Unoffical Ride 24-26 September 2011

Had a little 3 day ride 24-26 September, we'll call it a Bandit ride since 2 out of the 3 bikes were Bandits. All forum members too, Dave (notbandit), Neil (Boozer) and Peter (Re-Cycled).

Day 1: http://g.co/maps/g62ds Meet at Raymond Terrace and do the Oxley Highway from East to West as far as Walcha, overnight at Uralla.
Stayed at the Thunderbolts Inn again but dinner at the new Bowling Club this time, some good Chinese style tucker and reasonable prices.

A quick lunch break at Wauchope before tackling the Oxley.


Day 2: http://g.co/maps/n4tdm Uralla to Sawtell via Grafton.
Finally our good run with avoiding bad weather came to an end. After hearing rain most of the night, we set of on wet roads, then heavy rain after Armidale followed by fog before Ebor. I now recommend my winter gloves with the rain covers that store in the cuff.

It finally started to clear a bit so we stopped at Ebor Falls for a break and photo opportunity.



After Grafton things cleared up nicely and we had a good run out to the lookout on the Gwydir Highway. This was an added section to make up the distance for Day 2 and still put us back in striking distance of home for Day 3.

Lookout on the Gwydir Highway in Gibraltar Range National Park.


Neil on the Gwydir Hwy at the bottom of the range alongside Mann River.


Day 3: http://g.co/maps/3xhvz

Now things get a bit complicated, Neil, famous for his solo marathons, decided to leave early despite the rain. He was the only one to complete the planned route. Sent us a message at breakfast time, from Armidale, something like "wet, windy,cold and scary, go home a different way". Thunderbolts Way resembles a bombing range anyway at the moment so we didn't need much convincing, Dave and I decided to visit our brother and his wife and our 2 nieces, just North of Woolgoolga and go down the Highway with a detour via Gloucester to make it more interesting. http://g.co/maps/bxqbn (ignore the deviations near Kempsey, Google Maps is off its face). We ended up doing over 500km after lunch got home just on dark at 6PM.

But not before we had a great breakfast and excellent coffee at Shimmers on First at Sawtell


This is French Toast, I kid you not.


An enjoyable ride despite the weather and the homicidal Ford drivers, especially the one still overtaking when I rounded a bend on the Oxley.
Looking forward to the next one of course.

Nice couple of days in the saddle Peter. Makes me want to tour up your way.

looks like a nice part of the world to look at from a bike seat .

Looks n sounds like a great ride. Well done and thanks for sharing.

thanks Peter, I'll be doing this ride as soon as the sun comes out of hiding