Wee Jasper to the Brindabella's

I had an RDO last Friday and I had organised an over night ride to Tumut. I'd previously in another post here attempted a similar ride but bad weather  turned that ride into a road ride. Scotty and Joffrey confirmed but Joffrey pulled out at the last minute, so with Scotty as my Wingman we headed off at 6:30am. A quick stop at the Bakery in Goulburn for Coffee and Almond Danish. I'm gonna blow out my diet this weekend I can see already.

We got back on the road again and headed for Yass, wwe stopped for fuel and another Coffee and we bought a Chicken Salad roll to take away. When the young girl asked 'what do you want in the salad roll?' should have been a red flag right there. Never ever buy a salad roll from Kaffeine2582, worst salad roll both Scotty and I have ever had. Seriously how do you bugger up a salad roll, its got me stuffed. Coffee was good though.

We then turned down back roads, that lead to Wee Jasper and dirt roads beyond. Two minutes down the road and I see highway patrol coming along, and think shit what's the speed limit here? Looked down and was doing about 80kmh, but he kept going thankfully. We stopped to hydrate the grass, then kept going.

I got dive-bombed by Satan’s own magpie. As it swooped in from the side, I locked eyes with it—bloodshot, furious, pure malice, like staring into the devil itself. I slowed just enough to give the beast a chance. THUD! - a solid hit on my helmet. Nailed him. Hahahaha!

We stopped at Taemas Bridge over the Murrumbidgee River. I thought this a great spot to have our lunch. The Chicken salad roll, had Chicken, beetroot and tomato wrapped in some stale Turkish bread. Yeah it was worse than it sounds. Fuck how hard is it seriously.

I then realised how much traffic was driving south along this road. At least 100 cars must have driven past. A bunch of cars stopped waiting for a truck on the bridge, I asked 2 girls that were grooving to some tunes in their car, what's with all the traffic on this road I said to them through the open window. They replied back they were on their way to some music festival at Wee Jasper, there was going to be 5-7000 people attending. Great!!!! Bet the Distillery I was planning on visiting will be packed now.

Scotty below, realising how woeful the salad roll actually was. At least we were in a scenic location. Beautiful countryside down around Wee Jasper.

The lose plan was to ride down Mountain Creek road then turn up Sawyers Gull Rd and back to Wee Jasper road. But first we climbed up the hill before turning around and coming back. Its a good fun bit of road with some nice elevation with views of the valley. Two dozen cars must have passed by when I was stopped to take these photos. Sure is eye wateringly green out here. Must have had a lot of rain.

We back tracked to mountain creek road and all the traffic disappeared.

Some nice gravel riding along here through some scenic farmlands. The road was in pretty good shape also. Riding along Sawyers Gully Rd,  I saw another of satan's magpies drop out of a tree and dive bomb me. I didn't bother slowing down for this one. Africa Twin - 2, Magpies - 0, hahahaha!

We turned back onto Wee Jasper rd. for the run down the hill into the village. More spectacular views along here.

Is it a sign, is it art or is it just crap poetry. I can picture Scotty's pondering look, thinking about this sign.

It's been 12 years since I'd been through here on this ride. We stayed at the pub on that ride, but the pub burnt down in 2018. You can see the remains of the burn out pub behind the stables and house. 

We stopped in at the Distillery as it wasn't busy at all. All the cars kept driving past going out the road to the music festival, probably to inhale some chemicals.

Even though its a new building, it has its own charm and the staff couldn't be more helpful. Explaining all about the variety's of Gin and Vodka they make. Sounds like time for a taster eh Scotty? Scotty?

Too late, he was hooking in.

So we then ordered Coffee's and a taster plate, why not we weren't in any hurry. The owner explained everything about each type of gin and their flavours and what best goes with them. Can't remember a single thing now, but they went down nicely.

A local BMW rider from Canberra came over to chat. I asked him about the road conditions on the Tumut road and the Brindabella rd. He said "Its terrible, rutted, corrigated and potholes, you'll be going slow 30kmh". 

I think it was almost 3pm by the time we got away again. Heading out the road to Tumut, it was nice gravel riding through the pine forests. I wasn't expecting any traffic but there was a little, probably going to the music festival. We pushed on.

The surface was fucking immaculate, couldn't have asked for better really. Don't know what old mate was on about.

We stopped at an intersection that I wasn't expecting. I had to take a look at the map to see where we were going and take a photo. As I was doing that I could hear a bike approaching. Sounds like a Triumph. Turns out it was, looked like an 800 explorer, the white Pearl and he kept going back the way we had just come.

Stopping at the lookout on the outskirts of Tumut we took in the views. Breath-taking scenery from up here. But the pub was calling, it was beer o'clock.

We fueled up ready to go tomorrow then headed to our digs for the night at the Royal Hotel Tumut. I'd stayed here last year as well. It's a good pub with motel style rooms out the back where you can park your bike at your door. $90 for a room, with a double and single bed, its good value. There may have been a bottle of red knocked off in the motel room after the footy game.

DAY 2

We knocked down a slap up bacon & egg breakfast then had the bikes loaded and ready to go by 9am. Riding north out of town we turn east onto the Bombowlee Creek Rd. The sign says 129km to Canberra(42km unsealed).

 

Bombowlee Creek road was a cracking ride, winding its way through rolling hills covered in pine forests. The tarmac was super smooth, sports bike territory. Amazing riding, I can't believe we haven't done this before it was that good.

After about 26kms the road turns to dirt and becomes a gravel superhighway. The surface along here was also superb, can easily do 80+kmh before it gets to some of the twister bits. There's quite a few elevation changes along the way, with a few tarred sections.

We descended out of the hills to a bridge across the Goodradigbee river. The water was flowing fast, and would have been cold snow melt. Probably some trout in there too.

As we climbed the hill out I noticed a sign saying that the last 10km of gravel was due to be tarred by 2031. I stopped on the climb up the hill to take in the views down into the valley below.

The road went back to dirt for some time, there were a lot of 4wd's coming the other way. I figured we must be getting close to Canberra for this many to be out on Saturday morning.

Crossing the border into the ACT at Piccadilly Circus. Looks like adventure riding in 4 directions from here. As I stopped for a couple of photos, a lady hopped out of her 4wd and asked to take a picture for me.

As we came down the hill turn back to tar and wound its way through pine forests again, more superb twisty riding. It felt like more than 42km of unsealed road, but it was all good riding great surface and through spectacular scenery.

We took the turn off to Cotter Dam out the back of Canberra. I'd heard that this was Canberra's "Old Pacific Hwy" where all the sports bikes come to be weekend warriors. We were on the road for about 2 minutes before a Panagali & R7 blasted past us in the other direction. Yep we are on the right road to have some fun. I was surprised to see that the road came so close to the back of the dam. Close enough to pull in for a look.

Riding out of Cotter Dam we took Paddy's River Road. This is another good twisty tar road through the pine forests. It also passes by Tidbinbilla, also know as the Canberra Deep Space Communication Complex. The radio telescopes were used in the Apollo lunar missions in a support role for telemetry and voice communications. I decided on taking a look as we were riding straight past and I'd never been here before.

Scotty was in deep thought, pondering the meaning of life, or was he just thinking whether or not he needed a dump. We can't be sure......

We soon left and made our way back to the road, where we took to the outer suburbs of Canberra and bypassed Queanbeyan and then on into Bungendore. Original plan was to stop for lunch in Bungendore but we both weren't hungry so opted for Coffee and cake at Café Woodworks', The caramel slice was particularly tasty, washed down with a superb flat white coffee. Magnific. 

We took back roads through Bungonia to the highway then through Thirlmere and to the Wallacia Hotel for wind down beers before heading home. Another ride that was over way to soon, would have loved another day but had plans to take the family to the RAAF Richmond 100th Anniversary Air show on Sunday.

Thanks for the company on another awesome ride Scotty, you were the perfect wingman.  

When is an Adventure ride not an Adventure ride?

Easy, when you have over 150mm rain the night before the ride and all your mates bail on you. The pic below was at 7pm the night before the ride. 

Red line was original plan with 100kms dirt - Blue line actual ride

I'd organised a half road/half adventure ride with the lads down to Tumut the week before as the wife and kids were going to the Hunter Valley.

The excuses started flowing thick and fast from the lads during the week when rain was predicted on thursday & friday. I'd been watching the weather all week and Tumut had no rain up until 25mm on friday so was pretty confident it would be ok. "Oh my fork seal is leaking", "oh my chain is worn out", until finally "we are gonna pull out as we'd rather do it in more ideal conditions". The forecast for saturday and sunday was showers and 1-5mm. That's nothing, sometimes you just have to go all in, pussys.

I was greeted with thick fog at 6:30am which cleared once I got to Penrith. I'd decided to head up the Great Western Highway, good call as unbeknownst to me the Bells line of road was blocked with tree falls. It was clear blue sky's all the way across the Blue Mountains and 18°C.

I'd decide against going down via Oberon which also had 150mm rain over night and decided to head further west.

I came to a causeway on the Tarana rd which had a torrent of water running through it. It wasn't too deep but there are 2 more of these further on and those ones are deeper than this. I didn't want to take a risk being by myself so rode around via Great Western to Bathurst. I went through my first rain shower which lasted about 10 minutes and just wet my visor, road was still mostly dry. 

I then decided I would head south down the Abercrombie Rd to Crookwell. I went through another shower or 2 here that again was enough to wet your visor. Geoff called me and I answered, but the comms is pretty shit at 120kmh cause I couldn't hear him and it cutout after a bit. I could tell by his tone he had FOMO.

Abercrombie Caves park was closed today. Probably due to high predicted rainfall that hasn't actually eventuated. I noticed all the weather reports online this morning had comments turned off. Media scaremongering and climate alarmism bullshit to fit their narrative.

I continued on and had a kamikaze Kangaroo jump out in front of me. He was hopping so slowly and looked soaked haha.

Most of the ride was in sunshine with threatening looking sky's. The road was mostly dry with a few wet patches and was totally empty today and it was fantastic riding.

It's not the adventure ride I was hoping for but still a fantastic road ride in pretty damn near ideal conditions and I was loving it.

Next stop was for Fuel in Crookwell and then a feed. It's not a motorcycle tour without a bakery stop. A coffee and pie hit the spot. I was thinking the conditions would be ideal to continue the rest of the adventure ride. 

After checking the weather again and NSW Traffic app I found out that Wee Jasper road was closed at Brungle Creek. The sky's were starting to get darker and more threatening. Decision made on heading out further west through Boorowa and Harden.

More empty roads and awesome riding. The sky looked foreboding but it was much like that savage dog at the dodgy house down the street, behind that fence that's all it was threatening and nothing else.

Rolling into Jugiong I came upon this fantastic little pub, the Sir George. It's an old pub that's a little bit up market in the middle of nowhere. So I thought it's time for a beer. I even got valet parking right out the front. I can't believe we rode through here for years and never once stopped here at the pub, what a waste. That Crankshaft ale went down nicely.

Just out of town I saw a lookout by the roadside with views over the valley and hills beyond. Beautiful country out here.

It was a short stint along the highway to Coolac where I turned off again down towards Tumut all on back roads through Brungle.

I could see the clouds following me south, building blacker. The road along here has been re-tarred from the Murrimbidgee Bridge to the turn off at the farm and was in top condition also been widened.

A quick stop on the Brungle Road Bridge over the Tumut river. The water was flowing steadily but was quite clear. So quiet out here with no one around.

Getting to the Wee Jasper Road turn offit was only 4pm, so I turned to have a look what condition the road was in. The dirt looked like it had just been resurfaced and was in good condition, slightly damp so no dust and plenty grippy. I turned around after about 5km and thought it was time for a beer at the pub in Tumut.

The lookout over Tumut on the Wee Jasper Road. Awesome views. I was soon in town so filled up cleaned the visor and was ready to go in the morning. The Royal Hotel in Tumut was great. $90 for a motel style room where you could park your bike right at the front door.

Time for a beer or three, whilst I watched out the front window the rain coming down. It lasted for about an hour. Just beat it then.

A glass of red went well and this steak was one of the best I've had in years. Cooked to perfection.

I retired to the room with a bottle of red where I could lazy in comfort and watch some TV.

Sunday morning and I open the door to look outside and I'm greeted with this.......

I shower an pack and look at the weather radar. The rain appears to be heading south. I'm not going to Ride the Brindabellas today after this rain, it was the 2nd part of the adv ride I had planned and I'm not going further into the Snowy mtns either as I'm sure to be cold and wet up there. I get some breakfast at Maccas and decide on my route.

The weather today doesn't look as good as yesterday, but I head off in the dry back up to Coolac and onto the highway. I encounter a few more showers along the highway but don't get wet.

I take the Gunning turn off to Crookwell which has superb twisting flowing hilly curves where I'll get fuel at Crookwell and decide my next move. I thought I'll get lunch at the Taralga pub. Solid plan. Dodging rain along the way.

On arrival at 11:50am its closed. I gear up to leave just as they unlock the doors. I think fuck it they are not going to be doing lunch's right now if they only just opened at 12 so head off.

I keep avoiding rain showers along the road, the road is wet with occasional dry patches and vice versa.

Coming down Abercrombie Gorge I notice the debris on the bridge. Lucky I didn't try and come this way yesterday, it would have had water over the road and probably would have had to turn back.

I decide to avoid Oberon and head for the blue mountains. I'll get lunch at Mountain Pies bakery. I continue down Shooters Hill Road.

I take the Cox River road and join the Great Western Highway and cross to the Bells Line. Looks like there goes my lunch stop, I forgot about the pie shop, disaster. I have one final detour upon reaching Windsor the plains are flooded and I have to double back and adds an extra half hour. Finally reach home about 3pm for lunch and a couple of well earned beers.

Another fantastic ride, lads you missed out on a top ride. Wasn't an Adv ride but I'll take what I can, when I can these days.