Nambucca Heads 2012

nev

Super Térrarist
FarRiders were having their annual FarRide to Nambucca. Minimum distance is 1000km in 24hrs. I was doing a documented 1200km ride (which meant keeping petrol reciepts and keeping a log of stops, odometer readings etc).

All of the long rides I seem to do are heading north, and I tend to travel the same roads, in the same directions, so for this ride I decided to do some things backwards. I’d follow the #1 highway north from Melbourne to Nambucca. I rarely leave Melbourne in that direction.

Start point was Bairnsdale, just shy of 300km east of home, so my plan was to set off at 9am to be in Bairnsdale by 12:30 when the clock starts. 3 generations of my family lived in that region, from my great grandfather who emigrated to Australia in the mid 1800s as a child till my father moved from Orbost to Melbourne during WWII, and although I have no personal connection to the place I have learned recently that my great grandfather was a prominent member of the community there around the late 1890s early 1900s and was a city counciller, member of the hospital board, the local water board, founding member of the bowling club, golf club, etc etc as well as being a timber merchant who supplied much of the timber for construction in the area, so I always look at the old railway and road bridges in the area with a sense of wonder that the timbers in their construction might have been supplied by my great grandfather and his family.

I can use the Google latitude feature on my phone to upload location data to Spotwalla, so I gave Jo a link to the spotwalla trip page before I left. 9am, bike is packed, I’m suited up, ready to roll, only two things left to do - plug the phone into the charger in my tankbag, and put my gloves on. I plug the phone in. No charge. I unplug and replug the charger. No charge. I unload the swag and pull the seat off. Check the fuse in the aux fusebox under the seat. Fuse is blown. Replace the fuse. Check the charger. It’s charging. Throw a few more spare fuses under the seat, replace the aux fusebox lid, seat on, swag on, check the phone. No charge. I unscrew the base of the aux plug and see the issue... The neg wire is frayed and almost sheared through due to too much movement I guess, and shorting out when it connects with the positive. Quick SMS to Jo, no tracking on this ride. Phone off to preserve battery, and off I go.

I know the forecast is for showers pretty much anywhere between Sale and Sydney so I have half of my wet weather gear on at home.. the other half goes on about 1hr east of Melbourne when I get the first few drops. The weather plays pretty nicely all the way to Bairnsdale and I stop at the local auto shop to buy a replacement 12v plug. The Autobahn version of the cigarette lighter extender is much more robust than the Dick Smith version.. a job of cutting the plug off one end and baring the wires sufficiently to plug into the fusebox should take 1 minute but instead takes 10 using some scissors and pliers I borrow from the store attendant and it’s raining when I exit the shop so i head to a petrol station for fuel and some undercover area to work on the bike. About 1pm I’m on the road. Already about 20 minutes behind plan, but I have a fair bit of leeway built in.

I’ve ridden the Bonang a few times north to south, but never south to north. Today is to be my first go. At Bairnsdale I check the BoM radar. There’s some nasty stuff heading towards Bombala. I don’t need to hit the dirt sections of the Bonang on a day like that. It’ll have to wait till another day. By avoiding the Bonang I also save myself about an hour. Around the coast (first time I’ve ever ridden the #1 Hwy beyond Cann River) and fuel up in Eden. Here it’s raining a bit, and the local cops standing out with their RBT kits in the rain wave me on. Another cop and another RBT waves me through just the other side of Bega. The showers continue on and off up the coast till late afternoon when the rain sets in properly around Moroya. It’s really coming down when I stop for fuel in Termeil. North of Nowra it’s dark and I’m in the middle of a great light show coming from the sky. Lightning and torrential rain. My gloves are soaked through and my hands are waterlogged, but at least I’m relatively dry under jacket and pants. By Wollongong the roads are dry but it’s not warm enough to dry my gear. My plan was to follow the #1 through the centre of Sydney and roll out the swag somewhere around the Central Coast. Instead I find a motel in Hurstville and turn all my clothes inside out to dry. By 10:30 I’m asleep. Alarm set for 4:30 but I wake up before 4 and by 4:30 I’m on the road again under clear skies. Under the harbour and into the northern suburbs by 5am and up on the Central Coast where i’d planned to kip about half an hour ahead of my planned am start time.

Pretty uneventful trip north up the Pacific Hwy. Saw some other farriders at the fuel stop in Bulahdelah, sorry, I didn’t get any names. Shortly after I was being followed by a cruiser, who then took the lead for some time and we both stopped at a rest area for a chat. Surprised me when he knew who I was, but apparently my reputation preceded me (or maybe I have a stalker) and Adam (aj1249) a lurker in Austouring is also on his way to Nambucca heads. After a chat I continued onward. I had gained so much time during the morning that I was running well ahead of time. I decided to ride past Nambucca and head to Urunga for another fuel docket, and an extra 50km to ensure I was well above the minimum 1200km.

The ride home.
I never seem to sleep past 4am when I’m on long rides, and this was no exception, no alarm required. I check of the sky when I woke up revealed many stars. At 5am I was on my way south again. Not long before Bulahdelah I spotted a bike ahead of me which from a distance I recognised as Al on his 1942 Harley. I tried to get some rolling photos of him as I went past, but I’m afraid the best I could muster was a bit of a blur. The camera wasn’t playing the game.

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Fuel stop at Bulahdelah and Al pulled into the same servo behind me. Chatted for a while before we said goodbye and my next destination was a mate’s house near Wyong. He’s not well known for his early mornings, and no matter how loudly i revved my bike riding down his drive or how loudly his dog barked, or his caged cockies screeched, or how many times I rang his phone, he was a no show... so about 10:30 I was off again.

Lunch was my next destination. 3 years ago I was riding through New Zealand and I stopped at a burger chain called Burger Fuel. Their only Australian outlets are in Sydney. I had the Newtown address plugged into my GPS and no amount of inner city traffic in what felt like 30° heat could dissuade me from my goal. And I’m happy to report that I did not go disappointed. Great burger. Took a break here for an hour or so... and it was in Newtown that a barmaid and myself found ourselves in a dilemma. I needed a toilet, so I walked into a pub in the main street of Newtown to use theirs. I don’t like to be rude, and i was in no hurry, so I stopped at the bar on my way out and ordered a glass of lemonade. I must have looked particularly heat exhausted because the barmaid commented on how hot i looked with all my bike gear on, and then told me I could have the drink on the house. Herein lies the dilemma. I told her that I had only bought the drink because I had used the toilets and I felt obliged to be a paying customer. She ummed and ahhed. I put a few dollars on the counter. She went to take it, then reconsidered. Ummed and ahhed some more. Eventually she insisted I keep my money and so I did.

Burgered up and cooled down I tortured myself further by proceeding at a snails pace along Paramatta Rd till i got onto the motorway. Not too bad out to the hills, and too many roadworks zones out between Katoomba and Lithgow for my liking. I’ve been to Oberon before, and down the Tarana Road, but I’ve never done the road south to Taralga, so today was my day. The rain was holding off and the traffic was very light. Great road. I’ll be back !

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On the way into Goulburn I was watching black clouds gathering in the west. Just as I hit town so does a storm. I make it to the cover of a petrol station a few minutes before it hits, and it hits with a fury. About 15 minutes spent here cowering behind a petrol pump as the wind and rain lashed the place. It gave me a good opportunity to make sure all of my gear was zipped up and properly waterproof with no small gaps for leaks to trickle down my neck. Initally I had planned to head south to Cooma and from there see how the weather was for a ride across the snowys, or keep heading south back to Cann River, but I decided at Goulburn that if i was going to get wet, better to use the Hume to make the fastest possible retreat to Melbourne. I also used the time to find a motel in Gundagai and book a room for the night.

Then it started to ease, so I decided to head out. It was still raining but I knew from looking at the radar that I was going to get wet. I only got half a click down the road when an even more violent torrent of rain hit, and the main street of Goulburn was starting to become a flowing river a couple of inches deep. Luckily there was another petrol station and I took cover for a few minutes until that passed. On and off between Goulburn and Gundagai there were other encounters, only one of the same ferocity, but fortunately these were all very isolated, so they only lasted a few minutes.

It was a late night relaxing and watching tv. 11:30 before I turned off the light. No alarm set. No hurry to get home in the morning. If it was wet I’d stick to the Hume, if dry I’d take some more interesting roads. 5am I woke up with a leg cramp in my calf. This is the second time on a FarRide I’ve been woken in the wee hours with this. Even though I have a drink on my back and think I drink regularly enough during the day, I guess this is an indication that I’m not and i'm suffering a bit of dehydration. Anyhow, after the pain of that had dulled after a minute or two I was well awake. It was 5am on the nose. Looked outside. Another clear sky. At 6am I was headed to Tumut..

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..then via the Wondalga Road to Tumbarumba for a breakfast pie. Then Jingellic and one of my favourite rides, the River Road. By the time I got to Granya I was more interested in getting home than spending another full day on the bike, and I’ve well travelled the interesting routes from the Murray River to Melbourne,

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I hit the Hume at Albury and was home by 1pm. Jo had left a feed in the fridge, so after a shower and some pasta I was in bed by 2pm and slept like a log till about 5pm.

3120km all up. Some new roads, and some old, but in a way i hadn’t seen them before.

 

GrahamD

Strom Newbie
:clap:

Thanks Nev,

I love those early morning starts once under way.

Don't like waking up early but glad once I am moving.

Some nice shots in there too.

Cheers
Graham
 

glitch

Mapping the next ride...
Staff member
Is this pic just north of the Abacrombie river crossing?
Cheers brian


Looks like it, dunnit?
Just at the bottom of those 2 hairpins, the road climbing into the short gully towards the first hairpin.
Love that road...about 15k's further north the road is the border to Mt. Werong State Forest and has been laid whillynilly on the ground, no cuttings, no straightening, no flattening, no filling...it just follows the contours of the natural ground like a shallow rollercoaster.
Awesome!


Whoohoo, what a ride for a coffee!! :glu:glu

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:glu

Sorry to hear about all the rain, mate :mad:

PS....always wondered about aj1249, been seeing the name pop up quite regularly, but never a post.
Now there's a name!! ....Hi , Adam!:gday:
 
S

Storm Shadow

Guest
nice write up, u must of done some km in your time from what i know of you nev, and i think your famous on the internet.
 
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