FIinders Ranges Trip 2025 - What Happened Next

 

I was up early next morning for the three kilometre walk to the caravan park to pick up the car. It was quite cool this morning but being rugged up I enjoyed the early morning peace and quiet.

We loaded the bikes, grabbed some breakfast from the local IGA supermarket and hit the road. 753km of goat dodging to Dubbo today. It was much greener along here after all the rain we drove through on the way out. Again, there were ten thousand goats lining the sides of the road but they were all smart enough to walk the other way as we drove by. Not so the hundreds of squashed kangaroos.

We arrived in Dubbo late afternoon and checked into the same motel as they had good off street parking for the car and trailer. Important in Dubbo! A quick dash to the supermarket for some supplies and we picked up a couple of pizzas on the walk back.

Now, with another four days off for me we needed a plan for some more riding. I suggested to Steve that we drive over to Scone (only 258km) first thing in the morning, find somewhere to leave the car then ride up over Barrington Tops via some roads I knew would be fun, then swing back north via Glenrock and Barry Station and the Twenty Creek Crossings track to Nundle for the night.

That decided on we were up at sparrows and on the road. We arrived in Scone about 0930 and set about finding a place to leave the car. There was a huge car park behind what would have once been a pub on the corner of the main street and Liverpool street. 

Perfect!

We quickly unloaded and hit the road. Out the Gundy road, through Moonan Flat without even stopping and we soon began the twisting climb up onto Barrington Tops. We were in for a surprise because the whole climb was sealed! It seems the local shire is trying to create a tourist loop and I guess they want it to be "all" car friendly. Anyway, we stopped towards the top when we were back on the dirt to take in the views. We also noted some showers to the north - where we were planning on heading for Nundle later on...

As we neared the dingo gate at the top it began to spit rain. The forecast was good so I was a bit surprised at this. It was clear there had been recent rain as the ground was sodden but I knew the main road across the Tops was a good rock base.

Steve was starting to look worried......and wouldn't ride his bike to the view point for the must-do photo opportunity to the west, thinking it might be slippery. It wasn't. Oh well.

Through the gate and we made a quick stop in the spooky feeling stand of pine trees. It was a bit busy with picnic-ers so we didn't stay long.

Initially we hooked along quickly as it is a wide, well surfaced road but as we climbed it began to rain. Just lightly but the road surface was getting slicker and slicker looking. I knew we would be turning left at some point soon so tried to put off donning my wet weather gear. 

After a  while I thought "this is stupid, just put your wets on" so I stopped and wrestled myself into my new rain jacket and overpants. I had decided that the wet liners that come with the RST suit just aren't practical to put on mid-ride, especially the pants liner. Stripping off on the side of the road is too much of a pain in the arse. Steve's new Klim gear is waterproof so he didn't need to stop. So, suitably encased, we pressed on

We soon came to the turn I was looking for. Pheasant Creek rd would take us to Tomalla road and back towards Ellerston.

I hadn't done this road before but this was another good, rock based road which quickly dropped us out of the cloud and the misty rain. We didn't stop along here until we got to the bottom of the hill at Backwater Creek.

It wasn't much further to the northern entrance to the park. It was all up hill which is much more fun on these big bikes. 

Tomalla road was only a few hundred metres away and we stopped there for a minute. We were going to have lunch but I suggested to Steve that we ride along Tomalla road for a bit as I knew where there was an awesome outlook where we could stop for a while.

Yeah, this was much better.

We spent quite a while here as I broke the drone out and tried to get some video. 

Unfortunately, I think I locked the exposure on the ultra high vis of my massive 3XL rain jacket and it completely blew out the colours and the poor little drone couldn't compensate! 

This one is a little better.

Moving along we enjoyed the ride off of The Tops along Tomalla road. We turned north towards Ellerston and Glenrock Station. 

The riding got more picturesque the closer we got to Glenrock.

Glenrock was where the twenty creek crossings track proper (on Hunter road) began. We avoided the first concrete crossing by riding around the side of it. It is ice-like slippery and we have seen dozens of instances of riders going down on it so it was nice to see that someone had actually graded a track around the left side of it. 

I can't fathom these stupid councils that concrete these crossings and leave them smooth. All they need to do it broom them once the concrete has nearly set and it will give the crossing some texture for motorcyclists to grip onto....

The next creek crossing was soon upon us and it was like the next eighteen were going to be - natural rock and sandy gravel. I rode through and it wasn't too bad. So I jumped off to give Steve some tips (he has no experience with water crossings). He ploughed through easily though. 

Sweet!

 Or so I thought. 

This will be easy. These crossings come thick and fast so not 200m metres further we came to the next crossing. It was a bit rockier than the first and I paddled across. Steve didn't wait and dived in - almost literally! I was in the process of jumping off to come back and coach him when I heard "help" in the helmet comms. He has done the cardinal sin of creek crossings by going too slow and not keeping his eyes up. Looking at your front tyre and then hitting a largish rock causes one to loose momentum and balance. I'm bummed that the Action 4 battery has just gone flat because I would have loved to have had that footage as I ran back and Steve was ever so sloooowly lowering the big Twin into the creek as he couldn't hold it any longer.

Picking it up I could see that it sat on one of his panniers and water hadn't got down the exhaust. The Twin's air intakes are waaay up high too so we could see that water hadn't got near them. 

Good-o!

But it wouldn't start. Puffing hard I told Steve to take his helmet off to cool down then unclip his luggage as we couldn't push it out of the creek as it was. Once that was done we took a moment to think. I asked if he had turned the key off and back on or was just trying to start it. It was the latter, so I cycled the key off then on and the big girl fired straight up! (The Twins have a tilt kill switch that stops them when falling over and that just needed resetting.)

Whew!

We took a few moments to catch our breath then headed off again. I decided to ride across each crossing, then walk back to point out the best line (it didn't help that Steve's helmet comms had gone flat now - just when we really need them!) As you would expect his confidence was shot so he approached the crossings with no momentum and head down. I eventually got him to hit them with a bit of speed and standing up and he began flying through them like a pro. This was good as I was getting knackered from jumping on and off my bike and wading across creeks. My boots were full of water, but at least it was warm.

After the last crossing, which was a tiny one, the road began to climb. As I sort of remembered where it went from my ride last April I gave the DX it's head. Jumping water bars uphill and power sliding out of corners was a hoot. I stopped high up to let Steve catch up and to get a photo. All the stress of the creek crossing was sooo worth it. This would also be a great point to point mountain bike ride if one had a support vehicle to meet at the other end.

Leaving Glenrock Station we were back on a forest road and soon close to Nundle. I turned into the Hanging Rock lookout area and while neither of us were that keen, I am glad we took the time as the view across Nundle is a stunner.

Rolling into town we checked into the Peel Inn. It was pumping as they had just had a big dog show in town. It was nice to get out of those wet boots and into dry clothes. We enjoyed a couple of New England Pale Ales (the Uralla brewery) then a very nice dinner and desert again. This wasn't a pie and chicken parmigana fueled trip!

There was no rush to get going the next morning as we only needed to roll back to Scone, a mere 100km away. The Peel Inn provided a cooked breakfast as part of it's accomodation package so we partook of that before loading up. My boots were surprisingly dry today, which was rather pleasing and surprising.

We took the road less travelled and went via Crawney Pass. This is the area where the DC-3 crashed back in the 1950s. It is rugged but beautiful country.

The cloud was low on the hills this morning making for some dramatic scenery.

It didn't take long, even when we were slowed by fog in the valleys, before we were in Scone. We decided to get a coffee in the main street before loading my bike up.

Steve was riding home to Sydney and I was driving back to Brisbane. It had been an awesome ten days or so on the bikes and this Barrington Tops ride had been the icing on the cake with its stark contrast of greenery and creek crossings to the Flinders harsh, barren dryness. It was also awesome to ride with Steve again as we don't get to do it that often these days. Perhaps once his kids are finished with school we might have more opportunities......when we can work on his "walk like an Egyptian" skills....

The epilogue route from Scone to Scone.

All up we covered 2 315km on the bikes. The Desert X was faultless and I'm really happy with how it is set up. The Africa Twin did well and could be better with a couple of small accessory modifications that would make Steve's ride easier. We did notice as I loaded my bike in Scone that the AT had oil around the bottom of the shock. On closer inspection we could see the seal had failed and he just had a big pogo stick for the last day or so. He has since spent some money and had it rebuilt, along with the forks. I will bet money that it is a far better handling bike now (not that it wasn't decent from the short ride I had on it in the Flinders) with properly weighted springs.

I did another 3300km in the car.

Cheers.

Flinders Ranges Trip 2025 - The Ride Day 6

 

I was going to get up early this morning and go for a walk along one of the hiking trails…..but it was bloody cold and staying in bed seemed like the better option.😊

When we eventually did get up we wandered around to the restaurant for some breakfast. We were a bit later today so it was quite busy.

There was no great rush to get going. We were heading back to Broken Hill (and reality) today so we had 300km of dirt then ~200km of sealed road to tackle. While our biggest day, it would be easy going.

Once loaded we rolled off and immediately my bike felt funny. It felt like the steering damper was wound right up or the front tyre was flat. I stopped to check - nope, damper is wound off and the front is pumped up - but the rear tyre is looking pretty flat! 

Bugger!

I must have flatted not far from Arkaroola yesterday afternoon and it went down overnight. Riding around to the fuel pumps where the air hose was I pumped the tyre up and went hunting for the puncture. It didn’t take long to find as it was hissing fairly loudly. Don’t know how I didn’t hear it yesterday?

Anyway, I shoved a plug in, pumped it up and was good to go. Tubeless is the way to go when it is this easy to fix.😉

Rolling, take two, we stopped numerous times to get photos in the morning light. 

We overtook a couple on a KLX 230 and an MT450 not far out of Arkaroola, trying not to dust them too much.

We were on the lookout for the sandy creek crossing and it was indeed hard to spot when coming from this direction. It caused no problems for us this morning though.

This morning consisted of just blatting along at 90-100km/h. No need to go too fast and once we took the turn to the south at Frome Downs, toward Yunta the road became covered in a 50mm deep sand/ gravel which made for some "loose" moments.  We stopped along here for a short rest to give our concentration levels a break. 

A while later we came to the mining ruins at Waukaringa. I missed out on checking them out closely in 2022 so I followed some bush tracks over to the old kiln and chimney for a quick look around.  Steve wasn't keen so stayed over near the main road.

 We then wandered down to the couple of derelict buildings only to find a group of adventure bike parked out the front. The riders were all hiding around the corner,  out of the wind, cooking sausages on the bbq that their support car had supplied.  Talk about doing it in style!

We chatted for a bit and they offered us a snag which we politely declined. We would be in Yunta soon and would refuel there. 

We tried the other service station in Yunta this time.  A sandwich and an iced coffee worked to avoid the hot coffee disappointment of our last visit. 

As we were fueling up a van with Jemma Wilson splashed on the side pulled in for fuel.  Jemma was/is a high level Moto Crosser and now does ladies coaching.  She must have been down in Adelaide for some coaching.  We would leapfrog  the van for the next two hundred odd kilometres back to Broken Hill.

Arriving into Broken Hill I suggested to Steve that as it was still relatively early we ride the thirty or so kilometres out to the historic Silverton. We were riding into a settling sun along a road lined with kangaroos so we took it gingerly. 

Stopping into the iconic Silverton Hotel it looked pretty deserted but entering the bar there was actually quite a few people. 

We grabbed a couple of Tooheys Olds and sat out the front watching the shadows grow longer. 

That done it was into Broken Hill to find some accommodation.  We weren't that chuffed with the caravan park unit from last week so we found a nice clean, warm motel room - briefly checking that my car was in fact still OK at the caravan park.  I'll go get it tomorrow morning. 

All up,  a pretty easy day but we were a bit tired from the concentration required on the looser dirt roads into Yunta.

Dinner was at The Broken Hill Pub which was very clean and modern. 

I didn't take much rocking to sleep tonight! It had been a solid week on the bike.  Not huge kilometres but quality stuff that demanded concentration. Tomorrow would be an easy day in the car back to Dubbo..... and as we both still had all the next week off we would need to come up with a plan for some more riding...... stay tuned! 😎

Cheers.

What happened next HERE.

Flinders Ranges Trip 2025 - The Ride Day 1

 

We were up early this morning to get a jump on today as it was going to be one of the bigger days on this ride at just on 450 kilometres. Not a huge day but with some dirt roads and plenty of stops for photos it would take long enough.

We departed under gloomy skies that threatened rain but thankfully it held out. There was a strong, cold wind blowing from the south that made the first few hours riding a little less enjoyable, especially as the first three hundred kilometres was straight sealed road. The boredom let one's mind exaggerate the cold so we stopped a few times to take photos. The first was at the New South Wales/South Australia border crossing in the little hamlet of  Cockburn. This was probably once an important railway/border crossing town but now the world simply blows by it.

At least the sun was shining in South Australia. 

A little further into South Australia we stopped at the next railway platform town, Manna Hill. Where the hill was, we were not sure but there was a cute little railway station that we took a quick look at.

A further 44km down the road was our first fuel stop at Yunta. There isn't much at Yunta but it is bigger than any other town we had ridden through so far. We stopped for fuel, a sandwich and a pretty average coffee. Thats two for two shit coffees in Yunta - three years apart - even though we were at the other service station this time!

After a break in Yunta we pushed on westwards to Peterborough. The countryside slowly began to change from the flat plains to some rolling hills.

Arriving in Peterborough we were just too early for the pub to be open. So we had a look at the steam train in the park, then pressed on. Rail was obviously a big part of the lifeline to these small towns a century or so ago.

The pub with no beer (for us 'cause we were too early!)

Gladstone was the next stop on our journey. 

We skirted the edge of Jamestown, well, we were going to but the main street looked so inviting we took a quick ride down one side and back out the other, onto the Gladstone road. Rolling into Gladstone we noticed the very imposing Gladstone Goal off to our right and had to take a look. It's huge compound walls were all made out of sandstone - very well made in fact, but the goal itself had been closed for decades. It would have been interesting to have a walk around inside but unfortunately it was closed.

A quick scoot around the town centre and we ascertained that there was only one pub open, so we parked up for beer. Probably not a well earned one for we hadn't done anything to earn it but stuff it - we were on holidays!

It was nice to sit in the sun for a while as it was still blowing a stiff, cold wind from the south. Watching the numpties negotiate the roundabout/monument in front of us was good entertainment as well! We wondered how many times it had been knocked over in the past....

We crossed the very southern end of the Flinders Ranges now to get across to the Spencer Gulf, bypassing Port Pirie and calling into the little seaside town of Port Germain for a look around. There wasn't much happening here so after a quick look at the old lighthouse and pier we were off again.

We would be hitting our first bit of dirt just out of Port Germain as we made our way to the Bridle Track. I had ridden this fun little bit of dirt a couple of times in 2022 and now I wanted Steve to enjoy the challenge and the views.

Steve hasn't done much off road riding so he was a bit nervous as we hit the dirt (not literally!) but having the helmet comms I was able to annoy the shit out of him errr.....coach him along but it wasn't really necessary as this entrance track was in much better condition than it was three years ago. The trickier bit was about to come.

We stopped part way up the climb as I wanted to get a couple of drone shots as the view slowly expanded and to give Steve some time to adjust to the slightly more challenging riding.

There is a short, steep rocky pinch climb that goes for maybe eighty metres that I worded Steve up for. He waited at the base while I climbed it and with the comms I was able to let him know it was in excellent condition. He shouldn't have any problem....and he didn't because as you can see in the next photo he was strolling around at the top taking photos in no time at all! 

The steep pinch pops up where you can see the track above Steve's head. 

We stopped at the top for quite a while, taking in the three hundred and sixty degree views over the Spencer Gulf and the farm lands to the north, east and south. (I apologise for the quality of some of these photos - they are screen grabs from the drone video that I hope to edit into something in the future)

One thing that was abundantly clear this trip was how dry it was. South Australia is in the grip of drought. It was a very different scene when I was here with Andy three years ago....it is hard to beleive this is the same spot as the three photos above!

Time to get going again. It wasn't very far to our overnight stay though so we rode quite slowly, taking in the views.

There were a few gates to open so we took it in turns.

All too soon we were at our accommodation for the night, the Mt Remarkable Hotel in Melrose. It was only around 3pm and our rooms weren't ready so the publican shouted us a beer and we sat in the afternoon sun letting the awesome day's riding soak in.

Pirate Life Stout on tap here.....mmmmmm

Once we were able to get into our rooms and get changed we went for a stroll around Melrose which is a very pretty little town, nestled under the imposing shadow of Mt Remarkable.

We had the first of several chicken parmigana dinners for the trip and turned in pretty early. It had been a great first day on the bikes and it was only going to get betttererer!

Cheers.

Day 2 here.