Month: October 2017

Highlights

This was a RideADV navigation ride starting and finishing in Lake Cathie. It was fully supported and followed some great tracks out thru Waichope, up the Forbes River along Cockerawombeeba Trail thru Kookaburra to Williwarrin for fuel. After lunch we went up to Kosekai Lookout and while some riders felt like the challenge of Jacobs Ladder, there was an alternative route for heavier bikes back to Nambucca.

The next day was described as a “gentleman’s adventure ride” and weaved it’s way thru what I describe as Disneyland (Greenhills Road) in the Ngambaa Nature Reserve, fuel in Kempsey and a run past Cresent Head to Ferry at Port Macquarie.

A breakout run was taken my quite a few down the beach side – Plomer Road.

Video

n/a

General Route

Mid North Coast (RideADV) GPX 2.66 MB 12 downloads

This package includes 2 Tracks from the Mid North Coast RideADV ride - Lake Cathie...

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Commentary

I added 2 days to this ride by way of the ride up via Killabakh and a ride back via Crowdy Head, Forster and Seal Rocks.

OK – so fully supported rides have a lot to offer, tested routes, a support vehicle etc. But there are some cons as well.

The people who come on these rides are time poor and want to focus on riding hard. They are also mostly repeat patrons so there is a sort of clicky group thing going on. I don’t detract from all this at all, good luck to them doing their thing. But it’s not for me generally speaking. I like to know where I’m going in advance. I like to have a purpose for going there other than riding as fast as I can to get there. and I like to be able to answer a hypothetical question – “Do you know where you went today?”. Generally riders on these rides have little interest in these issues – they’re concentrating on the rider in front all day till the beer is served. There – I’ve made my peace.

But I’m glad I started riding this way, in the knowledge that a support vehicle was following behind ready to help if I needed it. And that’s what you pay for.

Cautions

none

Accommodation

2 nights at Lake Cathie and one at Nambucca, motel style rooms.

OSM Map Corrections

none

Stats

Planned: 1,100kms

Highlights

My first Scrapheap ride. A great bunch of people and a very friendly atmosphere all the way there and back. The tracks chosen were fantastic. Views over Liverpool Plain, some really good tracks thru the plain. Early on the second day, we all got foxed by this long section of marble road surface. It had everyone stopping and scratching their heads over whether their tyre inflation was right. It was… It was just a wild surface like running on 1 inch glass marbles.

The road back thru Kentucky and Nundle Stat Forest was a really nice ride. My first time thru Glenrock and Barry Stations and the river crossings all had water.

The long run thru Tomalla had some great views and it seemed like a long way down into the Woko Campground. We arrived at about 7pm.

Video

n/a

General Route

Scrapheap 8 to Tingha GPX 2.14 MB 7 downloads

The Scrapheap 8 ride to Tingha started in Denman. This package contains 3 tracks...

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Commentary

A really great bunch of people. A lot of different bikes. I enjoyed the corner man system you get to wave at everyone a number of times thru the day instead of nav rides where you sometimes only see some people at dinner time.

More information about the rides at the Scrapheap Adventure Ride Website and about Down Syndrome at Down Syndrome NSW website.

Cautions

none

Accommodation

Camping all the way – Quirindi, Tingha and Woko on the way back

OSM Map Corrections

none

Stats

Planned: 1,300kms