Not A Mid Life Crisis, Just An Extended Tour (Part XXXI) - Homeward Bound- Part One

DAY 43

I had another run of four days off, so again, jumped on a jet and made my way down to Adelaide. This would be the last time though as I had decided it was time to bring the Twin home. I had a plan to drop in and visit my Dad for a day in there so it would be roughly a 2500 kilometre trip in three days. This was a bit tight as I also wanted to ride some roads that are much less travelled but I would see how it went.

The Adelaide weather had been quite wet and cold all winter. I had somehow managed to jag mostly good weather with each trip down here (let’s face it, if the forecast looked certain of rain, I didn’t come down!) and today turned out to be probably the best day of the lot! Clear and cold after the previous day’s downpour, I rode up into the hills heading for Cuddlee Creek and it’s cafe’ where I was to meet an old work mate and his wife for breakfast. But first I needed to stop for some photos of this crisp morning.

I arrived at the cafe a bit early and shivered in shadow of the ridge line that towered over Cudlee Creek. It may not look like much from this angle but these little cafe’s and these roads in the Adelaide Hills in general are a cafe’ racers dream. 

Every time I have been past on previous rides there have been bikes galore here, having blasted from Loebethal or Birdwood or Kersbrook cafe’s via some amazing, twisty roads. But this morning I had it to myself… until Greg and Clare arrived on Greg’s Fatboy.

A great catch up over breakfast ensued then we wandered out to Mt Pleasant where Greg and Clare split off to head for home. It had been awesome to catch up but it was now late morning and I had only done about 60 kilometres of the 1000 kilometres I hoped to cover today.

But before I could get too far I came to the amazing road and views as Angas Valley road dropped off the hills toward the Murray River.

Of course I needed to sample the bends a few times. 😁

Down to Walker Flat for the ferry across the mighty Murray was the next task. Arriving at the river I marvelled at the towering river banks (cliffs) on the eastern side of the river. There was a huge elevation difference between the eastern and western sides.

I had to wait a few minutes at the crossing point as the ferry was on the other side so watched this river boat glide on by.

The ferry only took a minute or so to cross the river so I was soon being whisked across with the whole ferry to myself.

I climbed steeply away from the ferry and nearing the top of the climb was presented with this view of the ferry heading back west with it’s next load of customers.

I then tracked north through the tiny town of Nildottie. Just north of town I had just passed a truck when I saw signs pointing to "Big Bend". So, I hauled on the anchors and speared off the side of the road to check it out. Not from the viewing point though - I went cross country because, well ADV bike.

Big Bend was umm...big!

I was careful not to go too close to the edge as I wasn't sure how undermined it might be and the drop into the Murray was substantial!

Pleased I had stopped it was only now that I realised I had almost blasted past my turn east in passing that truck. Stopping for Big Bend had saved me a backtrack too! 

East to Bakara it was then! Not much at Bakara, just a few farm sheds. I turned north up Bakara Well road. This road was pretty unused but in good condition. I was starting to get that "this is remote" feeling when I came upon the well. It was an actual well as you would imagine it from a movie, a round rock wall sticking up above the field !

Plenty of good dirt from here….

….. until I hit the sealed road near Wunkar. I bet this town gets lots of piss-takes on it’s name!

Once I hit the main highway at Loxton I was reminded why I used to avoid this road like the plague when I lived in South Australia. It was busy and slooowww going. I stopped in Renmark for lunch at Renmark Patisserie. The food was good and the desert, even better! Renmark is a very pretty little river town that clearly has some civic pride because it is immaculately maintained.

Rolling out the road a few kilometres I filled up at the Ral Ral store, grabbing a bottle of water while I was at it.

I wasn’t sure what to expect from the next section of road. I had just clicked on a map to make a track but with my zero research method I didn’t know what to expect. It turned out to be pretty good dirt. It was loose and sandy in places (I don’t like sand much 😯) but mostly ok. I crossed from S.A. to N.S.W. here.

Then there was a lot of nothing as I passed to the north of Lake Victoria. You would hardly even know there was a lake out here.

I rolled into Wentworth mid afternoon. It is your typical small country town. Partly closed up or run down.

But Wentworth’s claim to fame is that is the town built on the junction of Australia’s two longest rivers, the Murray and the Darling. I stopped in Fotherby Park to look across the Darling to a couple of paddle steamers moored along the bank. These boats were the road trains of the 1800s, bringing wool down to the ocean ports from places as far inland as Bourke!

From here I wanted to stay north of the river and hence, out of Victoria so I avoided all of the road signs pointing me south and crawled along through the border towns. It was a looong haul of 60 and 80 kilometre an hour zones before I was clear and headed for Balranald.

Darkness fell when I was about 20km out of Balranald and this really is kangaroo country so I decided to find a room and call it quits for the day. Unfortunately, my late start to the day curtailed me getting near the 1000km target., with just 615km for the day. 

Oh well, tomorrow is another day.

 

DAY 44

I was up at the crack of dawn this morning to make sure I had maximum daylight for the day and I was hoping to take advantage of “golden hour” as I made my way across the plains of western NSW. Again, I was taking a road much less travelled.

North out of Balranald was the road to Ivanhoe and Lake Mungo. I had originally planned to go to Mungo yesterday and come down this road to Balranald for fuel. Luckily I didn’t as the road to Mungo was closed and I would have had a big backtrack.

Just up the road from Balranald was the locality of Penarie and the Homebush Hotel. I wish I had known this was here last night as I would have pushed on (carefully) into the night to get here and camp on the lawn. Oh well, you live and learn!

I was riding into the rising sun and the countryside was as flat as a shit carter’s hat. The clay road looked like it would be as slippery as ice after 0.2mm of rain. 

When I first hit the dirt there were some car wheel tracks that squirmed all over the road. After about a kilometre the tracks did a u-turn and went back to the sealed road. Yep, I would not even try this road with even a hint of rain. Luckily for me it was a glorious morning!

I was on Oxley road and soon came to Oxley Station, which looks like a small town on Google Maps. I didn’t go in for a look but turned north on Freshwater road.

Along here I passed the only vehicle I saw for the whole morning, a sheep truck moving some stock. I moved over into the table drain to give him plenty of room.

Yep. I wouldn’t argue with that advice!

The road opened up with looong straights cutting across table-top-flat plains. But how green was it?! I count myself lucky to have seen so much of our wide brown land green and lush this year.

I didn’t know it at the time but I was about to cut across the location where the Lachlan River breaks it’s banks and spills out onto the plains to form a massive wetland/swamp. I was glad I didn’t know it was coming because it made for a more wonderous ride, with the road an island in this sea of river waters. This wonder was also partly because I was wondering if I would come across an impassable bit of road and have to turn around!

The road did show evidence in places of what happens when you drive on it in the wet.

I was starting to feel very alone out here with huuuge skies, long plains disappearing to the horizon and not another soul to be seen.

Awesome!

I eventually rolled into Booligal and was surprised how full the Lachlan river was.

Never having been to Booligal before I had a quick look around. The pub looked interesting but it was too early in the morning.

Then it was out the Hillston road.

This road was pretty cut up from traffic driving in the wet but the mighty Twin wasn’t fazed with crossing the ruts along the road. I didn’t stop for any photos along here as I needed to get some distance under the wheels. A quickish stop in Hillston for pie, coffee and fuel. Hillston is another town I have never visited before and I was pleasantly surprised at how well looked after it was.

The road from Hillston to Lake Cargelligo was in great condition and was a very pleasant run. I hadn’t been to Lake Cargelligo since I was about 13 years old when we spent a long weekend with the local scout group, sailing and camping. I remember because I got the most painfully sunburned ankles that weekend. So painful that I couldn’t walk in the mornings for a week afterward.

The Main Street surface was atrocious though. It would give the Main Street of Dungog a real run for it’s money as to which is the roughest Main Street in the country!

The road from Lake Cargelligo to Condobolin was pretty ordinary but the scenery was awesome with canola lining the roadsides for as far as the eye could see. Cheap cooking oil for all next year!

I turned east at the southern outskirts of Condobolin onto the Lachlan Valley way (or South Condo road for the Forbes locals). There is a sculpture trail that has been put in place over the last few years and it was interesting to see some of the sculptures that I hadn’t seen before. This aboriginal hunter was pretty cool. 😎

The Lachlan was almost breaking it’s banks here at Waroo. I should have clicked that some of the floodways would be well, flooded, but I didn’t of course!

I soon came to a couple of shallow floodways where the water was about 10 centimetres deep for 20 or 30 metres. No problem.

Then I came to one that looked about 500m long. There was a truck just exiting it and a car coming in the distance so I just rolled into it thinking it was another shallow one. Standing on the Pegz I started to notice some big potholes under the water on the other side of the road! Shit! “What if there is a 2 metre drop in here somewhere”? crossed my mind as I had seen many examples of this on NSW and QLD roads with all of the flooding this year…. pretty much as I thought that, I started to hit some underwater potholes and the water got MUCH deeper! I ended up in second gear, banging through potholes with water up to the fuel tank trying to push me into the oncoming traffic and water spraying over my head! To say I was relieved to make it through is an understatement. If I had been washed over I would still be trying to pick the bike up to this day!

The following photo is from the next crossing that was only about 30cm deep in the middle.

About a kilometre up the road I saw Steve standing on the side of the road. He had ridden out from Sydney for the weekend and had used my Spot tracker link to follow me and meet me out here. I tried to talk him into doing the above water crossing with me but he wouldn’t be in it.

We did stop at the next few sculptures for a photo. It was so wet and green! What a contrast to 2019.

Arriving in town we headed for home to spend a bit of time with Dad. He didn’t know we were coming so it was a nice surprise to see him.

Just 580km for the day but it was really interesting riding, with a lot of dirt, for the most part.