Blogs from Oceania

Wednesday: Geoff Udy arrived last night into Glen Innes having ridden from Toowoomba to join us. Unfortunately his wallet had fallen out of his open pocket on the way. This morning Geoff and Bryan embarked on a needle in a haystack ride to Tenterfield to try & find the wallet while Keith, Brenton & I went 40kms up the New England Highway to Deepwater for coffee & gas to wait for them to complete their search Geoff & Bryan were unsuccessful in their wallet search and soon returned to meet us. We then retraced our route 17kms to Dundee (NSW not Scotland) & turned East into Bald knob Road which led to The Old Grafton Rd. This had around 100kms of everything an adventure rider could wish for. Fords, mud, slippery seal & gravel, fantastic scenery ... read more

The travel time to Chambers was only about 30 minutes- fantastic- and we arrived to this amazing retreat amidst the rainforest. We were really excited to come here, as it was said to be a Mecca for some amazing birds and especially mammals. It was fabulous. Similar to OReillys rainforest retreats, the lodges were set above ground so you are at mid-canopy height, making it perfect for the birds to visit the balcony in the morning. Apart from the fabulous rooms, it had a semi-heated pool undercover but open to view the forest whilst enjoying a swim, a guest lounge with a billiard table (where we could hone our very limited skills!) ,and best of all, it had a viewing platform where each night striped possums and sugar gliders would come to lap up the juicy ... read more

Sunday We left Longreach & split into 2 groups. Keith & Bryan definitely didn't want to do recently flooded tracks (we had heard some stories & were a bit apprehensive as well) also needed to be in Melbourne by 29th. Ian, Brenton & I wanted to give some of the back roads a go & also decided to go South to Barrington Tops then back North to Brisbane & fly home from there. Vague plan is to do Tasmania next, so Ian & I will probably have another ride Brisbane to Melbourne before that happens. 54kms out of Longreach on a single track sealed road we turned off onto a back country gravel/dirt road that soon became more like a farm track. Lots of water damage everywhere, not only on the track but still large flooded ... read more

Friday Left Halls Creek & we were soon on a rough winding gravel road, heading East, which soon changed to a better road & then equally quickly bad corrugations..bad enough to loosen your fillings. Riding on the very edge of the road seemed smoother but this had it's own challenges as suddenly it could turn into soft sand or a large pothole. Keeps you on your toes! After a while we experienced smooth long straights but even these were variable with the odd rough patch. Around 11am we stopped under a Coolibah ? tree to eat our service station sandwichs & take a break. Shortly after getting going again,we met 2 graders so the road improved where they had been working.100kms later, I experienced a rear puncture on my bike. Taking the wheel out we found ... read more

Well, Hello Again. After about 5 months of no blog I feel it is time to outline some big changes in our life. There have been some exciting happenings over the last half year. But at the present time the most exciting news is that we are going to leave NZ for a few weeks to travel to Norway once again, to see our family after not being able to travel since October 2019 due to Govid. So excited to be able to catch up with Chris, Hege, Lilly and Stella in person, rather than relying on Snap Chats, Skype etc. To be able to physically hug everyone will be amazing. To be able to see how much the girls have grown since our last visit, to watch their sport, to walk in the hills, and ... read more