Day 2 - Embarrasing !
Day 2. Grafton to Port Macquarie
KM 311
BEAR RIDES 120, 36
Ok, lets gets this over with. Today something embarrasing happened. I ran out of gas. There, I said it and you can all have a good laugh. Its the first and last time for me that I can guarantee.
I rose reasonably early after the first night in the tent. I reckoned the body would take a couple of nights to get used to the move from comfortable mattress to a tent !
I had to now consider where I was going ride today. (You can see my forward planning is very detailed) I wanted to ride the Oxley Highway so had to figure how to fit it in. The Oxley is an infamous motorcycle road and I reckoned I had better make the effort. So Port Macquarie became my destination as this was at the start of the Oxley heading west.
I decided to take a less direct route and headed down through Nymbodia and Dorrigo. Breakfast was at Nymobodia about 37 clicks from Grafton. What a spot - I recommend the Coachmans Inn pub which does a top breakfast in a beaut setting overlooking the Nymbodia river.
From Around Australia by Motorcycle 2012
Back on the bike and over the National Park road which is a a good one and then a left turn at Tringham and down into Dorrigo. The road down into Dorrigo is a beaut with lots of steep twists and turns.
From Around Australia by Motorcycle 2012
From Around Australia by Motorcycle 2012
After Dorrigo it was a main highway cruise down to the coastal town of Port Macquarie. Not a lot of interesting things to say about this stretch except that this is where I had my embarrasing moment. I was into Port Macquarie when the bike starting missing and backfiring. This woke me up after a bit and looking down at the read out on the dash the number of km's left to empty was saying '10'. I was pretty close to a service station so I literally pushed it into the forecourt. Jeez ... not sure what I was thinking, it must have been that boring bit of highway. Anyway I put 20+ litres into the tank and made a mental note to avoid this later in the trip. Especially out west in the more remote spots - the top half of the tank only !
A guy who had watched me come in came over and had a chat. With a slight grin on his face he explained that I would have to fill up at least once more to get around the rest of OZ. Thanks for the heads up mate !
I stopped for the night at Lighthouse beach and put the tent up. This is a beautiful spot and after a quick meal and beer at the local I went for a long walk down the beach. The sunset was beautiful and a great end to the day - well almost. That night it poured with rain for most the night so the tent got a good work out !
