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Post by Uralee on Oct 10, 2018 7:06:29 GMT
Well I have been home for a week so it was time to hit the road again. Just checked in to Cooma on the way to Uralla/Walcha for an organised two day ride to Port Maquarie. It will be a ‘mainly dirt’ ride of approximately 600km with the group led by Ural HQ. Just did 4620km up through the same area with Doonie so the combined trips will see about 10k km added to my list of Oz roads covered. I was at Cooma for a week of touring a couple of years ago, and walking down the street today I could not help remembering the PIES......😝  |
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Post by Uralee on Oct 11, 2018 6:15:02 GMT
Day 2 saw a casual 500 clicks from Kuma to Wellington. A bit of dirt road on the way to bypass the funny farm at Canberra and get everything dirty.
Got stuck behing grandad and granmar in their falcon on the road to Crookwell....75km/h maximum speed with a semi behind us and kilometre after kilometre of double lines....eventually managed a pass....truck followed over double lines soon after. The next turn was just on the outskirts of Crookwell. We took a lefty and continued happily along the road on our own (the semi went right) until a few kilometres later we came up behind a falcon doing 75 km/h.....bloody grandad was obviously a local and had taken a short cut.....fxs#@&**hell.
Landed in Wellington to find very comfortable digs at the caravan park. I can recommend this as a great place to stay while you visit Monarchs or other family who have free accomodation at the Correctional Centre just down the road...
So it is happy hour now while we decide which pub for dinner...
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Post by Canary on Oct 11, 2018 20:32:44 GMT
Gee, sorry to see that you are doing it so tough.  |
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Post by Uralee on Oct 12, 2018 9:48:52 GMT
Day 3.... Managed an escape from Wellington this morning (how many people have ever said that) and had an uneventful run up through Werris Creek where our Russian Ural friend met his maker a few years ago. I give him a thought every time I travel that road. The rail bridge pilons now sport an armco railing right round the corner and under the bridge.......the gate is shut but the horse is long lost.
Bypassed Tamworth on a route discovered just a week or so previously and got back to the Armidale road via the Nundle road. One should remember to always look at a bypass route for these large country towns as they hinder your average travelling time considerably and why put up with the traffic if you don’t need to. This is an art almost forgotten as we all use a GPS these days and just blindly follow whatever the sheila says. Thanks Doonie for reminding me on our recent trip to look at the ‘big picture’....good maps on the Ipad help as well as a little pre trip planning.
Dropped in to Ural HQ at Uralla and found Clare and Mat as busy as......well, I found them anyway. We chatted for a while and I arranged with Mat to do an update on my Ural fuel map. I had no idea of the installed version and was surprised to find it was the 1.02 so Mat uploaded the offroad 1.03 mapping and tomorrow we shall see if my little 1% throttle issue is resolved. No big deal but it will be nice to be rid of the lean missfire when trying to cruise through towns at the speed limit.
We dined at the Uralla Top Pub along with about 20 or so fellow Uralista and I can tell you the steak burger was excellent.
Tomorrow we leave for Walcha at 7:45. We meet others there and begin the ride to Port Maquarie, via some very interesting tracks I am told.
It has become rather cold at Urall this afternoon and we will be up at around 1000 metres tomorrow so expect bloody cold and probably a bit damp........oh well, a cold day on the bike is better than no day.
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Post by Uralee on Oct 13, 2018 9:50:48 GMT
Day 4 Nine o’clock start and 100km to the lunch stop.....what on earth will we do to fill in time ? Considering the first turn off the bitumen was 51km down the road that seemed a reasonable question at the time. Well, the 52 km on the dirt /mud/rock track took about about 3+ hours in light rain. 21 Urals hacked up the track a bit so the last few in the congo line had some trouble negotiating the four slippery hills with one being pushed up three and then towed up the fourth by a 4x4. I have to admit to not making it up two of the hills myself. Both times another bike stopped part way up the hill in front of me and I had to stop also. Then, unable to get any speed up in the slippery conditions, I too suffered the power on and slide left syndrome until you run out of track and stop.... Coming down the other side was was also fun. At one stage I had all three wheels locked and slid in a very controlled manner for the best part of 70-80 metres down hill.....it was all very slow and the wife never even said a word. 😀  A confusion of Urals on the track prior to the rain.
Three Uralistic Nuns and the holy father of UralsOZ
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Post by Uralee on Oct 14, 2018 10:50:54 GMT
Day 5... The second and last day of the Ural HQ organised ride. As if their first day yesterday was not challenging enough for some of the twenty riders, today presented it’s own at different times. We left Port Maquarie via the ferry heading the back way to Cresent Head. Alas, when we did a head count on the ferry we were short a couple of Urals. Looking back, we could see people waving to us from the landing, so we parked up on the other side and chatted while the ferry did it’s return and eventually we were a complete ‘confusion’ of Urals again. The road to Cresent Head is a firm flat sandy surface that is great for a spirited morning run with just the added challenge of puddles from the nights rainfall to dodge or splash through. We found our way up through Kempsey and onto the old Kempsey Armidale road. This was a great run up and over the range with varying surfaces and the odd rock fall. The fallen rocks left a shale like mess on the track and one rider managed to destroy a rear tire on a sharp piece about 10km shy of our lunch break destination. We had a support vehicle and trailer so it was quickly placed upon said trailer and repaired at lunch. At about the same time as the tire incident, one of the lady riders lost a muffler from her bike. Hubby had repaired the loose mounting the night before and did such a good job, the whole muffler fell off........ Little line up for lunch....  When we were about to leave, Jon said “be careful on the slippery bit of the hill”. Everyone thought he meant the little track up onto the road. What was to follow was a very rain affected muddy, slippery and challenging for some, 1000 metre climb that saw the tail end bikes in first gear for 20 km due to the torn up track caused by the preceding 15 bikes, and great big grins from the 15 of us not phased by hundred metre drops while sliding all over the track at just 30-40 kph while the rain made it somewhat difficult to see. Everyone made it to the top ok, covered in mud and wet, but another box with a tick in it...... The track was good at the top and just 20 odd k’s further on I could see dust from the rear of the lead bike....bloody dust.....and we had been up to our thingies in mud for most of the day..... Another great dinner at the Top Pub Uralla and we bid farewell to our fellow Uralista until our next adventure.....for some, that is the ride home. 🏍🍷😀👍 |
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Post by Sturleyau on Oct 16, 2018 5:21:28 GMT
Hi Lee,
Great write up and a pity about the mud/slippery surfaces.
Happy to see all survived the adventure.
Where next?
Cheers
Glenn
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Post by Uralee on Oct 16, 2018 6:37:57 GMT
Hi Lee, Great write up and a pity about the mud/slippery surfaces. Happy to see all survived the adventure. Where next? Cheers Glenn Day 6.... for Glenn. Headed north east over the ranges to Maclean to deliver a box of reds to friends. Rained so hard right across the top that visibility was as far as the side of the road and that was all......and after six days in my possession, the box of reds was incomplete. 🍷🍷🍷🍷 That night saw a significant further reduction in its completeness. 🤪 Day 7..... Chillin at The Entrance a bit north of Sidlee.  |
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Post by Uralee on Oct 19, 2018 8:55:45 GMT
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