Day 31: Reunited

Odo: 19374, Day's KM: 171.4, Trip KM: 8392

Newcastle to Sydney

Today was a rather quiet day - no real rush to get anywhere. I knew that Tim was going to be heading past Newcastle but I had a 1.5hr head start.

I got my gear packed and out of the site by around 9ish, and headed to the CBD to buy a few supplies and have a late breakfast.

It wasn't until 11 that I heard from Tim. We agreed I would head out to the highway and then find somewhere to stop and wait, assuming Tim was around 15 minutes behind me. I eventually found an emergency phone with somewhere safe to pull over. Barely a minute later, Tim spotted me. Roadworks had almost ruined our timing theory, but this time it worked out quite well.

Reunited for the final part of Tim's trip, we headed back to his place in Sydney. Tim still looked a bit tired but far better than when I last saw him.

The afternoon was spent doing very little. Archer kept us amused as Tim unpacked and prepared to fly out for work the next day. 

In the evening, Toby came into town and had dinner out with me, Tim and Lauren. Shortly after dinner, Tim and Lauren went home, and Toby and I stayed on for another drink at the pub before going our separate ways.

I didn't take any photos during the day, so you'll just have to make do of a gratuitous cat photo of Cous Cous taken in the afternoon. That should keep the internets happy :)

Day 30: Thundering along

Odo: 19203, Day's KM: 532.6, Trip KM: 8221

Coffs Harbour to Newcastle via Armidale, Uralla, Gloucester

Today was a day for covering a fair amount of ground. I wanted to do the Coffs to Armidale road and Thunderbolts Way, and didn't really want to stop half way along. I figure the coast should stay warmer overnight.

All of the roads were pretty good today, with plenty of nice scenery, many twists and turns, almost no traffic and only a few roadworks sites. Perfect for riding.  I left camp by around 8:30 to allow plenty of time to get through to Newcastle.

As I got on the road to Armidale, the temperature dropped quite a lot, so I transferred to full winter gear at around 9:15am. This consisted of all liners back in my jacket, the waterproof over trousers, and the winter gloves. And liberal application of heated grips.

I stopped in Armidale for fuel and then at the Goldfish Bowl for morning tea. Tim was probably 45 minutes behind me and to hit Newcastle in light I wouldn't have time to wait. He wasn't going to travel as far as Newcastle otherwise I would have waited.

I continued on from Armidale along Thunderbolts Way, only stopping twice along the way. The first was at a scenic lookout:

The second place I stopped was in Gloucester for fuel and a late lunch. Around 50km out of Gloucester the temperature suddenly skyrocketed to 24 degrees and didn't drop below around 20 until late in the afternoon. Needless to say some of the winter gear was removed on Gloucester.

I stopped in Stockton around 5:15 to set up camp. It has been quite a long day, and I'm out of camp food, so it's pub fare for tea and probably some shopping for more supplies tomorrow.

Before I sign off for the day, a couple of photos from Stockton.

Day 29: Coasting along

Odo: 18670, Day's KM: 340.3, Trip KM: 7688

Byron Bay to Coffs Harbour via Lennox Head, Ballina, Yamba, Maclean, Grafton

To answer yesterday's question about my gear, it seems to have passed the test so far. It supposedly got down to 7 and once I was in the sleeping bag with only a small hole in the top for air, I warmed up quite quickly. This is a good sign :)

I departed the campsite and into the town for breakfast. Much to my amusement, a hippy-looking character (sporting a full beard and dreadlocks) wearing an army camoflage style onesie. No idea why that's blog-worthy, but I decided it is so there. Another debatably unblogworthy note was that the cafe sold "L.S.D." listed under hot drinks. No idea what it is.

I decided to spend the majority of the day travelling south via the coast, detouring via tourist drives as signposted. First stop out of the park wasn't too far away - Lennox Head.  

Lennox Head seemed to be a popular spot with the surfies. Looking at the waves there, I'm not surprised. There were a lot of really good lookouts out over the cliffs.

The view here was taken lying flat on my stomach - it's a sheer cliff quite a way up!

This is the view looking more horizontal from the same spot.

There wasn't much more noteworthy travelling until I got to Yamba. Again there was a point with some pretty cool views.

After lunch I headed towards Grafton via the route that Tim and I had planned while heading north - via Maclean and Lawrence. Roadworks had prevented this trip last time, and if it was Tuesday not Monday would have prevented it again.

Bike on the Lawrence ferry.

From there again, nothing is particularly noteworthy until I got to Coffs Harbour. I arrived around 4ish, got camp set up, then went for a walk along the beach while there was still light.

Presumably due to the island, the waves were very confused here.

After around 40 minutes, I ventured off the beach to the road in search of some food.

At this point I note Tim is finally well enough to be on the bike again and has left Maryborough on the express road (i.e. the highway) home. He won't be camping and our paths are unlikely to cross on the road, unless we time our arrival in to Armidale well tomorrow.

Day 28: How many wheels? 2, 4, or 6?

Odo: 18330, Day's KM: 353.9, Trip KM: 7348

Ashgrove to Woodford return; Ashgrove to Byron Bay via Gold Coast, Numinbah, Murwillumbah, Mullumbimby.

The first trip of the day today was out to Angus' landlords farm, around an hour from Brisbane. This was out via the Mount Mee road which I have done before but enjoyed doing again. I went on the bike while Angus took his Escort. As in the car made by Ford, not any other interpretation...

There are the makings of a small race circuit on the farm, which are currently gravel and a bit washed out. And quite the white knuckle ride as passenger in the Escort. Drifting around a corner around the outside of a dam a couple of metres away, then over a crest near trees... Perhaps the helmet should have stayed on :)

Angus reckons the Escort goes better than it should and may have been race prepped in a previous life. And if that wasn't enough, he's just taken delivery of a Cosworth engine to put in it. Which I really don't think it needs...

We then went to investigate the start of a hill climb frack on the farm. It's only in initial development right now and so we drove up it in the gator.

We drove / rode back to Angus' house and he showed me a good route to head south from Brisbane towards my rest stop today - Byron Bay. Along the way I had to put a jumper and winter gloves on as the temperature got quite cold in the valley - around 13 degrees.

I set up camp in at Byron Bay for the night. Apparently 7 degrees is the low tonight. I guess we'll find out if my sleeping gear is up to the task pretty soon!

Day 27: A Glorious Day

Odo: 17976, Day's KM: 195.7, Trip KM: 6994

Day trip to Mount Glorious, Somerset Dam, and Mount Nebo.

The day started pretty early with Dylan and his kids up for an early breakfast. Elliott was a bit cranky and didn't seem to be able to make his mind up what he wanted for breakfast. Crying ensued. Dylan did an amazing job of remaining calm throughout the whole thing, and managed to get Elliott to calm himself down quite quickly.

I eventually dragged myself up and had breakfast before joining Dylan and Melissa's brother Brad with keeping the little ones entertained.

Elliott and Dylan asleep(ish) in front of the telly, Reuben fascinated by a book and my phone.

Elliott on the bike just before I left. He found the starter button but was too scared to start it. He didn't want me to either.

I left mid morning for a run to Mount Glorious and Mount Nebo. Both of these roads were very very twisty. A lot was 60km/h limit but you were pushing hard to get there so it was no issue. There were bikes everywhere!

I visited Somerset Dam after the first run at Mount Glorious. Apparently it is an engineering heritage national landmark. I wonder if visiting it counts as professional development?

I then rode back to Mount Glorious for lunch at a motorcycle cafe.

Due to the light, it was hard to get a photo showing more detail on the right and to give an idea of just how many bikes visit this cafe. I had a very tasty lunch and a chat with a couple of local motorcyclists, before continuing on to Mount Nebo.

There were plenty of good views from Mount Nebo as well, however capturing them with an iPhone doesn't really show all the detail. This was another time I would have liked my DSLR. Never mind.

The run off Mount Nebo deposited me on to Waterworks road, 30 seconds from Angus' house. I went in to say hello, and ended up having a chat to his landlord for a bit as well. It was getting on in the afternoon so Angus suggested I stay there and we do a short day trip tomorrow. The evening concluded with a pub meal and then a lazy evening of Gran Turismo on PS3.

Day 26: Home on the range

Odo: 17780, Day's KM: 426.8, Trip KM: 6798

Maryborough to Hervey Bay return circuit; Maryborough to Brisbane via Gympie, Kenilworth, Maleny, Woodford, Mount Mee and Dayboro.

Today marked a return to riding solo, as Tim is still couped up at home in an attempt at recovering from this sudden onset of illness. To start with, before Tim was up, I rode in to Hervey Bay for a look. The day was far far nicer than yesterday - blue skies as opposed to all day showers. I went for a walk along the beach to take in the sun and enjoy the scenery.

Along the way, I saw some interesting holes. Not sure what created them but they looked cool.

I returned to Maryborough to check on Tim and put all of my gear back on the bike. It was clear he wouldn't be going riding so I made plans for heading to Brisbane via some mountain passes courtesy of Tim the travel consultant :) and set off.

It was really good to get into some good twisty scenic roads and off the monotony of the highway. Some of the views were absolutely stunning! Unfortunately not all of them were so easy to stop and photograph.  I had lunch in Gympie and a rest at Lake Baroon near Maleny, but otherwise travelled pretty solidly all afternoon.

Lake Baroon:

View towards valley just past Maleny:

I ended up in an outer suburb of Brisbane just after 5:30. Fortunately all the traffic was going the other way so no delays. I arrived at my cousin Dylan and Melissa's place and caught up for dinner and managed to find some floor space for a rest too.

Tomorrow I'm thinking of a day trip to somewhere like Mount Glorious and Mount Nebo and from there who knows. Hopefully Tim will be we'll enough to head towards Brisbane by then but that's still an unknown at this stage. Get better soon Tim!

Day 25: Hot stuff

Odo: 17353, Day's KM: 11.5, Trip KM: 6371

Maryborough to, erm, Super Cheap and BP Maryborough. Return.

The plan for the day was to get up early, do an oil change on our bikes, then head down to the Sunshine Coast via some convoluted and hopefully interesting route.  The day did not go to plan.

I managed to get some oil and fuel for my bike in the morning and get the oil change done without any hassles. I had breakfast while the oil was draining and refilled shortly after.  Exciting stuff I know.

I had not seen Tim at this stage. He had gone to bed last night looking a bit under the weather. This morning, he surfaced for long enough to get taken to the doctor where he was promptly prescribed some powerful drugs and lots of rest.  Apparently some illness has hit him and hit him hard :(

He got back home, went to bed and didn't surface again until the evening.  When he did surface, he was sporting a 39 degree temperature. Hot stuff indeed. 

It was rather wet outside and so a lot of the day was spent indoors. I didn't go anywhere because of a combination of waiting for Tim and also the rainy weather. Good move as the place I would have gone for a day trip was Hervey Bay, and the area between Hervey Bay and Maryborough was the area copping all the bad weather.

I did spend a lot of the day listening to audio - I had been told about The Goons and found some of their radio show on Spotify and listened to that. I also found a whole lot of Bill Cosby albums, some of which were the same albums I listened to ad nauseum as a youngster and still remembered almost word for word. I did find myself actually understanding a lot of subtle jokes that went completely over my head when I was younger, which I found quite interesting.

As for my trip, we'll review options in the morning when we have a better idea about what Tim is able to do. Fingers crossed for a speedy recovery!

Only a couple of pictures today. A number of friendly butcher birds came to say hello and get out of the rain.