Knockerbocker...hot bends at freezing point

glitch

Mapping the next ride...
Staff member
It was hot
It was bitterly cold
There was hail
It was FUN!!

The Ratatouille of bike-touring....some new tracks,...some tales to tell.
A Fuzzy meetup that bombed on some "KTM-gremlins", a 'highway" that's finally starting to
grow into one and the Knockers that shoud've been the "Rockers"....or rather, a quarry!

4 days of bliss in Vic's High Country.
Check back when Doug's had time to get things started and SF's nose and throat
come back to normal size and colour.


Damn fine views from Mt. BawBaw :drool:


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Snowgums + bikes



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What a combo !!! Oh boy, THIS WORKS!!




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dougman1

Part of the furniture
The Knocker's track. As spectacular as it was or wasn't here's a few pics of our journey. 3 nights camping in Victorian high country. Country pubs, country tucker. We roasted on day 1, froze our butts off for the rest of it. Fun and laughs in spades. I loved it.
See what you think.

Pre trip packing

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We had a Euro breakfast to kick it all off, but in my haste to gorge myself I failed to take any pics.

Our first stop at Mt Baw Baw.

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Goodie enjoying the rush from a short black coffee.

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Rawson road, deep metal, gas it and hang on!:thumbs:

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It was a long day of back roads and then the Great Alpine Rd to reach our first destination. Omeo. I had done a little over 500km and was feeling thirsty.

Setting up camp

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Mission complete

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We quenched our thirsts and headed into town to quench our thirsts some more.

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Some lovely properties around here.

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Here's a nice one.

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Did they know we were in town?

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A bit of fun while quenching our thirsts.

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Something to bind all that liquid. The pub food was very nice. Well an old gumboot woulda been nice by that time I suppose. :scull:

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Tiny town, big courthouse. Must be trouble in these parts.

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Day 2: Heading to the Knockers Track on Benambra, Corryong Rd.

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Tim tearing up the countryside on his Tiger

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The Knockers Track. Steep and rutted. Glad it wasn't damp.

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A small creek crossing on the Knockers Track

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With the Knockers done we headed towards Falls Creek, via Bogong High plains road.

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It was then down through Falls Creek to Mt Beauty, down to Harrietville where Tim took us to a hole.

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After the hole, we were keen to get some riding in. So we rode sensibly up to Mt Hotham, stopping at Danny's lookout for some views.

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It was lovely and cold. Small snowflakes were coming down at this point.

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The weathers on the turn, Geez it's getting cold.

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There was a slightly different mood back at Omeo. The weather had taken a turn for the worse.

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The little stream behind our tents looks very welcoming.

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But we need a warm pub to shelter in.

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Nom Nom...:glu

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The next morning we woke to rain on the tents. Oh it was cold too.
Hastily we broke camp.

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Ready to head for the hills.

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We headed from Omeo to Mitta Mitta. Pete here having fun in the twisties.

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A quick stop at Cemetery Creek.

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Unmarked graves of settlers from the Gold rush era. The plaque on the entrance carried the names of who rest here. Sadly many infants are here too. A testament of a tough life in those times.

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We carried on until the tar ran out on the Omeo Highway.

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By Christmas, it was bloody cold here!

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It was then on to Mitta Mitta for a coffee.

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Then more dirt roads heading for Towonga

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A nice road side shot between Kiewa Valley Highway and the Great Alpine road.

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From Myrtelford on to Whitfield, via the Rose river road. What a delight it is to ride too. Some vineyards on the sealed section.

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We pressed on heading south west to our final camp ground for the trip. The Midland Holiday Park at Lima South.

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Had a great meal washed down with some red cordial.

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5.20 am. The Kangaroos were thumping around in the bush behind the tent. The sun was about to rise too.

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Early morning packing.

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We rode some more gravel roads heading south. It's Melbourne cup day and were having a party at home. I hope I can make it in time.
We said our goodbyes 25 k from Yea.
Another great ride in the bag.
Thanks to Pete ,Goodie & Tim for a very memorable weekend.

Here's all the traffic that delayed me on the Yea-Kinglake rd

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What a day, What a weekend. :clap: :clap:

Trip total for me was 1327km
 
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glitch

Mapping the next ride...
Staff member
YEEHA!!
Some nice pics, too!!
Good stuff...and no more trouble linking in the SmugMug pics by the looks of it.
:chug:

Thanks for the company and another beaut ride...and now the pics and yarns, well done mate :clap::clap:
 

glitch

Mapping the next ride...
Staff member
More howling triple on the BawBaw Rd., which is slowly falling to pieces.
It's slowly coming to the point again where it's a collection of launchpads for short-sprung sporties and cruisers, before adding the usual array of potholes, bark, loose gravel and shattered + splattered branches or little springs mid-corner adding their spice.



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Anyway, fun for us and a first sign of Goodie's growing love-affair with the Klacka.

Through the backblocks to Briagolong, the Bairnsdale bypass and onto the Bruthen-Omeo stretch, which is now reduced to 80km/h pretty much entirely between Bruthen-Ensay...~40k's of plain stupidity. Boredom will cost lives here, no question....then we can reduce it all to 40km/h to make it "even safer", aye? :doh::doh:


Thankfully, from Ensay there are alternatives...for the time being.
Ride 'em before the safety-wankers f^ck them up, too!!

Omeo Caravan Park...nothing has changed for decades, except the on-site vans are now "colour-coded" from screaming-purple via Maccas-yellow to bile-green. There's some other "Dodgey" stuff around, too...


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Yes...they do fly!


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The creek was full to overflowing.

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Late afternoon light on Omeo


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A freezing night later, the morning shows up a sparkler.
Omeo Valley Rd., looking south towards Omeo...

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...and north into the hills.

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Old Hinnomunjie bridge over the Mitta River, they built them properly then :so


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glitch

Mapping the next ride...
Staff member
Scenic southern end of the Knockers Track

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Just below the first steep climb

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There are still smooth sections between the climbs

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Things are getting rougher, rockier and more rutted, glad we didn't go the other way around, it'd be downhill most of the way.
Which really is a Thanks to Fuzzy who SMS'ed the night before and cancelled the Knockers north-to-south plans due to a busted KTM.
Phew...



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The bush's alive with colour

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Back on the Omeo Hwy just north of Glen Wills, there's a first sighting of the new seal before it's up the Bogong HP Road to Falls...boy, that thing's getting fairly rough now, many of the bends are corrugated tar now.

The only noise up in the valley... a bunch of Kookaburras laughing their heads off. We'll be up at that snowfield soon....

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glitch

Mapping the next ride...
Staff member
Tim shows us the dredge hole of Tronoh Lake, which we'd never heard off!...and it's just at the edge of Harrietville township :wot:
http://www.harrietville.com/index.php?page=tronoh-dredge-hole

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Omeo outskirts...and getting bloody cold again, the sharp wind bites through all the clothing layers...and then some.


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Packing up on Monday morning, it's even colder...and wet and freezing from the night's rain and bad-weather front that came through.



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Carving towards friendlier skies in the north...Omeo-to-Anglers Rest is still the best, tightest and most thrilling 35k's in Oz...bar none.

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This time it's past the Falls Creek turn-off and soon the road narrows a little through the widely scattered and stretched out locality of Glen Wills and it's old cemetary at the northern end, just where the new seal starts to climb up the hill.

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It's a bit of a racetrack...noiiice!!:clap:
Note the still broken line here...and make bloody USE OF IT, because that'll be pretty much the last chance of overtaking anyone legally for the next 35-50k's (depending on what the still-to-be-sealed-section turns out to be) :bang::bang::bang:


LUVERLY!!!....if the road is yours alone (as it was for us :glu)


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glitch

Mapping the next ride...
Staff member
There are still 13k's of gravel-racetrack at this stage, pretty much in the guts of it and straddling either side of the Shire boundary/ Mount Wills junction.
Roadworks are currently in progress with roadbase being trucked up from Mitta Mitta at a rapid rate, culverts and drainage getting installed etc.
They're certainly cooking on this and I doubt it'd take until the mentioned March/ April 2014 to finish things off.


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New com-tower near Mount Wills

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The old, existing stretch of seal is now linked up with the old, short stretch out of mitta Mitta....now it's a continuous ~40k's of asphalt south of MittaMitta, which spells the imminent death of the lovely and popular bushcamps along the Snowy Creek.

Those ~40k's of mainly old asphalt have had a major refurbishment in the form of a huge bucket of Berger Flat White courtesy of the VicRoads Safety Bozo's, connecting all those short bits of white paint in the middle of the road by slapping 2 fat solid lines over the top and create a 40km non-overtake stretch.
I'm sure the local tax-collectors are already pegging the best spots for the highest revenue raising per hour ...say....12-15k's south of Mitta would be my bet. I know I'd blow the fuse at that point tagging behind some wide-eyed Toorak-Wally, slowly dying in their Freelander-Diesel-stink while chugging up those delicious twisties without a slow-lane (not that Wally would know what THAT is!:doh:).

40 frickin solid k's of THAT:bang::bang:

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