A Decade On...Forum Anniversay Eskdale

glitch

Mapping the next ride...
Staff member
Cutting a long story short...when this place was "born" on a stinking hot Saturday afternoon in Feb. 2006, I didn't really expect that spur-of-the-moment idea to outlast the afternoon's BBQ. W-)

We wanted a place that lived by its rides and travel, yarns and pics. Concentrate on the essence of traveling on bikes... near and far...and leave everything else to the others.

10 years on, it still does.

And it does so thanks to you folks filling this place with life and colour, stories and character, quirks and endless, glorious pics.

A BIG THANKS to all of you. :bow:

Things turned truely freaky when chance-meeting one of the ancient AusMoto punters in Omeo on the weekend, a bike-newsgroup around at Internet-IceAge (now pretty much defunct), which had spawned most Aussie bike forums/ groups in one way or another.

With folks like Moike and Steve and some others "back on deck", the happy allegiance with the OpenRoader troupes and some other tie-ups with other groups and clubs, things are looking good for the future.
It also made for a healthy birthday-bash with nearly 40 swamping the tiny town of Eskdale.





"Quit the waffle, Harry!!! Where are the pics??":bs



Too many bananas in this "Queenslander's" topbox :bt lost one of the hinge-pins. Easy fix...Paul's got all the delicate tools needed for the job :D



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4 hrs of pelting rain broken by heavy drizzle made for drenched jox + sox...the Friday arvo-run to Bruthen isn't pretty.


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....and the next morning isn't looking much better.


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Back into the muck after the usual "hallway-brecky" in the Bruthen Pub, but the 50km foray to Buchan South and up the soaked and mushy dirt towards Ensay prompts a turn-around, loosing 100k total and a good part of the morning.
Up the Omeo Hwy then towards Ensay...drying out a tiny bit more each kilometer. Tambo Crossing sprouts the first bit of dry asphalt...and the first ray of sun through a veil of muck on a hillside.



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Some backroads later....
...and Pretty Flat is actually Pretty Hilly!



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...before it gets Pretty Rocky....



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....and then turns Pretty Nice.



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glitch

Mapping the next ride...
Staff member
The Chinese Diggings near Omeo.




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Into the sun further north and for a little discovery-bimble up the Omeo Valley.


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One of the best lookouts we've come across in years!! :wot:




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Stumping vistas!! :glu:glu




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And the skies are "playing ball!"
Who woulda thunk after all that rain and grey stuff?




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What a cracker of a descent, too :drool::drool:



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glitch

Mapping the next ride...
Staff member
Found the next gem a little tucked-away just south of Hinnomunjie...rednecks, banjos, bushrats and all that...



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Let's have a look at this thing...


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Glorious vistas!!



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The further in we get in, the softer the low-spots become.....and the steeper the approaches and exists.



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As tempting as it looks....wet, red clay is a guarantee for pain and tears.
Gotta leave that one for another day.
And if I'm right... poor, old Paul, being 2-up on the new Strom Thou, hasn't been feeling all that happy for a while already...



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What a magic place it is up here....




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Up the Omeo Hwy twisties to the Blue Duck for a coldie then, a run that never disappoints!! :thumbs:


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The face says it all! :bs




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glitch

Mapping the next ride...
Staff member
There isn't much like it in Oz...the Omeo "Hwy" is "da shizzle"!!



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Even the pillions think so! :so




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Even if these guys throw a spanner in the spokes....for a good-natured and informative 45 minutes, gulp!!:so
Good guys...and funny, too!




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...at a spot we'd pegged for a stop along the way, anyway.




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Some sobering facts about the "good,old days"....




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More sun, temps climbing rapidly, it's another 3 bags-worth-of-twisties into MittaMitta and Eskdale via the backroads.



And when the ridin' is over....they know how to party!


Willo listening???
Whaddayaknow, aye?? :bees::bs

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Turning up the wick on that "charmer"-candle :bt SF + Dixie


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Paul, Shane, Willo and Kenny (Kingstrom)


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Marty + Tracey


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Jo from the back, some bloke, Moike, Rob (a86), TimC blocking out... maybe Doug?


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"Yer shittin' me!!


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Rob...was it the Shiraz or the meat-tray won in the raffle?



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No shortage of B/S and hair-raising yarns....



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Fuzzy.... riding the Flatbed :killingme
What a cracker of a night!! :drool::drool:


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glitch

Mapping the next ride...
Staff member
The morning after.... :bs


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A hungry breakfast- mob waiting for bacon & eggs...



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...before splitting into various groups of roadies, dusties and rockies for the day.

For us it's a sweet warm-up through the backblocks and up to Mt. Granya for a first set of glorious vistas (and a somewhat unexpected, narrow track along the Granya Ridge).


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That antenna up at the tower must punch out some juicy radiation :eek:


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Juust fitting onto the ferry as one load...


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....which gets you right into....you guessed it!, just look at the roads!:eek:..
NSW


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glitch

Mapping the next ride...
Staff member
Being all gravel, the River Rd. never disappoints.
The cruise along the Murray River is always a delight.




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a86

Getting the hang of it
Met up with Timc, Doug and Willo at St Helena, serious drizzle, not promising. Got over the range and all was fine. Picked up john&johnny and moike at Benalla and headed off in a 50% horizontally opposed manner.


Us northies at Yackandanda.






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Settled in at the fabulous Eskdale pub, where I won the meat tray!

Sundays loop involved a ferry across lake hume.

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Monday we got to Omeo by snorkelling across lake Omeo. I stuffed up by assuming that we were just going back from Omeo through Mitta Mitta, so I was dawdling. Came across the group at the falls creek turnoff about to turn into skeletons. Continued on to photo the Glen Wills cemetery. Middle of nowhere, no record of who was put where, no markers left, they just put in the right number of crosses in rows. Chatty person in Mitta Mitta said the mines there had 10,000 personell at their peak.

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Then photographed the church at granite flat. The aforementioned chatty person said that his great great grandparents were the first people married there.



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glitch

Mapping the next ride...
Staff member
The little Jingellic store tells the story... late January, school holidays nearly at an end, season's over...


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A loop up the picturesque Cudgewa Bluff....





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...gets us into Tintaldra and a short hop north back onto the River Road at Tooma. Around here the valley widens into a bowl, holding endless little creeks, lagoons, waterholes and related birds and wildlife.



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Nicking down the Tallangatta Valley for some more backroads tar + dirt on the way back to base, it's a glorious afternoon to be savored. :drool::drool:



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Hey Willo, check this!!!
Just get yourself a decent KLR with a PROPER trailer next time, aye?
:bees::bt




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Should take this rig down to Tassie for the upcoming Ulysses AGM... I reckon, Launceston would grow silent within 5 seconds :devil: :killingme

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