North Coast Loop Ride 15-17th August 2023

 

And then there were two. 20 registered to go, 16 started, and two ended up together at the finish. That looks like a bit of a disaster, but in fact it worked out pretty much as originally planned.

We started at Berowra at 9:30 AMfor a day with about 7 hours of riding ahead of us. The Old Road to Peats Ridge, the freeway to the Hue Hue Road, through Cooranbong and Mulbring  to Hexham and on to morning tea at the Heatherbrae Pie shop at Raymond Terrace. It took us a bit longer than I had thought to get here, so this became brunch. We then headed north again and used Buckets Way up to Booral, across to Bulahdelah (great winding road), through Wootton Way and back on the highway to Nabiac, then inland to Krambach, and across to South Taree for fuelling. A couple of people supplemented their brunch with some added refreshment here.

After that we headed up the freeway past Port Macquarie towards Kempsey, then diverted across to South West Rocks via Crescent Head – a very pleasant meander along the eastern bank of the Macleay River. Our accommodation for two nights was the Rockpool  motel, complete with undercover parking,  and on to Drinks and Dinner that night with a short walk to the Seabreeze Hotel on the waterfront. 

Breakfast on day two was at a couple of cafes only a short walk from the motel. Clutch out at the motel at 8.30 am, with a stop at the Shell garage for a full tank of fuel, then out along the west bank of the Macleay, through Clybucca and on to the freeway to Macksville, on to Bowraville via Wilson Road on the south side of the Nambucca river for morning tea at the Phoenix Gallery Café,  and then out along the north side of the river to the freeway to find our way to Bellingen, up to Dorrigo, and out through Tyringham and Nymboydia for lunch and fuelling at Coutts Crossing. A small group set out on a dirt road to get to Bellingen rather than use the freeway, and the two groups met up there at about the same time. We were so fortunate with the weather and very little traffic. In fact on the run up the hill to Dorrigo, we were stopped by a roadworks stoplight, and managed to get all of the bikes to the front of the queue so that we had a perfectly clear road all the way up the hill. The staff at Coutts Crossing put on a great lunch of pizzas and burgers for us.

We had a good run back south on the Orara way through Glenreagh to Coffs Harbour then down the freeway with very little traffic for last leg home to South West Rocks backtracking through Clybucca. Everyone fuelled up on the way into town. Dinner was at Riverside Tavern, which provided their courtesy bus to get us there for pre dinner drinks and dinner. We watched the first half of the Matilda's versus England game there, then the bus got us back home to the motel.

On day three, two of our group headed off early for their respective commitments, one in Queensland and one back in Sydney. Breakfast as per day two and clutch out at 8.30am  again. We rode along the east side of the river back to Kempsey, then the freeway to the Telegraph Point turn off, back onto the old highway and some feeder roads into the western end of Wauchope, for morning tea at the café at Timbertown. Excellent parking there, although Big Tony probably doesn't agree. Here the group subdivided. A party of about eight had arranged to go to Willow Tree, on the New England Highway, to a well-regarded steak restaurant there for Thursday night dinner. Three of that group took off via the Oxley Highway which was a shorter distance to Willow Tree. The next leg of our route was going to take us south to Wingham with a dirt road section between Comboyne and Wingham, and then on through Krambach to Gloucester for lunch. A group of four on road bikes wanted to avoid the dirt section, so headed east through Wauchope and then down to Taree then up to Krambach and on to Gloucester to meet the main group there. There had been light rain the night before, so the dirt section was in great condition, and not a problem to the dual sport  riders. We met up with the road riders and had lunch at a couple of the cafes on the main road in Gloucester, and then the group subdivided again. The rest of the Willow Tree Bunch headed north, while the remaining six riders set out through Dungog to Patterson, Maitland, Kurri Kurri  and regrouped for a toilet stop at Freeman’s Waterhole. By that stage two riders had taken a shortcut presumably to avoid the terrible road across the Dungog (in my experience it's the worst road in New South Wales at the moment) and headed straight down Buckets Way to the freeway.

At Freeman's waterhole the now diminished group subdivided again, with two heading straight for the freeway, and the remaining two making their way back to Ourimbah and then home to the Central Coast.

We were blessed with wonderful weather throughout the journey, with only a few Spits of rain about an hour in on day three, but otherwise glorious. The roads are in great condition (other than those mentioned above) and the group stayed together well throughout the journey. We needed to corner mark quite extensively in some sections, and the tail end Charlie duties were excellently performed by Steve Sampson and Alan Reece. These guys make a real sacrifice riding at the back in such beautiful riding conditions - much appreciated by everybody guys. Thank you.

All in all a great three-day ride. I am looking forward to a report on the Willow Tree steak dinner to see if it met expectations.

Cheers Frosty