Day one day two to follow
So the tour was set to begin, Boulder was so ready, Tiny had worn wheel brgs but didn’t think much of it at the time, asked would I fit a different tire for him but changed his mind, it will be right he said, Moto was running around getting alarms repaired in his car, tow bars fitted and running around in general.
I was prepared bike was set even fueled when I found I couldn’t take it on the trip (I wont say why Moto is itching to tell) I quickly grabbed the Project DRZ and loaded it onto the trailer, I mean no prep lubed the chain, looked at the badly bent rear brake lever that couldn’t be straightened, checked the oil and filled it up with fuel.
Moto turned up late Friday night, I fitted a set of rear wheel brgs while he basically chatted inside with Salina, we loaded the bikes and packed our back packs.
Up early, we ran over Moto’s laptop, went up to McDonalds meet the boys and of we went. We travelled out to the Zig Zag near Lithgow. We suited up and left the cars in the car park of the Zig Zag, we went straight out to the lost city, and sadly the photos don’t do justice to the beauty of the place. We left there traveled out round the back of Lithgow, we stopped at some beautiful lookouts and went down through the Garden of Stones National park and took some single line to come out on the railway service track at Ben Bullen, a quick blast up to the top of Capertee lookout and through some sweet single line back onto the railway service track and into Capertee to fuel up.
We left Capertee towards Mudgee, about 2kms of black top and back onto the dirt, for about 4kms we turned of the dirt road and onto the twin trail, this is a sweet run down onto the Turon River which we crossed about 5 or 6 times, we kept going at a really good pace whilst seeing plenty of beautiful country, we soon arrived in the back of dark corner where we did some fast flowing single track and two really fun long hill climbs in the pine forest. We decided to push on so we continued into sunny corner and then about 6 kms of black top up to the great western hwy, and about a km to the servo. When we arrived at the servo the Rebels had the joint filled up, every bowser everything, we waited for a while, got to say I felt over dressed in to poker dot top with about 70 Rebels and at least 50 bikes. We fueled and left, we decided not to have lunch because of the wait with all the Rebels there so we back tracked about 7kms of bitumen and got back onto some dirt roads for a short period of time, Moto was making a full time job of whining none stop about his forks, I mean if I could have found a sharp stick to stick in my ear drums the pain of having punctured ear drums would have been a relief over the whining.
I stopped when the rain started spitting to fit my jacket, the stupid zipper got jammed and the rain stopped before it started. Moto set about bolting his exhaust back on again, we checked out Tinys S12 that was rooted to say the least, it wasn’t the tyres fault, Moto’s S12 was going ok but Tiny’s had way to much air in it and was spinning across the surface and the thread was going down faster than a $2 hooker! Added to this his already wobbling wheel brgs and I thought we would be leaving the big guy and the chain saw in the forest somewhere. We travelled about 20kms on some really good twin trail that Crash loves to a lookout where I made so phone calls to secure a 2nd hand tyre for the chain saw and brgs if needed in Orange. We kept going along at a steady pace, Tiny with his wheel brgs and Moto with his bloody FORKS!. We rejoined the Turon river and headed for Sofala, there is a section of twin trail along the river for about 8 kms I really enjoyed, we traveled through some properties along the river to Sofala, along the way you have to cross about 5 concrete river covered causeways, these are very very slippery and we came across a group of vintage Enfield motor bikes, one had crashed whilst going across one of the causeways, we stopped for a quick chat. We had a drama getting going because Boulders DR had packed the starter in and had no kick start, so it was a push job every time.
We arrived in Sofala only to be meet by some banjo players yelling “what are you doing back so quick ya wankers, and some kid calling me daddy” peoples pulling cameras out and starting taking photos left right and centre! After what seemed like a long time they worked out they didn’t know us.! Its worth mentioning that on the road section into Sofala I slipped up beside Moto and flicked his kill switch of and kept riding, I was laughing so hard, I looked back and he was stopped, so I turned back only to see him removing his fuel cap. “I said what’s wrong” he said “I think I am out of fuel” (we had done 40 odd kms) I laughed so hard and told him what I did, red faced he started and rode off lol. We had a couple of quick Rums and beers at Sofala, a massive hamburger and a quick run to Hillend, its 17kms of bitumen and 21kms of dirt road, no other way so we just sucked it up, Once in Hillend it was straight to the pub another beer, no Corona’s at that pub hey Moto. Fuel at the local store was $1.88 per litre so we thought Boulder had heaps lets go. We went out through long point, through a couple of sheep stations, you travel through the properties and across long point (see the video) We then got to Mullion Creek and followed the railway service track to Oranges out skirts, we then went to my parents place.
Mum was home so we drank all of my step fathers beers (wasn’t enough for two rounds) and got a old Stone King rear tyre that I had given him about 4 years ago, it had been laying out the back of the shed in the grass and was sooooooooooooooooo hard, Boulder and I fitted it, Moto helped a little but he has a race bike so I don’t think he could help (he made a silly statement when he ran out of fuel just before Mullion creek and Tiny and I kept reminding him of it)
We left there and went into town and fueled got checked out by the local coppers although it could have been Moto’s boy band looks that drew the attention lol
We had booked a couple of rooms at Turners Winery the flashed accommodation in Orange, you should have seen the looks when after 350kms we rode in and walked fully kitted into reception!
I rang my sister who is the manager at the hog’s breath, booked a table, we organized a cab and went into Orange and had a good feed and some beers etc. I drank two less rums than Moto’s beers and my man hood was questioned. Sis ran us home when she closed up and we crashed out.
Day one over and out
TB
