Day 3 North Avoca to Glen Innes.

1st August, 2011. Day 3...

Odo Start, 2,595 K's


Odo End 3,191 K's


Distance Travelled 596 K's


Accommodation, Great Central Hotel, Glen Innes. $30 for a room.

Happy anniversary Mum & Dad, and Tracy & Shane, i hope you all have a great day...

A big thanks to Julie, Peter, Seb and Alex for a fantastic night, as usual guys it was a fun night, i really appreciate your hospitality.

After Peter forced many cheap drinks into me at the Life saving club last night, it was a much later start the yesterday. 

I left North Avoca at 9:00 am, and headed off to find some roads recommended by Glitch and MountainLagoon on stromtrooper.com. I left the Newcastle Freeway and headed on to the Peats Ridge Road, it was a glorious morning, the sun was shining, the air was fresh and i was looking forward to some great roads…

The last fuel top up was at Ulladulla, yesterday morning, so i planned on fuelling at Wollombi, i was cruising along having a ball, listening to tunes from the Zumo, all was good with the world. about 15 - 20 k's before Wollombi my fuel gauge started blinking at me, it was all going to plan until i arrived in town, i was stopped by some road works so i asked the stop/go bloke where the servo was….. I didn't get the answer i expected, no fuel in Wollombi!!! It was either divert towards Cessnock or Try Broke, i decided to try for Broke. I have never ridden so slow in all my life, caressing the throttle, trying to get the best fuel economy i could, sitting on 60 - 80 kph, this was going to be close. I looked at my fuel odo it was reading 415k on the tank already and it had included yesterdays commute through Sydney, this was going to be close…

I made it in to Broke at 10:50, thankful that i didn't have to walk. I fuelled the bike, it took 19.81 Ltrs for a trip distance of 446k's, it seemed the economy was getting better.

It was now onto Singleton, then  taking Glendonbrook Road to East Gresford

Glendonbrook Rd Image…

This area is beautiful, absolutely stunning, OK so the roads are a bit rough around the edges, but the scenery is spectacular. After leaving Dungog, things got interesting as i turned onto Monkerai Road, through Monkerai Nature reserve, the road turned to dirt, it was a good surface, but the local council guys were out cutting spoon drains into the surface, these were sharp enough to give the front end a big jolt. After about 10 k's of this the bike started feeling funny, the brake lever tightened up and all of a sudden it felt like i had a rear flat, i stopped as quick as i could and checked the bike out, all seemed OK…. I jumped back on and rode off slowly, the problem never re appeared… very odd.

Monkerai Road...

It was then onto Gloucester for the start of the Thunderbolt Way. I played it safe and fuelled up, the bike took 7.39 ltrs for 160.6 k's, so much for trying to figure out fuel economy.

Thunderbolts Way was great, i tucked in behind a feisty local in a Commodore and had a ball, luckily i could see where he was driving to miss the worst of the pot holes so although the surface was crap, the ride was good. There is a ton of roadworks going on, so it seemed that every few minutes you would come up on a set of those timed traffic lights, it put a slight damper on the ride.

I stopped at the lookout up the top, the weather had changed from beautiful and sunny to FREEZING and spitting rain. I started talking to a couple who had just driven from Walcha, they had been staying at the pub, they were told apparently that a few bikes had gone down due to the condition of the road, the potholes and ridges in the asphalt obviously caught a few people out, so take care if you are doing this road soon.

As i have a business meeting tomorrow in Brisbane, i decided that i could not make Jackadgery, so i have called it a night in Glen Innes, and tomorrow i am in two minds, either the quick direct way to Brisbane or Glitch's fun way....

My digs for the night.