Attention campers, due to the incredible amount of rain that has fallen recently, motorcycle riding has been put on hold until further notice. Until such time as the roads dry out a bit we will be conducting basket weaving classes in the main canteen area.......................


AAAARRRRRGGGGGHHHHHH!!!!!!! I'm getting f#cking cabin fever.

Rest assured, we will return to our normally scheduled program as soon as possible.

In the meantime, I'm off to basket weaving class. I'll catch up with you all soon.

Tally ho chaps (and chappettes?),

The rain seems to have finally stopped and I'll be heading out on a ride in the next day or so. I just thought I'd let everyone know that I'm still here and the blog will continue. "Oh thank god" I hear you all sigh. "What would we do without the ramblings of that nutcase to keep our planet revolving around the sun?" Well, fear not, I am still here and the earth is safe once more. Sorry, cabin fever kicking in from all this wet weather. AAAARRRGGGHHH!!!!!!!!

I can't believe the amount of rain we've had in the last few months. We've literally had one flood after another on the east coast of Australia. It seems that every other week there's a town somewhere that's going under water as the locals frantically fill sand bags to stop their homes from being inundated. I don't know what I'd prefer - bushfire or flood? We seem to have more than our fair share of both.

Anyway, as I said the rain seems to have cleared and the forecast for the next week is for sunshine. We're in winter here now but the days will still be good for riding. Temps are expected in the high teens / low 20's (60 to 70* F) and that is something I can't complain about. I can't imagine what it's like to have snow in winter. I've seen snow (many times) and it does snow here up in the mountains, but only in a few locations and rarely does it get very deep except in the highest parts. Those parts capitalise on it and the area becomes a ski haven. Ironically we call that part of the range The Snowy Mountains. Gotta give us Aussies credit for ingenious place names huh?

That's a long way from here though and we shouldn't have to worry. Nothing but a week of sunshine and some twisty roads to carve up.

Stay tuned, we'll be back after this short commercial break......................

Now where did I put my helmet and gloves???

Hey swingers, still trying to understand this blogging thing. Please bear with me, it will get better. Typesetting this animal is a real challenge. I just get it set the way I want it to look and then some little gremlin widget thingy decides to revert back to the way it was 5 minutes ago. Driving me crazy(er). I've typeset documents for 15+ years but this piece of software genius is beyond me. It loves to just randomly create extra spaces in the document. It's something to do with the space allocated to the pics but I can't seem to understand or predict its 'logic'.

If someone can tell me how to post a google map that would be great. I've posted pics to forums and websites but can't seem to work out how to post a map here. I'm sure it's simple though.

Anyhow, enough complaining, on with the show. I went for a bit of a blast yesterday afternoon. I didn't get far as it was getting late in the day and the 750 started leaking fuel (sticking float) but I did get a few pics before dark.

I set out from Bulahdelah and decided to head down The Lakes Way towards the coast. This is 80km of twisty forest and farm road that winds its way through 'the lakes' of the area. I'll do lots of rides down this road in the next few months as there are dozens of cool places to go and lots to see.

Enough talk, get your helmet on, let's go.

Only a few kms down the road you head through remnant tall forest (the loggers destroyed a lot). I had to stop and grab this pic. The trees are Blue Gums and Flooded Gums and are some of the tallest on the east coast of Australia. In the gullies and shady spots, patches of thick rainforest 'jungle' grow. It really is beautiful (even better with the GS750 in the pic).

Headed off again and had the time of my life blasting through the twistys. The sun was starting to go down so I had to be careful, the road was getting very cool and dew was already starting to set on the ground in the shady spots. I had fun anyway, even if I wasn't scraping the pegs.

About 20 kms further along the road heads through the lakes and small villages start to appear. Bungwahl is one of them and is a quaint little holiday spot. You've got to be carfeul through here as grey nomads and their damned caravans (campers) have a bad habit of just stopping in the middle of the road, often just around the next bend. I don't want to be the ornament on the front of someones Winnebago (yes, we have them here too).

Anyway, I made it into Bungwahl without running into Grandma and Grandpa and filled up with fuel at the general store.

It was about now that I decided that it may be time to head home as the sun was going down and the bike was dripping fuel constantly (as you can see in the pic). I even moved it away from the bowser when I went in to pay, just in case.

Just as I was leaving a guy pulled in and said that there was a garage sale 'just down the road' and the guy had a few old motorbikes for sale. "Maybe I'll go a little further" I think to myself, so I did.

I cruised another 10 kms or so and couldn't find any garage sale. I did get to Pacific Palms though and got some pretty cool pics.

This is the road out of Bungwahl and I thought the hillside looked nice in the setting sun. Most of the land along this road, that isn't privately owned, is part of the Myall Lakes National Park.

This part of the road is dead straight for numerous kms as it crosses the sand dunes of Seven Mile Beach. We'll come back here again soon and I'll show you the beach and the rainforest in between the sand dunes.

This is one of the many tracks that head off the road and down to Seven Mile Beach. That's the Pacific Ocean peeking through there.

Anyway, it's time to say "next time Gadget" - as it's getting dark and we need to get home before the bike leaks all the fuel and leaves us stranded in the middle of nowhere.
We'll head out earlier next time and get to see lots more cool stuff

Cheers,

Dave.

G'day and welcome aboard.

Hi there, Zooks here. Not my real name obviously but a 'handle' that I use on numerous motorcycle forums because of my love of old Suzuki motorcycles. My real name is Dave and I live in Markwell which is about 15 kms from Bulahdelah, NSW Australia.

http://maps.google.com.au/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&q=markwell&sll=-32.259265,152.155151&sspn=0.627107,1.230469&ie=UTF8&ll=-32.333559,152.20871&spn=0.313297,0.615234&z=11 (I can't work out how to post google maps, I'll get the hang of it)

This is my first attempt at blogging but the plan is to cruise the Mid North Coast area of NSW Australia and show off some of the amazing scenery in this little corner of the global village. I live in a very scenic area, surrounded by forests, beaches, lakes, twisty mountain roads etc etc (you get the idea) - a veritable motorcylist's paradise. I love living here and plan to take as many rides as possible and hope that you'll join me as we take in the scenery.

Anyhoo, I hope you'll call in every so often and have a look at what's going on in my part of the world and I hope you enjoy the ride. Feel free to comment and ask questions as we go along, just tap on my helmet as necessary.

Cheers
Zooks (aka Dave, call me what you like).