I made a last minute decision to duck home for Christmas and surprise the family. I had heard that Danta would be making a lolly run past my daughters place so made sure she would be home and said I had connections and would get Sants to bring a surprise (me). That worked out well and she was very happy to see me.
My parents were at my sisters place at Mullion Creek so I let her know I was coming and she kept the secret as well. This was a golden opportunity for a ride so Christmas morning I hit the road on the 690 in fog and light rain. The plan was to head to Jerrys Plains for fuel then make my way to the Bylong Valley Way which is a great road for bikes. As it was I had forgotten my phone and when I got to the servo it was closed, at this point I considered threading into Singleton for fuel but decided to take a punt on Denmam servo which luckily was open. From there it was the Bylong Valley way through to Bathurst, Orange the Mullion Creek. All black top but still a good run as I had to be there for lunch. My parents saw me come down the driveway and even though the bike had been sitting in their garage for the last 6 weeks they didn’t recognise it or me until I took off the helmet. Mum burst into tears ( she swears they were tears of joy) and so the surprise worked perfectly.
As I had forgotten my phone there were no pics from the trip.
The next morning I headed back via a slightly different route. My brother-in-law Heath assorted me part of the way as we headed out of Mullion Creek along Long Point Rd. About half way along the is a decent river crossing which we managed reasonably well. The were 2 guys on the other side on KLR’s that gave us a round of applause as they had pushed their bikes across rather than ride. The road at that point becomes Dixons Long Point Rd and it comes out on Hillend Road. Heath headed back home and I went left to Mudgee to fuel up.
Out of Mudgee on Ulan Rd the hung a left onto Wollard Rd which was a great run, nice and wide and smooth, 100kph was no trouble. It eventually spat me back out onto Bylong Valley Way. From there I went right on Yarrawa Rd then Left on Martindale Rd which brought me back to Jerry ‘s Plain and a lunch stop before hitting the Golden Highway to the Hunter Expressway getting off at Buchanan Rd and home to East Maitland.
All up 803km in 8hrs 22 minutes with only 30 minutes of stopped time. Again no phone so no pics.
Today I decided to head off to use up as much fuel as possible before putting the bike back in storage so once the weather cleared I headed for the hills going from East Maitland to Mulbring, Freemans Waterhole and into the Wattagans. Over tans down through Wattagan a Creek Rd out to Laguna, Wollombi, Paxton, Ellalong Pub for lunch and home. A neat 180 km in 3 hours and 45 minutes.
I had never really tested how far I could get out of the 2 fuel tanks before but today I pushed the limits a bit and got 455km so far, 75 km on the fuel warning light.
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when she saw her dad, great read mate it is nice country out through the Bylong Valley
