Sydney to Brisbane - the long way

[banzai]

Actually, I've already started it. It isn't really a secret ride but I don't think anyone else really wants to visit my parents north of Brisbane.

Google Maps tells me it should only be about 941km door to door which is doable in a day if you push. I have a route that will be at least 1500km and I'm taking the better part of three days. Along the way there and back I'm planning to take a lot of twisty roads and visit places I've either never been too or haven't been to since I was kid.

Today's leg started when I left home in the Northern suburbs of Sydney at 9am and finished about 6pm at Kempsey.
First stop Berowra for fuel. The 7/11 is closed for new underground tanks so I had to settle for Shell. The cops were setting up a largish Random Breath Test operation about 100m south of the Shell but they didn't have any customers and didn't seem worried about me.
Onto the Old Pacific Highway and an oncoming rider warned me of Popo ahead. Shortly after I saw a grey Holden Commodore travelling south quickly just after I saw some fast motard riders. Can't say for sure the Commodore was an unmarked cop car but it looked like one. If it was, that was the last cop I saw all day. Traffic on the Old Road was light and uneventful but about 2km south of Somersby I saw a lyrebird crossing the road and pause under the armco while I rode past. That's the first time I've ever seen a lyrebird in the wild.

I had originally planned to leave home later and slab it almost all the way to Port Macquarie but while on a refreshment stop at Heatherbrae Bakery I looked at a map that showed a scenic route to Forster-Tuncurry. I like scenic routes and for the most part this one did not disappoint. It had a couple of very nice twisty sections. This road reminded me of Buckets Way from the motorway to Gloucester but with some tighter sections. Annoyingly my low fuel light came on a few km along the road so I decided not to give to too much stick.

I found fuel coming in to Port Macquarie, 299.1km on 18.89 litres. Then went back a couple of k's to go up a road that lead to a lookout. That was a disappointment. The road was good but the small carpark at the end was the start of a 15 minute uphill trek to the lookout. Not doing that in bike gear.

Quick lunch at the golden arches (yes, I know that is boring) and time to move on. Saw a road that indicated a scenic view as I was coming into town proper and decided to follow it. It lead to a very nice view but even better, when I looked down into the water at the bottom of the cliff, there was a pod of about 6 dolphins swimming close to shore. Damn! The camera was still in one of my side cases. Oh well. Here's a pic of my bike with Tuncurry in the background to the left.

Explored along the coast for a little bit before heading back to the freeway and eventually saw a sign that indicated a tourist/scenic route to Port Macquarie. It was okay but not as nice as the road to Forster. It did, however, lead me towards the Tacking Point Lighthouse which was quite nice and the hill it was on had very nice views.
The lighthouse:

Bike and Ocean:

Moving on, rode through Port Macquarie (very developed) and eventually found the main highway which, at this point wasn't dual carriageway. In fact it was still mostly single lane each way for about 15km. Eventually got to the turnoff for Kempsey just before 5pm and decided to check in to a motel that I saw online which looked reasonably cheap and okay; The City Centre Motel. $75 for the night and pretty basic but it is all I need. Easy to find to as it is next door to McDonalds.

On the way into Kempsey I saw a sign that said Scenic Route to Crescent Head. After unloading the bike I just had to go and check it out. The road has potential but there are several areas of new surface and a reduced speed limit due to the loose gravel. Crescent Head isn't very developed or exciting but at least I can say I have seen it.
Crescent Head:

By the time I fuelled up for tomorrow and settled back in my motel room I'd covered over 590km and it was about 6.15pm. Time to grab some dinner. No, it won't be next door at McDonalds.

The plan for tomorrow is to end up in Tenterfield. Google maps tells me that will be just over 400km if I travel directly. I will be adding at least 100km to that. Stay tuned for the report.

 

[banzai]

Day 2.
Up, fed, ready and anxious to leave at 8am this morning. The forecast said it would be very warm up around Glen Innes and Tenterfield.

While Kempsey was okay, I wish I'd stayed further north, maybe Macksville, to miss most of the roadworks of the first hour of travel. B-O-R-I-N-G. Made it into Urunga and looked for Short Cut Road to take me to Waterfall Way. It seems quite a few people take Short Cut Rd and I ended up stuck behind a bit of traffic all the way to Bellingen. Got past everything soon after and about 20km before Dorrigo saw a sign indicating lots of twistys, variable conditions and to use your own judgement (!is this still part of Australia!?!). What a fun bit of road and no speed advisory signs for any of the bends. Go off the edge and they might never find you.

My original plan was to the Dorrigo-Coffs Harbour Rd and then to Grafton. But first a brief stop to have a look at Dangar Falls. Very pretty and sitting in the cone of an extinct volcano.

This plan came unstuck when the road turned to gravel at the hamlet of Megan, about 15km along. Turned around and headed back to Dorrigo for fuel, water and a pit stop and then onto plan B.

Plan B was to take Tyringham Rd to Armidale Rd and then on to Nymboida and Grafton. Wow! I'm glad I used plan B. Tyringham Rd is a ball-tearer with lots of lovely twists and they continued for at least half of the Armidale Rd. They are roads to do again and again.

It was pretty hot in Grafton and time for a bit of lunch, this time at Hungry Jacks before setting off up the Gwydir Highway to Glenn Innes. The best way to describe the Gwydir is sorta like the Putty Road with all of the best bits concentrated into the middle 40km. The ride up and over the Gibraltar Range is great. A few short sections of road works didn't take anything away from the quality of the ride. Along the way I stopped at the Raspberry Lookout to take some photos and made this slightly dodgy panorama.

On to Glen Innes for fuel and a cool drink at McDs. It was about 3pm and there were plenty of cops buzzing around town. Got chatting with a guy at the next table who lives in Armidale and regularly rides his BMW K1200 up and down the Oxley Highway and is restoring his first bike, an old R50.

Glen Innes to Tenterfield on the New England Highway was uneventful and I'd already made my mind up to push on to Casino. Leaving Tenterfield on the Bruxner Highway I quite like the avenue of old maple trees and stopped for a photo.

While I was putting my camera away a HP car went cruising back into Tenterfield. Hmm. That means there isn't likely to be another 100 for the next 100km when I'm approaching Casino. About 20km down the Bruxner Highway I found this sign:

That made my day and re-invigorated me for the final leg of the day's journey. A great combo of fast, flowing curves intermixed with tighter 35 and 45km/h sign-posted ones. I highly recommend this road. The whole ride to Casino was a pleasure with very little traffic.

About 6.15 I checked into the Squatter Homestead Motel for the night having covered 671.4km for the day. Tomorrow, Queensland and the bucket list pairing of Mt Glorious and Mt Nebo among other things.

Today's route:

 

[Dustin]

This is great! Looking forward to more

 

[Blanchy]

Got to recommend the Oxley on your return trip.

Ride New England - Oxley Highway and Thunderbolt's Way

If you end up at Tamworth there are lots of Motels (over supply for the Country Music Festival?) When I was there (Mid 80s) the Motel owners were on the streets like hookers trying to get business. Easy to haggle for a great cheap rate.

 

[ballmead]

Very cool trip you're on Phil and some really nice photos too.
Keep them coming.

 

[banzai]

Blanchy, I've done The Oxley twice in the last two months and there is a strong chance I will do a lap on the way home.

Day 3.
Set off from Casino about 8.15. The weather today was decidedly cooler then yesterday and there was the threat of rain. You could smell rain, the humidity was high and cloud hung low on the mountains but apart from a few small, stray drops and damp sections of road, it stayed dry. It was cold enough though that I had to put on my merino mid-layer at the start of Summerland Way. Not very summer-y

Summerland Way looked promising and certainly had plenty of twists and turns but just after Woodenbong a long section of roadworks started and the surface for the majority of the road was atrocious. I wish I’d taken Lions Rd instead (I don’t know what it is really like but it gets good reviews). Fortunately the Killarney Rd was much smoother but straighter. It also took me to the border

Getting closer to Warwick and the sky was turning blue as the clouds thinned. Warwick was good for a toilet and fuel stop. There was also a Qld mobile radar unit but if you couldn’t spot it from 1/2 a km away you deserve to get fined. Straightforward highway run towards Toowoomba but I was heading for Gatton. That was a lovely rural road with a nice tight middle section.

From Gatton to Esk there was quite a bit of roadworks but the surface was good, as was progress. Heading east from Esk and skirting Lake Wivenhoe, eventually crossing the dam and turning north onto the rather nice Wivenhoe-Sommerset Rd. Let the fun begin!

20km down that road is the entry to paradise; Northbrook Parkway. It gets a name change along the way to Mt Glorious Rd and further along to Mt Nebo Rd. Now I know why Queensland motor enthusiasts rave about these roads. Macquarie Pass, 10 Mile and Old Pacific Highway all wrapped into one and then some. Tight, twisty, uphill, downhill, scenic. You don’t want to make a mistake here. Big trees or cliff faces up to the edge of the road in places. But it is worth it. I’d like to rate it above The Oxley Highway but proximity to the city and certainty of heavy weekend traffic prevents me from doing so.
At Westridge Lookout near the peak of Mt Glorious

After Mt Nebo it was outer Brisbane roads to Redcliffe and my parents place. Only 486.3km today but it felt further, largely due to the slow going on the Summerland way.

Wednesday’s route:

A rest day Wednesday while I work out which way to go home. I do plan to go via take in Byron Bay on the way home because I can’t remember ever being there and I want a photo with the lighthouse. Having also been to the western and southern most points on mainland Australia it will be cool to go to the eastern-most point.

 

[banzai]

I've travelled North, now it is time to head back South.

Day 5 - 426km
The pace is more leisurely today. Left my parents place at 9am, some good tunes streaming into my Sena headset and had a straightforward 95 km run through the Brisbane ‘burbs, including a trip over the Storey Bridge, and highway to Beaudesert and fuelled up and grabbed an early snack for the next leg.

Trivia break: The Storey Bridge was designed by the same guy who did the Sydney Harbour Bridge, John Bradfield.

About 35km down route 13, aka The Mount Lindesay Highway, you turn left onto Innesplain Rd. You then traverse Logan River flood plains, horse studs and cattle farms (with stock free to roam over the road) and this becomes Running Creek Rd up to the border with NSW. This has been a rather pleasant, narrow, hilly, twisty piece of bitumen. Then it becomes Lions Rd and gets even better.

At the northern end of the road there is a collection box where they take donations to assist with the upkeep of this essentially private road. Lions Rd was originally an access road for railway maintenance teams and also happened to connect to some small hamlets and various farms and now also a national park.

25-odd kilometres of narrow road with quite a few one lane bridges and some railway underpasses with right angle bends leading to and from them.

There are a few short sections where you can cruise briefly in triple (metric) figures but the combination of narrowness, mid-corner bumps, bridges, underpasses and the possibility of oncoming traffic means it is wise to keep the speeds sensible and definitely do not exceed your sight lines around hills and corners. The locals are obviously used to hoons on bikes and are pretty good at getting out of your way and giving way which is nice.

I’m glad I’ve ticked this road off the bucket list and I’d be very happy to do it again but not as part of something like that recent TT event. This is not a road for a big, unruly group. It requires respect and high concentration. After doing the road southwards, I turned around and went most of the way back up to check out the Spiral Loop Lookout. The old railway looped back on itself near this point, probably to get up the hill. Off the bike and the sound of bellbirds filled the air. Looking down into the valley and there was someone walking the old railway line.

Photos taken, and a toilet break and it was time to head back down the road to Kyogle. From there I headed east to Murwillumbah. This is a road that exceeded my expectations and was a lot of fun. A few kilometres east of the village of Uki was a turnoff to see Mt Warning, supposedly the first place in mainland Australia that sees daylight every day. I decided to see what the road was like. Bad mistake. Yes, narrow and twisty but a third of it is under repair with road crews watering it to keep down the dust. Prior to this road I only had a dirty Fazer. Now I have a very dirty one. Oh well, it is all part of the fun.

After filling up in Murwillumbah I made my way to the Byron Bay Lighthouse. I made a brief detour into Brunswick Heads and had my first kangaroo encounter for the trip. This stupid little marsupial was beside a big roundabout looking quite content until I got close then it started to hop in my direction before turning away. Glad I was going slow and covering the brake and it decided not to commit suicide.

On to the lighthouse and the eastern most part of Australia. The lighthouse and lookout are quite nice. The National Parks Service charges for parking at the top carpark; $7 for cars and $3 for motorbikes but the guy on duty just advised me where to park out of the way and didn’t ask for money. Two thumbs up from me. I guess he knows how hard it is for riders to get out money and we tend to not take up much space.

The rest of Byron and the strip south is very developed and looks expensive. Old hippies and dope growers obviously accumulate a lot of money.

Following the coast road I found another small dis-used lighthouse at East Ballina, took a photo and continued onto Ballina. A bit after 5.30 I checked into the Ballina Byron Motor Inn for the night, having done a shortish, but fun, 426km for the day. Damned daylight saving, which I had conveniently forgotten about, robbed me of an hour when I crossed back into NSW. I hate Daylight Saving.

Today’s route:

 

[lytehouse]

Really pretty...I especially like the lighthouses, not sure why though

 

[banzai]

Day 6 - 772.9km

Today was not the day I originally planned but it was still epic in its own way with several personal achievements.

I woke up stupidly early after only getting about 5 hours sleep and picked up the planning I should have finished the night before. While planning my route for the day I simultaneously look up accommodation options. At each of the possible stop-overs I was having difficulty finding motels in my price range. Armidale had been my first choice but the town was almost entirely booked out for tonight. In the end, a separate issue put paid to much of that planning. I was experiencing an attack of gout in my left foot, just behind the big toe. This makes gear changes both difficult and painful. Combined with weather forecasts that indicate Saturday will be very hot, I made the decision to head for home.

I called into Evans Head, about 40km from Ballina. The sugar cane fields and a working sugar refinery piqued my interest as did the potential for a stunning view.

The lack of sleep and the early heat was soon getting to me so I pulled into a riverside cafe and art gallery near Maclean to rest and revitalise. It worked and about 30 minutes later I was raring to go. The first fuel stop of the day and then an early lunch at Grafton helped even more.

It was hot going to Coffs Harbour, so I was very glad when I arrived at its most famous landmark, the Big Banana. Time to grab an ice cream and a cool drink. And the obligatory photo.

It must be almost 40 years since I last saw this roadside attraction.

There is a lot of roadworks and lots of police between Grafton and Kempsey. A lollypop man stopped traffic at roadworks south of Urunga. I filtered to the front of the line of cars so I wouldn’t have to eat dust and stones. About 30 seconds after leaving those roadworks I looked in my mirror and noticed a car following the bike behind me. I'm sure that car hadn’t been in the line. A highway patrol car must have pulled out behind us or possibly caught up without my noticing. Good thing I was fairly well behaved as he stayed behind for well over 10 minutes before moving on to find other prey. Sorry to disappoint officer. Not!

The next stop was for fuel and a drink at the Port Macquarie turn-off Service Centre. Two Highway Patrol cars came and went as I was getting ready to leave. I think they were heading North. At least I hoped they were.

I was feeling really good at this stage and back on the road encountered a young woman in a Ford Fiesta who was cracking on at a nice pace. I settled in behind to see how far I could last before needing a break. That car headed towards Maitland and I figured I would soon need a stop but my fuel usage seemed to be really good so I pushed it until the reserve indicator started flashing with 272km since the last fill up. 18km down the road and the last fill and a drink before the last 80km to home. I had shattered my previous mileage record and achieved less than 5l/100km. That would have been done with an average speed for the whole stint of about 100m/h. That was also the longest time and distance I’d been n the saddle without stopping since I started riding.

Finally home just on 8.30, at the end of a 12 hour day on the road. I had clocked up 772.9km for the day which is also comfortably the most I’ve ever done in a single day.

The bike is unpacked and tucked in the garage. Tomorrow it will get a well deserved wash and chain clean. For the first couple of days of the trip I was cleaning off some of the bugs but I eventually gave up on that lost cause.

With my running around Brisbane on Wednesday, I ended up covering a bit over 3,000km between Sunday morning and Friday evening. It was an epic week.