A message on the tellingbone said that Simone was in places other, and but that Mr Charmed should be there. Er.. nope.

Lubed the chain, dropped off the goods, messaged a "thank you" then headed to Albury to get a new tyre, almost didn't need a sidestand now, the squared tyre was enough to balance the beast.
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Stopped off at Corowa sent a message to those I thought would suffer the most
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. Orf to Albury and "Online Motorcycles" where Charmed gets all her bike bits.
I can see why, friendly bunch, they deal in 'Onda's, Duc's and some other expensive German things... thankfully stuck in a corner out of the way.
I was in there a total of 30-40 minutes and rode away with a new rear hoop
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Met up with an old army mate, stayed at his place that night.... that was... um Thursdee. Supposed to be back in Bris in 3 days....


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iffracem

The Phat Hairy Bloke
Up with the sparra's, well, not really, but earlier than most mornings.

My hosts were off to work, and I had some more alpine roads to ride, and a noo tyre to bed in.
Servo first, check the tyres, chain, etc etc... fill er up and head east again, and a bit south.. yesterday was a zag, today I zig
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Around the bottom of the Hume weir wall. When I lived in Albury, they discovered that the main part of the wall was moving downstream at a reasonably worrying rate. So the old bridge was rebuilt, the road across the wall itself closed off, and a whole lot of work was done post haste.
They used to have water putting pressure on the weir wall then... they don't have that problem anymore
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Follow the road on the south side of the Murray, it's a good 'n, pretty good condition, reasonably bendy but without the hairpins etc... perfect for scrubbing in a new rear (or front).

Coffee 'n cake at Corryong and top up the tank, just to be sure.
A bunch of sports car enthusiasts were also stopping for a spot 'o tea as well. Sunbeam rapier, coupla Cobra replica's, E type and sundry open top convertibles. I guess if you have to travel by car, the convertible is the better choice.
They decided I didn't really want to enjoy the wonderful, quiet solitude I had, so congregated around like a flock of rabid seagulls.
Nearly the whole main street to park in, more than enough choice of coffee shop, but no... Seems I need to foster a more threatening visage... The smacked in the head with a hairy guinea pig look just doesn't cut it. They were a gregarious lot, loudly instructing minions over the mobile phone, I guess some sort of competition was in place, "who could pretend they were irreplaceable at work the most frequently"
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Why you would want to take time off, go for a ride/drive in beautiful country, in glorious weather, then spend all the breaks talking work is beyond me. Don't they know mobile phones were invented to annoy people still at work with reasons WHY you're enjoying not being at work?

Anyway, the tales of tribulation involving the small luggage space, having to leave the second bag of shoes at home, why didn't they have 110 octane fuel here.. they do in Melbourne you know, how "the Latte's were soooo much nicer in Tooooorak, daaaaarling" was too much for me.

I saddled up and left... Khancoban was calling, I could heart it, fair dinks.. "JJ... Jay jay.. there are no wankers here.. the snow season is over JJ.. they've all gone home... or unzud, or somewhere....."

The peaceful solitude of the motorcycle tour is my idea of heaven.. I cant describe how much at peace I feel within myself when I'm just tootling along on a bike. Even with a group of riders, I'm still "by myself", it's the only time I feel that way, doesn't matter if the road is as boring as batshit, or it's sphincter clinching corners of absolute adrenalin, potholed enough to make a chiropractor order a new BMW an the thought of you're bill, it's still my Nirvana.
I gave it up for 20+ years, what sort of f-wit was I?

Anyway, enough philosophy.. There's a place in Khancoban you can refuel, but I didn't need to, Pity, I could have got a photo at the cafe next door "JJ's Cafe"
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Next time....

Geehi is next, not really a place, more one of those unique to Oz "localities" There's some beaut camping areas around ther, must do that one day... coupla pics at the end of this monologue, that strangely for me don't include my bike
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Tom Groggin in next, watch out for wombats, roo's, cattle and various other animalia. Not a place I'd like to ride at dusk or dawn.....

Dead horse gap is the place they found some brumbies frozen to death way back when... silly dungbags, shoulda brought some matches with 'em
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pics of the bike and the gap at the bottom.

Thredbo is next, holiday place for the terminal yuppie... keep on riding Jim, keep on riding.... to Jindabyne. Sounds like a nice place for......
Coffee
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That a berluudy noice road that.... you could never tire of riding that stretch. next time I might go left just before Khancoban and do Tumbarumba Batlow, Cabramurra, Khancoban, those roads look like they need a damn good riding.

Cooma next... roads a tad boring compared to the Alpine stuff, but still better than working
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Here I was in two minds, (no I am NOT a Tasmanian, I just lived there) do I go straight to Bega and the coast, or head south again via Bombala and try out the Mt Imlay road on the way to Eden. I decide to go straight down the range to Bega/Tathra, as it was mid arvo and I needed to keep (start) moving towards Brisbane. It's Friday, I'd left the Island Monday and I was only about 130 k's into NSW, I haven't done half the roads I want to... Another week would've been nice
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The Road down to Bega is swoit... except for the big mutha truckers... although all the ones I met on the way down made a special effort not to hinder my progress, waving me past at the first opportunity.
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. Can't be as effusive in praise for the caravaners tho... pr!cks.

Following the coast north to Bermagui, nice town, must spend a bit of time on the NSW sth coast one day. Getting near to dusk, so Narooma was a place to stop. Bleedin wind was back again... bastid thing.

Found a wood fired Gourmet Pizza place, and a bottlo open who stocked Bundy OP cans. I ask you, what else does a tired, contented.. nay.. thoroughly berluddy happy motorbicyclist need? except maybe a good r
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t, but hey, can't be greedy eh!

That's enough for now, more monologue later, here's some pic's








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iffracem

The Phat Hairy Bloke
Shyte, not many days left.

Ah well, bye bye Narooma, north I go. So sooo tempted to make a left somewhere and not come back..................

Anyway, followed the pacific highway to Moruya, where I parked the ample butt down for breakfast, some people may have got an MMS about Mocha's in Moruya . Batemans Bay is next, I want to do the Kings Hwy to Braidwood, but not knowing anything west of there, and my map showing very little in the way of interesting roads (that weren't dirt for a large part) I decided to save that for a later trip. I gotta get an "adventure tourer" one day... Trumpy Tiger? SV thou? Something to think about as the road went by. Ulladulla's a pleasant place, in the same way that all the Sth NSW coast towns are. There's the obligatory bike pic below, featuring some Ulladulla harbourage.

Nowra's next. Fill her up (Belly and Bike) After the bridge (Bomaderry) turn left to Fitzroy falls via Kangaroo valley, this is very very nice.

Road can be rough, but not too bad, the twists and turns are near legendary tho. Truck traffic can be heavy, but they were all "Bike friendly". For a pleasant day there was surprising little tourists about, (well, except me of course) the Spurs or Mt Glorious would have been bumper to bumper.

I came across on of the locals in a dual cab ute, it was fairly clear he knew the road very well, was fair throwing that thing around. I got the impression he wanted to show the tourist on the red bike how to really corner, <shrug> fill your boots son.
All he did was break my rhythm thru the 15kph signed corners, then take off like a scalded cat on the straighter bits. Time to pull over for a photo... which I did, see below

Now Kangaroo valley is pretty, but very "cliché tourist" like Richmond in Tas, Yackandandah in Vic etc. Fitzroy falls is the same. Nice old bridge to ride across, here's where all the missing tourists were, so I decided not to stop.

We'll fast forward past the next bit, just a commute through Penrith to Windsor. Windsor means the Putty. Next time I must go right outside Windsor and head to Wisemans ferry, then Mangrove Mountain, Wollombi and Maitland.. looks to be a nice bit of road that deserves a damn good riding on.

Most people know the Putty I believe, a good road that just doesn't seem to live up to the memories I have as a 23yo soldier from Singleton. Funny how the memory makes the roads windier, the hills steeper etc.

Oh well, Halfway house is around here somewhere, they do alright burgers... there it is, sign says open till 7:00, it's just past 4:00, Winner.

No.. not a winner.. they're closing up for the day, not enough customers it seems. Fair enough, grab a cold drink and an icecream and sit outside while they shut up shop. Under the big sign that says "Last fuel" are the bowsers.. all with "out of order" signs on them, guess it really was the last.
I rest for about 30 minutes, was a fairly hot day. During that time 7-8 car loads stop for fuel/food, wonder how often that happens? That last 3 hours could be their most profitable and they missed out, I left a note on his door to let him know. Probably thinks I'm an @hole smart @rse... another good reason to go by Wollombi next time

Its getting near dusk, I want to get off the road soon, one of Woodsy's furry mates might be lurking around.

Go for broke I think.. OK, so I did, rode straight thru Broke and headed to Branxton, the idea being to overnight in Maitland.

Bzzzz fail... Not going to make Maitland, it's getting too dark and the bugs were horrendous! I had to stop three times in 35k's to clean the visor, it sounded like rain on the visor they were so thick. In the end I stayed behind a ute that was heading the same way, hoping they would hit any wildlife and not me. Branxton and a motel... good enough, I'm knackered.

I looked a sorry site, the helmet was covered in bugs and was as furry as the beard, the hosts must have thought cousin It was staying over.
Used to Live in Branxton with the missus just before we got married, It hasn't changed much, except they got a set of traffic lights now, and more bottle shops per square kilometre than anywhere I've been. Must be something to do with the mines... The traffic lights must be there to control the traffic in and out of the bottle shops.

Next day dawned bright and sunny.. winner. I headed towards Maitland, that place has really grown!! It's massive compared to what I remember.

Left turn clyde...To Dungong, then join Bucketts way. I like the way NSW call the roads "Way" very quaint. At Gloucester, left again to leave Bucketts way, onto Thunderbolts way.
These two "ways" are being repaired, and they need it! Potentially among the best roads in Oz, IF they get a decent surface. Some parts of Thunderbolts are a mess of patched patches.. little patches of asphalt piled on asphalt piled on asphalt, net result is the road would possibly be better off if it were graded dirt. But credit where due, they are doing a lot of work on that road to fix it up
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Careful with unfenced stock, multiple ridges or ruts on sharp corners where the semi's test out the road base. But it's a mass of beautiful curves and corners, and dead pretty country to boot.

Mr Thunderbolt finished his way at Walcha. Time for... you guessed it FOOOOOD!

Nice big burger hit the spot, mmmmm.

Got talking to a couple from Mt Gambier, they'd just ascended the absolutely awesome Oxley Hwy from Wauchope. Why did Mr Oxley get a "high" way, too good for your normal way is he?
That road is both spurs end to end and doubled, without the traffic. The surface is excellent, the corners sublime, the experience ridiculous. You really appreciate a securely fastened chin strap on that road, cos a loose one would let your face split in half cos you're grinnin' like a fool on acid.

Dave was riding a Triumph Speed Triple, his lovely wife, who's name I'm absolutely embarrassed to admit escapes me, was riding an SV1000. Her bike was also carrying all the gear
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. They had ridden from SA to the Island, enjoyed the races and were heading to QLD to visit friends. Nice trip.
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Apparently the Speed Triple was quite a comfy tourer, the little optional screen deflecting most wind away from the rider. We chatted about the roads, mutual love of bikes. They weren't sure of the next leg, they really wanted to get to Nerang in time to watch the MotoGP (now that's a decent priority, none of this getting to work crap)
I was torn between the Oxley, then Waterfall way to Grafton, or straight onto the Waterfall way to Grafton, as W-way really starts at Walcha. Lucky buggers those Walchites... W-way to the north, Oxley to the East, T-bolts to the south... Bastids!!!

Well, my sacred duty to fellow riders made the decision for me, so I volunteered to lead them up W-way to Grafton... I know, I know, such sacrifice....
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This is really an extension of Thunderbolts, but smoothy-er, twisty-er, and fun-er. Usual NSW country road caveats apply.. stock on road, roadworks.. too much fun permanently twists your phissog into a maniacal grin
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Only incidents here were two stray cows, and a corner covered in loose gravel. The gravel caused my sphincter to rip a hole out of the seat, one of the beasts caused Dave a bit of concern, as he found out how good the vfr brakes were.. "the brake lights just got brighter and brighter"

Awesome bit of road that (I say that a lot don't I?)

Grafton and dusk is coming, that last stretch was 260k's of heaven, I'm tired, a bed is called for. We book into a decent place, hit the separate sacks.

Next day I leave bit earlier, seems Dave is one of those sicko people who exc.. exa... exce.. run and stuff <Shudder>

Hope they made Nerang by lunch.. should have made it in heaps of time.

From here it's straight up the Summerland way, to Casino, and Kyogle from there it's the normal weekend ride territory, Rathdowney, Tamborine etc. I got to Kyogle about 11:30 then spent till 3 ish tootling around the Gold Coast hinterland, then back to the house.

The last bit of road from Grafton is a bit boring compared to Thunderbolts, W-way etc, but still nice.

So ends the adventure. Back to weekend rides till the next "Big un" (Supers at PI)

Hope I didn't bore you, and you found at least some of this interesting.

Pics below... CYA

Attached Thumbnails:
 

glitch

Mapping the next ride...
Staff member
Oh man, what a read !!
Good fun and a great yarn...
Any chance to fix those pic-links...not that the story needs any more "colour", but it'd be nice to see some pics to go with it.
 
D

doit

Guest
Oh man, what a read !!
Good fun and a great yarn...
Any chance to fix those pic-links...not that the story needs any more "colour", but it'd be nice to see some pics to go with it.
Jim, would most likely see them, but anyone else not logged onto B&S site will not see anything. So I have changed permissions so guests can view attachments.
 

glitch

Mapping the next ride...
Staff member
Jim, would most likely see them, but anyone else not logged onto B&S site will not see anything. So I have changed permissions so guests can view attachments.

Thanks mate, totally forgot that they're stored at B&S :clap:
Some great shots, too
 
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