A_R_R_2015_04

AUSTRALIAN ROAD RIDER | 95

ON THE ROAD

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STORY AND PHOTOS: MARK

HINCHLIFFE

W

hen you’re travelling in a

group, you only progress

as fast as the slowest

rider. And if there is a

photo-journalist in your pack, it’s going to

be even slower, especially when he takes

an impromptu bath ... but more of that

later on.

That was my role in a recent ride

with nine other adventure riders intent

on exploring two of the most popular

adventure roads in northern NSW: Paddy’s

Flat and Rocky River. The former is a

north-west road that winds up and over

several ranges and across a couple of

creeks before hi ing the Bruxner Highway

near the hamlet of Drake. The la er arcs

south of the Bruxner, following the river

of the same name and climbs west up the

Central Highlands to Tenterfi eld. Together,

they form a big “J” curve on the map.

All up, they are only about 150km, but

it took us two half days to complete them

thanks to the vagaries of riding in a pack

of 10 that includes a photo-journalist who

wants to stop every few minutes to get

that elusive two-page shot that kicks off a

travel article like this.

But I can’t take the full blame for the

slow pace. When you’re travelling dirt

roads, you are bound to have at least one

“incident”. That could include a puncture,

running repairs on damage caused by

fl ying rocks, falling off , or just stuff ra ling

itself loose, such as luggage.

If everyone has just one incident on a

trip and you multiply the stopped time

by the number of riders, you start to get

a picture of how slow progress can be in

a fair-sized group on an adventure ride.

But it just makes the bench racing at the

end of the day a lot more colourful and

entertaining.

Our trip started with an early mark

from work on a Friday with all riders

gathering at the Maccas in Goodna,

Ipswich, the gateway to the south-west.

Some 45-minutes later, a er a quick fuel

top-up at Boonah, we start hi ing the

dirt of White Swamp Rd, which curls up

through the Border Ranges forests and

spills out into the valleys that fi nger down

toward Old Koreelah on the Mt Lindesay

Highway.

Already we’ve had one stop to repair a

front master cylinder on a GS which had

copped a rock and sha ered the cap. The

pace has been brisk and the excited riders

are bunching up, racing and generally

cavorting like the caged animals we all are.

So there are some pre y lethal rocks being

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