So: Just got a new ride after being without for ages (OK only a few months but still...). Been reading RR for ages, decided to contribute. This is no big adventure, but it's a start. Spent a day riding around Orange, NSW, exploring the area. Town itself is attractive. Lots of older homes and wide streets with lots of European trees means they're bare in Winter and are just starting to show some Spring sprouting of new life. Not a big place; about 40,000 pop but growing, mostly due to an expanding gold mine close by. BTW - best pics at the end, I wanted to keep the post chronological. Heading out of town, Spring is showing itself by the masses of Wattle flowers that have burst out. You see this everywhere. Not good for hayfevere sufferers though! This is the tree and flower that gives Australia its national sporting colours of green and gold. You'll see them in our Olympic uniforms, Rugby jerseys, Football (Soccer) jumpers among others. Typical of the Aussie bush, the greens are slightly dull rather than bright. Orange is situated over 1000m (3,000+ ft) above sea level and is a vibrant fruit growing region. Apples, cherries and grapes abound. In the last 10 years it's become a really well respected wine producing area and many orchards have made way for vineyards producing increasingly awarded 'cool climate' wines: Vineyards everywhere!: Being higher than the surrounding broad acre farming regions means Orange is gets more rain than neighbouring regions. Still in drought, but recent rain produced some green. Here apple trees show their distorted forms due to pruning aimed at getting sunlight to as much fruit as possible. Lots of cherry trees as well. All about to start sprouting leaves + buds for another year's production. Some nice roads around here. Narrow but smooth and windy and low in traffic: Ended up at Lake Conobolas, only about 20km from town. Its not very big really, only about 1km long and not too wide as you can see. When I got there, people were swimming, Kayaking, Canoeing and fishing. The sun was out, no breeze, just idyllic. Feels great to be alive and exploring by bike! Got a bit arty-farty here!: Moving along................just what motorcyclists LOVE to see (hard to see in the distance is the 35kmh advisory signs). Some tight climbing roads rising up towards the top of Mt Canobolas: After that little bit of scratching fun, the turnoff for the 'summit'. Can you really call it that if it's only about 1400m above sea level? There's a cafe just around this corner, which served great coffee and cake. Sorry, didnt last long enough to get photographed.. The sign is no joke. Winter produces snow every year and the road is often closed to stop stupid sightseers from heading up to play then getting stuck and having to be rescued. Still happens though. Some more tight, well surfaced climbing roads. Yee Ha! Not far up, the sealed road gives way to gravel. This would be an interesting test for my new two wheeled baby - hadn't had her off road up till this point. Is this where the report becomes truly worthy of being on ADVRider???? More to come...............
Good work! I lived in Orange whilst working on the construction of the Ridgeway Project (next door to Cadia) back in 1999. I did some awesome trailrides around the area; I'm looking forward to some great pictures.
And on we go... Pretty hard packed dirt roads with a layer of loose gravel over the top, plenty of potholes and ripples but no problems as long as I kept the speed moderate and was camber aware: After only a couple of Km's of this, and thankfully no heart-in-mouth moments, the road became sealed again and I had a fun squirt to the summit on, again, a narrow but otherwise perfect road: The recent rain meant NO gravel on the ashphalt either! A large flat carpark greets you at the top, with a raised viewing area, an encircling stone wall and 360 degree views to the far off horizon. Great views. Took it in for a while, then went exploring. Dirt roads abound around the summit. Nothing too difficult for the bike. Back to the summit to take in the sunset. At 1400m, there's nothing as high to the West until you get to South Africa, East to the Blue Mountains, South to Mt Koziosko and North for ??? but must be a long way. This makes is an obvious place for communications towers, which are a bit of any eyesore, but then we do like our TV and mobiles these days... Looking ENE shows the city of Orange itself and off into the distance. Looking WNW. Started to get some nice light as the sun went down. Viewing South, Not standing in a great spot to see the horizon (just have to walk over a bit), but you can see how the sunset is covering 180 degrees of the horizon. Just beautiful. Due west: Just have to get the bike in.... Last gasp of the sun for the day. A stunning finale to a great day. No problems getting down again. After this day, I found myself refreshed, relaxed and without a care in the world. I had been doing 'my thing' I realised that the worries and pressures of day to day life had simply vanished for a few hours - just didnt come into my consciousness. I was just out riding and exploring and nothing else mattered. It's been too long since I'd done anything like this, and it wouldnt have happened if I hadn't had the bike. There's nothing quite like it, is there? Cheers.
Looks like a great day out, stormcloud! Love the central west, used to go to Orange a bit when a mate raced go karts, bloody cold, I know that!!
