We thought that our first time camping, trying to pack everything we needed on a motorcycle was going to be the challenge, but then mother nature decided to throw in a few more obstacles to overcome first.
This was March 2021, we had just reopened from the OG lockdown in Sydney and we were out to find more of what NSW had to offer. Places we hadn't been before, meet people and of course, find the best roads we could find.
Transcript
This was our first attempt at camping on a motorcycle and we're heading towards Moonan Flat which is a 373 kilometre trip from Central Coast via Wollombi and Singleton. A predicted 5 hours of road time and we're allowing about seven and a half hours including stops but we're going to be pushing it to make the campsite before dark.
Matt, you ready? You're ready to go? 11 a.m departure.
Dressed, bike's kind of packed. It really is kind of packed, um, I’ve even cleaned my chain, butt and protect, the oil and water and cleaned it. important stuff. You're all ready to go except having everything you need in one place.
Yeah, they're just in different places.
That's right and it's not on the bike. I planed to have all this done Friday night instead of out for dinner with someone.
Now that matt's finally packed his stuff.
All right, we're off.
Oh, that's right, we're still in Sydney. Uh, traffic.
Then after a little drop of fuel, we're off again.
You know, there's no better introduction to a trip than to take Pennant Hills Road just to realize, get that real contrast of what it is you're trying to escape from.
We're headed up the coast to meet up with our regular gang, of course, once we worked out where we're going.
Na, we're just going to go down the M1 from here, we missed the turn-off. Right there? Yep. How's that wanker in the P Plater, he's beeping us to get out of the way. It's like dude!
Yeah, so we'll follow you because you do you know where jeff's place is, yeah? Well, we gotta get to Gary's first? Are we going to Gary's are we? I don't think we're leaving on the side of the road anymore. Oh, I thought Gary was going to Jeff’s?
Yeah okay, just check.
We're just checking if Gary's going to Jeff's or not. I was assuming Gary would meet at Jeff's
All right
But then Matt was assuming we're going to Gary's then Jeffs, which I didn't have in the spreadsheet so you know... So it can't happen!
All right we've just picked up Gary and now we're heading to Terrigal to pick up Jeff and that'll be our last pickup, I think and then we're off.
So the plan at the moment is to head up North to Wollombi, maybe drop into Wollombi Tavern. The plan originally was then to go up through there but there's some flooding there so we can't um continue up Wollombi, instead, we're going to hook a right and head towards the Hunter, go up through Cessnock instead.
Yeah, lots of flooding in New South Wales at the moment flooding around, like intense flooding. Pretty crazy amounts.
Sydney is facing a once in 50-year flood emergency tonight with fears of flooding not seen since the 1960s.
This was the end of March 2021 and while the floods had started to reside, there was still a number of bridges along our way that was reportedly underwater.
It's pretty full-on. We were debating, you know, about taking this trip. Thinking is there a risk element and so on which of course is always a risk element but the rivers have been dropping and we could avoid it but I think when these communities are suffering from floods, it's, um, you know, it's good for us to go there and spend some money with them. Keep their businesses running. So yeah, pick up Jeff and we'll head off from there.
Plenty of bikes around today. As of Monday, today's Saturday, all the COVID restrictions will be lifted. No Jason, what are you an idiot? We will officially be back to normal.
Gosford. Not a bad spot, hey?!
I should inform you this meeting will be recorded.
A little so you can't see it.
All right, now that we've picked everyone up, we're going to get some fuel, top up the tanks and then and then we're off.
We can confirm Jeff does use most of his tyre.
We've got everyone, we're gonna head up North West. We're going to, we're going to go up through Yaramalong and follow that up to Wollombi, stop off for the Wollombi Tavern, grab a bite to eat and then head up to Singleton from there which will be our next fuel stop.
Congratulations Ashley and Dave
Bumble Hill Road. What a name. What a road!
The road is a bit of a mess.
We took the Bumble Hill Road up towards Wollombi but even the roads up there had seen better days and already we were needing to backtrack.
What?!
What do you mean no right turn?
...or even the next one.
By the time we got to Wollombi Tavern, we checked the Live Traffic apps and Google Maps and both were saying that the road was still blocked. It looked like we're still going to have to take the Long Way Round but chatting to a couple of the locals they were absolutely, fairly certain that the bridges were open.
That's enough Gary.
Do the same on this side here.
What's up Matt?
He's helping out a guy in distress. A guy who's got the [ __ ]
Look at that, it's like a caravan. Nothing could go wrong. No one's going to want to ride behind me for the rest of this trip, I don't think.
I think we need to!
Just long enough behind me that if it comes off, yeah.
We were already pretty tight for time so if the bridges were closed and we needed to backtrack, there was no way that we would get to Moonan Flat before dark. However, if the bridges are open this is going to save us a fair amount of time.
Now according to the locals, even though we just went around a barrier just then, the road is apparently passable. We just heard from someone who came down across from Mudgee and he reckons it's totally fine so.
Here we go.
It's pretty good down there.
Now, all we have to do is cross this weir.
Now that the ramp was finished, General Lee was raring to take off like the Yankees at Manassas.
In the next episode.
If anyone knows anything about kangaroos, that's when they come out to feed.
That’s heaps over.
Everything was going great until Matt pulled me over because something was wrong. That's what she said.
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