Sydney Bound....

The Snowy Mountains have been a blast these past few days but now it's time for me to head up the coast to meet up with my younger brother in Sydney, and then spend a long weekend riding around the Hunter Region with him and a few of his mates.

Today's Route

Life in the mountains....

What a great little spot Bega is, and with the Caravan Park on the outskirts of town and off the highway it was a very quiet night.

Today I took off in search of corners and travelled down into Victoria again before heading back up through the mountains to Bombala, then back up to highway B72 for the 60 k's of winding road back down into Bega.

Todays Route

The town of Bombala - (Bombala Bakery to my left - nice coffee and great pies)

I've seen heaps of birds over the past few days. Sulphur Crested Cockatoo, Galas, Blackbirds, Crows, Rosella, and dive bombing Magpies.

Unfortunately, the cockatoos were amongst the road kill today. When they get hit, the others all sit on the road beside them and this leads to more getting hit. A sad sight indeed.

The other animal over represented in the road kill numbers over the last few days is the wombats. Literally dozens of these laying dead by the side of the road, another sad statistic.

Birdlife in the caravan park in Bega 

My good deed....

I found a mobile phone this afternoon sitting on a picnic table 100 k's out of Bega. Called the owner to find she's only a few minutes from where I'm staying.

Here's how she said thank you... (the chocolates were gone by the time I took this photo).

The calm after the storm...

The rain pelted down for all of last night and the wind sounded like it was going to lift the roof off. By the time I ventured out to load the bike in the morning, things were looking up.

Today's plan was to ride across the Snowy Mountains, through Thredbo and Jindabyne, and eventually wind up in Bega on the south-east corner of NSW for a few days of tearing up the corners in the mountains.

The ride across the Snowy's sees the weather quickly go from overcast and windy to a really beautiful day, and the extreme gale force winds and torrential rain from last night is so apparent with the roads into Thredbo strewn with branches and leaves and the remnants of trees that had fallen across the road (road crews obviously quick to clear them this morning).

Tallangatta to Thredbo is not much more than a tar-sealed goat track.... a narrow, winding road that wouldn't be so bad if it was one way. What would normally be a hazardous ride was made all the worse by tourists oblivious to other traffic and local wankers who fly along this treacherous winding route with no regard for what's around the corner. Thankfully, from Thredbo onward it opens up to a proper piece of highway.

The ski-fields in Thredbo

Lake Jindabyne

Snowy Hydro power generation plant

Mt Kosciusko

For all those demanding another selfie.... shades of Wilson.

Today's route.

Crappy Victorian roads take no prisoners...

After such a great ride yesterday, today started on a really low note.

Went to put the panniers back on the bike this morning and found a critical bolt had snapped. Off to the bike shop for repairs.... only to find it's a public holiday.

I manage to find an engineering shop open across the border in Wodonga. Long story short, the frame's fixed but minus a part that locks the pannier to it. Number 8 wire prevailed and it's strapped with a tie-down for now.

The pannier is rated to 10kg - Loading them with 30kg+ and driving on Victorian roads is obviously beyond the rated limit of the mushroom bolts.

A motorcycle tie-down and a Zuru strap soon replaced the missing mushroom bolt.

So basically, a wasted day. Whilst not as hot as the centre of Australia, the temp is up there today and the humidity along with it, making things uncomfortable. The weather is unpredictable and I'm not sure how the pannier is going to cope without the mushroom bolt to hold it in place. I decide to head for Sydney to see if I can find a Givi dealer with the spare parts in stock.

It still has me baffled how they managed to get this submarine here from the nearest ocean.

Hot and bored (sweating profusely in my new bike pants) I detour via Holbrook and stop for coffee at the submarine cafe. This is a real life submarine, about 1000 k's from the nearest ocean.
It's a playground for kids to play on, and in. Yes, that's in as well. You can explore every inch of this thing. There were family's with kids everywhere. For somewhere you have to divert to off the highway, this is one big draw-card.

I call my brother in Sydney to chew over my day and he reminds me of just how pissed off I'll be if I don't go back south to play in the Snowy Mountains for a few days. As he put it, THE best motorcycle roads in the whole of Australia.

There's no escaping the rain tomorrow. I make plans to head back through the snow to the east coast of NSW to a place called Bega and book myself a night in a motel in Tallangata.

Made a special trip to ride over the old Hume Weir this afternoon only to find that they've built a bypass down stream. This was as close as I could get. Disappointing.

It's been about 35 years since I was last here and there's little I recognised. The old Bonegilla army base has moved across the road and a "Migrant Experience Centre" has gone up in its place. Really? Not sure what that's about.

The other thing I was hoping to see were the hundreds of Centurion tanks that lined the highway at the Bandianna Army Stores Depot. I guess they're all scrap metal by now.

Still, there were enough landmarks throughout the area to invoke some old memories from all those years ago. Oh to be 18 again.

Whilst out that way, I passed about 50 vintage motorcycles heading north. There were certainly some crusty looking riders amongst them that looked about as ancient as their machines.

With storm clouds looming I head off towards Tallangatta with wet gear at the ready but manage to make it all the way and check-in just as the rain begins to fall. Lucky yet again.

Today's route.

Getting to the fun stuff...

Just about to head off through the guts of Victoria to Wodonga, the stomping ground of my youth when I did my Corps training in Bandiana.

I've been having troubles in the afternoons and mornings with sun strike so for all those that know what I'm talking about, here's what I did with a roll of electrical tape. The adjustable sun visor. It works on so many levels.... And doesn't get in the way of your vision. How do you patent a roll of tape.

The weather in Victoria is pretty crap today and for the next few days so I came north to Albury / Wodonga.

Cold start to the day in Traralgon (new pants are getting a workout), and didn't warm up till i hit the mountains in Omeo. That changed to howling gales as I crossed over Mount Hotham. Cold and windy, but such a fantastic ride. Almost the whole day on winding mountainous roads, and the long decent off Hotham being the highlight.

Hard to top a ride like that but I'll certainly give it a try tomorrow when I follow the weather (and the mountains) over to Bega.

My day ends in Albury, an old stomping ground from days as a teen in the army.

Today's route.

Track Day, Phillip Island...

I woke early this morning and then took my time studying the map book. 2 ways to Phillip Island, one involves a ferry, the other means a prolonged freeway journey through the City of Melbourne.

The weather has been all over the show lately, one minute hot, the next it's cold. I decide to go look for bike pants at Biker's Gear in Ferntree Gully which means the ferry is out and the freeway is in. The last time I was in Melbourne was as a young soldier back in 1977. It looks to have changed somewhat so I resort to using the GPS (for the first time in any serious capacity so far on this journey).

It's Saturday morning but the traffic is shocking. The one thing I notice on the freeway is that bicycles share the same road even though the speed limit is 110kph. There's certainly no shortage of health freaks out riding.

After what seemed like forever, I fight my way through the Bikers Gear store and grab a pair of pants, but the temp has climbed so high I wind up stuffing them into what little space is left in the top box, then head out to Phillip Island. I was hoping for a quite wander round the track, maybe a run round on the bike perhaps, but there was a local race meet on for some amateur car club so that ruled that out.

I headed off for the go kart track next door for a feed and to rethink the days activities and was joined by a cheeky peacock...

I waited in line for the go karts for quite some time only to find out that there was another 1 1/2 hours to wait after signing on. A pity cause the karts look so cool. I'm outta here, next stop Traralgon.

Today's route.

Cruisin' the Coast...

Feeling excited this morning as I leave Mt Gambier. Today I'm heading for one of the most iconic bike roads in Australia, the "Great Ocean Road' 350 klm of scenic, winding road running along the bottom of Victoria.

The day starts out cool and overcast as I head off along the 20 k's to the border, and as border crossings go, this is probably the least memorable other than to say that you can tell you're in Victoria because the road surface instantly turns from good to crap. The further into Victoria you go, the worse the roads get. I sure hope this isn't an indicator of what's about to come.

The run down to Portland is pleasant but it's not until I get to this that things get interesting... 

 
At first I thought it was the 12 Apostles but I soon learn that this is just a small part of the spectacular scenery ahead.

Lunch is here at Port Campbell. I watch as a boat is launched into very heavy surf and can't believe these people are going to ride that out to the ocean.
 

The ride along the coast is simply stunning and getting quite warm. Scenery at every turn (and there's a truckload of twists and turns) but it gets quite hairy with Asian and Middle Eastern tourists in camper vans and 4WDs all over the road.

The worst of them is the Asians. You come round a corner to find them straddling the white line, and waving you off the road like it's all theirs and you're going the wrong way. It really is a wonder there isn't more deaths. Road rage builds within me.

Finally! The 12 Apostles. The view that every Aussie would recognise from pictures. Worth every bit of the effort to get here, except for one small thing....

The car park at the top is chock-a-block full of cars and tour buses - and this isn't the height of the tourist season. It's one of those things I guess, where you're smack in the middle of the wilderness, surrounded by mother nature, and ready to enjoy everything she has to offer. It would be a darn sight more spectacular without the thousands of tourists and the constant buzzing of helicopters flying up and down the coast. When I return to the bike I notice the choppers are on a 60 second turnaround. A new one lifts off every minute.

Cruisin' the highway was such a pleasure that I just kept riding, all day long, and before I knew it I was entering Geelong and it was peak hour on a Friday afternoon. I was knackered and busting for a pee and suddenly I was faced with a sign that said 'Freeway to Melbourne'. To move beyond this intersection was the point of no return.... Next stop Melbourne. I quickly decided on a left turn and as luck would have it, within 50 metres I was in the driveway of a motor inn. Instant accommodation.

....so here ended my day.

Today's route.

Back to it...

After waiting for the peak hour traffic to die off I head off out of Adelaide along the M1. It's cool and overcast and I'm kitted out with all of my thermal liners and over-pants. It's such a huge departure from the temperatures of the past few weeks but something I can easily get used to.

My plan for today is to do about 500 k's, stretch the trip out over the day, and stick to the coast. First stop is 2 hours south at a placed called Meningie for fuel and a coffee. My stop at the Lakeside Cafe was timed to coincide with Mrs Snappa's birthday luncheon at the Oxford back home in NZ. I sit in the cafe and after an exchange of pictures and the obligatory birthday wishes I head off to a park to do some quick bike maintenance. It's here that I run into the guy that drives the Google Maps Street View car.
 

 

What a job! I spend some time talking to him about his travels and turns out he's a fellow biker. This job allows him to find the best roads to go back over on his bike on his days off.

So, bike and rider refreshed, I head off for Kingston SE, home of the big lobster.
 

Somewhat of a lazy mooch from Adelaide. Just rolled along down the coast road and wound up having lunch in Robe with a couple of guys who flew from Melbourne to Adelaide to return a couple of hire bikes and were taking 5 days to get home.

Apparently they do this often. They have a mate at the hire place that does them an exceptional rate whenever they need to return bikes on one way hire back to Melbourne.

Their bikes had been ridden from Darwin to Adelaide. Although, having just come down the guts I'd have to wonder why you wouldn't just take the train or a bus as it would be more exciting than riding bolt upright in the heat for 3000k's.

Today has been overcast and threatening to rain the whole way. The first full lot of miserable weather so far this trip.  This is the seaside resort of Robe.
 

The rest of the journey through to Mt Gambier was pretty uneventful. That is until I handed the task of finding accommodation to Mrs Snappa. She must have been bored, or wanted a laugh because this is where I ended up...
 

 

 

http://theoldmountgambiergaol.com.au/

So I spent the night in gaol. Not the most comfortable night of the trip. This was still an actual prison right up till 2010. It was a lot worse than what I had expected. As an accommodation experience, it really was no better than an actual prison, other than I had the codes to get in and out of the front gate.

 

...and don't lose it or you won't get back in after 10pm.

The only light that filtered into the room was through a tiny window over the door and in spite of there being other guests about, there was no noise. It was just soooooo quiet. One night was enough to put me on the straight and narrow.

Today's route.