Labor Day Long Weekend SS1600

Martin Little

Premier Member
IBR Finisher
#1
With IBR23 only 9 months away the preparations continue

Saturday Labor Day long weekend, I collected my starting receipt at the local servo and pointed the bike northwards towards Sydney. There were a couple of roos at the top of Hindmarsh Ave that kept quietly grazing as I rode by. I had the Federal Highway totally to myself. Light showers keeping me company as I rolled along in the darkness. Near Goulburn the showers turned to rain, with temperatures in single digits. I was grateful for my heated jacket!


Fueled up & ready to ride


Start docket


The Hume was wall to wall semis heading into Sydney. I had an “incident” just past Sutton Forest coming to overtake a truck and trailer the driver suddenly veered into my lane as I was about to pass, and the switched on his drivers door floodlight at me. I rechecked my lights, all OK the aux lights were off, but I’m guessing my DRL’s were causing offence. I waited until the two lanes became three and scooted past real quick and cleared away.

Took the M7 turnoff, followed by the Richmond Road off ramp 20ks later. Rolled into the Marsden Park service Centre for fuel and a coffee. 20 minutes later I was back on the road heading through Windsor ready to ride the Putty Road. It was still showering off and on with temperatures in the low teens. I was happy to just cruise along, there was no traffic so the riding was easy. Plenty of roadworks as a result of 2 years of rain and floods!


Sunrise on The Putty Road, just outside Windsor


The Putty Road



Another section of washed out road on the Putty


Bulga came and went, followed by a dog leg north through Jerrys Plains, and then across to Muswellbrook where I grabbed the blue heeler bonus point.


Blue Heeler statue in Muswellbrook

From here it was on to Tamworth, the temperature slowly climbing into the high teens. Tamworth was packed full of motorcycles attending a rally. Grabbed my bonus point photo, followed by some lunch then moved on, next stop Uralla.


Time to play a tune in Tamworth

Fuelled up at Uralla to get my corner docket, grabbed the bonus point photo, then pointed the bike to Walcha along Thunderbolts Way. This section of Thunderbolts is in dreadful condition and in some places is a danger to motor vehicles. Walcha was packed full of motorcycles and tourists. I rode onto the Oxley Highway and headed for the coast. The intermittent rain continued, which made for cautious progress, but riding the Oxley was still a joy.


Uralla and Mr Thunderbolt

Stopped briefly at Thrumster to collect my corner docket, the place was heaving with long weekend travellers! Rode back onto the freeway heading south to Canberra. After the thousands of corners from the Putty/Thunderbolts and the Oxley Highway, it was now slip into “interstate” mode, cruise control on, turn on the music and just count down the distance. Stopped at Heatherbrae for the last fuel up of the ride, followed by a further stop at Pheasants Nest for a sandwich and to put back on my heated jacket, the temperatures had plummeted back down to single digits!


A ride of a thousand corners......The Putty Rd, Thunderbolts and The Oxley Highway

I rolled back into the ACT right at 9:20pm, collected my finishing docket at the local servo and was back home 5 minutes later, job done with 1,645kms under the belt. I felt good and said to myself, yep, I can do this 11 days in a row. Woke up Sunday morning feeling less so! Time to start planning for the next ride, Nettalie Hill 2 up, here we come.


Job done, time for bed
 

Tele

Premier Member
#10
Awesome yet again Martin. Putty and Oxley. Two of my least favourite roads. I find repetitive corners tiresome and annoying. Give me country sweepers any day.