No plans. No worries...

A recent bid to gather a bunch of mates and head south on the bikes resulted in a two-man storm chase!

"OUR ONLY PLAN WAS TO HEAD SOUTH"

As life goes, we have to prioritise things. For 4 out of 6 of us destined for this shit show road trip, work and family took priority. For Jarvis and myself, an adventure awaits.
The trip was meant to be no more than a 3 day ride south with no real destination in mind but a rough mud-map of roadside views and campsites.

Saturday rolls around and were all geared up for the Raised Wrong Chopper Show at Iron and Resin. The cruise there was nothing less than eventful with one bike losing all its lights, one running out of fuel and myself waiting on the side of the highway for my mates that had prematurely turned off before our exit.
The show on the other hand was a bloody vibe! Aaron and the crew once again pulled off an eventful night fuelled with live music, award winning bikes, good vibes and of course; big skids and blown up shovel heads!

Sunday Morning comes around and the weather's not looking in our favour but what's an adventure without a bit of uncertainty?
Now that is where I ask, is it better to plan your road trips or leave it to the higher powers? We certainly had direction but by no means was there a timetable, a definite roadmap or a solid back up plan... Our only plan was to head south!
As this was out first time doing some distance on these bikes, neither of us knew how far we could get out of a tank. With that in mind we set our sights for Kyogle, a 70km journey through the picturesque Northern NSW countryside. A ride I had not yet done but had been recommended to by plenty of people.

We hadn't made it far across the border when we come to a fork in the road... 
Pursuing the path of least braking at the time, we continued left to follow the rivers and creeks past DumDum, Uki and Mt Burrell. A road I was super excited to ride along.

This is where Mother Nature had other plans. We could see a pretty intense storm rolling through in the valley that inevitably would split off and catch up with us later in the day.
We turned around and took the other road toward blue skies and a lovely watering hole commonly known as the Tyalgum Hotel. A quick stop to hydrate and listen to the locals strum away in the courtyard and we were back on the road.

With our sights still firmly planted on Kyogle, we continued on the way. Now we're not afraid of a short patch of rain but no-one loves riding in the wet. Regardless, we carried on through the valley and before long pulled up onto of a hill to a wall of water and gale force winds coming straight for us.
I hadn't even had time to turn my head and look at Jarvis when my vision went white, the ground shook and an ear piercing crack of thunder almost instantly followed!

We looked at each other and without even saying a word, collaboratively decided to chuck a u-turn and head back to Tyalgum. Now these bikes don't ride terribly fast or handle well but we definitely outran the storm!
Needless to say, we took cover and waited this one out...
Our little pit stop gave us time to study the radar a little bit closer and re-evaluate our plan for the remainder of the day. That's where we noticed the storm wasn't going to hit the coast until early the next morning.
We then set our sights on a chilled out ride to Byron Bay.

Fast forward and we've traded swags for pool side margs and stinky little 6 bed male dorm full of European backpackers and sweaty bike riders.
As you do in a place like this, you get talking to people and end up getting dragged around to a late night pub crawl and a hangover to follow.
Lets rewind a bit though...
Shout out to these two Irish lads, their names in which I don't remember and their accents that got stronger as the night got on. They had the bus in hysterics the whole way to town and without hesitation, gathered a small group of us to get in on their antics.
After at least 10 attempts to request "Wonderwall" the performer complied and we were on our way to the next bar.
Did you know Byron is hiding a place called the Piano Bar? Its insane! Your typical Aussie dive bar with sticky floors and no room to move, yet a two person show consisting of two grand pianos and a killer playlist that the world of travellers could all get down to!
All good vibes and a late night beach walk back to our accomodation and were set for day two on the road.

We had great intentions of cruising south some more today so we headed to the coffee shop to make a game plan. That's where we realised we were inevitably going to be smashed by rain no matter which way we headed.

"Do we cut a scenic loop and come back to Byron?"
"How bout we head inland for Kyogle and check out some waterfalls and hikes?"

Less than stoked we decided to take the scenic route back to the Gold Coast.
Now neither one of us really prepared for a proper downpour but to our demise, that's what we got! A couple of u-turns to flee incoming storms and a final decision to bomb it down the motorway resulted in 100km/h face piercing rain and brief stops for refuge under the occasional tree or overpass.

The cell got the better of us and we made it back home in time to ring out or clothes, have a warm shower and kick back for the afternoon.
This was our first attempt at a multi-day ride and granted we could have done some more strategic planning. Reality is though, no matter how much we planned we can't change the weather. We could have pitched the swags in the grass and copped some rain but where's the fun in that? Especially when it was as heavy as it was!

A lesson learnt however is that we will be packing better next time. Study the conditions and pack to suit. Granted packing light isn't easy but packing the right things is important! Dry bags, towels and general items like phone chargers go a long way!

Anyways folks, we made some rad new friends, clocked some kms on the bikes and made some memories that we can look back at and have a laugh about.

THATS WHAT ITS ALL ABOUT!