The Oxley Highway between Walcha and the coast is the sort of road that riders talk about with their eyes lit up, and the section around Gingers Creek is where the mountain part begins in earnest. The road leaves the high, open grazing country of the tableland and starts to descend in a series of tightening bends through forest, with sudden drops, blind crests and a surface that changes from fresh bitumen to patched and worn.
This is the escarpment country of the Hastings and Macleay catchments, where the tableland falls away toward the Pacific in a jumble of ridges and gullies. The forest is mostly eucalypt, with stringybark and blackbutt on the dry slopes and patches of rainforest in the damp gullies, where tree ferns and strangler figs create a different, shadier world. Higher up, the nights can be cold enough for frost, and fog is common in the mornings. At dusk the forest comes alive with wallabies and the occasional wombat, so slow down as the light fades.
What I can tell you with certainty is how the road behaves: it rewards a steady, smooth style, and it punishes anyone who treats it as a racetrack.
The long descent toward Wauchope and Port Macquarie is a classic. Bends come in rhythm, linked by short straights, with views of forested valleys opening on the outside of the turns. It is a road that needs care in the wet, when leaves and mud create slippery patches, and heavy trucks use it too, so be ready for a slow vehicle around a blind corner. Police patrol the area at busy times, and speed enforcement is not unknown.
Services are widely spaced. Walcha on the tableland and Wauchope on the coastal side are the main stops for fuel, food and repairs, and there is little in between, so carry enough range for the whole mountain section. Take water and a spare layer, and plan to ride it in daylight, preferably with a late-morning start so the frost has gone and the sun is high enough to light the road through the trees.