The Cormanus Chronicles: 2024 Winter Ride

[Cormanus]

Preface
For those familiar with these chronicles, move right along. For those new to them consult with someone familiar with them who will probably tell you read something else. Otherwise, take note that, for the cartographically fascinated, there is a link to a Google Map with the entire route carefully plotted on it. You can find it by clicking on the link under the map of the overall route. Then you can zoom in and out, toggle days on and off and have all kinds of fun.

[url=https://www.google.com/maps/d/edit?mid=11PSLFleJUD-VtfUgtsYUQ9yhkttTt5w&usp=sharing]Link to Map

Day 1
[url=https://postimages.org/]
[url=https://www.google.com/maps/d/edit?mid=11PSLFleJUD-VtfUgtsYUQ9yhkttTt5w&usp=sharing]Link to Map

I rode to Wauchope to meet Pterodactyl. Why? Because it’s near enough to halfway between Sydney and Brisbane; sits near the eastern end of the Oxley Highway, reckoned by some to be the best motorcycle road in Australia; and hosts the Wauchope Motel, a friendly and pleasant place to stay. My route took me along many a road oft travelled, so I won’t repeat myself describing them.

The one exception — early in the day, on the [url=http://cb1100forum.com/forum/showthread.php?tid=3443]Lions Road — was to set a precedent for other days on this ride. Signs warned the road was closed to heavy vehicles due to a bridge repair, but I thought little of it as it was clear that the CB was included in the class of vehicle that could pass. As I approached Simes Rd, I was warned of the detour which took me east on an OK gravel road. It climbed a bit and then descended again and, after a while, I began to wonder not only where I’d return to the highway, but also whether the gravel would ever end.

In the end, near the junction with Collins Creek Road, the road was again covered in glorious bitumen and I enjoyed a fast and pleasant run on a largely deserted country road to Wiangaree.

There I rejoined the Summerland Way and made my way along back roads to Coffs Harbour via Grafton. At that point I joined the freeway for the final run to Wauchope.

Forty five kms north of Wauchope, the CB1100 passed another milestone.
[url=https://postimg.cc/kV8mXhr5]

I was unpacking the bike when I heard the growl of the Pterodactyl’s Staintune.
[url=https://postimg.cc/Q9JZc9dG]

[Cormanus]

Day 2
[url=https://postimages.org/]
[url=https://www.google.com/maps/d/edit?mid=11PSLFleJUD-VtfUgtsYUQ9yhkttTt5w&usp=sharing]Link to Map

Rain was in the forecast, so we decided to defer riding up the Great Dividing Range on the Oxley Highway until the following day. Cold and wet would limit the entertainment value. Instead we decided to visit a road I drove in a car a year before which would take us to South West Rocks which has a place in Pterodactyl’s past.

Because we couldn’t find a sealed road from nearby Port Macquarie to Crescent Head, we took the freeway north to South Kempsey — notable for an extensive police presence of speed traps and mid-morning random breath tests — before turning off for the coast.
[url=https://postimg.cc/JtRLMqp1]
CBs at Crescent Head

We had breakfast and coffee in the sun at the Point Break Café on the foreshore. We sat and watched the surfers who refused to be stopped by a cold wind blowing up from the Antarctic. Around the corner, pelicans patrolled the creek.
[url=https://postimg.cc/xc9WV1Tq]

After breakfast, we set off north along the very pretty road that runs most of the way along the Belmore and Macleay Rivers. It’s quiet, flat, quick and its proximity to the river makes sure there are plenty of corners.

Pterodactyl didn’t much like South West Rocks, saying it was more like a city than when he was a frequent visitor. Trial Bay, to the east, is very pretty and we took a walk along the foreshore where we watched whales leaping not far out to sea.
[url=https://postimg.cc/njvwN6yv]
Not a whale to be seen when I pressed the shutter release

We retraced our steps, stopping for a sandwich in Gladstone, and making it back to Wauchope before it got too chilly.

[Inhouse Bob]

Lovely as always! Keep posting this sort of stuff and you will have others wanting to join you. But I've got first dibs on the shed!
And it's good to hear that Tony is still in the saddle.

[pdedse]

Very cool! I love opening the maps and checking the routes, looking at topo views to see the terrain variances. I like to zoom in super close to see businesses, houses, which beaches have people on them, see why certain roads are so curvy vs straight ones. I imagine I'm putting around on my CB1100 as I virtually explore the roads...fun!

I'm wondering if you'd indulge me with comments on two silly questions that arise as I look at the maps:

1) do Australians have stereotypes of people based on the region other Australians are from? For example, might someone from Melbourne think "all those folk from Darwin are X"?

2) what are some of the adjectives that derive from names of cities / territories? To be clear, how do the names of cities change to reflect that one is from--or at least lives there? For example, I live in the Portland, Oregon area so I might be labelled a "Portlander" when in reality I'm a "Greshamite" (Gresham), and I'm not a true Oregonian because I was born in Kansas, so I'm a Kansan. So what is someone from Brisbane called...a "Brisbanian"? Are the following correct / used?: Melbournite, Sydnian, Adeladian,...Perthan / Perthite / Perthonian?

[Gone in 60]

Always very enjoyable to read your ride journals and see pictures, Cormanus. I'd love to get down there some day. It looks very beautiful.

[Cormanus]

Inhouse Bob, thank you. You’ll have to be Outhouse Bob when you commandeer the shed.

Gone, thanks for the kind words. Come ride here any time.

pdedse, glad you enjoy the maps. The answer to your questions is:

1. Yes. We have stereotypes of people from different parts of the country. I’m not sure I’m the right person to tell you what they are. I suspect some of the stereotypes from rural to urban areas are similar state to state.


2. A person from Brisbane is a Brisbanite; a Melburnian; a Sydneysider; a Hobartian; a Darwinian; a Canberran. I can’t for the life of me think what we call a person from Adelaide or Perth. Wikipedia tells me and Adelaidian and a Perthite or Perthian.
Day 3

[url=https://postimages.org/]
[url=https://www.google.com/maps/d/edit?mid=11PSLFleJUD-VtfUgtsYUQ9yhkttTt5w&usp=sharing]Link to Map

It was a glorious, sunny, but chilly morning as we made our way west out of Wauchope and headed up the Oxley Highway to the New England Plateau. What can I say about it? It’s 163 kilometres of well-made and maintained road between Wauchope and Walcha. There’s a 44 kilometre section in the middle that boasts not much but corners and very attractive bush. Towards the top, the corners start to open up and become faster with the final 56 or so kilometres being relatively straight and undulating. Of course, on a cool winter’s day travelling at 110 kms/hr, that makes it quite cold.

It's almost mandatory to stop at the Ginger’s Creek Café and Resort 81 kilometres from Wauchope. It’s pretty much the only stop after Long Flat, petrol can mostly be had there and it’s a popular meeting place for bikers riding up and down the Oxley. How it stays open, I don’t know, but I’m always pleased it does. We stopped there for a bacon and egg roll and coffee, and met a couple of bikers who used it as a turning point after riding up the hill. I guess you would ride up and down lots if you lived nearby: it’s a road that would become more fun the better one got to know it.
[url=https://postimg.cc/jL5YJjVm]
CB1100s at Gingers Creek Café. In the background is one of the blokes who rides up to Ginger’s Creek and then turns around just because he can.

We refuelled the bikes and had a cup of tea at Walcha and I found an entry for the monthly forum photo competition.
[url=https://postimg.cc/QVSrtTzc]

The GPS told us the quickest of the routes we wanted to take would take us along something called the Forest Way. We turned off and were met with a well-sealed, pretty country ride that promised a pleasant ride. It was probably about 5 kms in that the seal converted itself to gravel. Nah. We retraced our steps and rode down the pretty Port Stephens cutting into the Dungowan valley.

Our final stop for the day was at the Chaffey Dam where we stood in the sun and admired the mirror-like water.
[url=https://postimg.cc/grKGZ5xX]

[url=https://postimg.cc/9DD2sQJZ]
It was hard to see what was going on at the foot of this structure near the dam wall. As the next picture shows — I think — it’s the outlet for when the dam is full.

[url=https://postimg.cc/64cbpC5q]

[url=https://postimg.cc/34THyC7F]

Sixteen kilometres later we were at the Peel Inn at Nundle.

[Cormanus]

Day 4

[url=https://postimages.org/]
[url=https://www.google.com/maps/d/edit?mid=11PSLFleJUD-VtfUgtsYUQ9yhkttTt5w&usp=sharing]Link to Map

Pterodactyl needed to head home, so we parted company just after 09:00 on the road out of Nundle. I headed north to Tamworth, the birthplace of my wife and home to Australia’s major country music festival. After refuelling, I headed north towards Manilla not sure about exactly how I would head home. North of Barraba I turned right on to a delightful road which took me northeast in the direction of Inverell. I rode briskly enough through the countryside, although were places where there was no fencing and cattle grazed close to the roadside. At one moment, near a grid of the type that stops cattle and sheep from crossing a line, a cow watched me carefully until it was sure I would collect it if it walked in front of me. Then it walked across the road to find the rest of the herd. It didn’t count on the CB’s front brakes and I managed to stop in time.

After about 34 kilometres, the road turned to gravel. It was too far to turn back and, anyway, the gravel was firm and I made good time. Just over 15 kilometres later, the seal returned and I allowed myself a small smile.

Fool!

The fun lasted less than 2 kilometres.
[url=https://postimages.org/]
Courtesy Google Maps Street View

The sign filled me with trepidation.
[url=https://postimages.org/]
Courtesy Google Maps Street View. [url=https://www.google.com.au/maps/place/30%C2%B012'41.8%22S+150%C2%B057'14.0%22E/@-30.2116053,150.9513197,17z/data=!4m4!3m3!8m2!3d-30.2116111!4d150.9538889?entry=ttu]Here in Google Maps

And rightly so, as it turned out. It wasn’t too bad to start with — not as good as the earlier gravel, but tolerable. Then I met a water truck and things started to go downhill. The surface became sandier and more slippery. Shortly afterwards I met a grader. I stopped to let it past and then wondered, as the back wheel slid gently towards the edge of the road, whether I’d ever get moving again. As there was no way I was going to get across the mound of sand the grader had left uphill from me, I was left with about two feet of road to navigate on. I proceeded in first gear with both feet down for what felt like half a lifetime.

Beyond where the grader had started, I met more a more solid surface. Phew. That section of dirt lasted for just under 10 kilometres and then it was back on the proper stuff.

Fuel and a late lunch in Inverell.

The day was clouding over and cooling. I had no chance of making it comfortably to the coast, so I decided to stay in Glen Innes. It was 67 kilometres — less than an hour — so I decided to take a pretty back road to Guyra that I’d ridden with Pterodactyl in 2019. Of course, I’d forgotten exactly which way we’d gone and got the starting point wrong. Thirteen kilometres later I was staring at more dirt.

Of course it was OK and the nine kilometres passed without incident. It did make me realise the limitations of free GPS apps, though: they have no data on gravel roads. I resolved two things: I don’t want to ride on unknown gravel as the condition around the next corner is unpredictable; and I’ll take a good paper map with me on future trips to try to plan around excursions on to gravel.

Except for this strange structure at Tingha, the remainder of the trip was uneventful. [url=https://postimg.cc/gL2QRg78]

I passed a comfortable night in the Great Central Hotel in Glen Innes.

[pdedse]

Inhouse Bob, thank you. You’ll have to be Outhouse Bob when you commandeer the shed.

Gone, thanks for the kind words. Come ride here any time.

pdedse, glad you enjoy the maps. The answer to your questions is:

1. Yes. We have stereotypes of people from different parts of the country. I’m not sure I’m the right person to tell you what they are. I suspect some of the stereotypes from rural to urban areas are similar state to state.


2. A person from Brisbane is a Brisbanite; a Melburnian; a Sydneysider; a Hobartian; a Darwinian; a Canberran. I can’t for the life of me think what we call a person from Adelaide or Perth. Wikipedia tells me and Adelaidian and a Perthite or Perthian.
Day 3

[url=https://postimages.org/]
[url=https://www.google.com/maps/d/edit?mid=11PSLFleJUD-VtfUgtsYUQ9yhkttTt5w&usp=sharing]Link to Map

It was a glorious, sunny, but chilly morning as we made our way west out of Wauchope and headed up the Oxley Highway to the New England Plateau. What can I say about it? It’s 163 kilometres of well-made and maintained road between Wauchope and Walcha. There’s a 44 kilometre section in the middle that boasts not much but corners and very attractive bush. Towards the top, the corners start to open up and become faster with the final 56 or so kilometres being relatively straight and undulating. Of course, on a cool winter’s day travelling at 110 kms/hr, that makes it quite cold.

It's almost mandatory to stop at the Ginger’s Creek Café and Resort 81 kilometres from Wauchope. It’s pretty much the only stop after Long Flat, petrol can mostly be had there and it’s a popular meeting place for bikers riding up and down the Oxley. How it stays open, I don’t know, but I’m always pleased it does. We stopped there for a bacon and egg roll and coffee, and met a couple of bikers who used it as a turning point after riding up the hill. I guess you would ride up and down lots if you lived nearby: it’s a road that would become more fun the better one got to know it.
[url=https://postimg.cc/jL5YJjVm]
CB1100s at Gingers Creek Café. In the background is one of the blokes who rides up to Ginger’s Creek and then turns around just because he can.

We refuelled the bikes and had a cup of tea at Walcha and I found an entry for the monthly forum photo competition.
[url=https://postimg.cc/QVSrtTzc]

The GPS told us the quickest of the routes we wanted to take would take us along something called the Forest Way. We turned off and were met with a well-sealed, pretty country ride that promised a pleasant ride. It was probably about 5 kms in that the seal converted itself to gravel. Nah. We retraced our steps and rode down the pretty Port Stephens cutting into the Dungowan valley.

Our final stop for the day was at the Chaffey Dam where we stood in the sun and admired the mirror-like water.
[url=https://postimg.cc/grKGZ5xX]

[url=https://postimg.cc/9DD2sQJZ]
It was hard to see what was going on at the foot of this structure near the dam wall. As the next picture shows — I think — it’s the outlet for when the dam is full.

[url=https://postimg.cc/64cbpC5q]

[url=https://postimg.cc/34THyC7F]

Sixteen kilometres later we were at the Peel Inn at Nundle.

Perthite...oooh, I like that! Sounds Biblican.

[Cormanus]

Day 5

[url=https://postimages.org/]
[url=https://www.google.com/maps/d/edit?mid=11PSLFleJUD-VtfUgtsYUQ9yhkttTt5w&usp=sharing]Link to Map

I’m becoming a wimp in my old age. I awoke early to a cold and foggy morning, decided the slow saturation that accompanies fog which then required another layer of gear was not for me. So I turned over and went back to sleep. Or read the forum. Or something. Anyway, it seemed lighter when I got out of bed around 08:00, so I dressed and had a simple breakfast of cereal and toast (included in the tariff). It was still cold but the fog had gone and the winter sun was shining brightly.

The Gwydir Highway is a favourite. It’s not as curvy as the Oxley, but it’s somehow prettier, with ancient eucalypt forest along the top of the range. Once you reach the bottom of the mountain the run across the plain is more interesting than Long Flat. I stopped in Grafton for a cup of coffee.
[url=https://postimg.cc/s1jtt22x]
The Clarence River at Grafton was remarkably still

From Grafton I retraced my route to Kyogle where I turned right to take a favourite route to Murwillumbah and over the border via the Numinbah Valley. I was comfortably home by late afternoon.

Thanks Pterodactyl for suggesting another great ride.

[pdedse]

Day 4

[url=https://postimages.org/]
[url=https://www.google.com/maps/d/edit?mid=11PSLFleJUD-VtfUgtsYUQ9yhkttTt5w&usp=sharing]Link to Map

Pterodactyl needed to head home, so we parted company just after 09:00 on the road out of Nundle. I headed north to Tamworth, the birthplace of my wife and home to Australia’s major country music festival. After refuelling, I headed north towards Manilla not sure about exactly how I would head home. North of Barraba I turned right on to a delightful road which took me northeast in the direction of Inverell. I rode briskly enough through the countryside, although were places where there was no fencing and cattle grazed close to the roadside. At one moment, near a grid of the type that stops cattle and sheep from crossing a line, a cow watched me carefully until it was sure I would collect it if it walked in front of me. Then it walked across the road to find the rest of the herd. It didn’t count on the CB’s front brakes and I managed to stop in time.

After about 34 kilometres, the road turned to gravel. It was too far to turn back and, anyway, the gravel was firm and I made good time. Just over 15 kilometres later, the seal returned and I allowed myself a small smile.

Fool!

The fun lasted less than 2 kilometres.
[url=https://postimages.org/]
Courtesy Google Maps Street View

The sign filled me with trepidation.
[url=https://postimages.org/]
Courtesy Google Maps Street View. [url=https://www.google.com.au/maps/place/30%C2%B012'41.8%22S+150%C2%B057'14.0%22E/@-30.2116053,150.9513197,17z/data=!4m4!3m3!8m2!3d-30.2116111!4d150.9538889?entry=ttu]Here in Google Maps

And rightly so, as it turned out. It wasn’t too bad to start with — not as good as the earlier gravel, but tolerable. Then I met a water truck and things started to go downhill. The surface became sandier and more slippery. Shortly afterwards I met a grader. I stopped to let it past and then wondered, as the back wheel slid gently towards the edge of the road, whether I’d ever get moving again. As there was no way I was going to get across the mound of sand the grader had left uphill from me, I was left with about two feet of road to navigate on. I proceeded in first gear with both feet down for what felt like half a lifetime.

Beyond where the grader had started, I met more a more solid surface. Phew. That section of dirt lasted for just under 10 kilometres and then it was back on the proper stuff.

Fuel and a late lunch in Inverell.

The day was clouding over and cooling. I had no chance of making it comfortably to the coast, so I decided to stay in Glen Innes. It was 67 kilometres — less than an hour — so I decided to take a pretty back road to Guyra that I’d ridden with Pterodactyl in 2019. Of course, I’d forgotten exactly which way we’d gone and got the starting point wrong. Thirteen kilometres later I was staring at more dirt.

Of course it was OK and the nine kilometres passed without incident. It did make me realise the limitations of free GPS apps, though: they have no data on gravel roads. I resolved two things: I don’t want to ride on unknown gravel as the condition around the next corner is unpredictable; and I’ll take a good paper map with me on future trips to try to plan around excursions on to gravel.

Except for this strange structure at Tingha, the remainder of the trip was uneventful. [url=https://postimg.cc/gL2QRg78]

I passed a comfortable night in the Great Central Hotel in Glen Innes.

What!?? Bear with me, Cormanus, as I'm always asking my Australian brother-in-law silly questions (I once asked him if Australia had horses)...but Australian country music is a thing? I was intrigued so I found a number of youtube vidoes about Tamworth's festival...looks fun. Also came across this guy:





At the very end of the song you hear the line "I'm as dry as a pommies bath mat" as someone points out in the comments section. "Pommies"...what the heck? Had to search that:

"Pommy; Pommie noun
an English person, or more loosely, a person from Britain [AUSTRALIA, 1912] Originally used of English immigrants to Australia, it is a shortening of the now obsolete 'Pomegranate', rhyming slang for 'immigrant'."

Is it a pejorative term?

Day 4

[url=https://postimages.org/]
[url=https://www.google.com/maps/d/edit?mid=11PSLFleJUD-VtfUgtsYUQ9yhkttTt5w&usp=sharing]Link to Map

Pterodactyl needed to head home, so we parted company just after 09:00 on the road out of Nundle. I headed north to Tamworth, the birthplace of my wife and home to Australia’s major country music festival. After refuelling, I headed north towards Manilla not sure about exactly how I would head home. North of Barraba I turned right on to a delightful road which took me northeast in the direction of Inverell. I rode briskly enough through the countryside, although were places where there was no fencing and cattle grazed close to the roadside. At one moment, near a grid of the type that stops cattle and sheep from crossing a line, a cow watched me carefully until it was sure I would collect it if it walked in front of me. Then it walked across the road to find the rest of the herd. It didn’t count on the CB’s front brakes and I managed to stop in time.

After about 34 kilometres, the road turned to gravel. It was too far to turn back and, anyway, the gravel was firm and I made good time. Just over 15 kilometres later, the seal returned and I allowed myself a small smile.

Fool!

The fun lasted less than 2 kilometres.
[url=https://postimages.org/]
Courtesy Google Maps Street View

The sign filled me with trepidation.
[url=https://postimages.org/]
Courtesy Google Maps Street View. [url=https://www.google.com.au/maps/place/30%C2%B012'41.8%22S+150%C2%B057'14.0%22E/@-30.2116053,150.9513197,17z/data=!4m4!3m3!8m2!3d-30.2116111!4d150.9538889?entry=ttu]Here in Google Maps

And rightly so, as it turned out. It wasn’t too bad to start with — not as good as the earlier gravel, but tolerable. Then I met a water truck and things started to go downhill. The surface became sandier and more slippery. Shortly afterwards I met a grader. I stopped to let it past and then wondered, as the back wheel slid gently towards the edge of the road, whether I’d ever get moving again. As there was no way I was going to get across the mound of sand the grader had left uphill from me, I was left with about two feet of road to navigate on. I proceeded in first gear with both feet down for what felt like half a lifetime.

Beyond where the grader had started, I met more a more solid surface. Phew. That section of dirt lasted for just under 10 kilometres and then it was back on the proper stuff.

Fuel and a late lunch in Inverell.

The day was clouding over and cooling. I had no chance of making it comfortably to the coast, so I decided to stay in Glen Innes. It was 67 kilometres — less than an hour — so I decided to take a pretty back road to Guyra that I’d ridden with Pterodactyl in 2019. Of course, I’d forgotten exactly which way we’d gone and got the starting point wrong. Thirteen kilometres later I was staring at more dirt.

Of course it was OK and the nine kilometres passed without incident. It did make me realise the limitations of free GPS apps, though: they have no data on gravel roads. I resolved two things: I don’t want to ride on unknown gravel as the condition around the next corner is unpredictable; and I’ll take a good paper map with me on future trips to try to plan around excursions on to gravel.

Except for this strange structure at Tingha, the remainder of the trip was uneventful. [url=https://postimg.cc/gL2QRg78]

I passed a comfortable night in the Great Central Hotel in Glen Innes.

Wow! That does not sound like a relaxing portion of the trip. Glad you made it ok!!