The Farkin.net Splendour in the Grass road trip 2003, A tale of beers, bikes, bands, Byron Bay and bad weather…

A few months ago, a plot was hatched at the Farkin.net Brisbane bureau as our inactivity and disorganisation left what had previously been the simple plan of a road trip to Byron Bay to see Splendour in the Grass scuttled by weekend tickets selling out and Saturday-only tickets disappearing before our eyes.

Always ones to make the best of a bad situation, we grabbed tickets for the Saturday anyway and amended our plans to include; seeing Splendour on the Saturday and riding some trails in the Byron Bay hinterland on the Sunday with the Byron Bay Van Village to be home base for us and a group of non-riding friends who were attending both days of the festival.

The anticipation before the trip started was palpable, working 40-hour weeks and diligently squirreling away savings for the weekend, each day that ticked off as the festival approached was a step closer to a weekend of great bands and reportedly, great biking as well.

As the final hours of worked dragged by, the excitement in me built to a dizzying crescendo which as I signed off and walked out the door, was washed away by relief as the reality that I was about to embark on an epic weekend adventure with some of my closest friends dawned. I was now free. Free to ride, free to party, free to do whatever the hell I wanted for the next five days. With a pack of interlopers from up north crashing all over my house in preparation for the big departure tomorrow, the atmosphere at home was more than a little charged and after some general chatter and shooting of the shit I settled down for a big nights sleep.

Friday morning dawned, clear and bright in Brisbane as Pip and myself packed up my van for the drive. Let people say whatever they want about vans not looking cool, handling badly and not being good for doing shuttle runs, because when it all comes down to it, vans rock for camping. Packing took the best part of an hour and with a full load of food, supplies, bikes and bedding in the back we headed to my mate Matthew’s house for our 1pm departure with the ‘Advance Team’.

Being Matthew, the advance team didn’t actually get on the road until about 3pm, but by then it’s numbers had swelled to include Matt and Ross in one car, Pip and I in the van and the whole team of Cairns interlopers trailing in a third car. The trip down the M1 was an eye opener, with the weather closing in the whole way down the Gold Coast before finally, after crossing into NSW (of course) the skies opened up and the rain set in.

We arrived in Byron and farewelled team Cairns, who were camping onsite at Belongil Fields. Arriving at Byron Bay Van Village our hopes for the weekend were dampened somewhat when we heard one of the staff of the Village mention to another "If this rain keeps up we’re going to have some problems with people camping in places we’re not supposed to put them." Great. We got checked in, tagged up and directed to our campsite, where those of us unfortunate enough to be sleeping in tents began the process of getting set up.

Let me tell you something else about vans, there is no feeling more satisfying than watching your friends struggle with a tent in the freezing cold, failing light, wind and rain while you pull your curtains closed, fold your bed out and break out the doona, pure heaven.

With the camping fields at the Village quickly turning into a quagmire, Ty and Tash arrived with their bikes to round out the campers at our site and earn the ire of the Village staff as Ty practiced his defensive driving and narrowly avoided getting bogged courtesy of some judicious wheel spinning action from his Commodore.

With the first day of the festival tomorrow, a few beers were drunk before the decision was made to have an early night and hopefully see off the worst of the weather.

Saturday morning arrived with the promise of clearing skies as myself, Ross and Matt headed off towards Alstonville to gather supplies for the weekend, while Ty, Tash and Pip headed into Byron Bay to pick up some extra camping gear. While my mission proved unsuccessful, the camping gear team fared much better and returned with a king-sized tarpaulin to string up over the campsite and provide us with a common cooking, sitting and general bumming around in area.

With the campsite sorted, it was time to hit the festival! Initial impressions were promising and with all the lines in moving quickly it took less than 10 minutes to get from the front gates of Belongil Fields into the festival proper.

Once inside we were tracked down by Adam (belly_up) and Bron (blue fuzz) who were also camping for the weekend and catching both days of the festival. So, with a good sized crew assembled, plenty of cash in hand and supplies to burn we set about checking out was was, for most of us, our first Splendour in the Grass.

The day passed, for me at least, as a blur and I was impressed by the fact that the festival was organised and packed onto a good sized site, so no 20 minute walks between stages and with how ‘un-crowded’ the whole affair was, with no where near the number of people packed in as one would find at a Big Day Out or Livid. Despite cloudy skies the rain stayed away for most of the day, with only one or two showers in the evening sending people scrambling for the safety of the tents.

Musically, the highlights for me were The Music and their "rock and roll as a motherfucker" front man and Powderfinger, showing that the Brisbane boys can still rock as hard as anyone and have added a few more musical strings to their bow. On the dance music side of things, Ajax had me carving up the dance floor with two awesome sets of electro-clash flavoured beats, tasty shit.

Following Powderfingers’ fantastic set, the crowd began to filter out of the festival site, again with no big delays and Pip and I began our walk back to the campsite to rest, recover and refuel for the big day of riding we had ahead of us tomorrow.

After a good nights sleep, Sunday arrived with the promise of yet more rain, a bit more wind and for four of us, a day riding in the huge mountains that dot the NSW North Coast. With the amount of rain that had been seen in the last two days we decided against our original plan of hitting up a local bike shop for some directions to advanced trails and instead headed to some more mellow tracks Ty had been shown on a previous visit to Byron Bay.

Climbing through winding roads that head into the Nightcap National Park in Ty’s car was an experience nothing short of magical. If any place in Australia looks like it belongs in a fantasy novel, it is the mountains of the North Coast, with rows of gnarled trees forming archways over winding mountain roads that are broken only occasionally by a tiny town or the colourful flags that show the driveways of communes.

Soon tarred road gave way to gravel and finally dirt as we arrived at the trailhead and got suited and set up for the ride. Our route took us out along a series of gentle fire road climbs, before, with a few wrong turns we were spit out onto a trail that tracked along the top of a 300ft vertical cliff. To say the views from this trail were breathtaking does not do them justice, as we looked out across a valley floor to a set of equally impressive cliffs on the other wall of the valley. The trail we were on appeared to continue on down into the valley, but with the weather closing in and no real idea of the climb that would lead us out of the valley, we decided to turn back and ride another trail Ty knew of.

The days second trail was a fast, swooping open-singletrack that descended through patches of lush green rainforest. Rocky, slippery sections were punctuated by seams of gloriously tacky dirt that had me leaning the bike over, digging into the corners and grinning like a lunatic the whole way down. The track also included two ‘north shore’ style sections, a pallet jump over a massive downed tree and a ladder-to-log ride-to drop, both of which looked well made and good fun (though we decided against riding the log-ride as it was slick, wet and difficult to even walk over).

The singletrack eventually opened out into a water crossing that dropped clear off the cliff in a waterfall not 10 meters down from where you crossed it. The group stopped for the girls to practice the water crossing and for a happy snap on the edge of the waterfall before another meandering fire road climb took us back up the mountain to where the car was waiting.

All in all we only got to explore a tiny fraction of what must be an awesome area for trails, the sheer elevation and rugged beauty of this part of NSW is incredible and I’ll definitely be heading back when the weather is finer (and the camping prices are more reasonable) to check it out more thoroughly.

We finished the day by driving up to Minyon Falls on a road which also gave us a clear view across the valley to the cliffs we had stopped atop of earlier in the day. Minyon Falls drop a clear 100 metres from the top of one such cliff to the valley floor below, but with the weather still deteriorating and the light starting to fade we could only manage a quick look before retreating to the warmth and dryness of the car. A quick pit stop in Alstonville refueled our beer supplies and we headed back to Byron to meet up with the festivalgoers, eat, chill and sink a few cold ones.

The trip was a resounding success for everyone who attended. Our friends who saw both days of the festival said it was a great, if slightly damp, second day and those of us who missed out on it got to check out some awesome trails in an incredibly beautiful part of the country. I dare say everyone is keen to pay Splendour in the Grass another visit next year and I for one am definitely keen to plan another trip to NSW to investigate the riding further. Sure it rained, sure it was cold and muddy but with good friends, great music and plenty of warm clothes, beer and camping food it couldn’t have helped but be the perfect weekend away.

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