Snowy Ride Part 2

 Day 3

Today I'd woken up early so rather than lay in bed I decided I'd take a walk around Omeo before everyone was up. It had been raining over night and was lightly sprinkling. There was heavy rain overnight and it was supposed to rain today and was looking ominous. Omeo is a very pretty little country town nestled in the foothills. 

Mist was covering the hills making for beautiful views of the town.

I wandered down through the park and found a mountain bike park with pump track and some skill builders, or should that be collar bone breakers......

A sign in a shop window in town proclaimed they were building 112km of MTB trails in Omeo, with 56km being made priority at $2.2m. Looks like a great area for mountain biking and there a few fans that live in the town going by the statuettes. These are found all over the the back park area.

I wandered down by the creek and had a look around, everything was so green from all the rain. It started to spit a bit so I headed back to the pub to see if everyone was up and to grab a coffee from the bakery.

The Golden Age hotel in Omeo is a great place to stay, $60 per night with a cooked breakfast thrown in, absolute bargin in my books that's why we keep staying here in such a spectacular location. Over the lockdown they have refurbished the common area toilet/showers and is much better now. Highly recommended.

We waited a while before leaving as we could see the road drying out. Hopefully it would be a dry run but I wasn't expecting it to be looking on the radar. The publican told us it snowed on the Mitta road last weekend. The road was fun but had to be really careful as it was still damp with dry patches here and there.

The guys stopped at the Blue Duck Inn and waited for a while which gave me a chance to catch back up after a few happy snaps were taken. Whilst here quite a few bikes came through so the weather hadn't scared everyone away.

The ride out towards Mitta is always a good ride and today was a bit of a mixed bag, as we went up into the tree line the weather closed in, it didn't rain but mist made it hard to see and the visor was covered in water, throw in wet roads and it was anyone's guess how fast to go. I ended up riding alone for quite a long time.

Another quick stop at Lightning Creek Campground for everyone to catch up. I went for a walk around, what a fantastic little camping spot. Close enough to mitta to get supplies far enough away to be out there.

Snowy Creek

Lunch today was at Mitta Pub, which we arrived just after 11.30am. We decided to ride up to Dartmouth Dam to have a look around as it was too early for lunch. It was a pleasant enough ride up to the dam, beautiful scenery. 

Stu and Craig checked out the spill way on the other side whilst we opted to take photos. They have excavated a massive amount of rock out of the hillside to build the dam. Makes that little Benmore Dam in NZ look like a home sick hobbit.

From here to Mitta it was 26kms back to the pub and lunch. It was just after 12 now so time to get on with it, our booking was for 12. Mitta pub food has always been good, and my Mitta burger was no exception however they did stuff up the order and Dave's lunch went incognito. We think Geoff may have eaten it.

Mitta Pub

From lunch I lead up to Tallangatta but we took an alternate route this trip and came in from the Albury side. The road was another good one that rose up over a winding mountain pass and back down. I filled up with 330km and 15 litres. Thats 4.5l per 100km. I'm loving this fuel economy of this bike and how easy and comfortable it is to ride.

We took the Granya Motogp track, I followed Stu across here on the Tuono. He must have been going slow because it was easy to keep up or was I getting used to the bike now? We made a quick stop for a refreshing ale at the Jingellic pub. The Murray river was full with lots of flooding, I can't remember seeing the river this full. 

As we were about to leave Doug's bike refused to start, same as it did before in Gloucester a few years ago. We waited and had another beer, by then it had cooled down and started fine so we could then head into Tumbarumba for the night.

Beers and tall stories

Day 3 Map

Vic Alpine Ride - Part 3

Day 4

It was a big night in Omeo last night and the pub was packed at diner although I was still in good shape this morning.  Must be getting old as I can't drink as much as I used too. I was looking forward to today's ride where we get to ride the road to Mitta Mitta. The Omeo highway is one of the best roads around. It ticks all the boxes with over 100km's of twisty 35kmh corners through remote mountains with very little traffic. What's not to love.

Doug, Scotty and myself headed out as the rest were still mucking around filling up and we had a good blast to the Blue Duck. Doug suggested waiting but I said lets carry on and enjoy the road, so that's exactly what we did. Doug blasted away down one of the straights and I didnt see him again for about 30 minutes but just as I caught him I needed a wee break. Damn, oh well. I need a break, these corners are relentless.

Motorcycle Heaven

Scotty Fanging it

Scotty then came past as I mounted up and chased him. It was still 30km into Mitta from my stop point. I finally pulled in at Mitta next to Doug and Scotty came along not far behind.

A coffee break was required and Stu scoffed a cake from the bakery that Scotty kindly carried for him from Omeo. I'm surprised that all of the cake made it intact all the way, if it was me driving I'm sure I would have needed to have a few bites along the way.

From here we made our way to Tallangatta and via Granya Gap. A few bikes were going the other way. I upped the pace through here as I came down through a left hander an echidna wandered across the road in front of me. Doug said he took off in a hurry when the R1 blasted past him.

From here we made our way to Jingellic via the awesome Murray River Rd. I thought I'd stop for a few pics then the group came by. I was wishing I had my DSLR with me at this point.

The scenery along the river here is beautiful and it's also an awesome bit of road to ride. It took a bit longer than expected to catch up to everyone. I think they were enjoying their ride a little too much.

We stopped in at Jingellic pub for lunch. Things didn't look good with a large crowd but we ordered lunch anyway. 1 hour later my hamburger and chips came out. That's 2 years in a row the service has been inadequate so I think I'll go into Tumbarumba for lunch next year instead. It's a shame as the pub is in as great spot along the river. I checked tripadvisor and there are quite a few negative reviews for the same thing.

Back on the road after our 2 hour lunch break we headed towards Tumbarumba and then up the Wondalga road or the Rosewood raceway as Stu calls it which is basically a forestry road in the middle of nowhere. Perfect for us late on a sunday arvo.

Another regrouping stop briefly before making our way into Tumut for fuel. I was following near the back of the group along this first bit and seeing a line of bikes sweeping down hills through pines forests and back up again around the bend and over the crest out of sight, it was a brilliant view to behold. That's what this is all about.

Rosewood Raceway

After Tumut we took the Wee Jasper road to Brungle and out some more dodgy back roads to meet the main highway at Coolac for the short run up to Harden and our destination for tonight the Boorowa Hotel.

We've stayed here many times before it's a nice little country pub, the food is great and the kiwi manager is a great laugh. The meals in this place are great, someone ordered the caramel cheesecake. When I saw it come out I just had to get one too.

Being Sunday night it was the final round of MotoGP in Valencia. The publican allowed us to stay up out the back in the restaurant area and watch it on the tv, it wasn't the biggest tv but beggars can't be choosers. He is an absolute legend. It was 1am buy the time it was all done and dusted, we had a great night. Just the short run home tomorrow.

DAY 5

I was hoping to sleep in but woke up around 7:00am d'oh. I was a little on the dusty side but not anywhere near as bad as I thought I might be, I think I was more tired than anything else.

No one else was up so I showered and went for an early morning walk around. Boorowa is your typical small outback country town, with agriculture being the main business of the community. The streets around Boorowa are very tidy, with beautiful gardens with rose beds and hedges lining the streets. There's no graffiti or litter about. This town has a great amount of civic pride. I very much enjoy just walking about down by the river.

There is a nice wall memorial tribute to our fallen soldiers at Gallipoli here and they have an actual certified 'Lone Pine' growing in the memorial gardens. Lone Pine was a battle of Australian and New  Zealand forces during the Gallipoli campaign against the Turks. You can read more at the link.

An Actual Pine from Gallipoli

We all met at the bakery for breakfast this morning. A pie and coffee went down just right for how I was feeling. As soon as we got on the road this morning with a cool morning breeze flowing through my helmet my head cleared and I started to feel good. The new liner in my helmet was working great, it felt like a brand new helmet as the fit was nice and firm around my cheeks.

We rode across to Crookwell and only saw about 3 cars in that 90kms in that was in the last 2-3 kms. Monday mornings in the country are very quiet. From here we made our way up towards bathurst. There was quite a bit of smoke haze in the air the closer we approached Bathurst from the bushfires burning out of control in NSW.

A quick fuel stop in Perthville and we took some more back roads on into O'Connell Pub for lunch. I had the nachos for lunch and they were fantastic washed down with a ice cold beer. From here we said our goodbyes to Dave, Brett and Marjo as they were headed south back to Nowra. We split at Oberon as we head back towards Sydney. Between Oberon and the main Hwy and again on Mt Victoria we were lucky with Mr Plod as we were a tad over on both occasions, maybe he was busy going to an emergency.

I had to stop in at the Lolly bug on the way home and get some goodies for my daughters, as my goolies were under threat after showing my wife the delicious caramel cheesecake photo last night. They have a nice peanut brittle too.

Stu at the Lolly Bug

A seriously great trip, one for the ages. The weather was great, the company was great, the riding was fantastic. Everything just fit in perfectly. Big thanks to Stu for organising everything. Looking forward to the next one.

All up I did 2244 kms on this trip, the tyres held up exceptionally well, now it's time for a service.