Sunday, November 25, 2018

Victorian High Country Ride Day 4


Today was to be our last day of the tour, but that didn't mean that the riding was going to be any less fun.

I was up early at about 6:30am and waited for the others to rise. We gathered across the road at the superb bakery. How could you go wrong with a name like that? With a delicious pie and coffee duly dispatched it was time to get on the road.

I love staying in these small country towns, they are so quiet and the people are generally really friendly, sadly lost in our big cities these days.


First we fueled up before I led us out the Crookwell road through the little hamlet of Rugby.




Who said R1 riders don't stop to smell the roses?
We stopped at the turn off to Crookwell to let everyone regroup. We would be heading up the road to Bathurst, Doug had said it was recently sealed. I rode up this road 5 years ago now and there was about 15kms of dirt on it. You can read about that here. It was a good run then so it should be good now it's all been sealed.


Archive photo from 2013 - to indicate what the road is like
Some bits of this road I remembered from all those years ago but most of it I had forgotten. One thing is for sure its an excellent bike road. It is venerable roller coaster ride up and down over the hills. The road follows along a ridge line for some time where you can see into the valleys either side of the road and far into the distance are rolling hills. Magic scenery.




Remember yesterday where we rode through those roadworks and got covered in crud. Here's a bit of a close up of Geoff and his bike. He was covered head to toe in crap, front and back.




Abercrombie River
After a brief stop at the Abercrombie river we continued on and refueled in Perthville just south of Bathurst where we turned off and headed across to O'Connell where we would stop for lunch. No sooner had our lunches arrived than the flies descended on us enmass. The nachos I had were fantastic and a reasonably light meal.

O'Connell Pub
From here we said our goodbyes to Dave, Brett and Margo who would be turning off in Oberon for the trip south to Nowra via the Taralga road. We made our way back via Duckmaloi rd and up Mt Victoria. It was here Geoff and Stu went straight for home. Doug and myself turned across to Bell and the Bells line of road. We had a superb run across the Bells line with no traffic so we had a blast.

I got home early about 3:30pm or so, the bike was pretty filthy so I decided I'd give it some love and attention before cracking a beer.  I did just over 2000 kms for the trip and most of it was twisty roads through some of Aus best bits of blacktop. Thanks for the great weekend away fellas and Margo. Looking forward to the next one.


Cheers until next time






Day 4 Map


10 comments:

  1. Fantastic photos mate! We're really spoiled in both our countries for great riding roads with relatively little traffic eh? No plans for an old man's bike yet? :-P .

    Thanks for sharing - really enjoyed the tour.

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    1. Hi Geoff
      Victoria really has its share of some of Aus's best motorcycle roads. Probably because they are short distances apart from one another and because they are so remote they have little traffic. We found it very similar in NZ actually so you are correct.
      No solid plans of replacing the R1 but it will happen eventually, its starting to get harder every year to ride it on these tours. As long as there are no to many straight roads and Im ok.

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  2. yes another xcellent trip....kept the shiny side up and the greasy side down too !

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  3. I approve of the MT-10's dirtiness.

    So time for another set of tyres? Try E-07's...

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  4. Excellent report Steve - I really enjoyed reading this.

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    1. Thanks mate. Most of these roads are in your back yard and would be very familiar to you.

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  5. Nice report Steve. Makes me want to ride my own country again.
    I will be back home in 2019, not sure if that will be to stay.
    See if I can find a affordable rental for a small trip when the time comes.

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    1. If your down this way Warren, let me know perhaps we could meet up somewhere along your travels.

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