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.

NTSR 2015 Day 2

Our accommodation at the Dromadary was probably up there with the worst I've ever paid for and it wasn't just me, I think we were all in agreement that its time to find a new place as this place just isn't up to scratch.
We stood around out back eating our ordinary bacon and egg rolls whilst getting things ready to move on out. We got under way somewhere around 9:30 for fuel just 10 minutes down the road at Carbargo. The pub here looks inviting maybe we should stay there next time.

Not long after Bega we took the turn off for the Candelo-Bega road and on into Wyndham. This bit of road is a bit on the rough side but is motorcycle heaven as the corners come thick and fast as the rolling hillsides give up to the forested mountain twisties. There was a couple of brown trouser moments when I hit some gravel patches that were hidden in the shadows on this road. I saw Stu in front of me having the same moment.

Here's a short little video of the road through from Candelo and to Wyndham.




We regrouped at Bombala at the servo. Again it was a hot day. It always seems to be really hot when we ride down the Bonang highway. I'd loaded up with water this time before we headed off, we split into 2 groups here again and 3 took the Cann Valley Way whilst the rest of us choose the Bonang Hwy. Riding down the twist's and turns of the Bonang is motorcycling bliss. I stopped to take some pic's of the guys in action.

Bushpig and Slomax

R1 on the Bonang

The Bomber

The Fireplace

We stopped in again at the fireplace two thirds of the way along on the Orbost end both to regroup and have a little rest. The constant breaking accelerating of this road I was beginning to get sore hands but a 15 minute break off the bike and I was good to go again. It wasn't long and the rest of the group had arrived and we chatted in the shade.


After the break we suited up and headed off but within 100m of leaving the fireplace I could feel something inside my shirt/jacket biting me on the chest. I quickly pulled over to see what it was, as I did the other guys shot past. No problem I'll catch back up again as its still about 40kms to Orbost. Looking inside my jacket and down my shirt I couldn't see anything so I'd zipped up glove back on and taken off again. Another minute later I could feel something biting me again,  I'd looked down and back up again, just enough distraction to come into a bend a little hot, braked a little late fixated and then did some off road parking................

Then everything went really, really quiet....................

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Just Parking

There's no way I could get it out of that ditch without a tow, such a rookie error I still don't know how I managed it really. With absolutely no phone reception in here it was needless to say I waited a long time on the side of the road before anyone came along. 15 minutes it was before anyone came past and that seemed like an eternity. One nice guy in a van went into Orbost to get a tow truck for me to get it out. It was a long, long, wait of over an hour until I heard the faint sound of a couple of bikes coming in the distance. Bushpig and Slomax had arrived back and the shaming had just commenced. The look on bushpigs face said it all.

Long story short it was still rideable, didn't break a single thing, just a bent rear brake lever. I'd parked it very gently. Pulling in for fuel in Orbost everyone was waiting on me so I quickly fueled up and got ready, it was just after 5pm now with still around 2 hours of riding to go to get to Omeo. As it was now late there was little time for photos or anything else, I just wanted to get there without any skippys coming out onto the roads as it was the time of the afternoon for them.

The ride through the tambo river section of the Omeo highway was another highlight of the trip. The road follows along the Tambo river with drop offs into the river on one side and cliff faces on the other side. So I was taking it careful but still having fun. I loved this section but it was getting a bit on the late side and light wasn't as good as it should have been due to some idiot.

I was surprised to find that we had beaten Bushpig and some of the others into the Golden Age at Omeo. It was a surprise because  we didn't pass any bikes along the way and they were ahead of us.  They just had taken an alternate route. God I needed a beer badly. And at that the beers flowed and the humiliation continued................

Day 2  Map reference