I took a bunch of photos of the scenery on
highways & roads in New South Wales and Victoria. Note that most of
these were taken in the farm and "bush" areas of the "tableland" of NSW
- the area north of Canberra and below/east of the Outback. Didn't get
to the Outback - a desert - there was rain there and locals said many of
the roads had washed out. Not too many bridges there - usually the road
just runs through a creek/stream bottom and when it rains . . . (rain a
week earlier often appears after it runs down to lower levels, so you can't
really assume a road will be dry when there's no rain). I should add that
in NSW, even the roads under construction or the many gravel roads were
easily passable by motorcycle, but they were dry. Some could be tricky
if wet, but what unpaved roads ("unsealed" to Aussies) aren't? I dislike
riding on gravel but had no problems with a top-heavy BMW on the trip.
Also, I didn't spend much time riding/taking photos in the Great Dividing
Range - a chain of low mountains that runs along the east coast - there
are many beautiful towns and roads there, but I wanted to see the interior
and besides, you ride one fantastic mountain road, you ride them all, right?
Maybe next trip.
If you're really interested, you can print
out a map of my route or just load
it (it's in its own window) and refer back to it as you read along.
If you click on any of the photos, they will appear in a new window.
Just close it to return to this page. Row 1 begins with a photo of
Ashley Behringer, one of the bosses of Countrywide
Motorcycle Tours Australia (CMTA) and my tour guide for the nine day
ride. Also shows the bikes loaded for the trip. The green thing
on the back is a "swag" - sleeping bag. Ash takes them on trips "just
in case" there's a breakdown between towns. In the area we rode,
there were NO services between towns and the towns were 20+ km apart.
No gas, no motels, nothing but an odd farm or ranch (like the "Bonanza
Ram Depot" on the Castlereagh Highway south of Lightning Ridge).
So a breakdown means you push the bike off the road and wait till daylight.
Fortunately, Ash carries a cell phone and the bikes ran like champs, so
"no worries, mate!". My red BMW R1100R began without a fairing but
after whining like a three year old with colic, Ash put a windscreen on
the bike (took it from a friend of his, also riding one of CMTA's bikes).
The windscreen was a great improvement to riding enjoyment for this old
Wing driver.
Before leaving Canberra,
Steve "Speersy" Speers on one of Countrywide's Beemers joined us for the
run northward. The next 3 photos on the first row show roads north
of Canberra in the "bush" country (between the Outback and the Great Dividing
Range - mountains like the Appalachians along the SE coast of Australia).
You can see Ash and Speersy running ahead of me. We
ran through Cowra and north to Gilgandra, then NE and entered Warrumbungle
National Park via a long dirt/gravel road. The first pic on row
2 shows a mob of emus - large flightless birds, running alongside the road
to the park. We saw several groups outside the park. The last
3 photos on row 2 show the road into the park - eventually we see the park
nestled in some low hills. It was a 20km stretch of gravel and clay,
and a little sand - not hard to negotiate on the Beemers.
In the next table, the first photo on row
1 has us back on the "sealed" (paved) road north of Coonamble, heading
toward Queensland. As we ran northward, the terrain became flatter
and the ground more like clay or gravel. The 2d photo on row 1 shows
a frequent sight - bridge under repair and the highway running beside it
through the river/creek bed. We pulled under the bridge and took
a bit of rest from the heat (low 80s, F). While small road-trains
(trucks with multiple trailers) ran by us, we explored the river bottom
but only saw emus and other birds. Critters like the 'roo apparently
are very active at night in the bush (more so in the Outback) - the only
wildlife we saw was roadkill. Check out the towns
page to see views of Lightning Ridge, our turnaround point. The
last picture on row 1 shows us outside the Imperial
Hotel (a pub) in Bingara owned by a "publican" who has a limited edition
Harley Springer with black springs. We were joined there by Mark
"Dutchy" Holland (on another of Countrywide's R1100Rs) and Colin "Col"
Meumann, a transplanted South African on a red K bike.
Row 2 shows some sights running south -
the first is a cluster of road signs just north of Kandos. Most of
the main roads in the tableland area of New South Wales are sealed.
Pic 2 shows a small town on the edge of the Great Dividing Range - Sofala.
Nice country south of Sofala in Pic 3. A little later and farther
south, the road from Jindabyne looks inviting in pic 4.
Pic 1 in Row 3 and the road from Jindabyne
becomes 20 miles of gravel and knockout scenery. In Pic 2 on Row
3 we stop at a sign outside Bombala, far south of Canberra. One of
many instances of small towns' friendliness toward motorcyclists.
The last image on row 2 shows Ash and our bikes on the edge of Victoria.
From here, we ran through southern mountains shown in Pic 4 toward Cann
River and the south coast of Oz. Gotta watch out for 'roos and wombats!
None on our run to the coast, fortunately.
Thanks for coming - you're visitor 
since 10 Dec 1999.
since 10 Dec 1999.