penguineers 2012 Adventure Travel Film Festival ride and home again

Williamson

Part of the furniture
Good stuff.

:clap:

So many road reports, some many pics, so many roads, so many places that I can't access on the Mighty CB, so little time!!!
 

goodie

...
Great RR, Sean - and I'm glad you made it back home safely!!
It was real nice getting to meet you in Bright! And terrific catching up with Christo. Bright is a nice place to spend your birthday, eh?
 

penguineer

just luscious
Day 6 - 26 Feb 2012

I'm particularly embarrassed that I skipped mentioning seeing "Back of Beyond" on day 5!!!

"Back of Beyond" was produced in 1955, covering the work of Tom Kruse, the Birdsville Mailman. Each mail run would take roughly 2 weeks and may have to battle sand, flood, heat and cold. The film is amazing for the time it was produced and you have some idea of the type of people that opened up Australia's interior. If you get the chance to see it you should - it's a classic.

Anyway - packed up and ready to go and meet the Melbourne crew at the servo at 8 o'clock to say final goodbyes and head off ourselves.

Glitch and K1W1 seemed to have a couple of interesting roads to ride and were hopeful of trying a section that may have been paved recently.

The bikes headed off and Christo and I stayed a while chatting to Canary and V-Twin until it started raining, so it was hastily into the wets and we're about to go when I notice....

"Hey mate, what's happened to your lights?"
*click*switch*click*
"You've got high-beam, but no low-beam...."

Bugger - it appears that Christos bike has fallen foul of the dreaded Strom-starter-switch-burnout issue.......

For those not familiar, the low-beam lights on the V-Strom are always on, except when the starter switch is pressed. The V-Strom starter switch has two sets of contacts - so when the switch is pressed it cuts the lights and diverts power to the starter. There is a regular issue with the starter switch contacts burning out, first affecting the lights and if left ending up with the bike not starting......not good.

As it's close, we head off to Glenrowan - the site of the last stand of the Kelly gang - teased by glimpses of blue sky peeking over the pine-covered ridges to the north....

The short version of the Kelly gang story:

The Kelly gang were bushrangers that ran wild in norther Victoria until 1880. The gang attempted to de-rail a police train at Glenrowan, the gang were to close with and finish of the surviving police using armoured suits. The plan went awry when the police were warned and a siege developed at the Glenrowan Inn, Ned Kelly managed to escape to warn the gangs friends and then in a defining moment returned to the Inn for the rest of the gang. Ned was captured and later sentenced to death, the hotel was burnt to the ground by the police.

The site of Neds capture:
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All that remained of the hotel after the siege was the sign:
2012-atff-day6-5-glenrowan-inn.jpg


This is where the police fired on the Inn - the small post marks where a pistol was found only 30 years ago after being lost for 100 years:
2012-atff-day6-6-glenrowan-inn.jpg


We had breakfast at one of the local cafes and discussed our plans. Given the possibility of issues with Christos bike we decided to stick closer to major centres and see if we could get it fixed.

Our new plan was to head towards Canberra, Sydney and up the east coast rather than taking inland roads.

First stop, just up the road was Wangaratta(an IBEM town):
ibem-wangaratta-20120226.jpg


If you're travelling by bike, the Hume highway is he very definition of "slabbing it", and today with the drizzling rain and associated cold just made it worse....

We stopped for a stretch under a overpass........Christo trying to figure out what lives up a pipe, note the discarded syringe, charming place:
2012-atff-day6-1-hume-overpass.jpg


Further up the road is Holbrook - and a submarine....

Holbrook used to be known as Germantown until 1915 when it was renamed Holbrook after the commander of the British submarine B11 - so now you know why an inland NSW town is home to HMAS Otway and a submarine museum:

Happy snaps:
2012-atff-day6-8-otway-christo.jpg

2012-atff-day6-9-otway-me.jpg

2012-atff-day6-10-otway-bikes.jpg


Note that when a bike has a top box it's easier to hide wheelie bins behind it:
2012-atff-day6-11-otway-bikes-bins.jpg


Back on the road again we stop outside Gundagai for a break and more happy snaps with the dog on the tuckerbox:
2012-atff-day6-12.jpg

2012-atff-day6-13.jpg


More slab to a truck-stop at Yass and we arrange to stop over with some friends at Bowral and hopefully do something about Christos lights in the morning - luckily we arrived just on dusk so the lights didn't become an issue.
 
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goodie

...
Looks, like you struck a few wet stretches?! Thanks for the pics and report
Were you able to fix Christo's (bike) lights?
 

Christo

Tractor Pilot
Looks, like you struck a few wet stretches?! Thanks for the pics and report
Were you able to fix Christo's (bike) lights?

The answer ultimately was yes, Goodie, however, so as not to steal Sean's thunder, I'll let him tell you the details.
 

penguineer

just luscious
Day 7 - 27 Feb 2012

The next morning we wake up at the Hattons and start looking over the bikes.

I do a quick bit of chain adjustment, while Christo starts disassembling his right switchblock. One of the neighbours comes over and offers Christo some "Contact Sol" spray to see if it would help without the need to tear apart the switch itself.

A bit of fiddling, work the switch a few times, a couple of goes of the starter, Christo is just about to give up when he notices a mark on the wall in front of him. At the height of his headlights.....it worked!! Hooray - the problem seems to have ben a couple of dirty contacts! (There's a website for that - so I've heard....from a friends......well acquaintences....ummm....the pictures keep poppping up on the interwebz and I have no idea how my credit card was used dearest......OUCH!)

Hayley took us for a tour of Tony's workshop. Tony has been a motorcycle mechanic and racer for many years and still works on bikes and with racing teams.

A few MZs:
2012-atff-day7-14-hatton-mz1.jpg


2012-atff-day7-15-mz2.jpg

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2012-atff-day7-17-hatton-mz2-detailb.jpg



One of the Honda TT500s he's working on:
2012-atff-day7-19hatton-honda-tt.jpg


They've been to a few race meetings over the years:
2012-atff-day7-18-hatton-passes.jpg


One of the workshop areas:
2012-atff-day7-25-hatton-workshop.jpg


Some pistons:
2012-atff-day7-26-hatton-pistons.jpg


Eventually we hit the road, but it wasn't long before I discovered I had a passenger - a spider about the size of my hand. I tried to get him out, but he scampered through a hole in the fairing - as far as I know he's still somewhere behind my instrument cluster:
2012-atff-day7-20-arachnid.jpg


Down through Shoalhaven to Kangaroo Valley:
2012-atff-day7-21-shoalhaven.jpg


This is a nice, windy road with great scenic views as it drops back down to sea level - but I was just happy not to be on the Hume!

And across Hampden bridge:
2012-atff-day7-22-hampden-bridge.jpg


Stopped at the Friendly Inn for a couple of drinks:
2012-atff-day7-24-friendly-inn.jpg


And noticed this little gem out the front(The Famous James):
2012-atff-day7-23-famous-james.jpg

(the owner still rides it occasionally and isn't selling - for some reason the offer of intimate body parts doesn't sway him)

Nowra is close by and we decided to visit the Fleet Air Arm Museum at HMAS Albatross.

They could tell we were coming:
2012-atff-day7-6-nowra-saw-us-coming.jpg


Since I was here some years ago the museum has gone from purely volunteer and donation based to being run by the Navy's own history unit and given a budget. Many of the exhibits have been restored and are better displayed.

Only have photos of some of the displays below - we had limited time and my camera isn't the best. There are a large number of cased displays and many more aircraft.

Sopwith Pup with some of the covering removed:
2012-atff-day7-9-nowra-sopwith-pup.jpg


Firefly:
2012-atff-day7-8nowra-firefly2.jpg

2012-atff-day7-7-nowra-firefly.jpg


Gannet:
2012-atff-day7-4-nowra-gannet.jpg

(note the contra-rotating propellers - it's actually a twin-engine aircraft and one engine/prop can be turned off for added endurance)

Sea Venom:
2012-atff-day7-11-nowra-venom-2.jpg

2012-atff-day7-2-nowra-venom.jpg


Skyhawk:
2012-atff-day7-12-nowra-skyhawk.jpg


DC3 set up for sub-hunting:
2012-atff-day7-3-nowra-dc3.jpg


Iriquois:
2012-atff-day7-1-nowra-iriquois.jpg


Grumman Tracker:
2012-atff-day7-13-nowra-tracker.jpg


Winjeel:
2012-atff-day7-5-nowra-winjeel.jpg


On the road again, we had to look for somewhere to stay(we made a very late start) and thought it would be nice to stay somewhere by the beach......

And it started raining again. We'd only just pulled off into Gerringong before Craig pulls over and offers a coffee at his place around the corner! Craig had just had a job interview that day and thought we looked like we needed a bit of time out of the downpour that was developing so took us home for a cup of tea, we found out he has a *very* understanding wife who didn't seem to mind about two strange motorbikes in the garage and two strange blokes sipping tea in the dining room while she tries to settle the kids down after swimming.....Craig - she's a keeper! I have to admit that I was a bit stunned by the hospitality for a while and got my triceratopses mixed up with my T-Rexes for while - I had never thought of either of them driving a scorpion tank - maybe it was the thought of all the legs on a scorpion that had me confused? I hope the young bloke forgives me. Pass the karma around, people!

After a while. the rain abated, so we adjourned to the garage and talked a while about longer rides and how to make them easier - some bikes have a 200km range, but if you're in a comfortable riding position and you stop every hour or so to stetch, see the sights and rehydrate all that really limits you is to plan your fuel stops, and if you decide not to go much further, it's still riding more and seeing more in different places than your average weekend rider. Actually I still haven't explored all of the roads within 200km of home yet and I'm starting to regard highways/A-roads as "cheating".......I better work on that....

Eventually we left with idea of a short day (distance wise) and a cabin by the beach - but the first couple we tried had a minimum stay of two nights, the next shut it's reception at 7pm (so with daylight saving it's still not dark and the idea seems slightly barking stupid with extra ludicruos on top).

Unfortunately, we had also noticed that Christos lights had failed again........bugger........so we were limited to daylight riding and major towns again.

While we weren't planning on riding at night(particularly if camping), the lights problem meant that we couldn't really "push the edge" of the daylight window - in some cases being able to decide to ride after dusk to get somewhere can open up a lot of possibilities, not having this opportunity robs us of up to 2 hours of "discretionary travel" per day.

We gave up, headed north to Kiama and managed to get a cabin in a massive caravan park there. Next challenge was dinner - how hard is it to get a couple of burgers in a seaside holiday town?

....

That was rhetorical - about the only place still open did fish and chips(no burgers) and was just about to close.......for greens and other non-fried vegetable matter it had to be a bucket of coleslaw from the late night Woolies up the road....

And that was it for day 7 - the kindness of strangers and the desolation of off-season holiday-season towns on the NSW south coast.
 

penguineer

just luscious
And for goodie - at ths point in the story, Christo is not just "Rain Man", he is also (still) "Prince of unexpected darkness" (as opposed to "Lucas, Prince of total darkness").

More to come!

Cheers!
 
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