Ride South 26th Feb to 1st Mar 2012 or enough water for an Ewok Adventure ;)

Day 1: http://g.co/maps/f329m
I met up with Baz at Pie in the Sky at 1000 on Sunday morning, after he finished his breakfast, he led the way to Bells line of Road, resplendent in his Road Captain vest and matching fluoro chaps,

At Mt Victoria Baz had the good sense to don his rain gear, I only opted for the Tailend Charlie fluoro raincoat.
This turned out to be a bad move as it rained from Hartley to lunch at Oberon.

A chance for me to dry out a bit and dress properly and eat a very ordinary steak sandwich.

We had rain all the way to Tarago, but I think it could have been worse judging by the amount of water mixed with the road works at Goulburn.

The Loaded Dog Hotel is always a good stop for bikers, I enjoyed dinner, I think I may have scared Baz with the way I put away the seafood basket.

Day 2: http://g.co/maps/z999w

We set off on Monday with high hopes but were forced to put on WWG at Bungendore, by Bredbo we were confident enough to take it off again. Lunch was at Cooma.


An old vagrant checks out Baz's Bike.

We had a good run for a while on the Snowy Mountains Highway but I stopped to put on the rain gear again at Sawyers Hill Rest House as the weather was closing in again.

Then followed our first round of mystery biking, this is where visibility is so low you don't know where the road goes or even if there is a road! I'm sure we set a new record for the slowest journey by a motorised vehicle on this section. This was the case most of the way along the road past Cabramurra.

From Corryong we took the most direct route to our overnight stop at Mt Beauty Holiday Centre which is actually at Tawonga South.
Best part our bikes were undercover as it poured all night, fortunately the rain only started in earnest once we got back from our dinner and refreshments at the Settlers Tavern next door.




Day 3: http://g.co/maps/tcgu9

Tuesday morning we weren't too keen to get wet, so didn't go looking for breakfast in the rain, I had a liquid-breakfast-in-a -box, fortunately, as it turned out because breakfast turned into lunch at Omeo thanks to a late start and another slow round of Mystery Biking through the Mt Hotham Ski fields area.

The weather had cleared enough by the time we left for me to get the camera out again.

Looking back toward Mt Beauty from Sullivans Lookout.


Baz coming through the tunnel at Hotham Heights


Omeo Court House

The only highlight was the truck which dropped diesel on all the left-hand bends to make life more interesting.
Night was spent at Cann River Hotel, not too bad, food was good but the Highway traffic a bit loud.


Day 4: http://g.co/maps/rcxtr

Wet, wet ,wet camera stayed in it's plastic bag all day. We called it a day early at Ulladulla and made for the Marlin Hotel whilst the room air-conditioner tried to dry out our gear, hint: motel hair dryer makes a good helmet interior dryer, keep it on low and don't get it too close.

Day 5: http://g.co/maps/4hdw3

We braved the rain to get a breakfast at a harbourside cafe, which would have been ideal on any other day. The rain just kept coming, we set off in wet weather gear for the third day running. Almost miraculously the rain eased off about an hour into the trip and breaks even appeared in the clouds.

I'd had enough by now and opted for a Toll way route through Sydney, which really worked out well, except the Hume Highway led straight into the M7 Motorway without any where to say farewell to Baz who exited at the M4. I continued on to Pennant Hills Road where I refuelled and had a pie and was home by 2PM. I had removed the wet weather gear and a jumper at Sydney but was wishing I had removed more by Gosford.
It was so hot at home that I was sweating, dressed only in shorts, I managed to wash and dry all my gear and put the bike away with a freshly oiled chain.

Thanks to Baz for his company and for navigating the bits I was unfamiliar with.

Great report & pictures Recycled / sometimes the rain can add to an adventure , but not when it doesn't give you a break .
That old vagrant looked a bit shifty I hope you beat him off with a big stick .

Nice report Peter. This year for WSBK, we went Mt Beauty-Falls Creek-Omeo rather than Bright-Hotham-Omeo as you guys did (and as we did for the 2011 WSBK trip). IMHO the Bright-Hotham-Omeo route is the better of the two roads mainly because the road back down is wider. After Falls Creek, the road becomes quite narrow and is a white bitumen that just kept reminding me of loose white stones, so I was never confident to corner hard! That made the ride a bit boring because I was always too conservative - no doubt that if I was to ride it a few times, I'd get over that physological issue.

Sounds like your whole trip was pretty wet but at least you had sunshine when you got home to dry things out. I still have clothes on the line from WSBK that are not yet dry 6 days later! No sign of the sun appearing today as it is still raining. So no bike riding either.

Ewok1958 wrote:Nice report Peter. This year for WSBK, we went Mt Beauty-Falls Creek-Omeo rather than Bright-Hotham-Omeo as you guys did (and as we did for the 2011 WSBK trip). IMHO the Bright-Hotham-Omeo route is the better of the two roads mainly because the road back down is wider. After Falls Creek, the road becomes quite narrow and is a white bitumen that just kept reminding me of loose white stones, so I was never confident to corner hard! That made the ride a bit boring because I was always too conservative - no doubt that if I was to ride it a few times, I'd get over that physological issue.

Sounds like your whole trip was pretty wet but at least you had sunshine when you got home to dry things out. I still have clothes on the line from WSBK that are not yet dry 6 days later! No sign of the sun appearing today as it is still raining. So no bike riding either.

The original plan was to go South via Falls Creek and return North via Hotham as I had done on the 2010 WSBK trip, but knowing how badly defined that road was in good conditions, I wasn't about to tackle it in rain and fog. As it was we were relying on the snow plough guide posts much of the way.

Nice run mate. Wish I had've been there.

well I better throw in what photos I took.
on the Berowra ferry making our way to Windsor


wet in Oberon and food at the Royal Hotel is dreadful, do yourself a favour and get a burger at the take-away instead.


Cooma


I thought this might have been 2WA at some isolated little pub on the murray valley hwy


the artiste at work above tawonga


Coming into Cann River through the most rain I've ever ridden through

When can I go again??

congratulations for the nice photos and congratulations on the ride in the rain

V Lamps

Hi there guys. Well blow me down it was you. As I posted in the ride section where you had the info out about your upcoming ride, I passed you both as you just left Taralga. I thought about turning around and giving chase but thought I would look like a dickhead if it wasn't you. I hadn't read your post the night before and went out for a day ride. I could have met up with you both as a short tag along had I seen it. I did a loop from Taralga, Goulburn, Grabben gullen, Gunning for lunch, Then Bungendore, Goulburn with a secret detour I know of then back to Taralga. It was then I saw you head just into the 100k zone out of Taralga and I noticed Peters bike and Yellow jacket. Baz was leading. Anyway, sorry i missed you both and will endevour to catch up on another ride. Thanks for the pics and it's a shame you missed out on making the most out of some of the best riding in the land.
Andrew.

I'm sorry that we missed you too Andrew, probably on a mission to make Tarago as I was pretty damp and uncomfortable by then.

Baz wrote:

I thought this might have been 2WA at some isolated little pub on the murray valley hwy

That's me after 2 pots

Androo120 wrote:Hi there guys. Well blow me down it was you. As I posted in the ride section where you had the info out about your upcoming ride, I passed you both as you just left Taralga. I thought about turning around and giving chase but thought I would look like a dickhead if it wasn't you. I hadn't read your post the night before and went out for a day ride. I could have met up with you both as a short tag along had I seen it. I did a loop from Taralga, Goulburn, Grabben gullen, Gunning for lunch, Then Bungendore, Goulburn with a secret detour I know of then back to Taralga. It was then I saw you head just into the 100k zone out of Taralga and I noticed Peters bike and Yellow jacket. Baz was leading. Anyway, sorry i missed you both and will endevour to catch up on another ride. Thanks for the pics and it's a shame you missed out on making the most out of some of the best riding in the land.
Andrew.

I said to Peter in Gouldburn that blue bandit went past us ... I was bloody well thinking about you as we entered Taralga ... and I passed you on the way out of Taralga I did slow down but we were wanting to find somewhere dry

I was a bit the same. In a hurry to miss the rain. I had basically ridden in a big circle and missed all of the rain.

Great RR fellas. Looks like a great ride in crap weather. Well done.

Androo120 wrote:I was a bit the same. In a hurry to miss the rain. I had basically ridden in a big circle and missed all of the rain.

We basically rode in a big circle with the rain for 5!! days