The Wild GeeseKaruah River Rally Feb 2006
A tale of tyres, by Steve Pike
| Thursday |
Geese Steve Pike and Neil Schaefer joined John English in Fernvale around dusk for the ride to Karuah River Rally. Steve was on his GS, Neil and John were aboard KTM 950 Adventures. John lives in the Fernvale area so he led us on the first stage, and soon had us riding gravel (in the dark) to skirt Ipswich. He set a good pace too. We were soon back on the tar and followed the highway to Warwick where we took a short Macca's break before pressing on to Stanthorpe for a $20-per-head overnighter at the pub.
| Friday |
An early start was achieved with the promise of breakfast at Wallangara, where we would meet up with Mick Jaeger and the Oz Adventure Riders mob. Unfortunately Mick arrived just as we had finished refuelling and showed no interest in hanging around, so it was an 0630 departure from Wallangara with no breakfast for the three musketeers. From the start we were off the highway and onto back roads, which soon led to open gravel roads and forestry trails. The pace was good but not taxing, at least not if you were in the middle of the pack like me. We were also allowed a breather for about twenty minutes when ride leader Mick punctured the front tube on his heavily modified R80GS, and another breather towards the end of this leg when he punctured the rear!
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| Mick Jaeger, puncture repair man |
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| Apart from one Varadero, everyone was aboard BMW or KTM mounts |
This first 200km of dirt brought us out near Armidale and we headed into town for a fast-food lunch (or in the case of the musketeers, brunch). Just as we were about to head off on the next stage of our trip it was noticed that my front Tourance, which was otherwise good for at least another week's riding 
, had developed a bulge in the sidewall. This being Neil's home town he was able to direct me to the local bike shop who fortunately had an old-stock Tourance lying around. This was soon fitted and Neil and I gave chase to meet up with the other riders who had gone ahead to Walcha - we caught up with them just as they were entering the town.
Another 150 km of trails, including a final stretch with thirteen creek crossings in quick succession, brought us close to Moonan Flat - well named, as it was my turn to get a puncture in my three day old Michelin Anakee somewhere during the creek crossings. I didn't notice the flat until we hit the tarmac, but the first two corners certainly let me know that all was not well. Mal, our sweep for the day, and Greg stayed with me to try to plug the tyre using the BMW repair kit and Greg's tyre goop, but the plugs kept tearing as we pushed them through the thick tread of a new tyre. The last of my plugs was eventually pushed in, we used Mal's compressor to reinflate the tyre and and we were soon in Moonan Flat where the others had already set up camp. Bikes had come from far and wide, and we guessed there to be at least sixty bikes gathered on the verge which was to do duty as campsite for the night.
The pub had fired up the barbeque, and also had a good restaurant, so the inner man was soon satisfied. The beer went down well too.
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| Mark fords one of the many river crossings |
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| Saturday |
Mick Jaeger was not going to the rally and he led most of the OAR mob off in a different direction in the morning. Mal from the OAR group did join us for the ride to Karuah River though, along with several other riders who had joined us at Moonan Flat. Our trusty group of about ten riders headed out from the pub to ride the 100km stretch of dirt which would take us to Gloucester and then on to the rally. We had to gamble on making this last stage with the fuel we still had in our tanks as the pub's bowser was not going to be in operation until about 10 am, too long to wait.
My tyre was still inflated in the morning so all was looking good for the day ahead. I topped up the pressure with Neil's hand pump and we were off. The patched tyre was not as well repaired as I thought though and I was soon to stop with a once more flat rear tyre. After a couple of hops where I would reinflate the tyre and ride on until the bike got too squirrelly I caught up with a few of the riders and we made a team effort to fit GS rider Mark's spare tube. The Anakee came off the wheel very easily and the tube was soon fitted, so we were off again - but not for long! I came to a final stop just outside Gloucester with... a flat rear tyre! Turns out that the tube, which was already patched, also had an unpatched hole in it. At this point my bike was unrideable as there was really no air in the rear, so Mark rode into Gloucester in search of a new tube and the others continued on their last kilometres to Moonan Flat.
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Mark had found a tyre repair man in town who came and collected me and my rear wheel and took us back into town to effect repairs. He did a proper job, removing the tyre and fitting an internal patch. The tyre went back on the rim, was reinflated... and proceeded to blow air out through the patched area! A bigger patch went on with the same result. Mystified, we opted for a nice new inner tube in the normally tubeless Anakee and this time the air stayed where it belonged, inside the tyre. The wheel was soon refitted to the GS and we refuelled in Gloucester (I squeezed 380km out of one tank), before continuing on the last leg to Moonan Flat, arriving around 1630 to find about three hundred bikes in attendance - not bad for a rally in a forest field far from anywhere. The site had all the facilities though - his and hers toilets, and plenty of cold running water in the adjacent stream (which also provided a swimming hole for the hardy, i.e. not for me). The rally was the usual sociable bikers' get-together, with alcohol-fuelled discussion groups throughout the camp, in some cases well into the small hours.
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| Sunday |
The rally over, it was time for another parting of the ways. Neil and Mal headed for home (Neil had to get back to the Sunshine Coast as he had to be at work the next day); John set off to make his own way home at a more leisurely pace, and I set off to make the short hop to Wingham, where I would be staying with friends. After breakfast in Dungog I set the GPS to seek out the back roads and rode a mixture of gravel roads and tar via the very scenic Buckets Way the 100km or so to Wingham. I spent a sociable afternoon and evening with Avril, Cian and Cooper.
| Monday |
Still in adventure-travel mode I set out from Wingham on the back roads through Comboyne to Wauchope, with the intention of riding more gravel through Werrikimbe National Park to Kookaburra and beyond. All went well, but the forestry road eventually became a 4x4 dry weather only track. I tried the first stretch, which was easy enough, but as I was riding alone in an area where I could not expect to see anyone else for hours or even days I decided that discretion was the better of valour and turned back. I retraced my path and came out on the Pacific Highway at Telegraph Point. I then had the most tedious stage of the whole trip, riding the Highway to Coffs Harbour. Where I had ridden at anything up to 120km/h on the trails I was regularly reduced to speeds of 50 or 60km/h on the so-called Highway - I hate that road.
I escaped the tin-can torture of the Highway in Coffs, heading inland via Glenreagh to Grafton - the same road that I had ridden with Mick in the not too distant past, for Coffs Capers 2005. From Grafton I followed the Clarence Way west through Copmanhurst - my first visit to the Clarence River Area, and a very picturesque area it proved to be. I left the Clarence Way at Lilydale and followed an easy dirt road to Jackadgery on the Gwydir Highway, where I set up camp at a very pleasant and quiet campsite. The whole trip had been dry to this point but shortly after setting up camp the thunder and lightning started to build, followed by a torrential downpour. No big deal, I was able to enjoy the show from the covered barbeque area and I later slept fine in the freshly cooled air.
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| Clarence River |
| Tuesday |
The skies had cleared again so I was able to break camp in the dry. I retraced my way to Lilydale where I rejoined the Clarence Way and headed for Tabulam on wide gravel roads. Before Tabulam I turned East for Rappville then followed the back roads into Casino. From here I made my way to Nimbin and into the edge of the Border Ranges National Park where I was to lodge for the night with another friend, Julian. Julian rents a studio in the rainforest on a property run by Wolfgang, who is using WOOFERS (students and backpackers willing to work for food and lodgings) to set up an organic and eventually self-sustaining farm. Julian owns a Honda Trans Alp and was keen to explore some of the trails in the Border Ranges, so we spent the afternoon riding more trails. One of them proved to be reasonably challenging to my road-oriented tyres after the recent rains but all went well. This is a beautiful area which I would like to explore more extensively in the future.
| Wednesday |
Rain once more developed in the night, and unfortunately continued the next day. I had no choice but to head off early in the rain as I had an appointment with an eye specialist in Cleveland that morning. I arrived with just enough time to spare to change out of my sodden clothes and to freshen up in a service-station toilet so that I would be reasonably presentable for my appointment.
After my checkup I had a pleasant brunch in a now-dry Cleveland, followed by the ever-tedious Highway ride home to the Sunshine Coast. My entire supply of clothes was by now wet and/or smelly so I had planned the amount of luggage well for the trip's duration - unusual for me, as I usually arrive home with a fair proportion of my gear unused throughout the trip. I may yet make a decent adventure rider...
All in all, I had a fantastic week, the bike behaved flawlessly apart from the tyre troubles, and riding so much dirt gave me a new level of confidence in the bike's abilities, at least in the dry. I met some great people too.
-- Steve
Category Rides ~ Category Dirt Rides ~ Category Camping ~ Category Long Distance
