The Southern Sojourn is an annual motorcycle tour to the Armidale / NSW mid north coast region.  It is normally conducted in mid-December and provides an ideal stress release in preparation for the holiday season.  The goal is to ride some of the best motorcycle roads in Australia including sections of the Gwydir Highway, Thunderbolts Way, The Buckett's way, Waterfall Way and, what is widely recognised as the best motorcycle road in Australia, the Oxley Highway.

This year (2003), two of us (Roy and I) went on the tour.  We left Brisbane on Monday, December 15th and returned Thursday December 18th.

Day 1 - Brisbane to Armidale.  Depart Brisbane along the Mt Lindesay Highway via Beaudesert and Rathdowney to Woodenbong where we turned left to head south to Urbenville, Bonalbo where we stopped for morning tea.  Continuing south and then right (west) onto the Bruxner Highway for a few kilometres before turning south onto Plains Station Road to Alice and then right (south) onto the Clarence Way through Baryulgil and then left onto Coaldale Road and into Grafton via Coaldale.

Brisbane to Rathdowney is a fairly boring road but the road up to Woodenbong gets very twisty and much more fun.  From there on the road gets narrower but its a fun road with great scenery all the way to Grafton.  There is about 25ks of well graded dirt road from Alice to Baryulgil which, thanks to the recent rains, was not too dusty and had a good firm surface.  The recent rain also meant the countryside was at its best and greenest.  Lunch was at the South Grafton Mobil where the burgers are fine.  We also refuelled in Grafton.

After lunch it was up the Gwydir Highway to Glen Innes and then south (left) onto the New England Highway and into Armidale which is our base camp for the next few days.  The run up the Gwydir is one of my favourite pieces of road.  It has a racetrack quality surface in most parts and it starts with sweepers and beautiful scenery up the Clarence River valley then gets into very tight twisties up the range and then back to fast sweepers into Glen Innes.  Unfortunately we go saturated in a very heavy downpour a few kilometres out of Glen Innes but such are the joys of biking.  At least it held off while we were on the stunning part of the road.  The run into Armidale down the New England Highway is, of course, extremely boring, especially after the exhilaration of the Gwydir.

In Armidale we stay at Tattersall's Hotel.  Its cheap, its right on the city mall and it has lock-up accommodation for the bikes.

Here we are ready to leave	River crossing at Alice	Alice again Gorgeous place for a hut, I reckon!	Gwydir corners	Halfway up the Gwydir The obligatory photo stop.
And Again	More Gwydir twisties	The pub	The Armidale mall.	The lock-up for the bikes.

 

Day 2 - Thunderbolts Way, The Buckett's Way and the Oxley Highway.  We left Armidale via the New England Highway to Uralla where we turned left (south) onto Thunderbolt's Way and on through Walcha and up to the high country.  The high country part of Thunderbolt's Way has only been sealed for a couple of years so the surface is still race track perfect and the road is a mixture of tight corners and fast sweepers.  It is well worth the relatively dull hour or so to get there.  Unfortunately the very high part was in cloud on the day which left the road damp in places (I love those Metzler tyres) but it wasn't enough to justify wearing wet gear.  Thunderbolt's way takes us to Gloucester where we stop for morning tea.  Then its east on to The Buckett's Way to Taree where we turn north onto the Pacific Highway.  The Buckett's Way is another great road of mostly medium sweepers.  Nothing too tight and nothing too open.  The Pacific Highway is, of course, a very boring piece of road so we alleviated the boredom by taking a side trip to play Terrence the Tourist at Crowdy Head (very pretty place).  Being now able to wear the "I've been to Crowdy Head too" t-shirt, we continued north on the Pacific Highway and then too the Baggo Road to Wauchope where we stopped for some lunch.  Our bodies fuelled up it was west up the Oxley Highway.  The reason the Wauchope to Walcha stretch of the Oxley Highway is reputed to be the best motorcycle road in Australia is because it probably is.  The road is well surfaced and it eases in with about 60ks of gradually tightening sweepers followed by about 60ks of tight mountain corners that just come one after the other and then another 60ks opening up into Walcha to let the heart rate slow down a bit.  This is not a road for the feint of heart.  We stopped in Walcha at the bakery cafe for afternoon tea before turning north (right) onto Thunderbolt's Way and on to Uralla and then to Armidale via the new England Highway for the evening's respite.  Though I've ridden all these roads before, I couldn't help thinking as I rode them again, that they were even better than I remember them.  They are probably even better than I remember them as I write this, with them still fresh in my mind.

 

The view from Thunderbolts Way	Carson's pioneer lookout A tribute to those who built the road.	The southern end of Thunderbolt's Way	The view from Crowdy Head	Crowdy Head Lighthouse
The start of the Oxley Highway	Oxley class	More Oxley class	Walcha for afternoon tea

 

Day 3 - The Oxley Highway and Waterfall Way.  Once again, we left Armidale via the New England Highway to Uralla where we turned left (south) onto Thunderbolt's Way and on to Walcha where we turned left (east) onto the Oxley Highway.  We stopped for morning tea at Ginger's Creek which is about half way down the Walcha to Wauchope stretch of the Oxley.  As we were leaving, two BMW riders pulled in.  Both were sporting the usual big grins from the road and the second of the two excitedly commented that he wanted to turn around and do that stretch again.  I remembered that this was exactly my reaction the first time I did the Oxley and we stopped at Ginger's Creek.  Of course I now know that it just gets better from there down.  We continued on to Wauchope where we turned north (left) to Pembroke and then on to the Pacific Highway (yuk).  We decided to take a detour to South West Rocks for lunch and to alleviate the highway boredom.  Roy also likes to have a swim on these occasions.  After lunch it was back to the highway and then left onto Waterfall Way and on up to Bellingen and then Dorrigo.  A lot of this road runs beside the Bellinger River and it is extremely scenic.  We had afternoon tea in Dorrigo and then continued up Waterfall Way back to Armidale to complete the day's ride.

 

The Oxley Would you believe there's a sign warning of 46klms of winding road just above my bike! The caption was going to be "What was the last 40ks".	Ginger's Creek The halfway stop on the Oxley.	Lunch stop at South West Rocks	Roy went swimming	Afternoon tea stop in Dorrigo

 

Day 4 - Armidale to Brisbane