Goodbye winter.

nev

Super Térrarist
Next morning we were up at the crack of dawn and on the road heading south through Tuena, Crookwell into Goulburn.

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Arrived in Goulburn and i dropped Jo at McDonalds to steal their wifi while I went to hunt for a tyre. My pilot road 4 rear is 10000km old and I knew it would need replacing before we got home. The tyre is down to it's tread depth markers and there is only 1000km or so before we get home, but I know how quickly the last few mm of rubber in a tyre can disappear... (and only a couple of days prior in Walcha we'd seen a bloke putting the third plug in his tyre which had the steel bands showing, as he contemplated how he was going to get home to Port Macquarie on a tyre which had clearly already given up the ghost.

The Yamaha dealer had no 150 profile tyres on his rack, (sold a lot of tyres the previous week to riders heading to the island and hadn't received any restock) but just as i was about to leave the bloke in the workshop whips out a secondhand Anakee 3 rear tyre which another customer had tried but not liked. It had about 60% tread and it was mine for $75 including fitting. Can't argue with that. An hour later I collect Jo and we're on our way again.

Some very light drizzle has we head out of town, but as the road drops out of the clouds the sky clears.

A quick stop in Braidwood to stretch the legs.

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We hit the coast at Bateman's Bay and stop for fish and chips.

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Was originally planning to stay here the night, but we've made such good time today (and I'd budgeted a lot more time getting the tyre sorted out) that I decide another 100km this afternoon will give us a shorter day tomorrow, so we continue south along the coast to Bermagui.

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nev

Super Térrarist
After some showers overnight we woke up to blue skies again. First stop was Candelo for breakfast. Candelo seems to be a bit more lively than the last few times we have stopped here and this cafe cooked a pretty good egg and bacon roll.

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We headed out to Bombala along the unsealed Tantawangalo Mountain Rd where rare two headed camels live.

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into Bombala

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and a trip up to the lookout. (we followed the lookout signs from the centre of town, which led us up the dirt road to the lookout, and upon arriving at the summit found that there is an alternative, all-sealed but unsignposted route to the lookout from the other side of the hill).

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At Delegate we headed out to Bendoc for a look (OK here's a challenge. Is there any other town in Victoria which is accessible on a sealed road from an adjoining state but is not accessible from within Victoria via a sealed road?)

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Back onto the Bonang Hwy and the next 100km of motorcycle heaven

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Spotted this 1.5m red belly black snake enjoying the sun on the road.

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Spotted this ultimate houseboat in Orbost. A caravan in a boat, with a shed over the tom, and an outboard motor on the back.

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and this classic splitscreen Kombi

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Checked out this old trestle bridge near Nowa Nowa

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and settled into Lakes Entrance for a couple of nights..

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jo

I'm a wimp!
This is how Nev took those photos...
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Around the Clarence River has been the highlight of this trip. I have not seen the country so green.
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...maybe with a tinge of purple
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Apsley Fall was the other surprise considering we've been through the Oxley Highway a few times
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Why did the turtle cross the road?
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Candelo has hipster cafe
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Bonang Highway was a bit busy
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glitch

Mapping the next ride...
Staff member
:clap::clap::drool:

Fantastic stuff and some oh-so-sweet shots.
You doing it right, guys!


Looks like this one here was near Canberra somewhere...

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...isn't that the place they talk out of their ar*e?

Well caught!:thumbs:
And...try to stay where you are, Melbourne hasn't got all that much going for it at the moment.
 

nev

Super Térrarist
Last day of our trip was the leg home through Gippsland.

View of the Lakes just out of Lakes Entrance

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Spied this Bills Trough in Bairnsdale

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Near Hills End

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Steam train near Noojee

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Trestle Bridge near Noojee

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Stats for the trip.

18 days. 14 riding days.
Total distance about 5670km of which about 1100km were roads I've never ridden before.

A link to the GPS track of the entire trip

One of my unofficial goals of the trip was to stay only in towns I've never stayed in before, and I was successful in doing so every night of the trip, (including suburbs of Brisbane and the Gold Coast I've never stayed in before). Our overnight stops were, Jerilderie NSW, Dunedoo NSW, Texas Qld, Inala Qld, Broadbeach Qld, Casino NSW, Drake NSW, Bonny Hills, NSW, Tamworth NSW, Neville NSW, Bermagui NSW and Lakes Entrance Vic.

The Fuel injector issue which saw us turn back only 100km into the trip never occurred again from about Cowra onwards on day 2, so a few tanks of fuel and some injector cleaner probably dealt with that.
I also forgot to mention in my report that another incident occurred about 2 minutes before we were due to leave home.. The bikes were loaded, I was gearing up, and my helmet fell on the concrete driveway and the visor split right down the middle. Fortunately I am a man of habit and I own 3 identical helmets the same model, so I transplant visor was taken off a spare helmet and 5 minutes later we were on our way.


Every day of our trip was sunny. Around Goulburn there was a few km of very light misty drizzle and coming into Yallourn we caught the edge of a sunshower which lasted 10 seconds. When We got home the rain gauge had 53mm. shame we missed all that !
 

John_Johnny

Long Timer
That Google map link works well. Crikey you're good at that stuff Nev. It even has a different colour for each leg. Most impressive.
Great ride report and thanks for having us along.
 
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