Beef 'n Reef pt.1

glitch

Mapping the next ride...
Staff member
( Nov. 2002)

...and then it was finally there: the morning we'd waited for....

Jason (VFR8), Mick_G (Across), Mike O'Connor (R100RS), Garry (Peg),Tim (Peg, from Hobart for the tour), Goodie (Peg) and myself (Peg), with Suzie blowing the whistle at the last momemt due to a sad death in the family :(.

Also there at the Maccas meeting point in Lilydale was Just-Al (and trusty Amelia, the CX500), who'd tag along for the Saturday, returning to Melb on the Sunday.
Just to see us out-of-town was Marty_H (the other can't-kill-em-Across), Shaun ? (VTR) and Peter (Gixxer?).
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Dry and sunny, Marty/Shaun/Peter left us at Willow Grove, turning south to Trafalgar/Mirboo/ Gippsland.
Past Yallourn and north to Heyfield, then up to Licola.
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Tim (first group ride ever for him) on the red Peg started to itch for some twisties-fun and gave me a run for the money on the way up which sadly only lasted 25km, before the by-now-nightmarish-overheating-
problem re-appeared on my Peg and it was curtains for the silver one.

I returned to Melbourne to pick up the Bandit12 and drop the Peg, in/out of the garage in 6 minutes just swapping the luggage from one rack to the other
and off I went….still, an extra 4hrs loop.
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The rest of the group had gone on, with Mike and Jason looking after things and getting everyone to Dargo safely.
870km later I joined up about 7.30, just in time for some tucker at the pub.
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A big mob of Mxers provided troubled sleep from 2am onwards...

Day 2 saw bright sunshine and 50km of glorious twisties to Bairnsdale
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where Al turned around to go home, the rest of us going east to Bruthen, then Buchan, revelling in one of the best bike roads in Vic, the Buchan-Orbost backroad. Not for the faint-hearted, it's tight, narrow and full of surprises (incl. dead mutant-wombats in the middle of the road in a shady lefthander).
Everyone had fun, it was getting warm, the break in Orbost was welcome. The scenic route out of town led past Marlo to Cape Conran, another break and Tim had a dive, loosing his jocks in the surf ;D ;D ;D
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The rare Cape Conran white-arsed dolphin... ;D ;D ;D
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Onto the Princess Hwy and up to Cann River,
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then on to Malacoota. It was too late for a putt-putt boat on the lakes, still early enough for the shopping.
Malacoota Court Holiday Units are a great place to stay, the grassand big clumps of native fauna a nice background to to the spacious units and bbq's.
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Day 3 loomed with high clouds, the 2-hour boat trip across the lakes was cut a bit short by blackening skies and a shower.
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The ride out to Cann River become a cool and damp affair,
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the mountains shrouded in a low, black curtain. A biking tourist coming from Bombala was questioned, he had water running out the front of his boots, blue lips and fingertips.
Despite all that we set out for the Cann River Hwy/ Monaro Hwy and things got wet and nasty very quickly. Speeds were still up though, everyone seemed to want "to get it over and done with", until we hit
the highlands. Rain subsided to sprinkle, but the winds
were ferocious. It's pretty exciting to run 120 on a straight bit with the bike being 20 degrees cranked over, then comes the bend and you just don't know how to set up for it.

Let the bike be pushed by the wind? Run high first, then have the wind push you around? Try to go "normal" and finish up on the other side
of the road? It was interesting Watching the antics in
my mirrors...while trying hard to stay "on-line" myself...
After some hard going we got into Bombala, re-grouped and went up to the lookout on a shoddy gravel-road, more hard going for the sporties, no worries for the Pegs. Fantastic views were the reward, the Alpine Area still invisible but holes in the
clouds gave some weird "highlighting" of some spots of the High-Plateau, great stuff.
Back to the Road and another perler waited for us on the stretch from Bombala to Wyndham, then down to Candelo.
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The stop at Myrtle Mountain Lookout revealed a tight chain on the Bandit and a quickly disappearing rear tyre with profile barely showing, plans were made to get onto something fresh in Canberra the next day.
BT Humble proved the ever-reliable contact, trying to find a shop along our route (thanks, mate).
Into Bega, then up the coast, turning onto the road to Bermagui, another sweet one.

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After the break it was north to
TilbaTilba and a photo-session along the way across the little islets of the lagoons.
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Magic place.
The run up the coast to Batemans Bay was relaxing, the ever-present "officials" putting a lid on things. Better to not even try...
Late afternoon sunshine bathed the small, rocky islands at the entrance of the bay, the Caravan Park on the north-side of the bridge a good place to stay.
Running a bit late we prowled through
the main street in search for tucker, finding a nice pub
with a terrace overlooking the water, after that it was the usual "downhiller", the belly was still hurting the next morning :))

Mick and Jason had spotted a bike-shop on the way in the night before, and they were open early. A fresh Metzeler was fitted within 10 mins. and more sunshine and blue skies saw us pulling out of town by 9am. The fresh rubber put a stop to the up-the-mountain-chase to Braidwood, another good road.
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Coffee-break,
then on to Queanbeyan for fuel with Mike and Goodie
overshooting the servo and going on to the meeting place with BTH at the far side of Canberra, the rest of us left wondering.

After checking with everyone I retraced our route for 20km, they were nowhere to be seen. Back at the servo the mobile phones had established their whereabouts, eventually we all met at the pre- arranged spot, to find the locals (BT and Gary Woodman).
BT had convinced the lady at Cotter Pub to open the joint for us on their day-off, the steaks were SPECTACULAR.
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As we pulled in, a Blackbird pulled up at the last intersection before the pub, Nev had timed his join-up absolutely perfectly and right on-the-knocker for lunch.
After a long lunch, BT's presentation of the "Papagalli-Porn-Video"
came as a surprise. Very stylish, mate :))) Brown paper
bag and all. I'm sure it'll be the source of much "pleasure", which, of course, started right-away.
Then it was on to the Brindabella Rd (might use the wrong name here), past Tidbinbilla Tracking Station
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and back onto the Monaro Hwy (where BTH left us) for the only dead-boring run of the whole ride, to Cooma.

Plenty of cops around here...
Then to Jindabyne where Sasha already waited for us. She'd come up
to stay for a couple of nights. The spa-cabins at the
Snowline Caravan Park were a welcome item, then it was off into town
to get all the goodies for a massive antipasta-feast

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at the bbq-shelter next to the cabins, more beer, more wine, more laughs, more stories...what a night. :) :) :)


Part 2:
http://www.austouring.com/forum/showthread.php?t=804
 
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