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Well TB and I left my house at around 9am on a quick 2 day adventure ride around the Northern rivers and Tablelands. We covered over 1000km in the time we had and rode some of the most amazing tracks I’ve ever seen.
I plotted this ride with only one rode being a certainty and that was only the first 200km. The rest was total trust in shonky maps and hopeing we’d get lucky!We first rode out on a mixture of dirt and tar to get to Grafton then we got onto the old Glenn Innes rd. This road wound it’s way through the valley following the Boyd river and it’s breathtaking escarpments. We crossed rivers and causeways until we reached Glenn Innes. A bridge cut into the rock was a highlight. The dirt roads were in good condition and we made good time, the Teneres lapped up the endless twists and turns and I was loving my new bike!!
We made Glenn Innes with 4 minutes to get a counter lunch washed down with a quick beer.
We then started into the unknown trails and the first two lead us along some great scenic gravel roads but ended with the same answer from the land owner ” No mate that road closed years ago” bugger.
We made it to Tenterfeild and the next 100 km were adventure bike heaven, narrow dirt roads clinging to cliffs with awesome flowing gullies at the bottom.
One of the many dodgy bridges we crossed
Some steep uphills lead to steep downhills
We rolled into Drake around 6.30 and went straight to the pub for the camp supplies and find out a bit of local knowledge :blink: on camping spots.
We rode back down the trail a few kms until we found our camp site for that night.
We cooked a couple of dehydrated currys , cracked a beer and headed over to the rock pools for a dip. I joked to TB to watch out for yabbies and eels and once our feet hit the water his head torch landed on a 2 ft eel about half a meter from his feet. For a big bloke he can move when he has too and lept onto the nearest rock.
A couple more beers and it was heads down for the night :side:The following morning we packed up camp
then rode into Drake and had a bite to eat at the local store
then rode some dirt up to Bonalbo then into Kyogle.
The ride out of Kyogle was tar for about 10km until we turned of towards Lecester crk and again found some top dirt
that lead us to a National park sign spotted by TB. Time was on our side so we headed into the Border ranges National park.
The road surface was slick and the tracks took us through rainforest with waterfall to a height of 3300ft.
Once out of the Border ranges we went into Kyogle for food , a quick beer and fuel then we wound our way to Nimbin and down to lismore. We still had a bit of time so we tried a few trails to lead us to New Italy. Some tracks disappeared
then reappeared and we snaked our way through forest and swamp to within 20km of my place.
In the 2 days and 1043km this has to be one of the best rides I’ve been on , we only stopped for 45 minutes each day for lunch and a couple of fuel stops and that’s it in 20 hours of riding. The Tenere is a perfect bike for this trip , it powered through the unavoidable tar sections to get to the dirt where it really excelled. For a big bike it’s surprisingly nimble through the tight loose stuff.
I will be keen to do this ride again sometime and I highly recommend it to anyone with a big tank and sense of adventure !Great ride report Nick, I remember some of those trails and bridges from a ride we did some years ago on TT600’s and we had a ball then too!! Good to see you using the big Tenere’s for what they were made for.
Looks like some great countryside to go riding in Nick.
Will have to get up that way one day.Looking forward to the 3 States ride.
Mick
The idea of this ride was born from the fact that I had to go to Brisbane for work, it
turned out to be one of the best ideas for years. I have been lucky enough to ride so
many areas of our great country but have to say I was taken back by the country we rode thru the last two days.
I trailered the Tenere to Nicks, like I said it was a work trip and I had things to
take and do on the way, those done we suited up at Nicks and made final preparations. I trailered the bike loaded, bags and all it was ready to roll of and turn the key which
was the way it worked. A quick back road blast saw us at Grafton, Nick had planned we go out the old Grafton Glenn Innes road. The road came highly recommended from everyone I spoke with and once on the dirt it sure lived up to it
We stopped on and off along the river, shots Nick has in his ride report show the power of the water when the river is up. We didn’t stop unless it was to take a photo of explore something like camping spots or things of interest and a stop was rarely of the bike.
We road down to the river over the rocky river bed and parked the bikes at the edge of
the water it was the first off the bikes and stretch the legs stop we had made so far.
Some quick shots and of we went, my bike now setup was easy to ride in the rocks and sand.
There were 100’s and 100’s of corners, there were a few overshoots as well but once
dialed in I could see what Badbowie was talking about as you could slide the bike in
and out of the corners, sure not everyone as there are a lot that were off camber, or
had no edge except for the very large drop off into the rocky river bed :ohmy:
We got to the hand made tunnel in the rock wall that had been spoken about and Badbowie had put a picture of. We stopped took some photos had a quick look
We kept going as we wanted to make Deepwater on the New England Hi way that night ( turned out we would blow that out of the water ) the track started climbing and at he same time we started seeing the odd remote bush shack / house / property or even house land they lived and worked which started the funny banter about ” pimp my bush crib ” a new series for Fox TV along the lines of back yard bliz and pimp my ride. It was funny but you probably had to be there. :laugh:
We explored the odd track and pushed on until we found a track leading to a
lookout. It went up the side of this bloody mountain and was pretty steep, it had I
reckon at least 80 windrows, steep, big windrows and those plastic water deflecting
things in the ground. The photos do no justice to the hill of course, so we checked the
GPS and even though we knew it didn’t go thru, well we were pretty sure it didn’t we
went up. Like it said it was steep, there were no other tracks on it bar the odd bike
track out of corners and judging by the marks I would say enduro style bikes. The hill
wasnt hard but the surface made it interesting as it was a hard pack with like fine
sand and pebbles all over it which meant any excessive right wrist saw you spin up and
loose drive and on that hill would be laying it down for sure. The other thing was the
camber they had put in for the water to run of meant it was hard to ride a line as it
was always wanting to slide to the edge. It was about 3kms to the top and I have to say I was wondering about the decent, wondering maybe shitting myself a littleThe start of the hill cause once you got going and got into it you couldnt stop it would mean falling off for sure
The decent was uneventful but required very careful use of the brakes as it was bloody
slippery. We got back on the main track and worked out we maybe able to make Glen Innes for a counter lunch but it would be close. We took off and soon popped out on the black stuff, the route showed a left turn soon enough back to the left and back on the dirt (about 3 klms of tar we were following a green line on the GPS for the entire route, sort of made it a navigation ride as such as well ) the left turn seemed to be do be someones driveway or could be a gazetted road they use for a driveway it was thought over the GPS so of we went up the track or driveway it turned out, around mates house and shed etc no track our first blow out. We made a hasty retreat back to the tar another 2.5 klms of tar and we found a dirt road that took us over and linked up with our green line and of we went. I was whinging about making Glenn Innes for a counter lunch so we flew in the dirt road to Glenn Innes the route was a cracker as it meant we only meet the bitumen just outside of town on the south eastern side. Down the main street it was 4 mins to 2, 2 o’clock being the time counter lunches stop as we pulled up at the pub, I went in the pub still getting my helmet of to be greeted by suppose you blokes want lunch? :laugh: Thru there they will serve you.
Rum and a feed of garlic prawns and rissoles and veg saw us on our way again.
We planned on running to Deepwater on the western side of the Hwy. We rode out about 15klms of dirt and ended up on a horse riding place where they run horse back pub crawls. Spoke with the lady there and found out the track shut at the river or
something so we back tracked until we could get over onto the Hwy. From there we rode to Deepwater which was only 35klms I think. There we fueled and got some directions from the loud guy at the Stevo and ol mate that had been thru our intended route in the great drought of 68 and he had to use chains as it was so wet. I remember thinking he said the great drought and used chains cause it was so wet?? WTF! oh yeah and he said the National Parks who own it had been out there and blown the bridges up which at the time had me picturing ranger Stacy and the road runner coyote out there with a box on Acme TNT blowing bridges up, as if the national parks blow bridges up! After all waffle on and dribble it was thought we would get thru but it wouldn’t be easy. So with Nick saying ” get me out of Deepwater” in my ears thru the blue tooth we left laughing about bridges TNT the great drought of 68 etc. We turned off at Sallys flat the track was slippery of camber again but fun, you could stand up and drift the bike out of most corners as Badbowie had mentioned in the pre ride thread. The green line was leading between properties and looking good when all of a sudden it came to a gate and mailbox. Again we thought maybe gazetted and was a road still so up the driveway as such and to the house. After a minute ol mate farmer Joe come out, deaf in both ears and it turns out can’t hear well either after a broken conversation we gave up turned around and went back to an intersection we saw that we figured would take us back to the magical green line. We came across a creek crossing with a sand base which saw me almost lay the Tenere down but still got thru with dry boots which is the way I like it on a two day ride. It is worth noting a Tenere had a lay down here turning around, it’s the only little drama all two days.Further along this track panned out as well. Back to a third track we saw, but as we lined it up a farmer turned up on a quad and said it went no where, he said the 2nd track we tried was a through road and we should just go past the house. By this stage we had made our minds up to get to Drake which meant we had to get going and couldn’t stuff around or we would be riding in the dark. We would be riding in the dark to find a pub to get some beers we had everything else just no beers. We found a track that lead some of the way to Tenterfield where we had a red line back up route on the GPS. This route would take us down and meet the green line in about 40kms
and turn out to be one of the best tracks I have ever ridden ( dventure riding that is) it had long uphills, we ran along ridge lines, downhills like the high country that
went downhill for what seemed forever, every time I thought here is the valley floor
you went down some. Then all of a sudden we rode through a property with an awesome view of the mountains, huge rolling paddocks and not another place for 50kms it was so remote! Not long after we came across a couple on their Bemmers a his and her on an 1100 and she on a new looking 800 they were heading for Tenterfield and had come from Drake. We figured they would riding into town in the dark as would we if we didn’t pull our fingers out. We hadn’t stopped other than to take photos or fuel, we hadn’t stopped for a break or taken or helmets off the riding had been that good. From there in became river side loam twin track for a long while, dodging cows, and snakes. It was funny listening to Nick battle the cows. We rode thru old properties and farms, no gates which was good just cattle grids and hundreds of hairpins. The twin trail gave way to a rough dirt road and you had to keep an eye out for washouts all the time. Soon it was a proper dirt road that lead into a rain forest style climb up to the tar and Drake.We tried to get fuel first up but that was closed till 8am the next morning so we went
to the pub and a drink, sourced some roadies and got directions to water and a camp
site from a stoned dread locked hippie. He, god bless him directed us to the tap at the
back of his house and a tree across the paddock next to the road where the grass was
nearly a metre high. We had seen some good spots coming out of the valley up to Drake so we back tracked about 15klms and set up camp down n the river in beautiful spot. Tents setup, burners going, dinner cooking, cold stubbies cracked perfect. I went and sat on the rocks with my foot in the water when Nick said how funny would it be if a eel came along and bit you on the foot. Just then I look down with my head light and there is a f#€kin eel next to my foot which seemed to entertain Nick for the evening.
When I went to bed it was so hot but it cooled down after about 1am and beside the fact I woke with a broken back from the lumps under my tent I didn’t see when I setup it was ok In the morning because the service station back in Drake didn’t open till 8am we didn’t need to rush. We got to the servo about quarter to 8 and it wasn’t long until mate unlocked the bowser, I ordered bacon and egg rolls we had a feed and set off. The plan was to head to Kyogle via I can’t remember. We explored some extra tracks because we were ahead of were we thought we would be. Soon we were in a pine forest, doing some singles for Boony! yes Nick there was an incident with a spiders web, a huge spider and me freaking out my over the bluetooth. We mucked around in the pine forest, taking the bikes up a few sections I am sure wasn’t noon the riders brief. We back tracked out of the pines and into Kyogle. We stopped checked our phones for messages 2 or 3 mins tops and left following the green line, out of town up into the hills. Quickly back on to dirt we rode around and I spotted a sign showing the border NPWS loop, a quick hey check this on the blue tooth and a hell yeah we have time let’s go. We rode out the valley and then went up and up and up and up into the clouds. It’s got wet, slippery and misty it was awesome, we poked on just riding looking and riding with the Tenere eating it up easy as. Soon enough we started going down for ever than into the valley floor again. The fast dirt saw speeds of 130 odd as we zigged and zagged our way back to a counter lunch in Kyogle again. 45 mins for lunch a Rum and go back out the same way past the border ranges turn off and down a winding dirt road into the valley and over thru Nimbin, then towns and roads I can’t remember into Lismore. After Lismore we jagged a track around past a couple of
farms (I actually ran off the road while looking the wrong way but saved it, well it
was back on the road when I opened my eyes )
It became a blur as we tried tracks and dirt roads, some with success some were dead
ends but we managed on the whole to stay on the dirt. We followed a track straight thru a farm and into a nature reserve, it started as a twin track and then became a very over grown track, the grass was waist high and hard going when the track ended at a gate. The sign said no entry but we were over it so we decided to chance our hand ride to the house and plead stupidity
. Turns out no ones was home so we rode out the front gate, more dirt all the way to the hwy. 20 fast klms as Nick lead to the bottle shop and home.Stats
32hrs home to home
1043kms travelled
15.37hrs ride time (moving)
66.8km moving average
Two hydrated meals
9 beers
4 Rums
4 counter lunches
$180 odd dollars in fuel (for both bikes)
Time spend on the bike seeing this great country pricelessThanks Nick for planning the route, accommodation and laughs
epic :cheer:
wd
Bol :woohoo:
Great report guys. Wish I could have made the trip.
Can’t wait for the High Country ride :woohoo: :woohoo: :woohoo:
Kram
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