A Solo Adventure Ride - The 'Australian DRZ400E' - Part 2

Oh here we go. How cool is this? I never knew this existed. Oh awesome. I love these old shacks. Well like usual the weatherman got it totally wrong. It 100% said no rain and at 12 30 last night it fucking started raining and the best I could do was to get my tarp and just throw it over like this. Needless to say that was one of the effing worst nights sleep I've had in my life but I stayed dry just and this is what I've woken up to so it's a great start to day two but we've got to keep just getting ready and move on forward I guess. Oh man. Day two is underway and a quick note whilst I leave the campground that gourmet meal that I had last night if I've never had that before went down a treat tasted awesome however I was absolutely in a gas chamber the whole night in my hammock and I was farting like an absolute disgusting disgusting animal but it went it went down pretty good so I guess that's a win if you can handle smelling your own farts awesome stuff. So although it rained a little bit last night not much but enough to be bothersome the weatherman did say 20 degrees today partly cloudy which is awesome and my two points of interest to find is a a frostking place which I believe is for gems and stuff an old little mining thing out at Vulcan National Park or State Forest and then head out to Abercrombie National Park which I've never been before and that's been closed for a long time but apparently open only a couple of weeks ago so just suss out what type of bushland it is what kind of tracks and what sort of campgrounds I've got but I'm looking forward to it I'm now south of Oberon and off the road and back into the bush but I tell you what it's meant to be 20 degrees and obviously it's not 20 degrees yet I am freezing my tits off I've got no winter layers on which is my own fault for not bringing them but I feel like I'm riding on permanent corrugations just sitting here shivering shivering away I really hope some bloody sun comes out soon this is crazy well this is one of my points of interest that came up on google maps um public fossicking area it came up on the map it was in the bush so I thought I may as well come here and just see what it's all about but um let's see what the fossicking area looks like well so far the gem fossicking area is just an absolute rutted out disaster of an area geez um where the track is horrendous and slippery and wet but I'll continue on for a bit longer no this is shithouse so far I don't know how much fossicking actually happens here anymore I don't know the history of it but oh man it's um not the easiest place to get around not by vehicle anyway this is an absolute disaster oh I'm not going through that slosh jesus this is just so such a weird place to be in really um it's just a state forest but it is very very strange indeed I can officially say that the public fossicking area and there's no one here I've only explored a little bit of it but it's just a very wet soggy pothole sad place to um to ride in when you're doing adventure riding anyway maybe unloaded it'll be fun but I think it's time to get out of here and keep exploring have a go of how dark it is in here I don't know if the gopro's showing it but it doesn't look like much bloody sun that gets in here obviously it's a state forest and they obviously log all the wood every now and again but it's a it's just a sad place to ride in if you're on an enduro day just fanging it with your mates probably a different story but it's not that appetizing to um be adventure riding through Ivo because I don't know it's just a dull bleak looking area I tell you what I am losing or should have already lost all faith in the weatherman and weather apps as of 30 hours ago I know a lot can change in 30 hours but it was meant to be majority sunny and 20 degrees for the rest of this week and instead it's bloody raining I am freezing my tits off still and I've got no warm or wet weather gear as mentioned before yet it's right like how can they get it so wrong with all the technology we've got these days bloody hell this better be a short lead shower because if I get too wet I'm going to be in a world of hurt that's for sure man this bloody storm is going to be a major major setback not only am I soaking wet and I think it's fair to say it's probably about six or seven degrees so it's very very cold but I can't do anywhere near the speeds I wanted because I can't see out of my visor and there's potholes all over the place and if I had my visor up I well the eye the eyes get smashed with raindrops so um I may be stopping a lot earlier today than expected but I'll push on for now because I'm already soaking wet but this storm does not look like it's going anywhere anytime fast it's a shame I've had this rain hope it's going to be soon but this road is so awesome heading out to um Abercrombie National Park and you've got beautiful beautiful sights and scenery but I haven't been able to really enjoy it and take it in because of the uh the storm that hit me but maybe another day I can come back out here that's for sure oh that's bullshit on the internet before I came here it said open which changed two weeks before I came oh no where am I going to go now oh today is turning out to be a real shitty day adventure riding at its finest as I always say well I found the bush not the bush I wanted to be in um south side of Vulcan State Forest but I haven't been here so I'll explore it and I'll travel east and I'll try and head towards the south side of Cananga and Warmbier Caves area and try and explore some tracks there later today but yeah a lot of backtrackers now unfortunately that's adventure riding sometimes um I guess my problem is I get very set on a certain location if I don't get to go there I get pretty down in the dumps about it but I'll push straight out of my head and um look end of the day I'm riding the rain sort of stopped for now I'm slowly drying out so um I guess what more do you want you're on the bike you're riding it's all good it's all good I just came across this little hill climb and I'm getting so shitty with today I thought I'm gonna have a bit of fun and do a little detour because I'm getting sick to death I've been turned back around oh shit that was what the fuck happened there oh man today is not my day it's fucking completely washed out luckily I landed on a high point this is turning out to be a disaster come on stay positive stay freaking positive I'm just too bloody wet man that was close I cannot cut a break at all oh man this sucks ass I'm actually descending quite a steep hill but this is really weird because it looks like a main track but it's not on google or my offline apps as a track that exists so I don't know what that means anything positive for me but I'll come down it anyway I can certainly get up it if I need to but it's kind of cool exploring a track that doesn't exist so well I don't know what the GoPro is showing but I'd suggest it's showing but I'm on a track um but yet it still doesn't exist on any maps so this could be why maybe just a little crossing yeah that's what it was just a private property section I think with the signage further up that's all right I think I'm getting the gist of it out here um there's one or two main tracks all the rest just leads nothing a bit of exploring to be had but um it's always always backtracking involved so backtracking I'll do once again and just see what happens good news is I'm starting to get my mojo back um now that I'm drying out a little bit and in some decent bush and exploring new areas I'm not too down in the dumps anymore so hopefully it's all positive stuff from here on then because the first half of this day as you've seen has been pretty bloody rough that's for sure oh glorious glorious blue sky and just a pinch of sun I've got two hours left of riding today before I must find a campsite and I might be finishing in a bit of sun how good is that spirits are high again I'm still wet as but that's all good beautiful it's so weird here is a pine forest which I can only assume is very similar to where it's native and what it would look like in its native lands and then this is the Australian bush which has just got plenty of open area just you know raggedy old gum trees that are hardy as though and then you've got this again two complete different um I guess ecosystem if you want to put it that way that's what I would prefer 100% the Aussie bush looking like the Aussie bush not this so after today's efforts um I've really just had enough fun to be honest I've had a good day but I didn't want to push on and not know where I was going to end up so I've stopped here at Mount Wurrong campground because I've only got my hammock I've set it up the best I can between these two trees but the wind's blowing an absolute gale so I don't even know if that's going to um hold up for the night but I'll give it a shot luckily I've got this shoulder so I'll park my motorbike under here and my backup plan is if it truly gets too windy I'll just pull my mat out my sleeping bag and I'll bloody sleep on um on this table if I want don't get me wrong still loving it it's all part of learning and um adventure riding and just sort of taking as it comes but it's definitely been a a rough old day now that I've set up camp and having a little look around I actually thought these were toilet blocks but it's not they're little old huts and um you're allowed to actually shelter in here if need be not for overnight accommodation unless in urgent circumstances but for me if we got too out of hand out there I'll um ditch the table I'll just lay my mat and sleeping bag in here um you know if it gets too uncomfortable out there that's what this hut can be used for well see you later campground day three is underway beautiful I've got full sun this time and last night was horrendous and I did in fact get my sleeping mat sleeping bag and I slept in that hut because it was just far too windy and all of my body heat was being stolen from underneath me and the problem with the hammock is if you don't have a underquilt and it's windy and cold it's miserable but the underquilt takes up too much room in the bag so you're better off just having a tent anyway still a fun night overall bit of an experience I'll never forget but day three let's get at it 100 perfect weather I'm pretty excited for today it's my last day of riding but because I've got such good weather and such good tracks to ride I do know the tracks out here are awesome um it's all positive vibes awesome stuff I cannot complain and even with two horrendous nights sleep um they're the moments that we remember though so at any time I'll be thinking back and just laughing about that oh phenomenal look down there unbelievable oh here we go oh how cool is this I never knew this existed oh awesome I love these old shacks here we go the ruby mine shack looks about as ancient as my motorbike does let's have a quick look inside I love um coming to these little destinations let's have a look what does it look like oh yeah some drum of some sort maybe an old fire pit another fire pit there which has been held together by a bit of wire I'm assuming all the wood's rotted away um I could probably fall any day now but pretty cool got one window two windows and a door and then whoever lived here would step out here if they had a motorbike well they've got these awesome views oh you can't ask for much more than this I'm following a track that um is not on any of my maps it has no fence or barricade up I have no idea where it goes but um clearly not used often it's now kind of turned into a single trail but it was a four-wheel drive track back there but I've got no idea if this is going to be a dead end or some cool ending let's have a look here's my main track here I am no track exists and it just comes to this this dead end I've said it a few times before on other trips but um you cannot argue that Canangra Boyd has some of the best bush riding to offer in terms of just nice fire trails cutting through just spectacular spectacular bushland um it's just an unreal feeling to ride through here especially if you're not after anything hardcore and just taking in the sights just a bit of footage of the DRs there just banging it along here absolutely awesome I don't know what this will look like on the GoPro but I'm going slow but all these trees are all windswept and they all grow out to the right and um as you ride through it it's so disorientating you want to lean your bike to the right because your eyes want to fall over trees but um obviously you'd fall off your bike if you did that but that's pretty cool and weird to ride through that's for sure windswept trees hey this track said it had a lock gate up ahead um I wonder if that's the mother nature's version of the lock gate oh I can't get around that one oh that's a bummer that was a pretty cool track maybe if I was Graham Jarvis I could just pop up there mono roll back down somehow ride down the log and get over there but unfortunately I'm just Lance with basic skills so we'll have to turn around well I'm officially out of Canangra Boyd National Park and I'm getting closer and closer to Weomby and Caves area so it's been sensational riding um traveling south I believe I've got a few more tracks I'm still able to achieve but um Canangra Boyd once again you're never ever disappointed except for last night when I was freezing my tits off in my hammock but that's my own fault so no apologies needed there from the National Park at all but do yourself the favor and ride through Canangra National Park and do all the tracks you can it's definitely definitely enjoyable I'm slowly slowly getting my way out of the bush but I'm coming across some little left and right turns here and there so I don't want my day to stop yet so I'm trying to climb this bloody absolute rubbish of a track see where it takes me otherwise I keep going straight ahead I start heading home which the day's too nice for that to happen yet I don't really know if this is a track anymore oh yeah right one of those things I wonder if I just push through just into here nah big tree just there shit okay well I'll keep going towards home for now get out of this shit show now this is what it's all about have a look at those yews riding right against the cliff face just don't want to fall off unbelievable spectacular I just saw this little high point which might give me a bird's eye view of where I'm going and what's going on out there let's try and climb this and suss out the terrain and make sure I'm not doing anything silly where I'll run out of fuel she's steep climbing up here wow well while I stand here and take in the scenery I think this is a very fitting location to end my riding video I've got about three hours of winding out of all this bushland to get home but I won't film that but it's been three days of pleasure even though day two was a nightmare but as adventure riders you always always remember the bad moments in the years to come and the good moments just blur into one but another three day one under the belt once again the DRZ400E has done the job it's about a thousand kilometer ride this time but on that note everybody thanks for watching please subscribe comment and like I'll try to get back to you where I can and enjoy the scenery I'll catch us on the next ride