August Naivgation Ride 2013 Wauchope to Bacca and Back

[BradMember]

MrSquiggle wrote:

Home, Showered Fed and Watered

THE SCORE
Squiggle fell off in the sand, SR fell off in the mud, Wookie fell off but wont provide any details and denies it and Brownie fell off opening a gate on Sunday. Thats 1 each boys 😆

I for one will be on the next one. See yas all there.

HaHa, good on ya Squiggle. I didn’t actually deny it, but if ploughing a Beema through Lantana on a corner with a stick through my front wheel is falling off, I fell off. It looked like a D9 dozer had gone through after I pulled her out.
Its funny, when riding the dirt squirters, you hope no one is there to see you come a gutser, but riding the GS, you hope there are as many people there as possible to help you drag it out of the scrub.

[Stewart SteelMember]

Great weekend. Always good to have a ride with the mates, and make a few new ones as well.Thanks to all concerned. I still hate dust.
I even managed to get to sleep before Kram on saturday night, which is always a big bonus!

Our reigning monarch is good fun to get on the giggle juice with, and was in fine form. Funny as.

Again thanks to all, and looking forward to the next event.

Moose

[Stewart SteelMember]

Oops. Just put a post on Murph’s thread. I’m really not very good at this technology stuff.

[Damien BonoraMember]

[/quote]

Hi Trailraider,

yep, pretty interesting day at work on one leg but loosening up a bit. Not unlike an attack of gout which I’m very familiar with.

See you on the next one. It was great riding with you especially the Saturday afternoon bit. We hooked in to those trails, did we not!

Wigster[/quote]

We sure did mate

What boots are you looking at getting?
I have Garene SG12’s, I find them very comfy and hard wearing with great protection :whistle:

[Dwayne OMember]

Day one Dinner to the End,,,

Saturday night dinner was great at the Nambucca Motel, smorgasboard Chinese dishes as well as Roast meat & veges followed up with Pav and Ice cream. Yum yum
Then we had the riders brief for Sunday as well as GPS loading. TB and Steve held a bit of a presentation with some prizes and T shirts being handed out for helping Puddles etc

The beers flowed and so did the jargon well into the night. I think the King put on a good show and his face and body told the tales Sunday morning :sick: 😆

Riders started to gather in groups near reception just after breakfast. TB had long gone and also absconded with our 3rd Amigo Lefty PTW had done a clutch cable sweeping the sat loop and then lost 3rd gear (and all those below it) and was brought in after dark by Steve, so a lead position had to be filled :whistle:
Ace & I had planned with Trailraider to tag along on the Sunday run, so the group remained the 3 Amigos afterall.

Heading off into a brilliant sunny day and west into the mountains in search of the intimidating Jacobs Ladder. TB & King had painted the picture at the rider briefing and I reckon there were some nervous souls about to take it on with some added headaches (alcohol induced of course) :unsure:

The run through the hilltops was superb, every type of terrain was there, great views here & there through the trees also and the dust played havoc with our eyes a little more than the day before.
Then we found ourselves at 845m and the lookout with a view that is awesome, especially on such a clear day (I reckon there wouldn`t be too many day as clear as that in that country normally)

Next was yep you guessed it,,,, what went up had to go down,,, and down vert rapidly we went.
It was first gear, stay well off the rear brake and ride the loose gravely slide from erosion mound to mound, thank god there were mounds to be able to compose oneself and poke over to continue the descent to the bottom.
It really wasn`t as bad as I had expected, would be something to be shit scared off in the wet though!!!

We then wound out way through some more great trails and pristine forest to Taylors Arm and the well known Pub with No Beer. There is always beer at a pub, and this one is no different, although our group were content with a cool Coke or a Lemon Squash

After that was more fantastic riding through a trail the passed over causeways and followed a rocky river and waterholes and eventually we came out into farmland and headed into the back of Frederickton for a famous Freddo Pie. Well I had a great sausage roll and we had another encounter with a different kind of local looking for a car, then his phone, then trying to act as a Foreign Cash Exchange before MickP made a joke about his hat and it`s familiarity with our mate “Losta Lotsa” and he then took off south in another car :blink: Weird fellow he was :whistle: :silly: :silly: :silly:

The rest of the arvo was a blurr for me really, I was getting tired and the dust had made it`s way into the eyes making navigating a bastard with the sun over our shoulder and dust on the GPS screens.
This is where we sent Trailraider to the front for the remainder of the ride as he had a bigger screen and was setting a cracking pace, loving it he was

Some of the terrain became more familiar as we neared Wauchope and Bago Bluff was looming in the background. We then had a bit of a tar run which was great high speed twisty stuff bringing us home.
But there is always a twist on Nav Rides, and although I knew this one was coming, it was still a big zapper of my remaining energy as we lumbered up, over, around and through some real trailriding stuff through the Bago forest. There was even a snotty little hill climb that I thought I was going to bin it on, but all good and we ripped straight up.

Finally we arrived back at Breckenridge to be gretted with a cold Cornetto Ice Cream thanx to Steve again. Yum yum once more…
Everyone stripped off the dust ridden riding gear, loaded up trailers quick smart and we had a hot shower before saying our farewells and heading back home.

Best Nav Ride Ever was the unanimous call I think :woohoo:

Great work TB, Strucky and Crash on the route and pre running.

The guys that helped TB lead and also sweep each day (you know who you all are) Thankyou

High Fives to Steve from Adventure Moto for the support, assistance along the way for those that needed it, as well as his ongoing support of the rides and donated prizes.

And of course a huge thanx to Peter Payne and his team from Yamaha Australia for the assistance and backing he has provided to make sure these rides can continue. He is also a top bloke and can certainly peddle that 660 along whatever the terrain

And of course cheers to my ride buddies ACE, LEFTY and TRAILRAIDER. I was off my game a bit after binning it hard into a ditch blocked by a log on Sat mid mrning and struggled on the rest of the ride :laugh:

Cheers All, Hope the next one is half as good `cause it would still be a cracker !!!

[ScottMember]

A couple of photos from the great weekend.

Our Accommodation for Friday night a two bedroom unit. Put the snorer in a room on his own and he still kept me awake all night.

We sticker bombed Gav’s BMtroubleu as he calls it…..

Some of the crew on the Ferry.

We made a slight detour to go and check this out.

View from the lookout.

[Mark BuntingMember]

What a top ride and a great weekend.

I thought the tracks were DR 6fiddy heaven and there was a fantastic mix. Leaving Breakenridge on Saturday morning I really wasn’t expecting to head south. But South we went and straight into some great Bago tracks that set the tone for the day :woohoo:

Plommer Road is always fun and it was the driest I have seem the whoops for years. Dry whoops also meant dry, fluffy and deep sand. But that didn’t slow Toes as he passed me then moose. Not one to pass up a challenge Moose was after him and the dice between them lasted for the rest of the day :laugh:

I loved the tracks in the Upper Macleay Valley. There’s hills, rocks, slippery sections and a couple of the tracks we used really are ADV bike singles. Hats off to the guys that rode the bigger bikes. Our team suffered a man down through this section with Puddles breaking his foot. As our team stopped for a re-group news filtered through that Ace and Eagle were helping him through to us. Top job gentlemen

Puddles new there was no other choice but to ride out and that’s exactly what he did. We were by no means out of the tricky stuff either. There were still a couple of decent down hill sections to test Pud’s front brake only skills. :sick: Once out into more open trails Wolfman came to the recue. Top job Steve and it shows how important it is to have a recovery vehicle on hand.

As we had now missed the time cut off period for the second half of the day’s route there was no other choice for us but to high-tail-it to Nambuccu and begin the nights activites.

It may come as a surprise to some, but I quite enjoy my evenings away with the boys and this was a cracker. As soon as Moose put the slab of Extra Dry stubbies on his lap and rode up the highway, I had a feeling things might get a bit loose :whistle: The King was in Royal form and kepts us in stitches with his wit and his antics. Moose and I really wanted to turn in but felt it our duty to our monarch to make sure he remained safe and well so stayed in his service until stumps :blush:

To be continued

Kram

[Shane CosgroveMember]

Wookie wrote:

MrSquiggle wrote:

Home, Showered Fed and Watered

THE SCORE
Squiggle fell off in the sand, SR fell off in the mud, Wookie fell off but wont provide any details and denies it and Brownie fell off opening a gate on Sunday. Thats 1 each boys 😆

I for one will be on the next one. See yas all there.

HaHa, good on ya Squiggle. I didn’t actually deny it, but if ploughing a Beema through Lantana on a corner with a stick through my front wheel is falling off, I fell off. It looked like a D9 dozer had gone through after I pulled her out.
Its funny, when riding the dirt squirters, you hope no one is there to see you come a gutser, but riding the GS, you hope there are as many people there as possible to help you drag it out of the scrub.

I took a bit of artistic license there wookie D9 dozer is a pretty apt description, one of the benefits of riding with GS boys all weekend …… less fatigue, you can sit in the slip stream :laugh: :laugh: :laugh:

[Dave WigginMember]

A later start than I had wanted found me stuck in traffic on the Pacific Highway after an hour. Only 360k’s to go!

However, I eventually hit the freeway and started to run the k’s down. The Tiger cruised effortlessly onward, I was leaving Sydney behind, heading for another Old Bulls Nav ride. There was adventure to be had, beers to be drunk and good company to share. God was in his heaven and all was right with the world.

Then it got cold, dark and boring. My arse started to ache and I still had 150 to go.

But the night was enlivened by Pete The Wulf cruising past in air conditioned comfort , with his Tenere in tow. He pulled in beside me at a servo and we hatched the cunning plan of picking up grog at the pub at Kew and him carrying it to Breckenridge for me. Good on you Pete!

At Breckenridge the usual lunatics were there. This was my fourth nav ride and am starting to put names to faces. Ace and I this time did not try to drink our age in schooners the night before a big ride like we did at Mittagong. A pizza, a few Coopers and a yarn around the fire before the riders briefing where we found out that TB and His Majesty were going for a ride and we could tag along if we wanted.

Well, we did want. Also, coincidentally he had some mates on a 4WD week end that just might be following him and some other blokes that were going to swee…I mean ride just in front of the 4WD.

Amazing coincidence when you think about it.

Anyway, with Shirl’s full monty breakfast on board in the early morning to keep the cholesterol levels up (a vital aspect of adventure riding it seems) I departed Breckenridge in a haze of methane and testosterone. Bring it on!

I was in Flying Fish’s group with Greg, Usi and Trailraider. I very nearly fell straight off the bike on the first left hand turn on to the dirt. The testosterone quickly evaporated (leaving only the methane). The last dirt I had done was the last Nav ride and it took me a while to get in to rhythm of it all. A face plant on the first 10 metres of dirt was not really the start I was looking for.

But it was a great section of trails around the forest and I was soon in to it, sweating out last nights Coopers and severely testing the breathability of my new Klim jacket.

Soon enough we were at the ferry and across to other side where Blommers Rd (I think it was called) and it’s deep sand had me wrestling the Tiger around like a WWF bout. I was ok on the not so deep stuff but when I saw the really deep rutted sandy sections I knew I wasn’t going to successfully traverse that standing on the pegs, so it was outriggers out. At one stage I was paddling so hard I would have easily won the final of the Men’s K1 at the London Olympics, had the British Olympic Committee had the forsight to select me. A couple of guys came roaring past, doing their Cyril Despres impressions showing me how to do it properly. It looked very cool I must admit, but beyond me. I must get some sand practise in, but where in Sydney? Bondi?

Later on Ace confessed he had paddled his German canoe through the deep bits, so I felt a bit better about being a total sand novice. Any other canoeist’s out there?

At the fuel stop we met an interesting local who’s morbid fear of dehydration was clearly evident.

But it was onwards to Nambucca, and this is where it got interesting. I was too busy cleaning my glasses to see the direction Flying Fish and the group took off on. Trailraider waited for me and we were off, no later than 30 seconds behind. However the GPS showed us we should be going the other way, so we stopped and turned around to follow the purple line, thinking that the group must have looped around behind the servo to do a short cut to the start of the section.

The next three hours were the best bit of riding I have ever done. The trail was brilliant, switching around, up and down, some boggy holes, drop offs, steepish downhills, rocky dry creek beds. Sometimes it appeared to disappear in to the undergrowth. Trailrader and I were getting a bit of pace on, swapping leads to inhale an equal share of the dust. The horrors of Blompers Rd were forgotten as I found my bike mojo. We were having a ball!

Then a log sticking out in to the track clipped me on the right foot. It stung a bit and I looked down to see it had ripped a big hole in my boot. I could see my sock! Ouch! Anyway there was no blood and I could still press the brake lever gingerly, so full of adrenaline from the great riding I didn’t even stop. I didn’t realize then that it would rule me out of the next days ride.

We couldn’t work out why we hadn’t caught the group. Normally I wouldn’t stand a snowball in hell’s chance of catching Flying Fish but I knew she was taking it a bit easier on this ride after her recent concussion. The mystery was solved by Trailraider getting a call from TB on the mobile. “Where are you”. “e’rm, were just following the purple line”. “Turn round and go back to the servo”. Well that was two and a half hours back. In fact we were not too far away from the end of the section. On TB’s advise we punched in Macksville in to my GPS, keeping the original route on Trailraiders and soon found ourselves in really pretty farming country with sweeping fast trails. Tiger country! Seems that this bit of the ride our group were not doing, except we hadn’t heard that bit! It was all good though and it was the best three hours I have had on the bike thus far, and that is saying something.

Soon enough we were in Nambucca at the motel, where instead of icing my ankle, staying off the grog and having an early night, I imbibed half a dozen beers. a couple of rum’s several kilo’s of chinese smorgasboard.

The beer and the banter were too good to miss and half a packet of panadol was the only concession I gave my by now , throbbing ankle.

I paid the price the next morning when I woke up to find I couldn’t put hardly any weight on my foot. I had an interesting five minutes hopping about an unfamiliar bedroom, barking my shins on every bit of furniture, trying to find the light switch.

After break fast I thought I give it a lap of the car park to see if I could ride, but I soon found out I couldn’t press the rear brake and all my weight when on the pegs was on my left foot. I am a judicious dabber at the best of times and I knew if I had to dab with my right foot it would be “‘Hello Nurse, Good afternoon Puddles” for me, so it was perhaps the only sensible thing I did all week end and I pulled the pin on the day.

Gutted I only did half the ride, but I had a fantastic time as usual on an Old Bulls ride. Bring on the next one!

Thanks to the guys who swee… I mean ride behind TB’s mates, his Majesty the King and the guy tooling around in the ute (Wolfy). And of course to the TB. The amount of effort and research that goes in to making these rides so special is amazing. Well done that man!

Hope you can make the next one Trailraider!

Wigster

[PuddlesMember]

Well what can I say. I finally get to turn up on a ride & what a ride it had a bit of everything. I was really enjoying myself until I had my little incident.
Then the ride out was quite interesting to say the least. My little excursion down the embankment was interesting to say the least. Once at the bottom of the embankment I didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. I was keen to take ace up on his suggestion to bury me right there & then but I decided to grin & bear it & get myself out of there. I must say the ride out toevery bit of concentration I had. That part must of been the longest ride of my life. I would just like to say a big thanks to ace, eagle & everyone else involved in helping gete out & thanks to Steve for coming & taking back to kempsey & to aero for driving up from port to collect me & take me to hospital.
Now the good news is I didn’t break my heal bone & 2of my toes. Bad news is I broke every other bone in my foot. I’m still waiting for surgery (i could be on here for over a week)as my foot is to swollen & apparently I will have a lot of screws & plates once it’s done. But getting back on the bike is going to be a long away away.
Ps. Ollie no I’m not selling it so don’t ask
Cheers puddles

[Dave WigginMember]

Trailraider wrote:

Hi Trailraider,

yep, pretty interesting day at work on one leg but loosening up a bit. Not unlike an attack of gout which I’m very familiar with.

See you on the next one. It was great riding with you especially the Saturday afternoon bit. We hooked in to those trails, did we not!

Wigster[/quote]

We sure did mate

What boots are you looking at getting?
I have Garene SG12’s, I find them very comfy and hard wearing with great protection :whistle:[/quote]

I was thinking of the very same. Where is a good place to get ém?

Wigster

[AndrewMember]

Wigster wrote:

Later on Ace confessed he had paddled his German canoe through the deep bits, so I felt a bit better about being a total sand novice. Any other canoeist’s out there?

At the fuel stop we met an interesting local who’s morbid fear of dehydration was clearly evident.

Wigster

Great read Wigster! You are a dead set riot. Hope the foot heals quickly mate. See you on the next one and watch out for those mad car drivers in the big smoke eh :S

[Shane CosgroveMember]

Puddles wrote:

Well what can I say. I finally get to turn up on a ride & what a ride it had a bit of everything. I was really enjoying myself until I had my little incident.
Then the ride out was quite interesting to say the least. My little excursion down the embankment was interesting to say the least. Once at the bottom of the embankment I didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. I was keen to take ace up on his suggestion to bury me right there & then but I decided to grin & bear it & get myself out of there. I must say the ride out toevery bit of concentration I had. That part must of been the longest ride of my life. I would just like to say a big thanks to ace, eagle & everyone else involved in helping gete out & thanks to Steve for coming & taking back to kempsey & to aero for driving up from port to collect me & take me to hospital.
Now the good news is I didn’t break my heal bone & 2of my toes. Bad news is I broke every other bone in my foot. I’m still waiting for surgery (i could be on here for over a week)as my foot is to swollen & apparently I will have a lot of screws & plates once it’s done. But getting back on the bike is going to be a long away away.
Ps. Ollie no I’m not selling it so don’t ask
Cheers puddles

Puddles, glad to hear your heel and two toes are ok, good luck with the recovery mate, lots of patience and a bit of physio and hopefully you will back on both feet.

I am amazed that the your foot copped that much damage with the boots you were wearing, they looked pretty solid from memory. What were they mate?

[GregMember]

Loving the reports everyone, keep them coming and I will keep the rides coming :woohoo:

Thanks

TB

[DeanMember]

Puddles wrote:

Now the good news is I didn’t break my heal bone & 2of my toes. Bad news is I broke every other bone in my foot. I’m still waiting for surgery (i could be on here for over a week)as my foot is to swollen & apparently I will have a lot of screws & plates once it’s done. But getting back on the bike is going to be a long away away.
Ps. Ollie no I’m not selling it so don’t ask
Cheers puddles

Pfft I dont want your dirty filthy scratched up crossbred german italian POS mate :laugh: well not just yet :whistle:

Sounds like you did a good job on yourself. The Port Hospital nurses are fantastic mate you are in good hands.

Ollie

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