Phillip's story - Gosford to South West Rocks

We received this story from Phillip. A group of 6 headed off and rode from Gosford to South West Rocks covering nearly 400km all up over 3 days.

We have a small local social riding group and 6 of the group rode from Gosford to South West Rocks starting on the morning of Nov1. Nearly 400km all up over 3 days. Distances planned per day were 160,124,101. It ended up a bit more given some sight seeing detours along the way. For support we shared driving in a Hi Ace van pulling a trailer. The trailer was fitted out to take all 6 bikes if things went bad. Each rider had to take a turn driving around 20km each day. It was a constant battle trying to get people to do their share of driving.

The riding conditions were perfect with a tail wind for the first two days. First nights stop was at the pub at Bulahdelah. It started raining very lightly about 30km from the pub but not hard enough to make the riding unpleasant. Once we checked into our rooms, had a shower and grabbed a beer to sip on while sitting  the verandah and chating with the locals, the rain started to really bucketed down. Our arrival was perfect timing. The staff at the pub were as friendly as the locals , the food was great and they even reserved us rooms on the ground floor so we could take our bikes into our rooms.

The second day was the best of all with a good tail wind pushing us up the hills north of Bulahdelah. The second nights stay was in a pub in Kew. The publican wouldn't allow us to take our bikes into the rooms but provided a secure building to lock the bikes in. Another good place to stay.

The road up as far as Port Macquarie had a shoulder for bikes around 3 metres wide and very smooth. A great surface to ride on. North of Port Macquarie the shoulder was much narrower and from Kempsey to South West Rocks (35km) there was no shoulder. However with the road shirting the the Macleay River visually it was a very pleasant part of the ride. We had a very strong headwind for this part of the ride so we took turns rotating the lead rider every 2 kms.

All in all we had a fantastic time and plan on doing the ride again next November. We have several other long rides planned between now and then provided we can all get kitchen passes from home. 

thanks Phillip for your story.