Journey's End - Solo motorcycle camping adventure on a Royal Enfield Himalayan.

I made my way through the city and under Sydney Harbour. When I'm riding in the city I normally want to get out and the quickest way out of Sydney was through their tunnel system which takes you from the south near the airport north to Hornsby. I'm not really a fan of riding on the highway so I turned off and headed towards the coast. This is your typical east coast coastal town. It has a surf club, a general store and a totally stock standard jaw-dropping bay. But seriously can you get any more idyllic for a beachside town? They have a small jetty with a sheltered bay for the fishing boats. I rode to the top of the headland. I'm surprised I've never been here but I guess it's not known for waves so when I was younger that's all we did was go up and down this coast chasing waves. That's probably why but it is stunningly beautiful. Back on the bike next I'd continue north towards Port Macquarie. I spotted this gorgeous old bike on the grass. It was a BSA. I'm not sure the exact model but probably from the mid-1930s. I do love those fish tarp pipes. I was told you could get north to Port Macquarie on a fun little dirt track that ran just behind the beach. The track was well maintained, narrow in sections. Passing someone would be a tight squeeze but I came across nobody. The surprising thing was how much the vegetation changed along its length. Yep the description was exactly right. A fun little dirt track. Is there anything more fun in summer as a kid Down at the local river mouth jumping from the nearest bridge I made my way into Port Macquarie. Port Macquarie was founded as a penal settlement in 1821 replacing Newcastle which was no longer isolated from Sydney which was kind of a key requirement. If you notice the foreshore of the city has a green band along the coastline with very few buildings where a lot of other places build right onto the water's edge. This was because in the 1970s a group of locals lobbied against developments which created the green band along the foreshore. A rare case of locals getting a city they wanted. I pulled up in line for the small ferry to the north side of the Hastings River. Over a decade ago I spent several years making surf films along the east coast and a present head. From memory there was a dirt track. I remember it being potholed if it hadn't been graded flat recently but otherwise it'd be fine on the bike. Then I hit the track and well it looked like it hadn't been graded in years. It was constant rolled off hole after hole like the course on ski moguls. It finally smoothed out to what I remembered it being like. Then I came across a sign that said no two-wheel drive only four-wheel drive. It was sandy but not too deep. The sand got deeper. My main concern was I didn't have Melbourne tyres on the back anymore. It barely had grooves in the tyre which meant hardly any traction in sand. I was basically at the end of the trip and I didn't want to have a nightmare last day. My sensible side was saying turn around and go back the way you came. Especially after the fun at Murray sunset chasing the pink lake. So I listened and turned around as who knew how bad it would get. I mean they have a digger out here with caterpillar tracks to get through. But turning around felt all kinds of wrong. So after swallowing some concrete and hardening up so to speak I turned back around again. I mean what was I doing out here? I was meant to be exploring and here was a perfectly good opportunity to explore. Having the wrong back tyre on or not for the conditions I was at least going to have a crack. Then up ahead I spotted a car bogged. I think this is a case of a car marketing team stretching the truth by calling a car a four-wheel drive inferring it's as capable as a four-wheel drive and the owner wondering why it wouldn't get through a four-wheel drive track. A local guy rocked up on his dirt bike. I asked him what was the track like ahead. He looked down at my back tyre and thought the same thing as me. The lack of a knobbly tyre could be a problem. But then he said he'd ride the hard sections with me. I thought sweet that would be awesome. Then he went down. So it was tricky even on a dirt bike. Oh man this was going to be fun. I'd worked my way past the bogged car now to get past the four-wheel drive towing a boat. Got past that now on to the next section. The dirt bike guy said half the track into Crescent Head had been tarmac but they had not kept up the maintenance on the rest of the track for years hence the rough condition it was in. The back tyre was just spinning in the sand and providing very little forward propulsion. But the rut was deep enough which meant I could push my feet to help the bike along. I could see dirt bike guy waiting for me to get through the hard sections. Yeah it's all good. There's only a couple little snotty bits like that. Oh sweet cool sweet. You'll get the rest of it. Yeah it kills with just the acceleration. Yeah you can hear it like in a fight. That's the same thing the beamer was doing. Yeah. He said it sounded like the traction control was fighting my bike. But I didn't think I had traction control on this bike. I was starting to get the hang of this. It seemed we'd made it out the worst of the sand. Now it was just fun hot old tracks again. Cool. That is the beach access. I'm going to duck back down the beach and head back to port. All right thanks so much for sticking with me. That's all right. Well that was fun. Not the track I remember. And talking to the guy he said that yeah it's a lot worse than a decade ago before it was fine. Now it's like that. So surprise. But this time didn't drop the bike and made it through. Pretty deep there. Nice of him to stay with me just in case I did come a gutser. But made it through. So yeah just going to keep heading towards present. The road's good from here. And try and get something to eat and drink. We're nearly at the end. I thought thought the last day would be pretty tame. But a lot of fun in the sand. Here's one thing though. I can't seem to pull my clutch in. So I'm going to make an adjustment here. Hopefully that fixes it. I'm not sure exactly what's gone wrong. But we're all about getting me home right now. That's it. We are on the last leg. With the clutch not engaging I made a couple of turns of the adjuster. And okay maybe a few more turns of the adjuster. Hopefully this wasn't going to end up being the place I camp for the night. Well that's a relief. Away we go again. Love a bike you can easily work on. I've spent months along these back beaches over the years. Filming surf movies with a bunch of guys. But especially Dave, Bonga and Andrew. It was literally living the dream. Hanging out. Exploring. Finding waves. I'd film a bit. Then surf all day. And we'd do some random stuff. The last time I saw Bonga he was part of the water patrol at the Pipeline Masters. Andrew, he was a lifeguard at Wyomere Bay on the North Shore. In the footsteps of Eddie Aikau. Dave was running surf camps on the outer islands of Indonesia. I have gone out and stayed with him a few times in surfing's Nirvana. And me, I ended up making featured documentary films. We followed what we're passionate about. And I'd say we've all done pretty well. I chewed up a lot of time playing in the sand. It now looked unlikely I'd make it home before sunset. So I thought I'd keep riding north and see how far I got. Then make a call on what to do. After another huge down the bike and losing light. I decided not to push it and find somewhere to camp for the night. With only the last rays of sunlight it was straight into setting up the tent. I'd set this tent up that many times on this trip. I wondered how fast I could actually do it. And if you'd been watching this whole journey I think you'd probably know how to set this tent up too by now. Well it seems like I can set it up in four minutes and 19 seconds. So technically I think I got camp set up before dark. The slight excursion onto the dirt trails was expected. It should always be a few. Although I'm a few hours, probably three and a half, four hours from home. I decided to pull up stumps and yeah this is Emerald Beach area. Found a little spot with some good grass to camp. And yeah we'll be finishing off tomorrow. I'm gonna pass out and try and wake up in the morning and see what this stunning little headland Emerald Beach is like. I know it's like I've been here a thousand times. If I can get up early I'll show you. This is the main beach at Emerald. But I think there'd be a better view from the top of the headland. It's always worth the effort. I spent a little bit of time here. I made up my Harley Ingleby. We were doing a lot of surf filming together. He was surfing and I was filming. He ended up, he rides anything but twice world longboard champion. So he's from around here and there are that many little bays and back beaches and points. It's amazing. It'd be worth its own trip just exploring this little section of the coast and then inland there are lots of trails. There's an idea. There's probably no better way to start the day than chilling out watching the sunrise. I made my way back to the bike passing the kangaroos thinking you couldn't get more iconic Australian beach scene than this. I stand corrected. Yes you can. This is the bridge where I headed west just a few hours into the trip on the first day. What has transpired from then until now will be etched in my mind for the rest of my life. From the features of the outback, stunning lakes and streams, gorgeous beaches and headlands, favourite campsites. There were a few. The wildlife, the diversity in temperature from over 40 degrees in the desert to cold highlands and mountain passes at freezing. Riding on highways, dirt roads, sandy tracks, rocky tracks, ferries, country roads and even a city or two. With my bike as my constant companion. This land in the south is an incredible place to explore and then it hit me. The journey was coming to an end. Home was just 20 kilometres up the road. Was it really over? Or...