DAY 4
We stayed at the Union Hotel in Tumbarumba. Another bike friendly place, I can't recommend these guys highly enough either. $40 for a room, with a free Pint($10) and a $10 bacon & Egg Roll with coffee for breakfast. The publican couldn't do enough for us. This is how service should be. The rooms are large but a bit run down but excellent value for money.
I awoke early again dang it, so got up showered and decided to go for a walk around town. Sunday morning at 7am is dead quiet in Tumba. I took a walk through the park behind main street. Reminds me a bit of my own home town in central NSW.
Tumbarumba was founded in the early days by the discovery of gold in 1855. But the town now survives as a timber town. There's a large statue in honour of all the timber workers in the local park.
We decided to make our way back to the pub for some breakfast. I was still full from last night's huge meal and wasn't feeling like much. Doug and I went halves in a bacon & egg roll. That was just enough I couldn't have eaten any more than that.
Some of the thirsty bikes needed a refill while the AT super tanker was trundling along just fine on old 91 octane keeping up heh heh. Out on the rosewood raceway the guys up front stopped for a toilet stop, what already its only been 20 minutes. So I used this as an opportunity to zoom out front and find a spot to take some more photos. Think I picked a better spot this time.
The bare hills make for an excellent backdrop. This region had the bushfires rip through here two years ago, so the forestry commission cut them all down and replanting that's why the hills are bare.
Another fuel stop in Tumut before heading up the Snowy Mountains Highway. On the way out of Tumut I looked into the maccas and saw 3 highway patrol cars in there, happy days. There was road kill all along the roadside on the way to Talbingo Mountain, dead kangaroos and wombats everywhere.
I always enjoy riding up here in the Snowy mountains, the scenery is spectacular, as we approached Kiandra on the highest section the clouds got lower and were sitting on the hill tops and the temperature plummeted to 9°C.
I had to put my thermal top back on when we regrouped at the Kiandra turn off, there was a definite chill in the air. The road from here down to Cabramurra was in excellent condition, it looks like it had been resurfaced after the fires as the road was closed close to 12 months.
At the turn off to Khancoban I decided I'd ride into Cabramurra to take a look. Almost the whole town was raised to the ground in those bush fires, only about 5-6 buildings remained intact. A gate barred the road with an electronic keypad. So I turned around and rode back. The photo below from the interwebs shows the devastation.
|
www.skyviewaerial.com.au |
Just up the road I saw this huge tower. I thought to myself 'fuck it I'm going to ride up there and take a look, I'm at the back anyway how often do I get up here anyway and they'll be fucking around in Khancoban I'll catch back up there, I won't need fuel so it shouldn't be much of a difference in time'.
So I rode to the top of the hill, it's Cabramurra radio station. Wow what a view from up here you could see all the way back to Talbingo reservoir back near tumut, and the top of Cabramurra.
|
Two towering behemoths |
So I was well behind everyone now, but I care not as this allowed me the luxury of riding fast or slow and stop for a picture if I wanted to. So what did I see as I was coming down one of the big hills. Yep the picture below says it all.
Bloody fantastic views up here, there's the dam wall behind the hill on the right with the road rising up the hill from bottom right to upper left just above the water line. Whilst I was standing here taking this photo I could hear either Dave/Brett's Tuono/MT10 roaring up the hill. Sounded awesome from way up here, but if I was a copper I would have a field day hearing them coming from miles away.
|
Tumut Pond Reservoir |
|
Better not drop it on my own, I'll never get the behemoth up again |
I didn't stop again to take a photo of the dam but here is a shot I took back in 2019 of the dam wall.
Riding up from the dam wall I was having a great time, with all the tree's burnt down you could see much more scenery than usual. Dang now I have to stop for another photo. I'd not seen so much water in the dam before or was it because you couldn't see it all before? Still it made for amazing viewing.
I pulled up into Khancoban at the petrol station and half of the guys were still filling their tanks, the others were buying some lunch. Great I didn't miss anything then. So I took my time and got a nice toasted sammich and sat on a picnic table with Brett & Margo shooting the breeze.
Before long we were headed up along the Alpine way along the backside of Mt Kosciusko. From the road we could see snow up on the peaks, not a little bit but quite a lot of snow. Awesome for this time of year only a week out from summer.
It was along here that Brett came past like the wind on the way to dead horse gap with Dave in hot pursuit, I thought screw it I'm going to have a crack and split them. Brett very slowly pulled agap on me up the hill in the tight stuff but Dave was hanging back aways. Was he hanging back because he was expecting Africa Twin bits to go flying everywhere when I binned it?
Having a quick chat at dead horse gap, Brett was riding flat out, I was riding as fast as I was game after only 3 days and keeping up mostly. This bike has surprised the shit out of me(and some others by the looks) for what it can actually do. For a big dirt bike I reckon I could take it up the old road and towel up quite a few sportsbikes and embarrass them. It really is that good. Fuck who would have thought? Definitely not me
Andrew Thomson.
The weather was now closing in and looked like it was about to rain. Pretty decent considering we've avoided rain all the way so far. We had some light rain for about 15kms into Jindabyne, not really enough to test any wet gear as my gloves and boots were still dry and they definitely are not water proof.
DAY4 Map