Spent last weekend on an exploratory trip around the washpool region of Northern NSW. Riders were me, Mat, JB and Craig. This was Craig & JB's first ride of this type after spending most of their lives on small bore enduro bikes. We departed Brisbane on Friday afternoon and headed towards Rathdowney. Not long after hitting white swamp road we came across this goober whos car had broken down. I did the good samariton thing and give him a lift up the road to his house.
The area had received some serous rain in the previous weeks and we wernt sure what condition some of the crossings would be in. I took the first opportunity to get acclimatised to the conditions. Nothing like being wet for 3 days.
Our plan was to get to Drake, where we would have a great dinner at the Hotel and then into the forest to find an obscure camp site JB had scoped out on a previous trip. WE spent several hours riding around in the dark, but eventually the site was found. (with thanks to my GPS btw. JB was leading us in totally the wrong direction.) :-)
Was a great site we found and we will defineatly be back here again. We set off early on Saturday morning back to the Drake store for breakfast and fuel. We intended to head down the Rocky River road, but the rain had caused several landslides and tihs one was occurring while we standing there deciding how we were going to get around it.
Unfortunatly the tree was too big to cut though and it was too dangerous to be standing there while the earth and rocks were falling around us, so we heading back into Drake where alerted the local authorities and then tried to work out an alternative route.
After much consideration Craig reckoned he could chart a track south using his GPS, so we set off after him. The tracks were covered with fallen trees and it took us 5 hours to cover about 10 klms. Which would have been fine except we popped out of the forest exactly 5 klms west of Drake when we should have been about 50 klms south. Good one Craig. :-)
It was definatly hard going with many trees having to be cut through.
We also had to contend with leeches, ants and spiders all looking for a free feed. Luckily Mat has better blood than the rest of and he took most of the hits, althoug I was attacked by a mystery critter that causes a massive rash on my neck.
It was defineatly hard going and much more suited to smaller bikes.
We cruised in to Tenterfield via the highway and had a huge lunch at the local Brodies, before making away south via some nice dirt roads and very spectacular scenery.
The Deepwater pub was a welcome site and the locals were so friendly we decided to book in for the night. At $20 each including breakfast it was a bargain. Never mind the dollars we poured over the bar. :-(
After waking all the other residents in the pub. (one lady reckoned we were the farting wild hogs)
We set off agin. This time via some back roads and tracks through the butterleaf SF and then over the awesome Gibaltar range to Jackadgery for lunch.
We then headed north through familiar territory up through Carnham to Baryugal and Pikapene to Mallangalee where there was no fuel, but there was a pub.
The afternoon was spent in a high speed blast across the awesome Richmond ranges and the damage caused by the floods around Toonunbar Dam before dropping into Kyogle for a refuel.
The road home form Kyogle was memorable due to a sudden downpour that saturated us just for good measure and also for the high speed blast through the twisty's.
These types of rides are always good fun, but this one was especially cool as we had introduced Craig & especially JB to a new form of riding. He is now making noises about buying the Dominator (which he had borrowed from Dave for this ride). Next weekend we have a 3 dayer in lionsville with a heap of TL guys on the smaller bikes. Update next week.
cheers
Guy :-)
Gday and welcome to my blog. 
