Snowy Mountains Ride Part 3

 Day 5

After a great cooked breakfast we were heading across to Adaminaby then onto Kiandra. It was nice and cool this morning in the mountains, but was expected to get into the high 30's today.

I was enjoying the ride on the Snowy Mountains Highway far to much to stop and take photos, just about every corner you come around is something interesting to see. You could literally stop for photos every kilometer. I did stop for the views over the valley, how could I not. It was spectacular. 

We stopped at the usual pull off area at the Kiandra turn off. A quick break and photo stop before we keep going. 

Today we were heading down Elliots way. It's been so long since I'd been down here I couldn't remember the exact route. It's pretty easy though as its left to cabramurra or straight. There was another thousands photo opportunities' but again was having too much fun to stop except the odd spot.

We stopped briefly at a lookout over one of the Snowy Hydros spillways. Such spectacular scenery up here in the snowy mountains. Is it any wonder we keep coming back up here every year.

There's a bridge at the bottom centre of the photo below over the Tumut River. We would drop down there just past Tumut 2 underground power station. The road follows the river gorge along for some time crossing several bridges along the way. I think riding down is better than riding up as you see more of the scenery going down.

After 4 or 5 bridges we start climbing back up the ridge line, with even more spectacular views over the tumut river as it flows into the Talbingo Reservoir. Simply Stunning scenery.

We stop in Tumbarumba for lunch at the bakery. No pies for us as everyone gets a salad roll. It's damn hot again now as its heated up into the mid thirties. After lunch we crack on into the heat along the Rosewood raceway, no pics today and then into Tumut for fuel. We didn't hang around long due to the heat. Most of the guys turned towards Gundagai, Stu and I went via the Brungle road, but instead of turning left and going over the bridge at the murrumbidgee we went straight and along Gobarralong  Rd which was superb riding after about 15km of tar it turned to even more superb gravel road through lush farmlands. 

We came into Jugion via the Bundarbo Bridge and looked for a beer at the Sir George but it was closed so we high tailed it along Mcmahons reef rd on some more backroads to Galong and then Boorowa. It was so hot I was sucking down the water on my camelbak it was now 38°C and we were cruising on about $130 just to get there quicker and out of the heat. The first beer at the Boorowa hotel didn't even touch the sides. It was good to be out of the heat. The Boorowa hotel is always a good stop, good rooms, good food, cold beer and friendly staff. They also now installed Air-conditioning in the rooms so that was a bonus and did we have them cranking. 

DAY 6

After a late one last night everyone was looking a bit second hand, me included. I walked across the road to the bakery for the last breakfast pie and coffee of the tour. We took the road across to Crookwell where half the guys head north on the Goulburn Rd to Bathurst and Scottay and I decided on heading across the Blue Mountains via Shooters Hill. Only took 1 photo today, wasn't my day for it.

 Geoff legged it back up the freeway and with hindsight I should have done the same. Scottay and I continued in the 33°C heat up and over Shooters Hill, the temp dipped back to about 30°C before we came into Cox river road where the temp soared to 35°C and it was only about 11:30am. Yeah it was hot.

Scottay got stuck at some roadworks lights but I didn't stop until Bell where I waited for 10min. When he didn't come I decided to keep going as its too hot to sit here, so continued on then got stuck at more road works. I emptied my camelbak sitting in the sun for 10-15m before the traffic started moving, I could feel my energy levels getting sapped by the heat as I left my jacket completely unzipped now. 

 I decided to stop at Bilpin for an Apple pie & a coffee for a pick me up. I also downed a 600m gatorade in a matter of seconds. I felt dehydrated despite the fact i'd drank 750ml from my camelback, a 600ml gatorade and a coffee(not the best choice as coffee dehydrates you). About 1hr 20m later I got going it was tough going from the air-conditioned cafe out into the heat again. 

Mountain Bells Cafe - Photo from previous ride

As soon as I dropped down the eastern escarpment into the Sydney basin I was blasted with heat, the dash read 39°C and now I was really cooking moving in slow stop/start Sydney traffic, plus the engine heat coming out onto my legs.

I had to stop at McGraths Hill at the petrol station as I was not feeling well, light headed I thought I might pass out. I downed 2 bottles of water and another gatorade in no time at all and dumped water all over my head and shirt. I had overheated, I had to get out of my gear so stripped down and put on my shorts and thongs. I spent the next hour standing in the Air conditioned servo trying to cool down. I couldn't finish riding in the heat, as I decided it too unsafe and had to ring my wife to come pick me up, needless to say there was a lot of eye rolling and a bollocking followed by the silent treatment. I left the bike in the servo and came back at 9pm to get it. It was still 29°C at 9pm it was a scorcher of a day.  

Not the graceful finish to the ride I was hoping for and a valuable lesson for me riding in such heat with adventure gear that really doesn't breath and is really made for winter conditions. Make sure to keep your camelbaks fully topped up, not half full like an idiot. Will definitely have to look a bit harder at what gear I have and simply not ride when it's so hot.

Cheers and thanks for reading.

The return trip home

The trip back from tassie was always going to be a let down, I'm mean how could it compare and the weather forecast wasn't looking good today with rain and showers for Melbourne. We said goodbye to Flyboy and Andy as they both were headed for Adelaide.

Melbourne

We just managed to skirt around the rain riding along the freeway and got as far from Melbourne as possible before stopping at the Wallan service centre. We said goodbye to Craig and Geoff here as they were heading home today. The rest of us were heading north with no certain destination known. We'll see what happens was order of the day.

A few stops here and there along the way, picking up Stu in Broadford as he seemingly got behind then went past as we stopped for breakfast. We meander through Beechworth and on up to Holbrook. It was around 2:30pm so Doug called a few pubs, nothing in Boorowa, Scotty suggested Tumbarumba. The Tumba pub had rooms so that was were we were heading. Going down Jingellic road Stu pulls over and says let's turn around, the skys were black and foreboding, so we approached Tumbarumba from the Rosewood side from the north. Storms were approaching and it was raining to either side of us. We just made it into the pub before the heavens came down, how's that for luck?

When we were getting fuel in Holbrook I saw some USB cables and bought one to try on my Africa Twin, plugging the phone in it started working and the maps came up on the dash. This made navigation much easier, wish I had that at the start of the trip, the one I had kept vibrating lose and I eventually lost it so borrowed Flyboys cable.

It was bucketing down outside but we stayed dry, Stu found the $10 cocktails, so we had about 5 each until they ran out then went back to beers.

Cheers for an awesome tour, the hard core crew

Got two hands, just need two mouths....

Scotty ordered the T Bone, when it came out it was about an inch thick and covered the entire plate. Biggest T Bone I've seen in years.

We retired to the common room upstairs after closing for a couple of end of tour drinks. We would be home tomorrow.

Cheers and thanks for reading this far.

Ride to the Spirit of Tasmania

The beginnings of another epic trip were in the makings on the last night of last years Snow Mountains ride. It was thrown out there to do another Tassie trip. Hell yes was my response after a dozen or so beers.......I'm all in even before I ask the missus, I never did get around to asking her......

Heading off on a cold thursday morning with Stu and Geoff into mist and rain I got to test out the heated grips, these are great. It was a quick stop in at Trappers bakery in Goulburn for the first pie of the trip. The weather was good after this.

Next stop was at Yass service centre to pick up the rest of the crew that had left the day before. From Yass we slabbed it down the Doom & Gloom Highway to Coolac where we then turned off onto back roads to Tumut.

It was another nice ride up and over the Rosewood raceway, I was following along behind Geoff here and a big Eastern Grey Kangaroo jumped out in front of him, just missed him by a couple of metres. Close call for the middle of the day too.

We stopped for a brief lunch stop and to top up the tank in Tumbarumba. The bakery does an excellent chicken salad roll, I couldn't have 2 pie's in a row now could I? 

From here I lead the group along the Murray River Road to Tallangatta where the Tuono's required fuel again.  Dave's bike seemed to be extremely thirsty using 3 litres more than Stu's???? An awesome ride along the river today, was flowing nicely with no traffic.

I stopped along the road near Granya gap for a break, when we got going again the others had actually stopped in Granya for the same reason so we had two breaks, before the Granya GP track.

Granya Road

Granya

A good fun ride through the gap was had by all and I was really surprised how fast I could push the big AT on knobby tyres. I was a little concerned before the trip I'd be so slow on the knobbies in the twisties but I shouldn't have worried about it, you can still go pretty quickly. The knobbies are fairly loud on the tar though but not a problem with ear plugs.

I lead out and down towards Dederang on the Gundowring road. However I wasn't exactly sure where we were supposed to turn. I just passed a turn off and noticed the others taking it. Well I guess that was the one, then we came into Tawonga and I thought we've come too far, it's back the other way. Oh well I wasn't leading this bit from the back. So we backtracked to the Dederang Pub, about a 30 minute diversion. 

Over a few beers Dave revealed his Tuono had a power commander fitted and his bike was using extra fuel, he needed to fill up now at 200kms instead of 230kms, so I'm getting double the range of his Tuono. That hurts when fuel is $2.30 per litre, ouch. The Dederang Hotel do a great feed and have cheap accomodation about $50 per person.

Next morning I was up early around 6.30am so got ready and took a few snaps. It was foggy and cool out this morning. Pictures on the trip will be from both my S9 phone and my Nikon D500. Usually days like this turn out to be warm and sunny and that's exactly how it turned out.

Fog on the barrow downs

We split up here with Geoff and Doug taking the high road to Myrtleford whilst the rest of us took the Tawonga Gap. I was following Dave down the other side and noticed that my fuel light had come on. I was trying to think where I'd filled up last which was Tumbarumba. I'd forgotten to reset my trip meter so couldn't tell how many kms I actually done. Filling up in Myrtleford I put in 16.5litres(18l total). A coffee stop was needed, they do good coffee here in victoria. The sun was biting quite hard now.

The ride took us up to Whitfield and up through the hills to Mansfield where we stopped at the bakery for lunch. The Mansfield bakery does a pretty good pie and they were flat out today. We then made our way up into the back country from Jamieson to Eildon. This bit of road is bloody fantastic we stopped briefly at the lookout. Looks like a bushfire or burn off in the hills across the lake.

I thought I'd head down the hill a little and get few shots of Stu and Dave coming up the hill. That didn't work out too well for me leaving the camera in single shot mode and having to rush down as I heard them coming up with those booming V4s brapping it up the hill. This was the only decent pic I got. Photo fail#1.

I pretty much rode the whole way from here on my own as I packed away my camera everyone shot off. About 5kms from the end I hit a large stick in the shadows and the front tyre rolled and tucked. That was sphincter puckering, so I slowed a little after that and found the guys waiting for me at the Eildon turn off.

We were now on the outskirts of Melbourne. I'd bought a quadlock just a couple of days before leaving and we were about to enter friday night peak hour traffic with no clue of  navigating Melbourne. I put on google maps with the ferry as destination and it took us out on the northern outskirts on some nice country roads before dropping us down into the thick of it. We made it to the terminal with no troubles so parked up the bikes and got some diner and a beer into our famished stomachs while we waited for the boat.

It seemed to take forever to board the boat this trip. I think we waited for 1 and a half hours in the line before eventually getting on the ship.

Finally it's boarding time.

Where's the bar.....

By the time we boarded and got into our cabins and then hit the bar is was around 9pm, we were a bit beat but the beers made up for it. Tomorrow we hit Tassie........

Snowy Ride Part 3

 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