5 - Nov 2008 Winding Windy Oxley Highway

(995 Kms - 48 hours) See map here

On Friday 21st, I zapped home early from work, slung some camping gear on the back of Redstripe

and headed north up the freeway and then Bucketty Way ..

(click on the photos for a better view)

Aiming for Gloucester. Here are the Barrington Mountain tops (in the distance) and a 100Kms speed limit sign.

In Australia this is the maximum limit for cars ... and the minimum limit for bikes ... so I've been told.

Camped in Gloucester for the night ... at the town caravan park in an area called Dingle Dell .. which I had to myself.

Bubbling stream in the background. I cooked and ate and went to bed in peace.

We left at 9 the next day heading north again onto Thunderbolt way, named after a highwayman of yesteryear called

Captain Thunderbolt.

The road has been upgraded since then (and also recently and so most of it has a good surface with wide sweeping turns and curves.

You can see the road winding away into the distance in this shot.

As we climbed it got colder and the wind picked up and began buffeting Redstripe.

Often pushing us over a metre across the road before I could lean the bike back to counter the force.

My neck started to ache due to the wind pressure on the helmet, and the noise was amazing - ipod useless.

I spent many minutes looking for somewhere to stop and in the end just had to stop anywhere to put warmer

rain-proof clothes on.

You can see me in the wing mirror taking this shot - if its blurry it because ofthe shaking..

Just in time as it did begin raining and so I slowed down and was shortly overtaken by some REAL bikers who

weren't afraid of the weather ... or maybe they were just colder than I was?

I must be truthful - I went under the bike speed limit for some of this trip!

But at Walcha it was dry and I stopped for a coffee and a snooze in the park ...

Before heading again to the main road and at a last to ride the famous Oxley Highway ...

At first we had the same wide, fast and sweeping curves and almost no traffic to speak of, but soon enough we

started the "twisties". However by this time the wind had done the damage and the windy (lots of wind) and windy (winding),

wooded roads were strewn with many sticks and branches.

This put greater risk in the corners and after a few too many sliding jolts on the front wheel, plus two sore toes as

flying sticks slammed into them, I stopped for a well earned cup-of-tea.

Then, only a few kilometres later I found this .... tree across the road blocking our way.

After helping to clear at least one side we were off again. Sloping down and the climbing up. Still more twigs and

branches and many as thick as my arm. Finally we reached the top and the trees gave way to cliffs and clearer roads.

Again wider rural roads and before long I was at Wauchope ... by now it was hot so we rested for a bit.

Into the final stretch for Port Macquarie .. I noticed other travellers had arrived.

For part two ... click on the link below or here Winding Windy Oxley - Part 2 to continue the story ...