Wall to Wall ride 2015

6 years ago, a group of friends decided to ride from their respective wall of remembrance for police officers in their state and travel to the National Police Memorial in Canberra. Now in it's sixth year, over 2000 bikes were registered to make the journey to Canberra. This is just my story from Dubbo NSW to Canberra via a very long and scenic route.

8.00am on Friday 11th September, riders from the local area gather outside Dubbo Police Station. About 15 riders in total gathered for the trip with a marked Police motorcycle as the lead bike, shortly followed by the region commander.

First stop was Perthville. This is the site where Sergeant Paul Quinn was killed in 1986. We were met by local media as well as pupils from Perthville School. A small ceremony and lunch before heading off. A number of twisty roads with a quick stop in Taralga where one of the riders found he had a puncture. I quick repair job to get him to the Tire shop and off we were again to our final destination of Kangaroo Valley, picking up another 3 riders on the way. A nice meal and drinks at the aptly named Friendly Inn before turning in for the night.

7.30am start the following day, this time heading to Kiama and the coast, something some of us hadn't seen for a while. In Kiama we met up with about another 100 riders from the local area. A fundraising breakfast was held before setting off. We kept to our small group of about 20 riders and headed along the coast to Batemans Bay. A fuel stop and a bit to eat, and off we went up the Clyde mountain. Minimal traffic ensured we had a fantastic journey up the mountain, probably one of the best rides I have had up the mountain. We arrived into Canberra about 1.30am, to meet up with the main contingent at EPIC (Showground in northern Canberra). At the Showground there were hundreds of bikes awaiting to go into the city. Also there were a couple of promotional NSW Police vehicles including a Bentley and McLaren. ACT Police closed off Northbourne Avenue and allowed us a free run into the city, around parliament house and park up at the National Police Memorial. for a very sombre service. It was announced there were over 2000 riders registered with bikes coming from all around Australia.

The following day after a quick breakfast we set off from Northern Canberra, through some back roads towards Goulburn then onto Crookwell. On to Blayney for fuel and a quick bite to eat outside Orange and back to Dubbo.

In total, I travelled over 1400km over the 3 days. The bike didn't miss a beat with the only mishap being a puncture on the first day to one of the riders. This was a great way to say hello to spring with fine weather throughout the weekend. Looking forward to doing it all again next year.