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Ah yes, having moved you often lose track of people and opportunites to catch up, but a few of us that used to ride down south decided that with two of us now further north it was time to catch up, and Coolah was chosen as the meet point.
The guys involved were Steve (640ADV) coming up from Maitland, John from Heathcote (Weesttom), Rats from Culburra (bah, VFR800) and me making the trip from Dubvegas on thE 250km old DR650.
Well, being the closest I was able to leave home near 9am on Saturday to catch up with Steve at Coolah around 11am so I decided to slab it to Dunedoo and then try a few backroads into Coolah.
So, just east of Dunedoo (and with the help of some studied google maps) it was onto Digilah Road heading north. Digilah was mainly sealed, some of it extremely fresh stuff considering that the roadworks van was roadside but it did run through farmers paddocks so had some hazards
And the hazards
From here it was up and over a little hill before crossing through a cattle grid and back onto some dirt, before a right turn was made on to Lockenby Road (which becomes Mt Hope Road). This road crosses a number of properties and heaps of cattle grids, through paddocks and across a few low causeways but was a lot of fun and included a small stop and chat one of the property owners
The road climbs and before you realise it you are on top of the ridge southwest of Coolah which has some good views and is a fantastic piece of fun road with different surfaces.
A short distance from here it was back to some tar and drop off the hills into Coolah to catch up with Steve at the Bakery.
After a quick catch up, a drink or two and after feeding Steve a cold and flu tablet to try to kill the effects of his hayfever it was off towards Coolah Tops for an afternoons look around while Rats and John made their way up from down south.
The sealed stuff to the Tops turn off was open, flat and relatively quick, before turning right and back onto the dirt for the ride to the top of the hill. This piece of road is like a mini Pikes Peak and was sensational, a must do again type of thing as next time I will know it a little better and be more comfortable with the bike, but a seriously fun piece of road where all I could see was Steve’s dust.
Leaving this spot it was a quick strop across the ridgetop to the entry of the park itself, but not before I had a nice brown underwear moment when a bloody Calf decided it wanted to run on the road while I was there at near the dollar. Safe to say that we did not get to close but certainly my pulse increased rapidly as I avoided it (ok, so it turned the other way) and I again caught Steve in the park.
From here it was basically a look her, look there and where does that track go type of moment for the next four or so hours.
Some of the views were sensational and the tracks generally testing with my personal favourite being the rocky uphill climb on Talbragar FT.
Some of the views.
A different lookout
And we found some huts as well.
Just to compete with my calf experience, in the middle of all this Steve decided to up the ante somewhat and had an altercation with a family of goats which resulted in a stop beside the track and a bit of colourful language and smirks. Blood nature was out to get us it was.
But like all days, it wore on and it was closer time to try to meet John and Rats so we had to head out and I will swear blind that the bloody calf was there eying me off and just waiting on the way out and while it stayed put, the two kangaroos further on didn’t but they were well in front and cleared off quick.
So it was back down that oh so horrible (not) hill and into town to catch up with the others who had beaten us and were settled into their cabin before we all cleaned up and went to the pub for some food before returning to my cabin’s balcony to bench race and solve all the ills of the world
The view of my cabin balcony the next morning.
I took the single room and will say now that I will be back, was well prices and bloody roomy.
And now for one of the bike and cabin
On Sunday I decided to wimp out as Steve and John headed north for some more play in the bush (all clean of course) as I headed south and home whilst Rats headed even further south and further home
Was a good trip, some bloody good riding and as usual some great company
Will have to do again
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