Zanderhar and I had ridden up to Moree yesterday on my Harley-Davidson® Road King® and were heading home today. Sadly, when we got up for a reasonably early start it was pissing down with wet rain. Not keen to get out in it, we thought we'd give it a while, take our time with breakfast and see if any blue sky opened up. After an hour or so it was clear that there was plenty of rain to the south (confirmed by Weatherzone) and it was clearing up to the east so we decided to head across to Warialda and enjoy Thunderbolts Way. This would add a hundred or so k's to the trip, but 600+ k's in one day is a snack for Zanderhar and I, and more fun if the roads are twisty.
The ride to Warialda was interesting, the rain overnight had given the existing floodwaters some legs and on two occasions we crossed water 30 - 40cm deep for distances of 80 - 100m without the benefit of having someone go first to test the depth or depth indicators to rely on. Ah, it's an adventure!!! Fortunately the exhausts on my Harley-Davidson Road King didn't fill up and the road was still there somewhere under the water. So we didn't fall into any bottomless ponds while spectacularly spraying water out the sides of the Harley, feet in the air.
During this part of the trip it became clear that the fuel I bought at the BP on the way into Moree yesterday was definitely not the BP Ultimate I'd paid for. Power was off and fuel consumption skyrocketed so my plans to refuel at Uralla with plenty to spare looked dodgy at this point, just adding to the adventure I guess.
The next decent sized town after Warialda is Inverell (which was much larger than I'd expected) and there came the left turn that marks the start of one of the northern sections of Thunderbolts Way. I hadn't been in this area before, having mostly travelled the other end of Thunderbolts between Barrington and Walcha and might I say while it's not as challenging or quite as scenic as the southern part it's still a great ride and the road surface is good (more on that later).
I rarely make great decisions but was determined the Harley-Davidson would make it to Uralla for fuel and food and fingers crossed we did with a few mls of whatever it was I got at the BP yesterday left in the tank. We had a second breakfast (green eggs and ham!) at the "something" Gourmet Cafe and I topped up on caffeine before heading towards Walcha, past Nowendoc, Barrington for the next stop for the third breakfast for the day (a breakfast pie at Perenti) and the last fuel for the trip.
I've taken my Road King on Thunderbolts Way four, maybe five, maybe more times in the last couple of years and sadly the condition of the road at the moment is pretty poor because of water damage. This is despite the obvious efforts to maintain the road by the relevant authorities of whom I'm not critical. We passed four road crews doing work and in quite a number of areas we were peppered by sticky stones thrown up from recently tar filled pot holes. There were so many you just couldn't ride around them. It was so annoying we failed to make the traditional stop at the scenic Love Dunny Lookout preferring to just put the road behind us.
The trip down the Barrington side of the mountain was tricky because of rocks, gravel, more road works and the 40kph limit for much of it was sensible, even if ignored. Between the mountain and Barrington it wasn't much better and there was a long section of decent gravel roadworks to enjoy if you like that sort of thing. So right now, if you are on a sports bike or just like a comfortable trip, give it a miss if you are just looking to go for an aggressive winding ride. If you are a dual sport rider or motarded, go for it!
We took our time at Gloucester and tackled the last leg home via the Bucketts Way and Pacific Hwy with no fuss. We travel this road often and it's just about getting home.
