Another day and another start to the FarRiding weekend.
Smurfette asked if she could come out for a ride this time cos it’s been so long since the last one. Sure thing – no problem….it’s not like she packs a lot (especially for a girl).
Docket in hand and begins the fight to get out of Sydney. I really need to start looking at getting out of Sydney to get a docket and then start the ride. Due to the traffic it took me and extra 30 minutes just to get to the M1…oh well.
Start docket in hand
Really nothing much to report up the freeway. Into Taree service centre for fuel and a pit stop before heading back out into the northbound Friday night traffic. It gets dark quickly now and as the sun goes down the temperature started to dip too. Now, you all know how much I like to know “exactly” what the temperature is, well I didn’t want to look….cos I didn’t have my heated gear plugged in….argh!
Coffs Harbour South for fuel for Dudley and myself. Note to self……..remember to try and avoid this stop in the future. The Coffs Harbour South service centre and McDonalds is like “feeding time at the Zoo”. People everywhere, staff have no idea what they are doing and slow as a wet weekend. Checked in with Karl & Kirsty May (friend I was staying with this night), plugged my gear in and off we set. Smurfette, was a little dissatisfied that she didn’t have a jacket or goggles to keep her warm and stop the wind from messing with her makeup.
South Coffs Harbour
Traffic is thinning and it’s not long before I have most of the northbound road to myself but the traffic heading south was quite heavy inhibiting the use of Dudleys extra lights. We installed a voltmeter just to make sure that I don’t overdraw power from Dudley and if so can turn something off to ensure I have battery charge to keep me going. Thankfully, with the heated gear, heated grips and the spotlights running, the draw was minimal reducing the voltage to 13.6-13.9V from 14.0V – happy camper.
Quick stop in Woodburn for fuel and to stretch, thankful that the heated gear is keeping me nice and toasty. Not long now and I take the turn off for Lennox head my stop for night. My host family tonight is a friend that I haven’t seen in 25 years. Pull into the drive and Kirsty, Aunty Sandra, Uncle Eric and Kirsty’s son Jordy are all out to greet me!! it was quite overwhelming. Ushered inside and chat, chat, chat, catching up on 25years in a marathon conversation just really doesn’t cut it. Really need to go back for a day and do it properly. Miss Ebony (Kirsty’s daughter) gave up her bed for me….thank you sweetheart and I had a decent nights sleep. Up early though and breakfast with the girls before we say our hoo-roo’s and I’m off heading north – Yandina bound.
Miss Kirsty May
Another cool morning and the heated gear (which has already paid for itself) gets another work out. The cuppa tea for breaky though warmed everything up including my bladder so I had to pull off at Nudgee….couldn’t hold on any longer. Now Queensland has lots of Big Things…..the big Pineapple, Prawn etc, well Kimmie has The Big Wee!!! LOL. Speaking of the Big Pineapple I had to stop and get a pic. Pretty busy there today, seems like there is a little market on today (it could just be the norm but who knows).
The Big Pineapple
The ride up the freeway started nice and quiet but as the morning moved on, everybody started on the merry ways to wherever. Now we had been warned about the yellow traffic monsters in Brisbane so I was on the lookout and only spotted one. Now while I had the cruise control set, I’m a little unsure about these other “traffic monitoring” devices that I saw signs for which looked just like a Big Brother camera that we have here is Sydney. Am hoping that by the good grace of the law I haven’t done anything wrong and no “special” envelopes will arrive in my mail.
Arrive at The Ginger Factory with plenty of time to spare and excited to meet some new friends from the Tracer Forum. Big welcomes from Hackle, Nev and some of the guys but I have to strip off some layers…..the weather gods really turned it on today for us! Into The Ginger Factory for coffee, say all the hello’s, then the check-in desk opens and job done.
Smurfette’s very happy to arrive and looking forward to kicking back.
FRE# 45 – done and dusted at 1075km
Apologies for the lack of excitement in this report but really, when you do the slab the entire way, the scenery doesn’t really change much.
