3 Mates. 3 WR250Rs. 3000km

This entry is part 9 of 19 in the series Adventure Rider Issue #30

Brendan Monagle and his mates hit the 2018 WR250R Rally. It meant a ride from Melbourne in Victoria to north of Sydney in NSW.

he clock ticked over to 5.00am as myself, Nick White and Tom Bennetts fired up our steel horses and embarked into the morning darkness for the first leg of the journey.

Coming from our respective homes around Melbourne’s suburbs, we convened to fuel up, smash a latte, a bacon-and-egg McMuffin and wait for Nick to stop dilly-dallying before we began our day of scenic dirt roads. We were headed for the WR250R Rally at Cessnock, northwest of Sydney. Over three days we aimed to avoid the highways at all cost, opting for the dirt and scenery of the open country.

Dawn revealed a crisp, foggy, river morning.

Nick of time

First on our agenda was to carve up the corners of Mount Baw Baw, east of Melbourne. We hit the summit at about 9:30am, on the way stopping off in the historic goldrush town of Walhalla.

We soaked up the atmosphere of an iconic period in Australian history before jumping on our three blue bullets and knocking out big kilometres through the Gippsland region. Stocked up with steaks and tinnies for our first night’s feast we passed through Buchan and then into the Snowy Mountains. The bitumen disappeared as the glorious red-dirt rolled across the landscape.

From left: author Brendan Monagle, Nick White and Tom Bennetts. The three rode from Melbourne, Victoria, to Cessnock, NSW, for the WR250R Rally and picked up the award for ‘Furthest Travelled’.

We barrelled straight through the mountains, winding around dirt roads with more twists than a pig’s tail, and as the afternoon sun dimmed we pulled over alongside the river and set up camp with not a soul in sight.

Brendan couldn’t resist a quick dip in the chilly waters, insisting a ‘cold one’ was best served in ‘a cold one’. We cracked open the tinnies as Tom – the hardcore ultra-lightweight survivalist – found himself a river rock to cook his steak on.

If that ain’t living off the land I don’t know what is.

A day of scenic dirt roads.

Denied

Dawn revealed a crisp, foggy, river morning. With no dilly-dally Tom was ready to hit the NSW border just a few hundred metres up the road. We raced through the fog to the top of the ranges, flying along the Barry Way through valleys and mountains, until we hit Jindabyne.

After a quick stop for lunch and fuel and we continued on our dirt tracks to Namadgi National Park. In our third State for the day – two States and a Territory, actually – we enjoyed the ACT National Park’s fast, dense bush roads taking us towards Canberra and a cheeky pic of our bikes in front of Parliament House. Tom lined up the boys and began to frame up a quick shot, however it only took about 17 seconds before two ASIO officers in an unmarked car rocked up to tell us off. We made tracks for Sydney – aka ‘The Big Smoke’ – and after making good time we finished the day closer to the city than we anticipated, and this limited our bush-camping options. Google maps led us astray and took us deep into a dingy park littered with seemingly abandoned heavy machinery. We decided we were probably somewhere we shouldn’t be and began navigating the network of weirdly dilapidated roads until we found an exit that put us back on the main freeway to Sydney.

Definitely riding to the rally again next year.

But lo and behold! It had a whopping big gate blocking it off.

Rather than heading back for 40 minutes we worked on a plan to get past the gate.

It turned out the grid of the gate was just large enough in one section to push our bikes over and through the bars. With a bit of shoving and contorting we were out and back on the road.

Down to last resorts we rode further into Sydney and found a caravan park which had a patch of grass we could set up on for the night.

Muddy and grinning from the awesome terrain.

Talkin’ it up

The next day opened with us fighting the early-morning Sydney traffic to work our way to the opera house.

Dodging the tourist busses, we grabbed a photo of our mighty Yamahas in front of the iconic landmark, then jumped on to the glorious Sydney Harbour Bridge to get out of the hustle and bustle and back on some flowing roads. We ditched
the highways and opted for the Old Pacific Highway that winds north through Sydney’s beautiful mountains and inlets.

With a 3.00pm deadline for fresh tyres at the Cessnock Yamaha dealership, we burned through the Hunter Valley and its lush fields. On a sunny day with not a cloud in sight we pulled into Cessnock 1400kms after we’d set off from Melbourne.

Camp with not a soul in sight.

We met up with the other riders and the organisers of the rally and had a good yarn before heading into the nearby bushland to scout out a good camping spot for the night. After a pub session for dinner, and meeting and greeting the fellow riders, we flicked on our high beams and floodlights for the night ride to camp. With a nice fire roaring we pulled out the Helinox chairs and started talking shit over a couple of frothies. We also gave Tom a bit of a stir about who was going to rip more wheelies during the rally, him or American WR250R Rally guest, Tim Hollis.

A cheeky pic of the bikes in front of Parliament House before two ASIO officers in an unmarked car rocked up to suggest the riders move along.

Rally round

Day one of the rally was a bloody ripper.

It began with a combination of fast, flowing dirt roads, complete with jumps and some sneaky sand traps, along with opt-in technical single tracks and hill sections. Nick and Brendan, carrying all their weeks’ worth of camping gear around the whole day, managed to smash through all the obstacles unfazed.

Tom, meanwhile, going for more of a competitive advantage, ditched the gear for less weight, more manoeuvrability and increased wheelying power.

The end of the day saw us muddy and grinning from the awesome terrain and the fun of the route.

The second day involved a faster mountain section with plenty of jumps and our suspensions were bottoming out right, left and centre. After a quick test ride on the Teknik bike we were all 100 per cent convinced that would be our next upgrade.

A quick latte at the Pig And Whistle and we were sadly on the last leg of our 2018 WR250R Rally. But what a leg it was: fantastic, tight, single track with scrub up to our waists. It was the perfect way to round off a ripper rally.

For the first time the rally had opt-in technical single tracks
and hill sections. This section was the final of the second day.

Same again

With over 1000kms to get home there was again no time to dilly-dally. As soon as we rolled in at 3.00pm to end the rally we added some PSI to our tyres and hit the road to knock off some kilometres. The trip home was a long and boring one. Due to the need to be back at work on the Tuesday we had to simply demolish distance on the Hume. We passed through Sydney as the sun set and a big electric storm rolled in, and after a couple of hours in the cold rain and cracking lightning we reached Goulburn. We dried some essential clothes on a public barbeque, had a sleep and then hit the road again in the morning. Just on 700km later we pulled into Melbourne under a dramatic sunset.

We already couldn’t help reminiscing over the epic journey we’d just closed out. Sign me up for next year, boys. You can bet we will be riding to the rally again.The three mates on their three trusty steeds.

Twice as many starters for the second annual WR250R Rally at Cessnock.

The second annual WR250R Rally went off bigger and better than the first with 64 riders of the Yamaha trailbike congregating at Cessnock, NSW, for the two-day, 500km adventure ride. That’s close to twice as many as turned up for the inaugural 2017 Rally.

The event was organised by Greg Yager and his team from Ride ADV and hosted by dirtbike legend Chris Watson of Chris Watson’s Motorcycles.

The rally had an international flavour with US guest rider and WR250R nut Tim Hollis entertaining the group with his special style of free-riding, straight from the dunes of southern California.

The ride covered prime trails around the Hunter region including the Watagan, Olney and Yengo State Forests. Prizes were awarded for a number of categories including Furthest Travelled – won by three intrepid mates who rode up from Melbourne on a camping trip.

Once again, a wide range of riders turned up, from 18-year-old sweep Lochie Caldwell to 84-year-old Cessnock local, Brian Rooney. Rooney rode the same lowered WR250R he rode in the inaugural rally and neither bike nor rider missed a beat. Four female riders also enjoyed the event, which this year offered optional technical sections.