TravellingStrom

The day was a late sluggish start, Sandy had to work until lunch, so we decided to do the ride after that so she could participate. That gave me some time for maintenance like washing etc. But also, Greg had grabbed an air cleaner filter for me, so that went in quick smart, the old one was full of bugs but no dust and the bowl was crystal clean.

We had some time up our sleeves, so Greg drove us down to the Suzuki shop where we could see the new 09 version bikes, the white and the black, both ABS models. I prefer the black one as it will not show up the road grime as much. I am thinking of trading mine in and getting a new one for the upcoming overseas leg, it would not cost me that much extra and the plus side is an extra 100km per tank of juice and the 2 year warranty. No free give a way’s this year though.

After a chat with the owner I saw why it is called a harbour.

When we left here I spotted in the other lane heading north something I thought I recognised. It was a silver Navarra, with a 5th Wheel Camper AND a bike under cover on the rear. I made the mistake of telling Greg to pull over while I called who I thought it was, he was going to turn around and follow them. In the end I could not get an answer just message bank and by then they had gone, bummer. It looked like my friends from Rocky, but I cannot be positive. Never mind, I will send an email later. **edit** I found out later he was not there at all and the unit had non QLD plates. ***

We had time for a snack then off we went for a ride.

Basically the ride was part of the Waterfall Way and runs through Bellingen and Dorrigo.
First stop was Newell Falls, it was quite a warm day and fluids needed to be kept up.

Very nice twisty road, but it was windy, very windy.

Then we stopped at the Skywalk lookout, not a bad structure and very stable even though at my guess it was blowing 30knots! No Sandy, she missed seeing us turn in 😦

The next stop was Danger Falls, the 2nd of coincidences happened here. I spotted a car with livery that was familiar and when I asked the young chap he said yes, Dave was his boss 🙂 Dave is the chap I stayed with on Tuesday night and had leant me his gloves, so rather than post them back, they got hand delivered. Thanks for the loan Dave, mine are dry now after 24 hours in Ularra in front of a heater 🙂

This is Danger Falls, not much of a viewing spot, it had a very high rail.

We headed off again, that is Sandy behind and Greg in front.

The wild winds were creating bad riding conditions, gusting badly around corners and across open spaces, where there were trees, the roads were covered in leaf litter and twigs and branches etc. It made it hard to take a nice line because of the debris. This is a bad picture of it, but I had my hands full weaving amongst it all. There are better shots later on

Back on the highway and heading north we were passed by another Vstrom, this one an 07 maroon colour, it had distinctive vanity licence plates and the same initials as me. He waved and went past, he had gear on so he had been somewhere.

Sandy went home for a prior engagement while Greg took me up to the lookout and another windy road up behind Coffs. The roads up here were narrow and absolutely covered in twigs and branches and stuff, I had to keep an eye open just to see where Greg’s back wheel was throwing them, usually at me 🙂

We then agreed it was beer o’clock so we stopped at the Coramba Hotel for a few thirst quenchers.

Coincidence number three for the day, there was a red strom parked there and it was the one from the highway, it turns out that Rod owns the place and was down in Sydney for the bike show, amazing stuff eh!

While there we saw these chook chasers and it turned out to be mates of Greg’s, so we said g’day and a chat.

Once back at the house, it was man food, which was rissoles, snags beer and footy, what else could a bloke need 🙂 Well, rum of course and that was there also 🙂

It was a good game of footy, OK, the Kiwis won, but they played better and it was a win for the assistant coach, the legend Wayne Bennett. It was not as late a night as last night I can tell you 🙂

Day – 212km
Trip – 30,128km
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