In the middle of the night the southerly front that had chased us north from Taree finally arrived, with strong winds and a downpour overnight.  By morning there were still intermittent showers, and our newer riders geared up with trepidation for the ride ahead.

First up we stopped at North Coast V-Twins, the local Harley dealer at Coffs Harbour for a hot breakfast, and for last minute purchases of wet weather gear!  Local breast cancer survivors and Ulysses motorcycle club members came out to chat, along with family and friends of the riders in the area.

The weather showed no sign of clearing, so we took the bit in our teeth and headed off down the road out through Coramba and Nana Glen.  No sign of Russell Crowe as we rode through, but the sight of the bikes in perfect formation was even better.

We dropped our pace off a little to allow for the weather but the whole group continued to ride beautifully.  Just outside Nana Glen we saw a mob of wild kangaroos in a field – unfortunately both Americans, Megan and Gail were the only riders to miss it!

After a great one hour ride we rolled into Grafton for petrol and the smiles on all of the faces of the riders lit up the sky – the “new” riders had learnt that rain really makes no difference, and just adds another challenge to what is still a beautiful ride.

After some 600 plus kilometers of riding city streets, freeways, twisties, gravel and now in the rain we formally announced that we had no “new” riders anymore – they had all earned their stripes as experienced bikers.

We set off again through the occasional shower along good roads with no traffic for another hour to reach Casino and our next gas stop.  The flowering jacaranda trees in Grafton and along the road lit up the grey day with floods of bright purple.

Unfortunately we had a hiccup in Casino – Leanne’s bike had been developing a throttle problem and refused to start after our stop.  After half an hour of persuading, we managed to get it going and nurse it through to Ballina.

Thanks to the rain and bike trouble, we arrived about 1.25 hrs late to our lunch stop at Seaside Motorcycles – the local Harley dealer, and missed the local tv crew that hadn’t been able to wait for us.  The local newspaper was still there, as were some local HOG members who had come to do a sausage sizzle.

A couple of the girls had a spin around the block on a trike while the rest of us peeled off the wet weather gear.

We had a quick lunch while the dealer’s techs did some diagnostics on Leanne’s bikes.  We decided to leave it there overnight to be checked and repaired, and Leanne rode on the back of Meredith’s bike to our overnight stop at Byron Bay.

Tomorrow it is north across the border to Queensland!








Interview in Ballina


Sausage Sizzle at Seaside Motorcycles, Ballina


Edith takes Liz and Gail for a "ride"


Jo, Michelle and Liz


The gang at Seaside Motorcycles, Ballina