DAY ONE
A 287km ride to Coffs Harbour via the Taylors
Arms pub with no beer for lunch. Which was a
strange name for a pub, because it had plenty
of beer. The riding was mainly forestry gravel
roads with some tougher tracks and quite
flowing. Dust was a constant companion! Initial
thoughts on the bike were, it’s comfortable,
very nice power delivery, not unnecessarily
‘fast’, an excellent chassis that steers very
well (the bikes had Pirelli Scorpion Rally tyres
that gripped and lasted extremely well) and
good suspension that was a tad too soft.
DAY TWO
Again around the 300km mark. Nana Glen was
the lunch stop which had me laughing to myself
imagining a small outback village brimming with
Nanas all racing round with Zimmer frames.
Deepwater Station was our night destination
located on top of the Northern end of the
Great Dividing Range. Deepwater is a historic
grazing property and was a fun chance to
experience true rustic-style outback farming
life. This was where the mini locust infestation
occurred… sadly for some inexplicable reason
a light was left on and this had the effect of
attracting a LOT of night bugs…apparently
the only thing for it was, lights out and to
hide under the sheet despite the heat.
Leaving Coffs Harbour in the morning my
riding partner Tom, a local and absolutely top
man, who took me on an extra loop to the
36 KIWI RIDER
Sealy lookout. This is a long, floating platform
high above Coffs Harbour, but unfortunately
while the view was impressive it was severely
reduced from bushfire smoke. In fact, for
most of the ride we were accompanied by
heavy smoke haze from fires in the distance
and the tragic devastation was clearly evident
with burnt-out houses and vehicles common
place. It was good to see Yamaha do its bit
to help by donating a generator to the local
fire brigade and raising money through the
raffle of a motorbike and a large tool set.
The riding was hot, I often saw 39 degrees
on the dash, which is very clear to read
and at times there were waves of air/
wind that felt substantially hotter. Again,
the riding was road, gravel road, forest
trails and four-wheel drive tracks.