A good friend of mine advised me a few months prior to the 2024 Camp Quality MotoCyc Charity Ride that he was participating in the event, and I immediately responded by donating to his charity account. Initially I was unavailable to participate, however a month or so later an opportunity presented itself and I committed to the event, thus began my own fundraising endeavour.
Camp Quality is an organisation designed to help kids who are affected by cancer. The organisation helps kids create positive memories that can change their cancer story.
Camp Quality do this by helping children and their families build optimism and resilience through community, education and fun. Camp Quality are there for kids dealing with a cancer diagnosis every step of the way: in hospital, at school, online, and away from it all at their camps and retreats.
Fundraising is of course crucial to the organisation, and one of the popular events that Camp Quality organises is MotoCyc, which is an annual three-day event that brings motorbike riders together to enjoy their love of bike riding within a community of like-minded people.
In 2024, the eighth annual MotoCyc event saw approximately seventy riders set off on a wet Friday morning in Heatherbrae, New South Wales just outside of Newcastle and head toward Armidale for day one of the event to spread the message and culture of Camp Quality.
Half of the group were road riders, the other half were off road riders and we each went our separate ways each day, only to meet up as one large group at each of the accommodation locations.
The road riders set off from Heatherbrae and traveled toward Raymond Terrace on our way to the first stop of the day, a fuel stop at Gloucester.
Exiting Gloucester we now moved toward the Great Dividing range which was to include a stop at Carsons Pioneer Lookout at Nowendoc, along the majestic Thunderbolts Way.
Time to move on and enjoy more of Thunderbolts Way, surely one of the greatest motorbike riding roads in New South Wales.
Thunderbolts Way is three hundred and five kilometres in total, is in the northern tablelands and links many great towns. On this day we would exit Thunderbolts Way at Topdale Road and head further inland toward Nundle, then eventually stopping for lunch just outside of Nundle.
Unfortunately upon arrival we saw that an old BMW bike had been placed on the trailer of the support vehicle, a victim of an electrical issue. The rider and pillion, Joel and Jillian were lovely people, whose company we thoroughly enjoyed on the Friday night during dinner.
There was one final fuel stop of the day before the final ninety-five kilometre leg toward Armidale, however due to the station only being able to allow one refuelling at a time, it ended up being quite a long break given that at least fifteen bikes required fuel, nevertheless it was a welcome break anyway.
We arrived into Armidale mid afternoon after enjoying a few hours of dry weather, which was welcomed after the testing conditions much earlier in the day.
The large group were spread across two separate motels, although they were not only across the road from one another, but both were right next door to the Armidale Bowling Club which was the venue for dinner that night, along with breakfast in the morning.
We rose early on day two to be greeted by a beautiful sunrise before packing up and heading across the road to the bowling club for breakfast and the day’s riding brief.
With all of the bikers, organisers and support crew fed, we left Armidale on day two of the event and headed toward Dorrigo, with our final destination of the day being Port Macquarie.
The route on this day is one that I have done many times, and it includes a fantastic run toward the town of Ebor, and then funneling into Dorrigo.
This region has many stunning waterfalls, and arguably the best is Dangar Falls just outside of the Dorrigo town centre.
Dangar Falls was the destination for morning tea on day two, offering a magnificent vantage point almost directly above the falls.
After morning tea at Dangar Falls we headed along the fantastic Waterfall Way which led down the mountain and into the very eclectic town of Bellingen, just outside of Coffs Harbour.
Waterfall Way is a favourite route for many bikers, with plenty of tight twists and turns, although it can be difficult to maintain concentration as you pass the various small waterfalls making their way down the mountainside and under the roadway.
As usual the Bellingen town centre was very busy, making for a slow run toward the highway where we would cut across and head through Urunga where we all stopped for fuel.
It was at this fuel stop that one bike actually fell into a bowser whilst filling up, and two helmets fell off bikes onto the hard ground.
The final leg of day two was a relatively short run from Urunga to Port Macquarie, seeing us stop at the beautiful town of Macksville for lunch.
A huge array of sandwiches and cakes were provided as we sat beside the river overlooking the old bridge and main town centre on the opposite side.
It was now that we headed toward Port Macquarie where we would spend the night before heading home on the Sunday morning.
The dinner at the pub behind our motel was fantastic, topped off by an auction conducted by the event organisers which helped to raise a huge amount of funds on the night, this was a truly humbling and rewarding experience to witness how people can come together and throw their support behind this cause and event.
We awoke on the Sunday morning and had breakfast onsite, and not too long after we were off on our way toward Taree for morning tea by the river.
With morning tea done, it was time to head toward Buladelah for lunch, where again a feast of sandwiches and cakes were provided.
The day and event was to culminate back at the starting point in Heatherbrae, however for personal reasons myself and a friend had to depart before the riding group from Buladelah, meaning that we missed out on the debrief and celebrations, oh well, perhaps next year.
I will say that this was one of the most rewarding events that I have participated in. Helping to raise funds for such a wonderful cause is the least that I can do, and I am in awe of the hard work and dedication that all of the event organisers and support crew put in, to see first hand how the event is co-ordinated and managed is astonishing, yet it goes ahead so seamlessly.
All in all over two hundred and fifty five thousand dollars was raised, what an extraordinary achievement, congratulations to all involved, and I very much look forward to participating again in 2025.
Thank you for reading the blog, and I hope that if you are a rider you will consider joining us next year.
Roger Brooks.