Sunday, May 17, 2009

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.

2 comments:

  1. .....Rad. :D

    Rainforest between the sand dunes?

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  2. Yeah the rainforest meets the coast in this part of the world. The forest literally runs right up to the beach in places. It's thick with vines, palm trees and dense scrub. An amazing haven for birds, reptiles and frogs. I'll get some pics in the next few weeks. It's quite mind blowing.

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