Forster to Paramatta

May 2nd

I didn't start out too early today, by the time I'd got my arse outta bed, packed up, cuppa tea etc, etc, it was about nineish. I hit the road that would take me through the "lakes" road that had been recommended to me by Ben in Coffs Harbour, not a bad road, but not as good as he'd made out, I'd been on better in the past few days, but he was very new to motorcycling and I'm sure he'll discover some gems of his own. Heading on the main coastal highway towards Newcastle I, yep, you know whats coming! DETOUR! of course, whats the point otherwise? I may as well have bought a car. I was actually thinkin about a cheap campervan the other day, you know, accommodation included! but then there is the fuel economy too and I have worked out that the KLR is doing 61mpg! thats 21.74kms per litre! I have a fuel calculator on my laptop and I had done exactly 300kms when I fuelled up with 13.8 litres. Not bad fuel economy eh! and anyway, this is a bike trip, its the point of it really, so no, I'm not getting a campervan! Where was I? oh yeah, detour. East towards Maitland and then onto Singleton to ride down the "Putty Road" as recommended by Bill in Sydney. Bill is an old friend of my sister and someone who I visited when I was here in 1997, May in fact! I was invited to call by and see Bill and Amanda who lived in Glenhaven, a north west Sydney suburb and have some lunch with them, a very lind offer, so I was heading somewhere near to them where I could find some reasonable accommodation.

Singleton is basically the start of the 170km Putty Road, so a great stop for lunch, a pub lunch too, chicken caesar salad for under 10 bucks, very nice too. The Putty is favoured by two wheelers around here and judging by the road signs about motorcycle safety, it was definately a thrashing ground. Very narrow and twisty at the top and I managed to get stuck behind a truck for about 10k's, with a guy on a Triumph Speedmaster joining be in my mirrors. An overtaking lane sorted the truck out and by now the road had started to open out a bit, not quite as tight, more sweeping bends, with a few tighter ones thrown in. I've really not taken to giving the KLR too much of a peg to peg work out, its not really the kind of bike I'm used to doing that with, I have a lot of heavy luggage on the back and the tyres dont give me a whole heap of confidence to lean her over too far, plus, on these roads, if you go down, it could be very messy!But, I did start to get into it a bit, not goin mad, but shall we say makin good progress. My sportsbike riding buddies back in NZ would have been salivating and would not have seen them for dust and knee sparks! But I did start losing the guy on the Triumph everytime a corner came up, he caught me back on the straights, I only go 100kph max on the KLR.

I pulled over at the halfway truck stop at the top of the road for a drink and a smoke, Mr Triumph went past and carried on.I arrived in Windsor at the end of the magnificent Putty Road, a real nice town which remminded me of England a bit, well it was called Windsor, a bit like a Kent village I've been to, lots of bikes too, some would have been on the Putty, which reminds me, I saw more bikes than cars on that entire 170km stretch of road, brilliant!Bill had called with a recommendation of a Hostel just up the road on the edge of the Blue Mountains, he found it on the internet and was a great setting in the forest and the hills, I called him back to get directions and set off, only about a twenty minute ride. It was about 20 mins away and in a great location, but was closed! and actually looked closed down! Turn around and go back, now it was getting dark, again, when will I bloody learn!

I headed for Paramatta and to cut a long story short, I spent about an hour riding around Paramatta with increasing saturday night traffic and getting in the wrong lanes, getting lost, not knowing where the hell I was, very tired and by now very agitated, so I stopped at the first and only motel I could find, In a city! another accom budget blown! I arrived not in the best of moods, very angry with myself for letting it happen, yet again! Nice room though, with luxuries like a TV and tea/coffee :)