My trip planning started months before the start of the ride.
My job as a part time TAFE teacher has me teaching on Mondays starting at 9am, not a good option for someone who will be returning from Saturday midnight meeting in South Australia.
Email to the boss that I will not be able to work on the Monday and could she find a replacement teacher.
Yes was the answer and I’m free to ride with the wind in my face (or ear as you will see).
Planning starts and I make the decision to attempt an IBA Saddlesore 2000 km ride with the option of pulling up at the 1600 km mark for a Saddlesore 1600.
This was done by allowing extra hours to get to the destination, Horrocks Pass cairn by midnight.
Was planning to sleep in the afternoon and start at 4.30pm. A phone call from the boss and I find myself replacing another teacher on Friday. This gets my “lost” money back but now stops me from having an afternoon nap.

Bike prepared and paperwork printed signed, filled out and filed and I’m off to Chinderah to get my 5 litre jerry can filled, the bike has been full for a couple of days.
16:34 at Chinderah was my start time, next fuel planned at Macksville, 345 km away.
As usual I bypass Ballina via the Teven road, keeps the averages up a bit. I have a quick nature stop at Woodburn and get going.
The rain starts shortly after Woodburn.
Another bypass route, this time the Centenary road takes me to the east of Grafton.

I can’t recall when I have been through South Grafton.
It was raining and as usual I’m careful not to exceed the speed limit. I see a car approaching rapidly from the rear and increase my speed a little, but not fast enough for this impatient driver. A decision to slow down and allow them to pass allows me to focus on what’s in front, rather than what’s behind.
Another quick stop to get rid of some excess coffee was made at Woolgoolga and now it’s a non stop run to Macksville, my first fuel stop.
8:40pm
350km
21.36 litres
$27.00

Kempsey finds me stopping at Macca’s for a regular burger and a couple of their apple pies. I was hoping I’d get the ones that had been in the hotbox past their use by date and would have a hard outer crust but I was wrong. Fresh apple pie is not easy to nibble on at 110 km/h, in the dark, rain and with gloves on.

At some stage I was approached from the rear by another vehicle travelling about 5 km/h faster than me. I start to wonder if it’s the same one that caught up to me at Grafton. This vehicle went into lane 2 (the right lane) and proceeded to use me as his speed marker, keep awaker or something.
Nothing pisses me off more than to ride on an almost abandoned road at nearly midnight and some wanker decides he wants to be part of my herd. >:(
Well buddy, I’m not a herd animal so I’ll slow down by 5 km/h and let you go past. He didn’t go past and stays in my blind spot for about 5 km. I am starting to think it’s a policeman checking me out on the radio but it doesn’t pull me over or go past so I decide to do something about it.. After a look around to make sure there were no other vehicles I tested out my brakes and let this person go ahead of me.
After dawdling along at 10 below the limit till this car is out of sight I press resume on the cruise control and continue my solo journey at my original speed.
About 20 km later I catch up and end up overtaking; the car now accelerates and keeps up with me. We are now following a couple of articulated vehicles and I notice we are about to run out of double lane. A conscious decision to change down a couple of gears and to break the law saw the bike rocket past the 2 vehicles before the car driver wakes up and starts to follow me. He gets between the 2 trucks and can’t get behind me. I can now travel in safety after a bit of safe speeding .

Heatherbrae is the next stop for fuel and a walk around. At this time of night the toilets are locked and I couldn’t be bothered going back in and asking the attendant for a key etc. Hope there weren’t any security cameras behind the building.
12:05am
317km
16.78 litres
$19.95

Leave the servo and head towards Hexham and the start of the westbound leg of the trip.
After passing through Denman I’m starting to feel like a rest stop so I start looking for somewhere to stop and have a power nap. Not much luck till past Dunedoo and I find a rest area off the left side of the road. Bugger, it’s only a toilet stop and doesn’t have a table, bench or cover. After sitting under the toilet steps for 15min I fel like continuing on again.
Took a photo of the bike

Dubbo is the next stop where I have a 600 ml milk with a couple of coffee sachets dumped in it. I don’t need the sugar of a bought coffee drink and save on GST and excess profit when buying plain. A couple of mars bars completes my breakfast.
4:39am
381km
21.62l
$28:00

I leave Dubbo at 5:00am
At this stage I am 42 minutes behind schedule and decide to give up on the SaddleSore 2000km attempt and just do the SaddleSore1600 to Broken Hill.
Also starting to want a rest, did I mention it’s still raining. Looking for a rest area under cover out of a town is a difficult task so I decided to stop at the Nyngan railway station museum and have 30 min under their awning. It’s just getting light as I set the alarm and close my eyes.
Wide awake 15 minuets later and I climb aboard my trusty steed and head to where I’ve never been before. The unknown always makes the trip interesting.
The next fuel stop is Cobar and I chat with a couple of GS riders who are trying to find the air leak in a rear tyre. Goats were about on the road I was travelling was the warning I received. I stand in the rain and make my regular call to my wife Donna. Did I mention that it’s still raining.
8:33am
303km
19.72l
$27.00
At this stage I’m 50 minutes behind schedule and wonder if I’d made a calculation error.
Google maps predict a time taken to travel that is quite conservative so I recalculated to give me an average speed of 87 km/h. If I could keep the average speed up or down by using the GPS I could get to the destination on time. My calculated arrival time at Peterborough was 4:12pm
After looking at the animals, mainly goats, off to the side of the road I arrive at Wilcannia and have a somewhat relaxed chat with the petrol station and café attendants while I have a toasted sandwich and a delicious cup of brewed coffee. Make a note to myself to stop here again soon.
11:35am
266km
11:35am
$28.00

Leaving Wilcannia I head towards some clear sky, but the clouds are moving in all directions, quite fascinating to watch

Heading toward Broken Hill the wind picks up and I’m finding it a bit of a strain to hold the bike up against a crosswind from the right.
Bike leans into it and I keep going in a straight line.

Half an hour or so out of Broken Hill I have a pilot vehicle head toward me and I move to the left, he keeps heading toward me till I’m on the left of the left marker and I wonder what’s ahead. I hear him tell someone that there’s a motorbike heading toward them. A wide load appears in the distance and I announce on the CB that I will get off the road for them. I take this photo and then I’m off.

I arrive at Broken Hill for fuel and realise I have a real chance of getting to Peterborough before 4:30pm and completing my Saddlesore 2000 attempt successfully.
Once again I am chatting with a service station attendant; I don’t know how others can do a fuel stop in 5 minutes.
199km
1:27pm
15.18l
$20.01

After a bit of foot tapping I’m on my way.
Cockburn at the NSW SA border was my only stop for a photo, taken with a zte/telstra phone

The rain has stopped and just as I arrive in Yunta, there are 2 escorted wide loads pulling onto the highway in a westerly direction. An observant pilot notices me heading toward them and calls to everyone else to let me past before pulling out onto the road. I thank them and sneak around a police car that is already sitting in my lane.

Now the wind picks up and becomes very gusty, forcing me to use both hands on the bars.
Turning from the Barrier Highway onto Orroroo Peterborough rd was an effort as a gust of wind came at the time I was turning the corner, nearly blowing the bike over. This had become some serious bad weather and I slowed down to below 80 km/h in order to stay in my lane. I wondered at this stage should I pull over and stop but there was nowhere to hide so I kept on with the journey.

Arriving at Peterborough was an achievement. I had just done 2000 km in weather varying from dry to wet and just plain “you’d have to be stupid to be here” type weather.
292km
4:06pm (eastern standard time)
25.02l
$31.00

Details as taken from GPS
Total kilometres 2065 as indicated on
Time taken 23hrs 28 minutes
Overall average speed 88km/h
The obligatory GPS shot, I need to take a better photo

After fuelling up I headed toward Horrocks Pass but only got about 3 km down the road and decided to hide from the wind for a while. A nice tin shed at Peterborough was the reason I turned around and chatted to a tourist who was cooking dinner with a gas stove in wind that looked like it was going to blow a tree down on top of us.
I got out the laptop and with the 3g usb dongle I logged onto the net.
The FarRiders location page was the first place to go and I saw that there were a few people a couple of hours behind me. Next was the Bureau of Meteorology weather page to find out where I was had a “Severe Weather Warning” alert.
Called Clint to let him know what was ahead of him and that I was hiding in a shed in town. At this stage I was ready to cancel the rest of the mission and get a warm motel room.
Half an hour later the wind had subsided somewhat and I called Clint again to let him know I was on my way.
I had to concentrate more than usual for the last 90 or so kilometres due to the wind and now rain.
Wilmington disappeared in my mirrors and I realised that I was nearly at my destination 2155 kilometres from home.
Horrocks Pass was one of Davo’s favourite bits of road and I could see why as I was climbing it. Alas, I had to go slow due to the weather.
At the top of the hill I saw a sign pointing to the Horrocks Pass Cairn, I had arrived !!!

The cairn as seen from Google’s street view

Ron aka Grey Gentry was there with a small tent, 2 chairs, a table and coffee making facilities. These items carried on the back of Ron’s GTR1000 were the most welcome things a lone cold wet motorcyclist could hope to see.
Ron makes me a coffee and we have a chat while we wait for others to arrive. It’s always great to catch up with people that share the common interest of long distance motorcycle riding.
We wait till midnight for a memorial meeting to remenber our departed friend David (Davo) Jones, FarRider #1.