Great weather, plenty of warm sunshine, plenty of good miles and best of all....GREAT company and loads of laughs.
Graham (whitey) from Sydney, Dave(dmtl15) from Nowra and the bunch of clowns from down south.....it nearly turned out to be a V-Strom gathering....lumped with the 2 DR650s a Suzuki-tribe-meet....and adding in 2 Budgies and Beemer it was a riot.
The burn up the Alpine Way was a cracker....like the day before when a Strom and a DR went mental across the top from Kiandra in an effort to "shake the old fart" ....it nearly made the Postie-ride a few weeks ago pale in comparison :muscle:
Still can't shake the grin.
Thanks to all...and there should be some superb pics dribblin' out of them memory sticks....
Even better to hear that all made it home safe and sound.
_____________________________________________________________
Isn’t it nice when things work as planned?
Tim was there on the knocker and we locked the door on time…OUTTA here!
Across the Black Spur was a pain in the butt, a long, slow line of cages…. not even worth trying, things opening up on the boring, straight bits to Alexandra/ Yarck and Mansfield. Filled up at the servo, a possible meet SMS’ed with Marty earlier didn’t come good (the bugger was having too much fun somewhere else)… Across the ridge to Whitfield and finally into some fun twisties. Past the vineyards and down the first batch of bends before the slightly obscure turn onto the freshly graded and re-gravelled dirt to Myrhee….just for something different, but the going was slow, the gravel a bit too coarse, Goodie still a bit shaky on her first real trip on #051.
Long, gentle sweepers to Moyhu, then more cramping restraint on straight roads (after all, it was a sort of a long weekend in Vic) to Oxley and Milawa, the late afternoon sun steaming our backs. Nige, Moira and Billy welcomed us with a pack of ice-cold stubbies…ahhh, maaates!!…in Myrtleford.
Myrtleford Friday night
The town was packed, plenty of things going on…and just as we were starting to walk across to the pub, Marty shows up…. carrying plenty of evidence of where he’d been that day and boosting the contingent to 4Stroms and 2 DR650s.
A glorious morning crowned Heiner’s Bakery in town, straight into the tour-staple of bacon ‘n eggs before the deserted sweepers towards Yackandandah, Allens Flat and a couple of doglegs further, the Lockhard Gap twisties. Starting a pattern that’d last the next few days: Tim and Marty “dicing” at the front, that 650 showing some real teeth in the tight stuff, Marty trying to run away with a screaming single up his arse... running a far tighter line through the bends, making up all that’s lost on the short straights in between….what a sight !!
Quite unexpectedly, the Yabba Rd. along the MittaMitta River was fairly free of loose gravel…but filled with an impressively big group of veteran bikes coming the other way. A delightful stretch at the worst of times…. it was pure magic this morning… interspersed with the odd cloud of castor-oil-stink of a veteran at full-tilt…glorious!!
Granya Gap…and the Strom/DR combo is gone again right from the start …
Up the Murray at a quickish, loping pace, a drink at Jingelic, then the (now confirmed) sealed-road-all-the-way through to Tumbarumba for lunch…and just short of town Moira’s DR decides to quit. Sputter, fart, bang…finish.
Tim’s 30liter “tanker-DR” and the jiggler hose get her going again, the trees along the Main St. shady for a longer break out of the sun.
Time to move on, it’s onto the Elliott Way, the steepish drop into the valley has a few dirty bits and a real surprise: right in the middle of a tight, clean-looking, downhill leftie my front steps out, then catches again as the rear goes walkabouts for a second, Marty too close for a warning, Tim right up his clacker…we stop to warn the others.
A piece of real slippery pure bitumen, soft as custard, is the culprit…
Elliott Way ...Nige with Billy (pillioning) and Moira)
The stop at Tumut2 Powerstation…#051 trying to blow the hinges off the gates, the echo from deep out of the 2km long access tunnel is a traditional thing…
How LOW can a Strom go? Marty and the Sharkteeth
A photo-session in the steep twisties up to the main road before the quick hop into Cabramurra for another tradition: The mug of Hot Chocolate. Didn’t work out this time….. way too warm for it.
Then the triple-pack-screamer across the top…and it’s still having me grin stupidly right now. :wave:
Nearly traffic free, still a bit too early for “roo-time”…. it’s an absolute cracker, bend after bend… dips, hairpins and all…and even though they can’t get past, Tim and the howling DR stick to Marty and I like shit to a blanket,…looks like he slipped into a different skin, don’t know him like that on the KiloGix.
Not stupid, but good, quick fun…where the stomach fights for space in the boots through some of those dips…the type of riding one only does when trusting the others explicitly.
Tim and I swap bikes 20k’s out from Khancoban, around 400km on the DR’s standard-seat had created something red-raw….what an ironbutt !!!…I ‘m shifting the bum around after only 20k’s.
A golden, late afternoon in Khancoban…Nev and Jo are already pitched, Dave from Nowra coming in shortly after, another dust-caked Strom that’d seen some good roads that day.
Whitey from Sydney’s missing, no word from him…we’re off to the pub to fight our way through the diminishing menu choices…and finally Graham (Whitey) shows up, Yeeha ! Goodonya for flying across the top in the dark!!
Now we can really get started…while there’s plenty of lost souls in amongst that BMW-club meet happening around us. “Lost all the others at lunch”
“No idea where we were supposed to stay tonite, I got a room here at the pub”
“Saw another group this arvo, they didn’t know where they were and where to next…”
Germanic perfection took a looong break by the looks of it,
Another fine morning…pure magic for the intended loop. The BMW-crowd goes one way…we’ll go the other then. Up the Alpine Way and it’s instantly obvious that Dave and Graham are practiced, old-hands… merging seamlessly into a group that’s ridden 1000s of k’s together…great stuff.
A bit of a surprise to see Marty and his Canon at Tom Groggin, just before the climb through the hairpins…and another group of 12 or so sporties from the Victorian Sports-Touring Club…. which we finished up playing tag-team with all day from here on.
I’ll tack onto Nev for the tight stuff…how the hell does he make it look so easy, when I’m really working for it?…he drops me off as he slips by a couple of cars pulling out from a parking area…following him is always a highlight.
Pulling into the little picnic-area at the creek the others come flying by….obviously having a ball. Nige, Dave, Jo, Moira, Goodie….the body-language as they come down the hill says it all. I wait for Marty to catch up after packing up the camera stuff.
Graham
And then comes the repeat of yesterday afternoon’s cracker, this time I’m behind and what a sight it is !! …a redline-tango up the hill to Deadhorse Gap, 2 Stroms boogying for what they’re worth. Shit-Hot !!
The grin is painted on all through the break at the top….and gets even wider when Nige and Marty both have a spin on #051. Their grins are skull-crackers…
What a glorious moment when the red flash appears between the trees… and flies over the top towards Thredbo at full noise…Thanks for the spectacle, guys. :wave: :wave:
Then the clear-cut silhouette of Mt. Kosciusco from the top of Charlottes Pass, a magic return-carve through gentle sweepers and well worth the few bux National Park entrance fees, the high plains showing off their best angle….into Jindabyne for lunch and a somewhat sad and depressed chance-meeting with a small flock of Melbourne Netriders who’ve lost one of their riding-buddies in a bad accident the day before, Lenna currently fighting her way back from serious back-injuries.
Somehow an AusTouring sticker finds it’s way onto Matt’s Hire-BMW650GS…
The sweeping back roads to Dalgety and on to Berridale across the High Country are superb, views magnificent. Then add the boulder-studded but otherwise bare paddocks across to Adaminaby…and just before the T-junction with the Snowy Mtn. Hwy., coming over the top of a gently crested lefthander, we’re faced with another bike-crash which only could’ve happened a few minutes earlier. Crowded by his 2 riding mates and some car drivers, a guy lies at the side of the road, a totalled ZX14 a good stretch further.
He’s moving… but no telling what’s wrong, everything pretty much taken care off by those already there…. I’ve never before seen an empty wrist-watch-housing by itself with half an arm-band attached, but there it was, on top of the pile of bits that the bystanders were collecting….
We’re quietly pushing on to Adaminaby and Kiandra.
This time it’s Dave ahead of me for the run across the ridge to Kiandra…. and it might as well be Marty, hehe. Great fun watching!
Sheesh…another “flying Strom”!
Graham (whitey)
Dave (dmtl15) on the downhiller after Cabramurra
Another quick stop in Cabramurra, the mood has changed…it seems like everyone wants to drag out the afternoon as long as possible
Goodie and the #051
…the views are stunning, the light a little softer and things turn into a photo-session with a tootle in-between…all the way to Khancoban.
Jo cranking the Scarver
What a great day!! It had everything that makes motorcycling what it is…and it’s a lively dinner at the pub.
More sunshine as the ways are parting…Jo, Nev, Dave and Graham leaving in different directions, the rest takes some sweepers and backroads via Towong and Tintaldra down the Murray and across the Granya Gap, where the pace picks up again.
Up the MittaMitta valley and the sometimes sandy single-laner from Eskdale (MittaMitta North Rd.),….snaking along the river towards the Dartmouth Rd..
It’s on again for the twisties to the dam and back to the sun-drenched terrace of the Dartmouth Pub, across the Lockhard Gap and up the full length of the (now sealed all the way) Redbank road, the more recently sealed top-end near Mt. Beauty being quite nice and sweepy compared to the boring down-valley section.
Lucky to get the last 2 cabins at the caravan park, we meet Ron (Grey Gentry) and others there.
That first beer was heaven….
Overcast but dry, it’s a chase across Tawonga Gap… the last for a while.
Myrtleford/ Oxley/Whitfield…hmmmm…the usual….. and more of the same to Yarck for a pie. Skies turning solid-grey through Yea…Nige and Moira splitting here for their home-run to Ballarat…it’s getting nippier by the minute on the way past Glenburn, Toolangi and down Chum Creek Rd. into Healesville.
Within another 20km, Goodie and I carve our way through the red-soiled farm-country of Seville and Mt. Evelyn, 10 mins. from home.
Thanks to all and everyone….we enjoyed it immensely. The places, the company, the riding…it all came together like a dream.
AT-Rally ’07…here we come !!
:wave: :wave: :wave:
Graham (whitey) from Sydney, Dave(dmtl15) from Nowra and the bunch of clowns from down south.....it nearly turned out to be a V-Strom gathering....lumped with the 2 DR650s a Suzuki-tribe-meet....and adding in 2 Budgies and Beemer it was a riot.
The burn up the Alpine Way was a cracker....like the day before when a Strom and a DR went mental across the top from Kiandra in an effort to "shake the old fart" ....it nearly made the Postie-ride a few weeks ago pale in comparison :muscle:
Still can't shake the grin.
Thanks to all...and there should be some superb pics dribblin' out of them memory sticks....
Even better to hear that all made it home safe and sound.
_____________________________________________________________
Isn’t it nice when things work as planned?
Tim was there on the knocker and we locked the door on time…OUTTA here!
Across the Black Spur was a pain in the butt, a long, slow line of cages…. not even worth trying, things opening up on the boring, straight bits to Alexandra/ Yarck and Mansfield. Filled up at the servo, a possible meet SMS’ed with Marty earlier didn’t come good (the bugger was having too much fun somewhere else)… Across the ridge to Whitfield and finally into some fun twisties. Past the vineyards and down the first batch of bends before the slightly obscure turn onto the freshly graded and re-gravelled dirt to Myrhee….just for something different, but the going was slow, the gravel a bit too coarse, Goodie still a bit shaky on her first real trip on #051.
Long, gentle sweepers to Moyhu, then more cramping restraint on straight roads (after all, it was a sort of a long weekend in Vic) to Oxley and Milawa, the late afternoon sun steaming our backs. Nige, Moira and Billy welcomed us with a pack of ice-cold stubbies…ahhh, maaates!!…in Myrtleford.
Myrtleford Friday night
The town was packed, plenty of things going on…and just as we were starting to walk across to the pub, Marty shows up…. carrying plenty of evidence of where he’d been that day and boosting the contingent to 4Stroms and 2 DR650s.
A glorious morning crowned Heiner’s Bakery in town, straight into the tour-staple of bacon ‘n eggs before the deserted sweepers towards Yackandandah, Allens Flat and a couple of doglegs further, the Lockhard Gap twisties. Starting a pattern that’d last the next few days: Tim and Marty “dicing” at the front, that 650 showing some real teeth in the tight stuff, Marty trying to run away with a screaming single up his arse... running a far tighter line through the bends, making up all that’s lost on the short straights in between….what a sight !!
Quite unexpectedly, the Yabba Rd. along the MittaMitta River was fairly free of loose gravel…but filled with an impressively big group of veteran bikes coming the other way. A delightful stretch at the worst of times…. it was pure magic this morning… interspersed with the odd cloud of castor-oil-stink of a veteran at full-tilt…glorious!!
Granya Gap…and the Strom/DR combo is gone again right from the start …
Up the Murray at a quickish, loping pace, a drink at Jingelic, then the (now confirmed) sealed-road-all-the-way through to Tumbarumba for lunch…and just short of town Moira’s DR decides to quit. Sputter, fart, bang…finish.
Tim’s 30liter “tanker-DR” and the jiggler hose get her going again, the trees along the Main St. shady for a longer break out of the sun.
Time to move on, it’s onto the Elliott Way, the steepish drop into the valley has a few dirty bits and a real surprise: right in the middle of a tight, clean-looking, downhill leftie my front steps out, then catches again as the rear goes walkabouts for a second, Marty too close for a warning, Tim right up his clacker…we stop to warn the others.
A piece of real slippery pure bitumen, soft as custard, is the culprit…
Elliott Way ...Nige with Billy (pillioning) and Moira)
The stop at Tumut2 Powerstation…#051 trying to blow the hinges off the gates, the echo from deep out of the 2km long access tunnel is a traditional thing…
How LOW can a Strom go? Marty and the Sharkteeth
A photo-session in the steep twisties up to the main road before the quick hop into Cabramurra for another tradition: The mug of Hot Chocolate. Didn’t work out this time….. way too warm for it.
Then the triple-pack-screamer across the top…and it’s still having me grin stupidly right now. :wave:
Nearly traffic free, still a bit too early for “roo-time”…. it’s an absolute cracker, bend after bend… dips, hairpins and all…and even though they can’t get past, Tim and the howling DR stick to Marty and I like shit to a blanket,…looks like he slipped into a different skin, don’t know him like that on the KiloGix.
Not stupid, but good, quick fun…where the stomach fights for space in the boots through some of those dips…the type of riding one only does when trusting the others explicitly.
Tim and I swap bikes 20k’s out from Khancoban, around 400km on the DR’s standard-seat had created something red-raw….what an ironbutt !!!…I ‘m shifting the bum around after only 20k’s.
A golden, late afternoon in Khancoban…Nev and Jo are already pitched, Dave from Nowra coming in shortly after, another dust-caked Strom that’d seen some good roads that day.
Whitey from Sydney’s missing, no word from him…we’re off to the pub to fight our way through the diminishing menu choices…and finally Graham (Whitey) shows up, Yeeha ! Goodonya for flying across the top in the dark!!
Now we can really get started…while there’s plenty of lost souls in amongst that BMW-club meet happening around us. “Lost all the others at lunch”
“No idea where we were supposed to stay tonite, I got a room here at the pub”
“Saw another group this arvo, they didn’t know where they were and where to next…”
Germanic perfection took a looong break by the looks of it,
Another fine morning…pure magic for the intended loop. The BMW-crowd goes one way…we’ll go the other then. Up the Alpine Way and it’s instantly obvious that Dave and Graham are practiced, old-hands… merging seamlessly into a group that’s ridden 1000s of k’s together…great stuff.
A bit of a surprise to see Marty and his Canon at Tom Groggin, just before the climb through the hairpins…and another group of 12 or so sporties from the Victorian Sports-Touring Club…. which we finished up playing tag-team with all day from here on.
I’ll tack onto Nev for the tight stuff…how the hell does he make it look so easy, when I’m really working for it?…he drops me off as he slips by a couple of cars pulling out from a parking area…following him is always a highlight.
Pulling into the little picnic-area at the creek the others come flying by….obviously having a ball. Nige, Dave, Jo, Moira, Goodie….the body-language as they come down the hill says it all. I wait for Marty to catch up after packing up the camera stuff.
Graham
And then comes the repeat of yesterday afternoon’s cracker, this time I’m behind and what a sight it is !! …a redline-tango up the hill to Deadhorse Gap, 2 Stroms boogying for what they’re worth. Shit-Hot !!
The grin is painted on all through the break at the top….and gets even wider when Nige and Marty both have a spin on #051. Their grins are skull-crackers…
What a glorious moment when the red flash appears between the trees… and flies over the top towards Thredbo at full noise…Thanks for the spectacle, guys. :wave: :wave:
Then the clear-cut silhouette of Mt. Kosciusco from the top of Charlottes Pass, a magic return-carve through gentle sweepers and well worth the few bux National Park entrance fees, the high plains showing off their best angle….into Jindabyne for lunch and a somewhat sad and depressed chance-meeting with a small flock of Melbourne Netriders who’ve lost one of their riding-buddies in a bad accident the day before, Lenna currently fighting her way back from serious back-injuries.
Somehow an AusTouring sticker finds it’s way onto Matt’s Hire-BMW650GS…
The sweeping back roads to Dalgety and on to Berridale across the High Country are superb, views magnificent. Then add the boulder-studded but otherwise bare paddocks across to Adaminaby…and just before the T-junction with the Snowy Mtn. Hwy., coming over the top of a gently crested lefthander, we’re faced with another bike-crash which only could’ve happened a few minutes earlier. Crowded by his 2 riding mates and some car drivers, a guy lies at the side of the road, a totalled ZX14 a good stretch further.
He’s moving… but no telling what’s wrong, everything pretty much taken care off by those already there…. I’ve never before seen an empty wrist-watch-housing by itself with half an arm-band attached, but there it was, on top of the pile of bits that the bystanders were collecting….
We’re quietly pushing on to Adaminaby and Kiandra.
This time it’s Dave ahead of me for the run across the ridge to Kiandra…. and it might as well be Marty, hehe. Great fun watching!
Sheesh…another “flying Strom”!
Graham (whitey)
Dave (dmtl15) on the downhiller after Cabramurra
Another quick stop in Cabramurra, the mood has changed…it seems like everyone wants to drag out the afternoon as long as possible
Goodie and the #051
…the views are stunning, the light a little softer and things turn into a photo-session with a tootle in-between…all the way to Khancoban.
Jo cranking the Scarver
What a great day!! It had everything that makes motorcycling what it is…and it’s a lively dinner at the pub.
More sunshine as the ways are parting…Jo, Nev, Dave and Graham leaving in different directions, the rest takes some sweepers and backroads via Towong and Tintaldra down the Murray and across the Granya Gap, where the pace picks up again.
Up the MittaMitta valley and the sometimes sandy single-laner from Eskdale (MittaMitta North Rd.),….snaking along the river towards the Dartmouth Rd..
It’s on again for the twisties to the dam and back to the sun-drenched terrace of the Dartmouth Pub, across the Lockhard Gap and up the full length of the (now sealed all the way) Redbank road, the more recently sealed top-end near Mt. Beauty being quite nice and sweepy compared to the boring down-valley section.
Lucky to get the last 2 cabins at the caravan park, we meet Ron (Grey Gentry) and others there.
That first beer was heaven….
Overcast but dry, it’s a chase across Tawonga Gap… the last for a while.
Myrtleford/ Oxley/Whitfield…hmmmm…the usual….. and more of the same to Yarck for a pie. Skies turning solid-grey through Yea…Nige and Moira splitting here for their home-run to Ballarat…it’s getting nippier by the minute on the way past Glenburn, Toolangi and down Chum Creek Rd. into Healesville.
Within another 20km, Goodie and I carve our way through the red-soiled farm-country of Seville and Mt. Evelyn, 10 mins. from home.
Thanks to all and everyone….we enjoyed it immensely. The places, the company, the riding…it all came together like a dream.
AT-Rally ’07…here we come !!
:wave: :wave: :wave: