2014 Roundup Program

[Newie]

WEDNESDAY - Destination is Walcha Road (it is a tiny village, not just a road!). The route is Moke Central to Bendemeer via the New England Hwy, turning at Bendemeer Station Road and heading east  to Woolbrook. There is approx 27km of dirt on this road and steep in a couple of sections. From Woolbrook, it's about 6km east on  the Oxley Hwy to Walcha Road Hotel for lunch. Return from Walcha Road is via the Oxley Hwy to Bendemeer then the New England Hwy to the Moonbi Lookout. From Moonbi Lookout it is approx 25km back to Moke Central.

THURSDAY - Destination is Warrabah National Park, northeast of Manilla. The planned route is up to Manilla via the sealed  Fossickers Way (aka Manilla Road). After a stop for morning tea and  provisions, we head out to Warrabah NP via Namoi River Road. It is about 40km from Manilla to the park, and the  road becomes unsealed about 20km after leaving Manilla.  Lunch will be  provided as the park is remote. Depending on the day's fire danger, we  plan a BBQ or sandwiches if we can't have a BBQ. The trip back to  Manilla will be a choice of crossing the Namoi River (a good play spot!)  with a different route to Manilla or the same road as the trip in.  Those that choose to take the same road will head back to Moke Central,  which is about 45km from Manilla.

FRIDAY - Destination is Bendemeer. From Moke Central to Kootingal via the highway and then on to Limbri (all sealed road to here). From Limbri we head up the Moonbi Range via Danglemah and arrive near Woolbrook (approx 29km of good dirt). From there we stay on the dirt for about 8km, with the route going along Back Woolbrook Road (or Congi-Woolbrook Road if you are looking on Google Maps   ) to Congi Stn and then via the Oxley Hwy onto Bendemeer Hotel for  lunch. The return route is a choice of the New England Hwy straight back  to Moke Central, or a non-highway (sealed) route.

SATURDAY - Destination is Walcha. Today's route is all sealed roads. Moke Central to Walcha will be via back (sealed) roads to Moonbi, then up the New England Hwy with a stop at Moonbi lookout and then the Oxley highway into Walcha. Walcha has a variety of cafes, takeaways, pubs, and clubs for lunch. The return route is via Wollun and Walcha Rd, then the Oxley Hwy to Bendemeer and then the New England Hwy to Moke Central.

SUNDAY - Destination is Tamworth, with a late (10ish) departure from Moke Central to allow those departing to get packed. We'll go from Moke Central up to the Oxley Lookout and spend an hour or so there. From the lookout we will drive to South Tamworth and the Golden Guitar. Here there are multiple options for lunch, including the Longyard Hotel, KFC, Subway, McDonalds.
From here, those that wish to (or need to  ) can depart Tamworth and head for home, and others will have the option of either accompanying us on one last short jaunt around the country side (see post on this thread dated 22/9/14) or simply relax back at Moke Central or explore Tamworth on their own.

[Newie]

Just looking for this post myself and found it has slipped down near the bottom of the list, so thought I'd bump it up so that people can see what's happening in Tamworth this year.

KMC and I did a recce of Thursday's run to Warrabah National Park on the weekend and we were impressed with the great condition of the roads, both into and around the Park. Likewise the picnic grounds are very well maintained there and a nice amount of water in the river - hopefully that's still the case at the end of October. Water's a touch cool at the moment, but we're thinking it should be nice in another 6 weeks, so those who are brave enough, should definitely throw the swimmers and towels in if it's a good day. It's a great spot with some nice safe shallows for the kids to paddle around in, along with the odd deeper hole here and there.


Just a reminder for the more complacent among you though, who are thinking they have plenty of time to get organised - it's basically 6 weeks away now!!! Starting to get towards the pointy end from our point of view and we are currently trying to finalise merchandise options, but please register if you intend on coming as we are getting to the stage where we really need some firm names and numbers to get things to run as smoothly as possible.

Those who haven't already done so can register here http://www.mokeroundup.com.au/registration.html

If you're not sure whether you have registered yet or not, you can check here and make sure your name is on the Cool Kids list https://www.mokeforum.com.au/index.php/topic,11314.0.html. If it's not there and you are under the impression that you are already registered, please PM either KMC or myself ASAP and we'll sort it out.



Newie

[Newie]

The feedback we have been getting of late seems to indicate that there will be a fair number of Mokes still in Tamworth on Sunday afternoon/night, so we thought we should offer something for those who still haven't had enough Moking by that stage of the weekend.

Lunch on Sunday is to be a casual affair based around the Longyard Hotel or the various fast food outlets in the area around the famous Golden Guitar.

We might play the timing by ear on the day, but as a rough idea we are now offering to take anyone who wants to tag along on a run out along some scenic back roads, stopping for "afternoon tea" at a pub about 25km from Tamworth, and then home to Moke Central for the final time.

Haven't worked out the distances exactly but I would estimate no more than 100km with 28km of dirt road. I would imagine that even travelling at Moke pace with what I would guess will be a smallish group we should be at the Dungowan pub within a couple of hours where people can either relax for a while or head back into Moke Central (easy, direct, bitumen road from there) at their leisure.

This would be a strictly optional run as we realise a lot of people will want to have the afternoon off to do their own thing, but the offer will be there for those who are interested 


Newie

[Newie]

The program set out in the first post on this thread has now been tweaked and fine tuned for those of you who are interested and you can consider that to be the "final draft". I suspect most people won't be able to tell what's changed. The destinations and main points of interest remain unchanged, we have just altered a few things here and then in hopes of making the runs flow as nicely as possible.


Newie