Nambucca Heads 2013

The last few years I've taken a couple of days leave and attended the FarRider's lunch at Nambucca Heads. This year was no different. Friday and Monday annual leave approved and bike packed. Straight up the Hume and Pacific Hwys was the plan for the route there. Return route to be determined by how much rubber was left after Saturday. Possible detours to Taralga, Wee Jasper, or Jindabyne on the return trip.

Friday went to plan. Left home at lunchtime and headed straight up the Hume. Jacket liner came out at Holbrook and went back in at Yass. Around Jugiong the temperature had dropped about 10 degrees. The weather radar showed a lot of rain between Goulburn and Sydney. At Goulburn stopped for a feed and saw the rain was still heading away from me. I had plan A, swag it at a rest area somewhere north of sydney, or plan B, a motel in sydney. I'd already scoped out a motel in Hornsby near the freeway. A phonecall from Goulburn secured a room. I was at the motel by 21:15 and asleep by 22:00.

Saturday I woke a few minutes before my alarm at 5am. I stuck my head out the door... rain. Checked the radar.. rain all the way up the coast to Taree. Showered and packed and loaded the bike in the rain, but by the time I left at 5:30 it was just a drizzle. About 15 minutes later the drizzle had stopped and probably 15 minutes after that the road was dry. The run to Nambucca Heads was uneventful. I never stopped for any photos. The further north I got the more the clouds broke up. By the time I arrived in Nambucca it was sunny.

View from the lookout above the pub.



After a few bikes had arrived for lunch.

Saturday afternoon and evening spent enjoying the $3.50 schooners

Sunday morning the alarm was set for 05:00 again but I was awake by 04:45. Skies were clear and the radar showed no rain on the NSW coast. By 05:15 I was out of the caravan park and on the road. 400km later I was on the phone to my mate Pisshead Pete who lives on the central Coast. He's not normally awake before midday so it took a couple of phone calls at 09:30 to find out if he was awake or asleep. Eventually he answered and put the kettle on so I stopped by for a catchup. Anyhow.. this is a road trip.. can't be sitting around chatting all day, so by 11am I'm back on the road and by midday I'd found a kebab shop somewhere in Western Sydney. A brief shower passed while I was on the bike so I sat there a while longer to make sure there was no more on the way. The radar showed some rain over the Blue Mountains so I dropped any plan to hit the taralga road and headed down the Hume and pondered my choices. I decided to turn off at Yass and head south off the Hwy.

By 3pm I'm refuelling in Yass, and removing wet weather gear and jacket liner. The road to Wee Jasper is fully sealed now. On the way out of Yass I calculated where I could get to this evening, and rang the Tallangatta Hotel. They had plenty of rooms and the kitchen was open tilll 8:3pm. Beauty. I should be there by 8 but if I'm running late I can call them back and order a meal.



view near Wee Jasper



The dirt road out of Wee Jasper is in the worst condition I've ever experienced. Lots of marbles and bigger rocks floating on top. Not too much dust. My tyres at highway pressures probably didn't help (running pressure at temperature was 44F-psi 48R-psi). I had one pants pooping moment when the back wheel fishtailed out of a corner a couple of times before coming back into line fortunately.

As usual the Tumut end of the road was in much better condition


View over the Tumut valley. Tumut is visible in the distance


A couple of snaps in the setting sun near Tallangatta.

Thanks for sharing your trip.

We rode the dirt end of the Wee Jasper Road last March on our way to QLD and it was pretty crappy then. Lots of washaways across the road and loose brick sized rocks in parts. We were warned not to ride it by a local in a ute on the nice smooth bit at the top. So we rode it anyway.

Last time I went to Nambucca Heads I was 18 years old and ended up in Macksville hospital after a surfing mishap.

Ah, the memories.............................

Sunday morning I'm awake by 5:45 after a very good sleep. I didn't fuel last night because both servos in town were closed when I arrived. I only have about 100km left and I have a detour planned and I don't know what time I might be able to get fuel in Mt Beauty, so I head to Yackandandah instead. I arrive in town at 6:45 and I only have to wait 15 minutes before the servo opens and I can fuel up.

I have all day so I decide to detour down to Falls Creek.

I'm early enough to have the road to myself on the way up. A fair bit of traffic heading up the hill when I'm on my way back down though.



On the way back I decide to detour over the dirt roads from Whorouly South to Carboor, a trip I've only ever done in the reverse direction before, and the GPS is no help because it believes the road is a dead end. As it turns out I take a wrong turn and end up back in Whorouly. I take Kneebone Gap road instead, I know this will get me there, and after a bit of a detour I make it to Carboor.




The day is warming up but it's still only mid morning. The cold weather gear comes off in Carboor and next stop is Whitfield for a cold drink. I'm faced with a busy main street, blocked by emergency vehicles. They're all out the front of the general store. The general store is a smouldering shell. The building is completely gutted by fire. The petrol station has a cold drink and I learn that the fire happened at 4am this morning, and they suspect the woman who owned the shop has perished in the fire.

The only recognisable part of the building left is the old verandah.




A scooter club are also in town.



The trip home is a well travelled path from Whitfield. No more stops.

Yep. Sadly confirmed on the news tonight - body of the new lady owner (had only taken over a week ago) was found in the rubble.

Awesome photos, Nev

Sir Francis said:

Yep. Sadly confirmed on the news tonight - body of the new lady owner (had only taken over a week ago) was found in the rubble.

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It's a real shame when these places go, because in small towns more often than not it is uneconomical to rebuild and will never be replaced. Glenburn pub, Kinglake west General store, Gaffney's Creek pub to name a few.

nev said:

It's a real shame when these places go, because in small towns more often than not it is uneconomical to rebuild and will never be replaced. Glenburn pub, Kinglake west General store, Gaffney's Creek pub to name a few.

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Oh Jeez, just saw this now!

Didn't know it'd changed hands