I planned to go for a ride that I thought would only be for
several hours and I would be back home by lunch time. I had been wanting to do
this trip since the start of the week, but I was unwell with a cold so thought
I would need my witts about be before leaving to places unknown. The plan had
been to ride through Kyogle and onto Casino though I wanted to see a town
called The Risk as I wanted to take the risk. (Did you see what I did there?) I
had been hoping that it would not be a wet day and I was not disappointed at
all as there was blue sky.
I left just before 9am in the morning and told the dog I
would be back by lunch though somehow I don’t think that would happen at all. I
headed towards Murwillumbah as I was heading to Kyogle via Uki. I think that
would be the Kyogle road, but I think I would be right. It takes you to the
turn off towards Nimbin if you want to head that way too. I had to have two pit
stops along the way and I have no idea why this was happening as I stopping in
Tumbulgum and then Uki. Looks like they were building a new pub out that way to
replace the one that burnt down. The road was not too bad until I got to the
other side of Cawongla as the road turned into a messy goat track for several
kilometres and a windy road. The road did improve though I kept my eye out to
make sure it wasn’t too bad. It was not too far at all to Kyogle once we hit
the decent roads.
Pit stops in Kyogle meant I was able to get a couple of
minutes off the bike and I wanted to head up the Summerland Highway towards a
town called The Risk. The reason behind me going looking for the town was that
I had seen it on the map and wanted to see it. If I kept following the
Summerland Highway I would have ended up in Brisbane via Woodenbong and
Beaudesert. I found The Risk and even a few cows that were on the side of the
road. I really did not want to wear one even though they crossed the road in
front of me. On the way back I waved to the farmer who was watching them. At
the time I was getting worried I would run out of fuel on the way back to
Kyogle though I never did and I was wondering where other petrol stations in
the area actually were. I had to stop at Kyogle again for fuel and some food
for lunch well a pepper steak pie.
The next leg of the journey took me through to Casino though
I did not actually get to see very much of the town at all as the highway sends
you straight out again. I was wondering which turn off I should take if the
Grafton or Lismore roads would get me to my destination. I wanted to head to
Woodburn and I did stop to google directions. Somehow Google sent me to a
casino that was 7 hours away. I had to put in Casino NSW and the map gave me
better directions. I was taking the road to Lismore and was following the right
track. I soon found I was having a nice ride though I really did not want to go
through Lismore. I imagined myself having a temper tantrum and throwing things
saying I did not want to go there. I missed the turn off that took me through
to Woodburn and had to ride down to the turn off for the Lismore airport and turn
around.
The turn off took me towards a town that I had only read
about in assignments in university. I wanted to visit the town and as I went
round a bend a car had just gone over the white lines on my side of the road and
I could have sworn we just missed each other by not very much or it could have
been further away. I wasn’t crapping myself at all at that stage, which is
unusual for me. The town of Coraki would be good to visit though I had to take
the long way round as a bridge was out. It was a very long way and I took
another road, Tukurimba road though I did see the detour road took me to
Woodburn so it wasn’t a big loss. A car following me that had turned off onto
the same road took off like a bat out of hell and I never seen him again. Once
in Coraki, I had to stop quickly as I had a bug on the inside of my visor and
had to get it out. The house I parked in front of had the owner asking if I was
alright and I told him I needed a couple of minutes. We chatted about the bike
for a bit and then I got to have a quick look down one of the streets along the
river before deciding I should head to Woodburn before it got too late as I had
a couple of things to do.
Once I exited the town I had seen a road that could take me
to Woodburn and it was an unsealed road. Several hundred metres down the road I
decided it was best to turn around and go back as I did not want to destroy my
tyres with the unsealed road with all the rocks even if it was 10kms away. I
had to take Tukurimba road to the Woodburn – Wyrallah road as it was sealed and
I wanted to join the main highway. At least it was sealed and I had no problems
riding to Woodburn. I was getting tired at the same time as it was now around 2pm.
The sky was now cloudy, but was actually perfect as the sun was not in my eyes.
The day was coming to a close and I was aiming my nose towards the north in
Tweed where I would ride home. I found after my long ride during the day that I
had done around 400kms. The ride along the highway was only annoying when it
was posted at 50kms through Broadwater and a slow run over the hills. I will be
back down that way the next week for a big bike service and I was satisfied the
bike had a decent reun.
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