Road to Mudgee, and Return

[Williamson]

The OzSTOC annual get-together was held in Mudgee last weekend - Fri 13 to Sun 15 October. What better way to get there than ride a motorcycle? And better than that, take a long and winding road.

Tue 10 Oct - Greensborough to Tallangatta - some thing like this:


Met-up with Neil & Val (from Castlemaine) and Mark (Violet Town) at Mansfield. The obligatory pie and vanilla slice at Bertalli's Bakery, Mansfield were as good as ever - highly recommended. On to Beechworth for a coffee, Miss Amelie Gourmet - also recommended, than overnight at the Victoria Hotel, Tallangatta - mildly recommended. Rooms were sparse, cold, walk along the veranda to the facilities (hot shower, but shitty shower rose directed water everywhere). Meal was good though, as was the rate at $40 per head.

Stay there if nothing else is available.

Wed 11 Oct - Tallangatta to Boorowa:


Tallangatta Bakery for breakfast (recommended), the Coffee Pedlar at Tumut for lunch, overnight at the Boorowa Hotel. A couple of pic and / or pits stops along the way.

Southern Cloud Memorial Lookout - https://maps.app.goo.gl/mXHxLY3bHmXB2dXN8








A trio of ST1300's





Boorowa Hotel






The old Courthouse (reminds me of some in the US of A):



Boorowa at night:







More to come ....

 

[Williamson]

Thur 12 Oct - something like this:



The good - some real nice roads, through some real nice country. Undulating, big sweeping curves, some tight twisties, the Mighty ST's gobbled up the km.

The bad - some bdly chopped, pot holed roads, serious rider concentration required, pics were far from everyone's mind - none today.

Lunch at Oberon Bakery - recommended - and then the GPS was set for the closest Bendigo Bank (BB). At this stage, I mention that Neil and Val are in their late 70's, some people (Neil and Val) are not too tech savvy - don't do any internet banking, we needed to find a BB, so set the GPS. I should also mention that Neil knows how to manage the ST1300 with pillion and luggage for a three week tour, at times I had trouble keeping up - actually that might not mean much.

Overnight at the Alexander the Great Motel, dinner on-site at the Westlakes Chinese, stayed and ate there before, so this was a deliberate spot. Despite being on the outer nw of the Sydney urban area, there was a few km of Sydney traffic to negotiate. But that wasn't the problem; the problem was the 35C temp from when we started descending the Blue Mountains to the Motel.

The Chinese cuisine at the restaurant is second to none (in the area), and as $121 for 4, including drinks, filled our bellies, it's worth consideration when next in the area.

An obvious question - Why Sydney? The answer- Mark hadn't ridden the Putty Road, and wanted to, so we did.

Fri 12 Oct - something like this:



Breakfast at the Colo Riverside Café - recommended. The ride was similar to yesterday, a bit more traffic but not too much. The road was a bit too much for one south bound rider, he'd come off on a relatively straight section, bike was in a bit of a mess, we slowed he seemed okay, his mates gave us a thumbs up. Road opened up, speed limit increased to 100km/h, us travelling at that, passed by some sporties doing warp speed+.

Lunch at Fresh Denman - recommended. we were about to enter the Bakery, but a local (guessing a real estate agent, whatever), he said, "Wouldn't go in there fellas."





The road from Denman to Mudgee was very nice (travelled by bike and care before), little traffic, mostly good surface, some potholes (no problems if you kept you eye open), but about 500m of the worst road for the trip). This was near Wollar.

If you thought Denman was old and going to ruin, you haven't been to Wollar:



I was talking to a Mudgee local the next day, apparently the whole township was bought by one of the mining companies, and the town will be levelled to get to the coal. Hope the don't demolish this:



It's beer o'clock, time to get to Mudgee and crack one.