Wednesday, May 13, 2009

Coffs Harbour to Forster

1st May
I'm getting a little ambitious with my destinations of late and arriving as its getting dark, then struggling to find some cheap accomodation. I'd initially set out today after consulting the atlas, to a place called Nelson Bay, thinking that sounds a nice place, I'll go there, even for nostalgia sake. Ben from the backpackers also told me that it was in fact, a very nice place too. So, I set off again, not heading south, but inland again to what looked a great route through the mountains.



I'll step back a bit to say that the weather was a little overcast and not as warm today when I set out, so thought it might be wise to get on the coastal highway and get my head down and ride. Ten minutes on the freeway and I'd had enough, I needed somewhere interesting to ride, not just a white line drag strip.Turning off the first available exit took me to where I'd initially intended to ride, out towards Dorrigo, Armidale and through the New England National Park. Climbing up through the Waterfall Way road was very windy and steep but also very interesting. I said earlier, it was not as warm today and climbing as steep as this, it was getting colder & colder until I reached the summit of Dorrigo at around 800m. Now that doesn't sound very high really, but high enough for me to change to my winter gloves & it had started raining, but only slightly.
Carrying on through to Armidale took me right across the ridge of the ranges, the rain never came to much but it was still bloody cold and I started finally decending to warmer climates, so I thought. Heading now south over the great Dividing Range down to Walcha and onto the Thunderbolts Highway towards Gloucester. Yes, Gloucester, I had to go through there didn't I! This was back to a more reasonable elevation and had now warmed up, back on with the summer gloves :)Before getting to Nelson Bay, Ben told me a another great road through the Lakes out towards Forster, so I headed that way, it was getting late in the afternoon now, probably around fourish, then I saw a sign that said Nelson Bay 170km! holy shit! that was too far, I'd already travelled about 450k's and this was too far, too late, I was very tired and needed to stop soon. So thats why I ended up in Forster and not Nelson Bay.


Forster was a strange kinda place, a few highish rise appartment/hotel blocks, nice beach and a very sort of seaside, tourist town, but in between them there were a few "closed" or derelict buildings, almost kind of a ghost town, certainly not as vibrant as it once possobly was, or was it just because it was out of season? The backpackers was a victim of this too, closed down, another motel and another weeks budget blown!, well 2 days anyway, it was pretty cheap, but I'm gonna have to start making my destinations a little more achievable, especially if I'm detouring all the time.

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