Willo's Winding Way to Wooli and Weturn

[Williamson]

The ride to and from the OzSTOC NatRally 2017 - 16 October to 27 October.

Day 1:


Met Phil at the Hume Freeway / Clonbinane interchange (to avoid taken the heavily loaded Mighty ST1300 over some rough gravel road to his property.


Then a quick sprint up the Hume Freeway via Glenrowan and Holbrook saw us at Binalong by 5:00pm, time for steak, salads and chips booked-ended both sides by a few schooners of Toohey's Dark.

The pub:


Dinner, bed and a full breakfast was $87 per head, seems a bit pricey until you see how big the meals were - bottom line, highly recommended.

Time for a walk and a few pics before breakfast.

Main Street:


I thought I heard trains overnight (three times):


Post Office:


General Store:


Old world charm in the dinning room:


More to come .......

 

[W0QNX]

Looks like a good ride so far. Interesting old town there...

 

[Williamson]

Day 2 went something like this:


Before we left Binalong, I had time to take a pic of the old railway station:


A stop at the Crookwell visitor centre, pick up some Cartoscope maps, a coffee and tea at the tea rooms over the road.

Then off to Oberon via Taralga which has some fine old churches.




And Abercrombie River. The road in and out of the Abercrombie Gorge is in much better nick than the last time.


Then via Mount Panorams road race circuit on the outskirts of Bathurst and a couple of laps around THE circuit, at the bottom:

At the top:


Then Sofala:







Then on to the Paragon Hotel at Mudgee where we met Joso an OzSTOC member who gave us an alternative route for tomorrow.

More to come ......

 

[Williamson]

Day 3 - Mudgee to Armidale:


Early start, breakfast at Gulgong.






A pic stop a Coolong:


Werris Creek, use to be a big railway town, I don't many trains stop there now.


But motorcycles do.


Bendemeer, sorry I missed a full pic of the pub, but I think the ST is better.


The attraction at Gostwyck is this chapel.




The entrance to the farm next door.


The Forge & Museum were closed.

On to Armidale for beers, dinner, more beers, bed and breakfast.

 

[cdnemsguy]

That is such a gorgeous country! I sure hope that I can visit some day as ever since high school I always wanted to see Oz.

 

[W0QNX]

Riding laps on a race course with a packed out ST1300, nice!

I'm enjoying your ride report. I think many of us US citizens would love a ride around the countryside of AUS!

I've always dreamed of coming over there and traveling for a good while. I just finished watching the "Outback Truckers" entire seasons on Netflix and it surprised me how much of where I thought I wanted to travel was BAD dirt roads. I'm sure they TV drama'd it up a bit but it seems pretty far out there at times.

When I lived in New Mexico it seemed far between towns (Eastern side of the state) and desolate off the "bitumen" but you guys really do define being outback with some of your roads.

Looking forward to more pix.

Raymond

 

[Williamson]

That is such a gorgeous country! I sure hope that I can visit some day as ever since high school I always wanted to see Oz.

We sure have some nice scenery, different in many ways to the US, but not necessarily better or worse. After two month touring the BC, the PNW, as east as Laramie WY and as south as Flagstaff AZ in 2017, we were amazed at the mountains ranges of CA and CO, the open spaces of MO and WY - we only scratched the surface of a 10 or so States, and can't wait to get back for a longer visit.

More great pics. Thanks for showing us a bit of OZ.

More to come.

Riding laps on a race course with a packed out ST1300, nice!

I'm enjoying your ride report. I think many of us US citizens would love a ride around the countryside of AUS!

I've always dreamed of coming over there and traveling for a good while. I just finished watching the "Outback Truckers" entire seasons on Netflix and it surprised me how much of where I thought I wanted to travel was BAD dirt roads. I'm sure they TV drama'd it up a bit but it seems pretty far out there at times.

When I lived in New Mexico it seemed far between towns (Eastern side of the state) and desolate off the "bitumen" but you guys really do define being outback with some of your roads.

Looking forward to more pix.

Raymond

Outback Truckers paints a pretty grim pic of AUS, they show the worst of the worst, we do have some good roads, highways and freeways, although by US and CA standards, not quite as good. We were amazed by the extent of the 4 and 6 lane divided interstate highways. Yeah, we have these in AUS, but at this stage the only two major cities linked by a 4 lane (6 lanes in some places) divided freeway is the Hume Freeway (national route 31), linking Melbourne (around 5 million population) and Sydney (5.1 million), about 880km. We have 4 and 6 lane freeways linking many other State capitols and provincial cities.

Distance between towns (some are only settlements established for fuel, eat and sleep stops), can be daunting to some visitors, especially in SA, WA & NT - this might explain it a bit more.



The distance between these settlements is around 180km.


More pics to come.

 

[Williamson]

Day 4 - Armidale to Woodenbong, went something like this.


It was an early start, cool too! Temp before departure was around 4 Celsius, dropped to around 2C by the time we got to Guyra. At around 1,350m, Guyra claim to frame is that it has the highest caravan park in Australia. A breakfast stop at a roadside cafe with log fire was welcomed.

After breakfast, Phil and I swapped bikes for the ride to Glenn Innes. As I mounted the Suzuki GSX1400 I thought this is a sports bike (well, at around 230kg versus the ST1300's 330kg, what else would I think?).

A quick squirt of Suzi's throttle and few gear changes and I found 6th gear. Uphill and down dale, Suzi didn't change gear for around 80km - 1400cc and 230kg can do that. I would like to say that I enjoyed the ride, but I didn't. I missed the full fairing and sans buffeting, and was glad to swap back at Glenn Innes.

Phil said that he didn't enjoy the ST, said it was too smooth a quiet. Well yeah!!!! Anyway, I think he was fibbing. I checked to TomTom's memory later that day and asked him if he knew who was doing 155 on the ST earlier on. He said he didn't know.

On to Deepwater, and an old railway station - now home of the local FM radio station.




Deepwater hasn't seen a train for a while.




Pink paint must have been on special at the local hardware.


Tenterfield - made famous by the ballad / song Tenterfield Traveller by Peter Allen.


A coffee stop at Tenterfield and meeting with some local (Byron Bay) riders on a day trip. They recommended a gravel road to Legume. Phil said something along the lines of, "Those guys are a BMW GS1200 and a Triumph Tiger, of course they'll say it's okay". Well the ST handled the gravel better than the Suzi.

Only about 22km of this.


Legume - a pie and a Big M for lunch.


Then Tooloom Road.


Urbenville - for a lemon squash.


There's a few pubs in AUS with motorcycle on veranda roofs, I'm not sure why.

Then on to Woodenbong for the night.

 

[Jeff F]

Following along.

Wonderful wide weport Willo

 

[cdnemsguy]

Gorgeous! I want, Thanks for posting.

 

[Williamson]

Day 5 - Woodenbong to Wooli - was something like this:



A pic stop with Mount Lindsay in the back ground.



Then the Lions Road, from Wikipedia:

The Lions Road is a section of the road running between the Summerland Way in New South Wales and the Mount Lindesay Highway near Rathdowney, Queensland at Running Creek. It joins two pre-existing sections of rural road, namely Gradys Creek Road in New South Wales and Running Creek Road in Queensland. It was so named as most of the funding, planning and voluntary labour for the road came from the Kyogle branch of the Lions Club. Kyogle resident Jack Hurley was one of the most prominent advocates of the road. Despite the NSW Government rejecting the idea in 1969, it was opened the following year.​

​

It connects these two roads over the Richmond Gap in the McPherson Range. For a good deal of its length it is a narrow one-laned road that cannot be used by trucks or cars towing caravans or trailers. It was only recently that the road was fully sealed with bitumen. Several of the bridges are of wooden construction that can only support low vehicular weights.​

So this guy, Jack Hurley must've been a motorcyclist, I can think of no other reason why the road is such a great motorcycle road. If you are ever in SEQ, this road is not to be missed.

At the NSW - Queensland border:


The onto Nimbin, the marijuana capital of Australia, and the host of the Annual Mardigrass Fesitval:




Gotta go now, be back soon ........

 

[Williamson]

..... Day 5 continued.

On the the road to The Channon:




The Channon is just a place on a map, don't blink as you go through, otherwise you might miss it. This is about it:

 

[Williamson]

Day 5 continued.

An old pub at Coraki:



The Woodburn Shire Office, at Coraki:




A few more left and right-turns over the next 100km, then Wooli - location for the OzSTOC 2017 National Rally.

Our accommodation, somewhere near the tip of the arrow:


A few Friday drinks with some of the approximate 70 plus 70 OzSTOCers who attended.

 

[STrep]

Great report, I enjoyed the pictures

 

[tinboatcapt]

Fantastic write up. Thanks for sharing your pictures.

I will be making an all too short visit to OZ in January. It is a lifetime dream come true. I and the wife will visit Cairns for a few days, Sydney for a week, then cruise to a couple of other stops on our way to New Zealand.

jim

 

[Indian Express]

Great ride report and pictures! Thanks for sharing! Always enjoy ride reports and pictures from other countries!

 

[Williamson]

....... I will be making an all too short visit to OZ in January. It is a lifetime dream come true. I and the wife will visit Cairns for a few days, Sydney for a week, then cruise to a couple of other stops on our way to New Zealand.
jim

Cairns in January will be hot and humid, lived there in the '75, Sydney will be busy - it's always busy. You should enjoy both. NZ, likewise.

 

[Williamson]

Day 6 - The National Rally Day.

The day started with a bacon & eggs and coffee breakfast at the camp kitchen, followed by a group pic of most who attended:

We have been lucky so far without any wet weather, but today was different. Many were riding to a country pub at Lawrence for lunch. Phil & decided lunch was a short dry ride away:


They some of the freshest oysters ever, a dozen was enough for me; Phil preferred two dozen. And then battered fried fish and chips topped off a great meal.

The Saturday evening meal and some drinks followed well into the evening, and some achievements were rewarded.

Longest distance, Big Ted (Rob). By the time Rob arrived at Wooli he, his ST1300 and trailer had travelled 10,400 from his home in Perth WA, he had around that many again to travel on his way home, which included a lap of Tasmania. Fair effort!!


Most Charismatic, Paul - I'm sure it was because he had a showroom condition ST1100, can't think of any other reason:


Good times must end, early for some because of any early start to begin the ride home.

 

[Williamson]

Day 7 - Wooli to Tinonee, went something like this:



The inland route via Grafton for some more pics.

A big bridge over the Clarence River:


Grafton has a Jacaranda Festival each year, we were a couple of week late, and Jacaranda trees had lost most of their colour, but I guess you can see why:




Then Nymbodia, where the Museum of Interesting Things was closed. Lucky I have a pic from the last visit. This is a restored stage coach that use to offer a service between Armidale and Grafton back in the 1800's.



This pic is on Old Grafton - Glen Innis Road which is in the same photo folder and also from the previous trip, but as it is one of favourites, I seldom miss a chance to post it. The tunnel is listed as 'convict built' on some forums.


Then via Ebor and Dorrigo which gave a chance to ride some the sweet twisty roads and the Waterfall Way.


On then on to a Freesort for the night,

 

[Upt' North]

Thanks Williamson.
Top job.
Thanks for turning the pictures the right way up for us top of the world siders.
Upt'North.