On 23rd January, we hadn’t ridden very far north from Mallacoota when we crossed from Victoria into New South Wales.
Louise had performed yet another stunning job of sleuthing that led us to Mystery Bay and the bush camp site in the trees behind beautiful beaches.
But I’ve hopped ahead too far. We passed through Bermagui and while Louise conferred with a lady in the info centre, I inspected a promising little bakery across the road. The baguettes looked just like those pointy
-ended ones (top right in photo below) you find in French pattiseries. Once set up at the Mystery Bay camp site, we ripped into one with butter and camembert. The bread was the best we’ve had all trip. Such simple pleasures can be so exquisite.
Mystery Bay was bracketed by rocky headlands and provided a popular arena for families to enjoy sheltered ‘beach time’. Beyond the southern mini-headland was another beach with another beyond it. We less social animals, preferred the tranquillity of the deserted beach a few down. It was beautifully unspoiled. Two days here allowed for a bit of internet time back in Bermagui and thus another baguette.
There was a certain urgency to leave Mystery Bay on 25th January – we had a table booked for lunch at Rick Stein’s “Bannisters Restaurant” for lunch in Mollymook. The sunshine in Mystery Bay was valued as we rode north to Mollymook getting wetter by the kilometer. Due to school holidays we had booked a tent site but on arrival, upgraded to a cabin. The lunch was magnificent – it needed to be to offer a hint of value with the Rick Stein name adding about ten bucks per course. After a bit of time in frugal mode, we pushed the boat out, exploring the wine list by the glass and then, on departure, the
top shelf. The fella who poured my Calvodos didn’t know what it was and half-filled a wine glass. Back in the cabin it was water and tea to sober up with the Aussie Tennis Open keeping us entertained.
The following morning we set off on a big ride north and then inland, skirting around Sydney and up into the Blue Mountains. As luck would have it, the lunchtime munchies arrived at the same time as an old-fashioned roadside Inn hoved into view. It turned out to be “Peppercorn Creek”, an organic café operated by a Christian community. The Beef Stroganoff pie rated an 8. Louise’s Chicken and Leek pie an 8+. Our destination was Mega Valley’, left from Blackheath. The black clouds had been gathering so with a murderous sky above, we checked into a motel in Blackheath, minutes before the heavens opened. That evening we watched Fed put on a masterclass against the up-and-coming Korean chap, Chung.
Saturday 27th we set 
off towards Mudgee visiting Mount Panarama at Bathurst on the way.
Being a circuit of public roads, we did a couple of laps and were struck by the steepness of the hill and the tightness of the turns leading down from it.
Our actual destination was Hill End, in the sticks between Bathurst and Mudgee. Again, the black clouds were gathering. Brief consideration was given to sheltering in a tiny church but clad in our notionally waterproof giant condoms, we continued along a great up and down riding road. Then the lightning bolts were followed instantly by thunder claps, the prompt the rain was waiting for. And down it came. An utter deluge. It fell so heavily the parched fields were soon bedecked with water rushing down them. Big roadside ditches overflowed, torrents crossed the road and elsewhere it seemed to be an inch deep in seething water. Our visors were streaming so we plodded along in second gear over this wild hill-billy country and then, as suddenly as it started, it stopped. 
We rode into the little camp site at Hill End sodden. Once this place had a high street a mile long and 26 pubs. Now the local council is trying to preserve the 20 or so buildings that remain from those gold rush days. One pub still functions – as above. On the Sunday morning (28th) we left, we did a big walk up to Bald Hill thinking it was Merlins Lookout. Then rode the short distance up to the pub where we crossed the road to the
little bakery café. The Irish Lamb Pie was a 9+. Replete with pie int’ tum, we headed north along more hill-billy roads through another cloudburst, this one of longer duration that folded a big gum tree onto the road ahead of us. We slowed to a halt to find the driver of the 1st ute to the scene man-handling a sizeable section of tree to the side of the road. I joined the effort and hauled another smaller section and was impressed to find that it was a she – they make ‘em burly round there. In minutes other utes had arrived and the tree was soon losing the battle. As we rode around the prostrate and shrinking tree, the intact trunk that blocked one lane was being winched out of the way. We reached our Telegraph House apartment at Gulgong, saturated. But the weather, like us, changed so that our gear swung gently in the warm evening breeze and sunshine. We stayed 3 nights, not because Gulgong offered much, although in Gold Rush days there were 20,000 souls living there instead of the mere 2,000 now. The purpose was to allow me to focus Monday 29th and Tuesday 30th January upon the logistics to get our bikes and ourselves back to NZ 18 days later. We also had the opportunity to watch the Men’s Final which saw Fed beat Cilic in a thrilling 5-setter. Feeling chuffed with the organisational progress by the morning of 31st, we headed NE from Gulgong for Gloucester………
which didn’t inspire us so we decided to continue on to the next night’s destination of Port Macquarie. This involved a section of road known as “Buckett’s Way” – above. Motorbike riders prefer to avoid main highways. We took the road east towards the A1 Highway but turned north at Kranbach. From there we passed through Burrell Creek, Wingham, Killabakh, to Comboyne. This last section was challenging. The weather had deteriorated to light rain and then without warning, the tarmac finished and the unsealed road starting snaking its way up and up and up through thick forest until we were high on a ridge. The road then carried on up with daunting drops to left and then right but the view of the forested drop was mercifully obscured by rain and mist – we were actually in the cloud. Eventually we headed downhill with the total 40 km journey over this immense chunk of the Great Dividing Range taking 1 hour to complete. Back down on more level land tarmac greeted us. Finally, after about 530 kms and 6 or 7 hours riding, we checked into Beachside Apartments opposite Flynn’s Beach in Port Macquarie. 
Camping was not an option yet again. But Mike’s Seafood was and a great feed of fish and chips hit the spot.
Foul weather extended our stay in Port Macquarie, allowing time for my rear tyre to be replaced. One afternoon while Louise had a nap, I had a beach walk and a spot of rigorous body-surfing at Flynn’s Beach – above – where only the very keen were in the water.
We walked round to the Koala Hospital and learned what a dedicated bunch of mostly volunteers can achieve for these furry friends. Louise has written a piece about this wonderful operation. All I might add here is that the happy chappie in the photo above strikes a pose that puts me in mind of how I feel on the bike – clinging on and lovin’ it!
Burkhardt’s Bakery was highly rated but I couldn’t give its Steak and Mushroom Pie more than a 7.
The forecast suggested better weather lay inland so on 3rd February we rode out of Port Macquarie along the Oxley Highway to Walcha. What a ride. From Walcha up Thunderbolt’s Way to Bundarra and a free camp by the river – see below.
About 37 kms south from there along dirt roads was Rockview, a property bought by Simon Marais for the South Endeavour Trust – see piece about this further on.
Back for a pub lunch in Bundarra and a puncture for Louise – again. We figured we would need to take the wheel off, strap it to my bike and then, the following day, Monday, I would take it up to Inverell to get it fixed. When checking with the publican if we could leave the bike round the back overnight, a local sitting at the bar said “Hang on a minute.” He peered out of the front door and showed us the sight of a building nearly opposite where the garage door was open. “He’ll fix it.” There must be a moral to this story.
Bundarra up to Tenterfield on Monday where we noticed a sign advertising Bed and Breakfast for $99 in a mansion – Stannum House.
For those who have seen The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel, this film might give a few clues as to the style of the place and the Sri Lankan family that owned and operated it. Magnificent in its bones, but somewhat tacky in its fixtures and fittings,
I had a go at the $10 buffet dinner, tempted by the reference to two Sri Lankan dishes. I returned upstairs to my hunger-free wife and described the repast as being akin to a school lunch. However, we stayed another night to facilitate a ride to Bezzants Lease,
another South Endeavour Trust property. That night we enjoyed a smoked salmon salad on the roof ‘look-out platform’ and washed it down with a bottle of bubbles.
Wednesday 7 February saw us go north from Tenterfield on a big loop ride through
beautiful country, passing through Bald Rock National Park, where we walked a short distance to Thunderbolt’s Hideout,
Captain Thunderbolt aka Frederick Wordsworth Ward being a reknown bushranger (1835 to 1870).
The loop ride took us past Wylie Creek, Woodenbong, Kyogle and onto Lismore, treating us to some lengthy spells of good quality unsealed road and some shorter sections of the worst sealed road we had encountered. That night we stayed with friends, Ross and Belinda in Evans Head and a very social night it was too.
On Thursday another soft front tyre on Louise’s bike trimmed our plans of another loop ride, instead getting a new inner tube fitted in Ballina. From there to Skennars Head for a night catching up with Heika and Winston. We dined at The Red Wok Thai Restaurant in Ballina, where the food was like the evening – excellent.
Finally, we rode into Byron Bay on Friday 9 February, checked into The Oasis Apartments for 3 nights spanning a very special occasion. Many months previously, young friends Kristian and Anja had invited us to their Wedding Party on 10 February in Byron Bay. We decided to make this the ‘finishing’ point for our Big Aussie Trip. Sam and Val came across for the weekend, having befriended the happy couple during their year in Wellington. This made for a double treat for us, welcoming Sam and Val to the apartment having not seen them since April 2017.
On the Saturday we walked into town then along the famous Byron Bay Beach towards
the lighthouse. Then up onto the headland and along the track to the most easterly point of Australia – photo right.
Not much further in distance but what felt like a lot in altitude was
the lighthouse – a real beauty.
Since most people reading this will not know the couple, I’ll skip the details of the wedding. Suffice it to say that this very special pair of individuals were at the centre of a bunch of wonderful people gathered to celebrate their tying of the knot. A beach was involved. A Bistro. A superb meal. Lots of entertaining speeches. Some boogie, with Eagle Rock necessitating a down trou dance for the chaps – strange but fun. A brunch aftermath the next morning and then everyone scattered. We had some beach time back near our apartment, followed by a hit of tennis then a swim. Sam and Val headed off for a skiing holiday in Japan on Sunday evening, leaving us to prepare for the last dash south towards Sydney the next morning.
On Monday 12 February we left Byron Bay and blasted 526 kms down the Pacific Highway to Bulahdelah, about 240 kms north of Sydney. The objective for Tuesday was to return to Jean and Cathy’s house by 11 am, the 18 May 2017 starting point for the trip. Rather appropriately for a big loop ride around Australia, they live in Boomerang Street.
The South Endeavour Trust
Back in the early 2000s Jean introduced me to his friend, Simon Marais, who had established Allan Gray Australia, an investment management firm with links to Orbis. I met Jean after he spear-headed the establishment of the Orbis Sydney office in 2002, Orbis being a specialist global equities management firm. These encounters were part and parcel of my advisory firm’s commitment to investment management research.
Back to Simon, he impressed as an unusually discerning stockpicker with courageous commitment to investing against the sway of the herd. I had the great privilege of getting to know this giant of a human being, giant in both the physical and intellectual sense. A year or two before his tragically early death in February 2015, Simon made mention of a bit of land he’d bought in the Far North of Queensland that had a few cattle on it. It was only following his death that I learned that this was yet another example of Simon’s modesty and tendency towards understatement – the Kings Plains property he was referring to was 68,000 hectares and turned out to be just one of several properties he bought as he created the South Endeavour Trust (www.southendeavour.com.au), a definitive demonstration of his massive commitment to conservation. This web site is well worth studying as a monument to one man’s determination to make a difference.
On the left is the photo that identifies Rockview by showing the cause of its name. But on the right is Rockview itself but it could be anywhere from this shot!!!
We drove past the entrance to the Kings Plains property on our way to Cooktown back in June 2017. Our intention had been to take some footage on a Go Pro we bought for that purpose but alas, our visit was discouraged at that particular time. However, just
recently, as we weaved our way up through northern NSW, we made a point of roaming off along some knarly bush roads to visit Rockveiw and Bezzants Lease. The photos included here are probably of bits of those properties, Rockview being more certain due to the view but neither sporting signage as they, like the other properties, are the preserve of the flora and fauna that made their acquisition important. Above left the sign shows the way. On the right, we reached a point we thought the property may have started ……….. so that might be part of it in the distance. This particular one acts as a 
bridge between a reserve and a National Park so that endangered species can move across the sum of the parts. In the photo on the left I am seeking to get past a rather large item of fauna that acted as a security guard for the property – Louise has more to say on this encounter.
The Bikie Boomerangs Return
For our whole trip we were keen to be rural, minimizing time in cities. We made an exception for Adelaide but avoided Melbourne and by-passed Sydney when travelling north to Byron Bay. But Tuesday 13th February was our last day on the bikes in Australia’s great outdoors, and one that saw us enter Sydney’s north and return to where it all started, in Turramurra.
On the left was us leaving with Mick as our guide out of Sydney. On the right, we’ve just returned, nine months later.
From Jean and Cathy’s we rode the short distance to ProCycles in Hornsby where the purging of fuel and disconnecting of the batteries was certified, the bikes cleaned and then delivered on Wednesday to Jean’s studio for crating up.
Our Big Aussie Trip was over. The total distance travelled was 24,233 on motorbikes plus about 2,000 kms up and down Cape York in the Land Rover. The replacement motorbike I bought in Cairns in July 2017 had 27,530 kms on the clock when we set off west from Cairns. Below shows a reading of 48,663 in Sydney, seven months later.
There will be one last post for this trip – a sort of epilogue-blog. It will share a few unbiased observations about Aussie, the results of the pie survey, a note of ‘favourites’, and maybe other random reflections.
jrtonlocation.com 