THE SWAMPS WILL GRAB HOLD AND PULL YOU UNDER IF YOU DON’T PUSH THROUGH
It was with a mixture of bravery and stupidity, mostly stupidly, that I ignored the golden rule of dirtbike riding. With not much more than the clothes on my back, I headed deep into the Gardens of Stone National Park on KTM’s 2022 1290 Super Adventure R. Alone.
It wasn’t completely stupid. Situated just two and a half hours west of Sydney, I had headed up that way with my wife and her camera to start sniffing around in response to news that the park – and others like it that encompass some of the best adventure-bike riding areas in New South Wales – was slated for closure to recreational vehicle users by the state’s Department of Planning and Environment in cahoots with National Parks and Wildlife Service.
As usual, it had been flogging down with rain in the weeks prior, but I wanted to have a good look around the park and so had little choice but to venture out in the mud. And mud I sure did find.
The plan, and I use that term loosely, was to head to Ben Bullen around 36km north of Lithgow to check out the
