After a couple of weeks of rain a touch of sunshine made it necessary to go for a ride and perhaps grab a couple more Adventure Challenge locations. I got in touch with a mate, Bill, who was up for a ride with a late-ish start and we met up at the local servo at 9.30am. We both had commitments in the late afternoon and the shortest route taking into account the two locations to tick off was about 430k's so we decided to slab it to the locations and decide about the return route later. The weather was dodgy as well so efficiency just in case was in order.
So a relaxing ride up through Raymond Terrace, past Buledelah with an irresistible call from the Wootten bends giving the new Keidenau K60's a workout on the damp, leafy, mossy surface. I'm still surprised how well they hold on on road. Then up past Taree with a left turn onto Ty Road just north of John's River.
We were straight into the gravel, heading uphill, in the Middle Brother National Park. This time I remembered to change the traction control setting on the Super Tenere and despite rocks and areas of slippery mud resulting from the bucketloads of rain that have fallen over the last couple of weeks the Super Tenere was a pleasure to ride as we wound our way around to Bird Tree. One near miss with a P Plater driving way too fast on the narrow gravel roads in a Suzuki 4WD but other than that just plain fun.
I had no idea what Bird Tree was other than a GPS co-ordinate and we arrived to find a nice parking area and a big ol tree.
So I took some photos and we enjoyed the silence for a while before heading out through Hayden's Road. At one point I got a ouch confused while reading signs and headed off road into a drain..oops. I managed to ride it out without stopping but Bill later commented on how ridiculous it looked.
Back on to the highway we went a bit further north, turned left into Kew and right towards Laurieton then made our way to the North Brother Lookout (I nearly typed Big Brother). No gravel but a sensational road and an even better view.
We decided to head back to the Taree Service Centre for bike fuel and people fuel. We spent longer than anticipated chatting about how much fun riding in the National Park was. Bill was on a Versys 650 with Michelin PR3's which he found a little bit "squirmy" but had no problems. I think he's planning to put some more off orad oriented tyres on it next though.
Chat ended it was time to head back. There was some talk about heading back through Booral but by the time we got back through the Wootten Bends it was getting late and we decided to call it quits and head home. A couple of splashes of rain on the way but didn't make a dent in the Klim Latitide suit.
This was my second "on purpose" ride into the bush on the Super Tenere. My appetite has been whetted, I can't wait to have another crack.