Day 3 Port Macquarie to Gloucester

KM's 323

BEAR RIDES 30, 35

The bike after ahhh .. 'running low on gas' yesterday was still sounding bad ... still backfiring and running rough - a bit like a Ducati ! The camping ground owner gave me the number for the local BMW dealer so I gave them a call. The guys at Rock Motorcycles in Port Macquarie were very helpful and looked at it straight away for me. It all checked out ok so I just decided to ride it and see what happens. After a quick thrash to the start of the Oxley it was running fine again. Can't say enough about Rock Motorcycles, they didn't charge anything for the check over and even replaced the headlight bulb that had blown yesterday.

Ok it's official the Oxley Highway is without doubt the best motorcycle road I have ridden in Australia - so far. From Port Macquarie I headed straight up the Oxley and it was sheer happiness for 100k's and more. It was full of beautifully sealed corners and perfect cambers. Even my fully laden Beemer wanted to have a crack so we did .... Great fun. Stopped at the Gingers Creek Cafe about 70kms along the highway which is infamous for motorcycles and chatted to a few of the locals for a while. They all had big smiles and I know why !

From Around Australia by Motorcycle 2012

From Around Australia by Motorcycle 2012

The scenery along the Oxley Highway is beautiful and well worth a couple of stops to admire. It was noticeably colder as the altitude was a bit higher than the coast but the weather gods were being kind today and treated me with an almost perfect day.

Next stop was Walcha for a top up and then left and south again down the less travelled Thunderbolt Way and into Gloucester for the night. The Thunderbolt way was very quiet with little or no traffic so I settled back and enjoyed the remoteness and scenery.

From Around Australia by Motorcycle 2012

From Around Australia by Motorcycle 2012

I stopped at the Gloucester Holiday Park camping ground which I can definitely recommend. Very clean facilities and lots of room for campers to spread out. It's one of those special rural camping grounds that are relaxing and pleasant places to stay. Cost of a tent site was just $10.

From Around Australia by Motorcycle 2012

While I was booking in the sound of another motorbike pulling up behind me got my interest. It was a DR650 loaded up to the hilt so I figured it was time to say gidday. The rider was Jan from Holland who just happened to be doing three months around Australia in the opposite direction to me. We considered this for a bit and figured that we would meet again somewhere and agreed it would be good to discuss this in more depth over a few beers.

Jan had come from Perth and had been on the road for a month and was a real character. We exchanged email addresses had a good meal at the pub and shook hands the next morning " see you up west somewhere mate in about a month" was my departing comment.