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 Prologue

 

After months of low level preparation my two weeks leave had finally rolled around and it was time to set off for the Flinders Ranges!

The Desert X had been for a visit to Desmo HQ in Byron Bay for a pair of front brake discs to replace the warped standard ones (that my local ex dealer wouldn't even look at under warranty for me). They also threw a new chain and sprockets on while it was there.

Our plan for the trip was to trailer our bikes out to Broken Hill. Why I hear you ask? Well, I have done the inland roads of central New South Wales a million times and spending two full days droning along 1700 kilometres just to get to Broken Hill had zero appeal, not to mention the life it would take out of the tyres.

So I hit the road at 0520am....in the pishing rain! Did I mention that it hasn't stopped raining here in Brisbane all year? No? Well it hasn't and I could barely see for the first twenty kilometres or so but thankfully the roads were pretty deserted at 0520 on ANZAC day.

In fact, the roads were deserted for pretty much the whole 849 kilometre drive to Dubbo, so it was a good quick trip.

I rolled into Dubbo nice and early at about 3pm and checked into the motel. I quickly unloaded my bike and went for a look around town. I lived in Dubbo for four years in the mid to late 1990s so it was interesting to see how much it had grown. 

I called Steve via the Cardo helmet comms (how good are these things?!!) and he said he was only about thirty minutes away. I then proceeded to tool around east Dubbo and wandered out the Wellington road ten kilometres or so to wait for him. It wasn't long before a very bright headlight came around the corner and I could see it was a black Africa Twin. Not sure who the dude was riding it though because the bloke was wearing a grey suit. I powered off to catch up and I could see by the rego plate that it was in fact Steve. New gear, eh?!

I rang him again and he suggested we pull into the brewery on the road into town. 

A brewery? Here in Dubbo?!! 

"Sure, why not" was the obvious answer!

Jumping off the bikes I admired Steve's fancy new ADV suit. Along with his Tech 7 Enduro boots he really did have all the gear!

I must say, I was pleasantly surprised at how nice Devils Hollow brewery was on a warm Friday afternoon. We had nothing like this when I lived here and venues/facilities like these definitely help to retain good people in the "smaller" regional areas. (Dubbo is actually about 55 000 now, up from the ~35 000 25 years ago!)

A couple of quick beers + some takeaways and we were off to the motel to load the bikes onto the trailer, ready for an early start tomorrow. Dinner at the R.S.L. seemed appropriate on ANZAC day and despite being busy it was quick and tasty.

Next morning we were up early and hit the road westward. It was soo nice not to be driving into the rising sun and soon we were through Narromine and on to Nyngan. From Nyngan the skies darkened and we encountered some decent rain.......plus the highway patrol....no conversation was entered into though!

Enough to have several inches of water running over the road at the many causeways along the road. Very unusual for out here!

 Cobar was wet but the main street was very busy. We didn't stop there....

Once we got west of Cobar we were astonished at the number of wild goats along the roadside. There were tens of thousands of them over the next 454 kilometres to Broken Hill! We were constantly slowing down for them then having to accelerate again. After a while it became very noticeable that while there were hundreds of dead kangaroos along the road there were no goats. Yep, the goats were far smarter than the indigenous wildlife (no big surprise I guess) so we only slowed for the goats that were right on the road verge from here on in. That certainly cut down on the anxiety!

We stopped for a rest break and when we got going I had the drone follow us for a few kilometres while Steve drove. We got some interesting shots of the nothingness that is western NSW....plus some unexpected shots of a few of the MANY goats.

Goats sneaking under the fence.

Wilcannia came and went without a stop. Eventually we rolled into Broken Hill at about 4pm. We headed straight to the caravan park to check in. We were staying at a caravan park so as to leave the car somewhere relatively safe for the next week or so.

We unloaded the bikes and our gear into our cabin then went for a drive into town to look around and to find some dinner. The main street was eerily deserted as we wandered around. We grabbed a beer in the Palace Hotel (as apperaed in the movie Pricilla Queen Of The Desert) and checked out the murals that decorated the walls and ceilings.

Sorry for the poor quality phone camera shot. I was huge so was very hard to photograph. 

Wandering back down the street we thought the Astra Hotel looked ok for dinner so we settled in for a feed and drink.

Then it was back to the cabin to prepare our gear for riding off tomorrow. I had a plan for tomorrow's ride but the days after that....? Lets just see.....

Cheers.